| Contextual/dynamic help behavior change? [message #336732] |
Mon, 29 June 2009 17:09  |
Eclipse User |
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Hi There,
We have been using dynamic help for awhile (by adapting our editors to
IContextProvider) and I just noticed in Eclipse 3.5 that it no longer
performs the search automatically. In Eclipse 3.5 it queries my editor
for a term, and in the dynamic help view it now simply displays one link
under "More results:" instead of the actual search results, like so:
Search for <contexual_term>
Is this a known change in behavior? To me this is a step backwards in
usability. You now have to reach for the mouse to click the link to see
the hit summary, and then click back to "Related Topics" if the results
were not interesting. Before you could tell at a glance when cursoring
around in the editor.
Can I re-enable the old behavior somehow? Do I need to update my code to
use a newer API?
Thanks,
Mark.
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| Re: Contextual/dynamic help behavior change? [message #336734 is a reply to message #336732] |
Mon, 29 June 2009 17:34  |
| Eclipse User |
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Hmm...I just found this in the source code for RelatedTopicsPart:
// Preference created in case anyone complains about the removal of
// the dynamic help section. This is not API, not documented and may
// be removed in a future release.
useDynamicHelp =
Platform.getPreferencesService().getBoolean(HelpBasePlugin.P LUGIN_ID,
"show_dynamic_help", false, null); //$NON-NLS-1$
I guess it was intentional. ;)
So I guess I can set the preference as part of my product to bring this
back (until it is removed entirely), but it begs the question: Why was
this seen as a feature not worth keeping?
Mark.
Mark Melvin wrote:
> Hi There,
> We have been using dynamic help for awhile (by adapting our editors to
> IContextProvider) and I just noticed in Eclipse 3.5 that it no longer
> performs the search automatically. In Eclipse 3.5 it queries my editor
> for a term, and in the dynamic help view it now simply displays one link
> under "More results:" instead of the actual search results, like so:
> Search for <contexual_term>
> Is this a known change in behavior? To me this is a step backwards in
> usability. You now have to reach for the mouse to click the link to see
> the hit summary, and then click back to "Related Topics" if the results
> were not interesting. Before you could tell at a glance when cursoring
> around in the editor.
> Can I re-enable the old behavior somehow? Do I need to update my code to
> use a newer API?
> Thanks,
> Mark.
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| Re: Contextual/dynamic help behavior change? [message #336823 is a reply to message #336734] |
Sun, 05 July 2009 18:36 |
| Eclipse User |
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Originally posted by: nospam_kowalskilee.gmail.com
Hi Mark,
I believe there were a number (>1) of Bugzilla entries related to
confusion about the dynamic help section and the automatic search that
it performed. Some people reported getting un-useful topics listed in
that section, and they didn't realize it was doing a search of the
editor/view name in the help topics. Thus, an intentional change in 3.5.
Here's one Bugzilla about the dynamic help section:
https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=179360
In comment 14, Chris references reading a number of bug reports, so
there are likely others.
I had asked in the last comment of that Bugzilla entry if there were any
guidance for how to write the search query for the dynamic results so
that they *would* be useful. However, I received no responses to that
question, leading me to assume that level of guidance doesn't exist
currently.
Hope that helps, at least to where you can open the discussion again.
:-) There's also the eclipse.platform.ua newsgroup.
--Lee Anne
Mark Melvin wrote:
> Hmm...I just found this in the source code for RelatedTopicsPart:
>
> // Preference created in case anyone complains about the removal of
> // the dynamic help section. This is not API, not documented and may
> // be removed in a future release.
> useDynamicHelp =
> Platform.getPreferencesService().getBoolean(HelpBasePlugin.P LUGIN_ID,
> "show_dynamic_help", false, null); //$NON-NLS-1$
>
> I guess it was intentional. ;)
>
> So I guess I can set the preference as part of my product to bring this
> back (until it is removed entirely), but it begs the question: Why was
> this seen as a feature not worth keeping?
>
> Mark.
>
>
> Mark Melvin wrote:
>
>> Hi There,
>
>> We have been using dynamic help for awhile (by adapting our editors to
>> IContextProvider) and I just noticed in Eclipse 3.5 that it no longer
>> performs the search automatically. In Eclipse 3.5 it queries my
>> editor for a term, and in the dynamic help view it now simply displays
>> one link under "More results:" instead of the actual search results,
>> like so:
>
>> Search for <contexual_term>
>
>> Is this a known change in behavior? To me this is a step backwards in
>> usability. You now have to reach for the mouse to click the link to
>> see the hit summary, and then click back to "Related Topics" if the
>> results were not interesting. Before you could tell at a glance when
>> cursoring around in the editor.
>
>> Can I re-enable the old behavior somehow? Do I need to update my code
>> to use a newer API?
>
>> Thanks,
>> Mark.
>
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