In the designer, Ctrl-E is the shortcut to edit an entity. I have to have the entity node selected for this to work. It seems to me that the context menu and the shortcut key should work over any of the subnodes or if the subnodes are selected.

The thing is that these shortcuts work because they're a shortcut for a context-menu entry in the active context menu of the treeview.

I'll see if I can make a key-press event handler which checks for these shortcuts as well.

The shortcut would be a nice to have, but the context menu being active for all the subnodes of an entity is more important.

The philosophy of the contextmenus is currently that the contextmenu shown relates to the node you've selected. If a node doesn't have actions, there's no context menu. You want a context menu on a node you don't have actions for? Why would you right-click a node which doesn't have any actions to select actions belonging to another node? (just a question, I wonder why someone would do that)

Why would you right-click a node which doesn't have any actions to select actions belonging to another node? (just a question, I wonder why someone would do that)

Because there is a node on the entity I want to work on called "fields mapped on related fields" I want to add fields on related fields to this entity, so I right click on that node. No context menu. I have to remember to move up to the entity, then right click.

Maybe if the entities tab appeared when the entity was selected instead of needing an explicit command to edit it the context menu change wouldn't be "needed".

arschr wrote:

Why would you right-click a node which doesn't have any actions to select actions belonging to another node? (just a question, I wonder why someone would do that)

Because there is a node on the entity I want to work on called "fields mapped on related fields" I want to add fields on related fields to this entity, so I right click on that node. No context menu. I have to remember to move up to the entity, then right click.

True. However if I add a context menu there to add the field, I have to add the editor there as well, which means a new editor. This thus means a lot more editors, also for the other features. Which IMHO is redundant, as there's already an editor.

Maybe if the entities tab appeared when the entity was selected instead of needing an explicit command to edit it the context menu change wouldn't be "needed".

I had this enabled once, but it results in a lot of open editors, so I dropped the idea really quickly.

What I could do is this: enable a context menu on the node which opens the editor and pre-selects the particular tab where the editor logic is located on. (if applicable, otherwise the context menu is dimmed)

It does require extra logic in the project explorer and probably a lot more context menus. I'm a little reluctant to add these now, but I do understand you have a valid point. In the past several people have reported that they didnt know you could work on multiple relations at one time in the entity editor, as they were focussed on editing relations in the project explorer. I then think: it's in the manual, you should have known, but it might be a nice shortcut for those people to get to the right location to do things.

Personally, I think editing stuff in the project explorer is not the way to go. It should be a viewer, not a place to edit things, as you don't have all the info, in the entity editor you do.

I'll think about the shortcut context menu option.

True. However if I add a context menu there to add the field, I have to add the editor there as well, which means a new editor. This thus means a lot more editors, also for the other features. Which IMHO is redundant, as there's already an editor.

The current editor is fine, I would just like it activated from a "wider area".

I had this enabled once, but it results in a lot of open editors, so I dropped the idea really quickly.

Yes. If you did this, I think they would apper when the node was selected and be replaced with the next entities tab when another entity was selected.

Personally, I think editing stuff in the project explorer is not the way to go. It should be a viewer, not a place to edit things, as you don't have all the info, in the entity editor you do.

I don't disagree. The context menu could activate the "big" entity editor.