Make the 'connection bar' optional

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Lefteous
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Make the 'connection bar' optional

Post by *Lefteous »

The 'connection bar' is displayed whenever a connection (FTP or filesystem plugin) has been established. While it provides additional commands it has several downsides:
  • It changes the layout making it uncomfortable to get a fixed layout which is very important for feeling comfortable while using.
  • When there is more than one connection open it's really difficult to see which connection is currently displayed in the 'connection bar'. In addition the bar is displayed in a full line and has no connection to the currently selected connection.
  • In normal use the bar isn't really helpful. It's mainly required for problem analysis
The best would be to hide the 'connection bar' by default and only display it when the user has reenabled it.

So in addition to making the bar optional add the following commands to the connection button context menu:
  • Change transfer mode
  • Display log
Article in Wiki: http://ghisler.ch/wiki/index.php/Make_the_'connection_bar'_optional
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MVV
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Post by *MVV »

I agree that the connection bar isn't useful at all, the only thing I use from it is 'disconnect' button... so it would be nice to hide it.
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Post by *Sob »

Connection bar is not my most favourite part of TC either, but it does contain some useful things:

- Indicator if connection is encrypted and certificate trusted.
- Disconnect button. This I would really miss. :)

Other than that, I couldn't care less about transfer mode, I set it to binary many years ago and didn't touch it since. I always thought that this automated conversion was horrible idea. But that may be just me. Easy access to log is important to me, but I always open whole log anyway, so if those last two lines weren't visible, I wouldn't mind.

As was already noted, whole bar may be a little confusing. Once you connect, it's always open, even though the connected server is not visible in any active panel. And when you have more connections, it's not clear which one will be closed if you press Disconnect.

I would probably keep this bar in some form, but I'd make it per-panel and only displayed when a connection is currently open in panel. The question is where to put it, maybe at the bottom below status bar?
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Post by *Lefteous »

2Sob
Indicator if connection is encrypted and certificate trusted.
The secure indicator could be put close to the path - similar to web browsers.
Disconnect button. This I would really miss. :)
That's fine. For me the disconnect menu item in the drive button context menu is enough. I'm not saying remove the connection bar- just make it optional.
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Post by *MVV »

Yes, context menu would be enough (binary mode checkbox, show connection bar and disconnect commands).
Also connection bar should show combobox (or at least button with drop-down menu) with list of all opened FTP connections (including ones from WFX plugins).

BTW, it would be really nice to have separate drive button for every WFX SFTP connection... Currently network drive button is active for all of them and it isn't handy. Also there is no way to close specific SFTP connection when there are many opened (user have to open that connection's folder manually for closing it with Disconnect button).
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Post by *Lefteous »

2MVV
it would be really nice to have separate drive button for every WFX SFTP connection... Currently network drive button is active for all of them and it isn't handy. Also there is no way to close specific SFTP connection when there are many opened (user have to open that connection's folder manually for closing it with Disconnect button).
Also see here: http://ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?p=303577#303577

I really wanted to focus on hiding the connection bar in this suggestion - but there are of course more related things that could be improved :-)
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Post by *Sob »

I see a little problem with combination of following:
  • drive bar is not shown by default
  • connection bar (and Disconnect button) would not be shown by default
You'd get many people, who wouldn't be able to disconnect.
MVV wrote:BTW, it would be really nice to have separate drive button for every WFX SFTP connection...
I suggested this many years ago, then found out that Lefteous beat me to it by few more years, then I tried to suggest plugin API extension, suggested it at least once more few years later, ... and nothing. I see that Lefteous still did not give it. Wanna join our club? :)
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Post by *LonerD »

Support.
Connection bar takes a lot of space, and must be optional.

The only thing used by me is Disconnect button. But this button can be placed in Drive bar, or near DirectoryHotlist/ History buttons. Or it can be separate command for "disconnect and hide Connection bar" (cm_FtpDisconnect doesn't hide Connection bar in wfx plugins).
"I used to feel guilty in Cambridge that I spent all day playing games, while I was supposed to be doing mathematics. Then, when I discovered surreal numbers, I realized that playing games IS math." John Horton Conway
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MVV
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Post by *MVV »

Sob wrote:You'd get many people, who wouldn't be able to disconnect.
Net - FTP Disconnect?
cm_FtpDisconnect?
Ctrl+Shift+F?
Wanna more? :D
LonerD wrote:(cm_FtpDisconnect doesn't hide Connection bar in wfx plugins)
It hides connection bar when last connection is closed. Actually cm_FtpDisconnect does exactly what Disconnect button does.
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Post by *LonerD »

MVV wrote: Actually cm_FtpDisconnect does exactly what Disconnect button does.
Oh, really. You are right.
Last edited by LonerD on 2016-07-09, 13:05 UTC, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by *Sob »

2MVV: We're talking about default settings and users who use default settings. Internal commands or keyboard shortcuts are out, they simply don't exist for large part of such users. Disconnect in main menu (I myself forgot it's there) might be enough, but I would still not bet on it. :)
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Post by *Lefteous »

2Sob
We're talking about default settings
No. The connection bar should be displayed by default as long as there is no other visible way to close the connection. My suggestion is to make it hideable for those who like to close the connection in another way.
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Re: Make the 'connection bar' optional

Post by *Astoria »

Is there any news about this option hiding the connection bar?
I don't use it, but it is very annoying - I can't use my scripts and gestures because this panel changes the names of the window controls when it appears.
If someone knows the solution tell me please!
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Re: Make the 'connection bar' optional

Post by *ghisler(Author) »

The controls don't change names in TC - they are named by your scripting tool.

What you could do is check for the presence of the last control when the connection bar is on. This would allow you to distinguish between the situation where the connection bar is shown and when it's not, so you could create two different branches of your script.
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Re: Make the 'connection bar' optional

Post by *Hacker »

Or perhaps the officially documented way works?
08.06.16 Added: Send WM_USER+50 with wparam=1..29 -> returns window handle of control. Controls are: 1=leftlist, 2=rightlist, 3=active list, 4=inactive list, 5=leftheader, 6=rightheader, 7=leftsize, 8=rightsize, 9=leftpath, 10=rightpath, 11=leftinfo, 12=rightinfo, 13=leftdrives, 14=rightdrives, 15=leftpanel, 16=rightpanel, 17=bottompanel, 18=lefttree, 19=righttree, 20=cmdline, 21=curdirpanel, 22=inplaceedit, 23=splitpanel, 24=leftdrivepanel, 25=rightdrivepanel, 26=lefttabs, 27=righttabs, 28=buttonbar, 29=buttonbarvertical (32/64)
E.g.:

Code: Select all

; Paste the path of the active TC panel anywhere using Win-A
#IfWinExist, ahk_class TTOTAL_CMD

$#a::
	SendMessage, 1074, 17
	WinGetText, PathInTC, ahk_id %ErrorLevel%
	StringTrimRight, PathInTC, PathInTC, 3
	Send, {Raw}%PathInTC%\
Return
Roman
Mal angenommen, du drückst Strg+F, wählst die FTP-Verbindung (mit gespeichertem Passwort), klickst aber nicht auf Verbinden, sondern fällst tot um.
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