Add a property grid or view window that displays the properties of a step

[dalevine]

In a large VBP project there are many steps, and the only to view the contents of a step is to bring up the properties modal dialog. This forces me to bring up many dialogs to view a sequence of steps, and to click Cancel or OK on each before I can go to the next step. On a large project this is time consuming and slow.

It would be very useful if there were a display, similar to the current Output window, that would show the properties as I scrolled through the steps. I'd settle for a linear, flat display, but it would be really nice if it used something like a property grid with categories, where each category corresponded to a tab in the current properties dialog.

This would allow me to quickly cursor through a project and be able to absorb the details of the steps.

As a bonus, let me directly edit the properties in the grid. I would probably never use the modal dialog again.

[kinook]

There are Previous/Next buttons on the Step Properties dialog. Also, you can show many of the common step properties in columns in the Steps Pane via Tools | User Options | Columns.

We'll also consider your request. Thanks.

[dalevine]

The prev/next buttons are ok, but they only take me to the same tab in the other step. What is needed is something that allows me to get more of the entire context of the current step, as well as in other steps.

What would be nice is something similar to Visual Studio's property grid. An Excel table might be useful but a purely flat layout is not ideal. A hiearchal table, like the property grid, would be better. An excel table with a hierarchal layout would also work.

Partial and incomplete edits should be supported. It should allow me to move around without requiring me to fill in missing fields. Don't do validation until the "Save" button is clicked (or use a similar heuristic). Currently in the modal dialog I cannot move around when a required field is missing. This often forces me to put junk into those required fields just to be able to navigate around.

Edit-in-place should be supported.

Thanks

[kinook]

Thanks for the input. Just to verify -- you're looking for a property grid view for a single step (possibly supporting multiple selection like the properties dialog), right, or what did you mean by "as well as in other steps"?

Also, you can disable validation in the Step Properties dialog by unchecking Tools | User Options | Miscellaneous | Validate step properties.
http://www.kinook.com/VisBuildPro/Manual/projectuseropt.htm

[dalevine]

Well, in an ideal world I'd like 2 different views :-)

One would be a property grid for a single step, so that I can view/edit all the properties within a single grid - no tabbing around required. This is similar to what VisualStudio provides. This could be a floating dockable tool window.

Another view would be an Excel-style spreadsheet, organized in a hierarchal manner, where each step would be a hierarchal element, with different categories as sub-hierarchal elements. Sort of a sequence of property grids contained within a spreadsheet. This might be a view window similar to the output pane, but it could also be just another tool window.

This would allow users to visualize multiple steps together as a single unit.

For example, I use loops to control the behavior of multiple steps. It would be very powerful to be able to visualize the entry loop conditions and the steps that perform actions all at the same time.

Thanks for the info about disabling validation.

[kinook]

A modeless property pane is implemented in v9.
http://www.kinook.com/VisBuildPro/Manual/propertiespane.htm