[Beta Designer] Improvements to the Properties panel

Feature Requests
1

Please make the Properties panel more consistent.

The attached snapshot shows the properties of a TextBox, where:

  • Clicking on Layout, Other, Tooltip, User Data and Container expands or collapses as expected
  • Clicking on Appearance and Text expands or collapses their “More properties” subsection
  • Clicking on Common, Interactions and Events does nothing

I don’t see any reason why only some of the section without subsections shouldn’t collapse.

I understand why clicking on sections with subsections expands or collapses their subsection only, but it’s inconsistent and not intuitive (and ugly).

Clicking on any of the headers should always expand or collapse.

Sections with sub sections should have a more visible clickable header, or, better, shouldn’t exist. Each subsection should be promoted to its own section. Then, since we have already decided that we will add buttons to expand or collapse all sections :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:, it will be easy to collapse all, then click either on “Text” or on “More Text”.

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One additional request: I would like to be able to collapse all the panels. I can click on the + of the 3 panels Add Components, Properties and Components, I end up with 3 -, and they all will share the available real estate.

But if I click again on the -, I don’t know what happens. Sometimes the panel above opens, sometimes the panel below, even if I didn’t click on it. This can be confusing. It would be better to only open the panel that I explicitly want to open.

The old designer was showing all the databinding properties at the top of the Properties panel. This was creating an inconsistency, because below the databinding definitions there was the UI for the properties that were defined already with databinding.

The beta designer is more consistent: each property tells you whether there is databinding or not.

I appreciate the improvement in consistency, but I miss being able to see what properties have databinding at a glance. I can scroll up and down, looking for blue databinding icons, but it is not as easy to find all the databinding, plus, since we don’t have (yet) the expand all button, I may need to manually go through all the section headers and expand them all before scrolling up and down through all the properties.

I don’t know what a good solution would be, but I know that I miss having the full list of databinding at the top. Perhaps a solution could be keeping all as is now, and adding a summary of all databinding at the top? Something similar to this?

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2

An outline will always have a bit of difficulty with aspects or facets that cut across its usual boundaries. (Inheritance trees have the same problem, which is why we have mixins.)

Cross-cutting facets are often addressed by adding a column to the outline, one for each such facet, or by defining additional views. A “view” shows [a subset of] the data from a different perspective, perhaps with a different organization, suited to a different task.

I doubt that we have room for more columns in the Properties panel.

To handle alternate views, though, “Properties” could be tabbed, notebook-style. For example, a (hypothetical) “data bindings view” could be isolated in its own “data bindings” tab.

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3

I share Stefano’s concerns, especially:

I miss being able to see what properties have databinding at a glance.

In addition, I am finding the panel less compact than the old in some ways. It requires a lot of scrolling that is getting old fast. For example:

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In the classic designer, I have ready access to 20 components within a space that only shows me 4 components in the new designer.

  1. Combine “Common”, “Basic”, and “More” components (and remove needless text like “Things you’ll use all the time”).
  2. I’d like the Add Components items to be smaller, with less space between them. Likewise, less white space in the Properties section.
  3. I’d like only one of the major sections (Add Components, Properties, Components) to be open at a time. Hey, why not make them tabs?

Minor: I’d move ‘url’ to the “Common” properties section for a Link rather than down under “Other.” Also, if you’re going to use the chain-link icon :link: for data bindings, I’d go back to something different (like in the Classic) for the Link “Add Component” icon.

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4

I agree. Whether they are tabs or not, it’s important that it’s clear which one is open. That’s what I meant here:

But using tabs there is one further advantage: all the tab names would be at the top, while keeping collapsible sections would push some of the names down.

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5

Hmm, I’m realizing that the Tabs layout wouldn’t allow you to drag something from “Add Components” into the “Components” outline. How about just two tabs: one for Properties and one for Add Components and Components. (I can see the tradeoffs either way. I guess we’re probably reverse engineering debates that went on among Anvil Staff about this.)

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6

No kidding. I should have taken pictures of the pile of discarded sketches from one particular design session…
(That isn’t to say we’re not interested in feedback – keep it coming!)

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