Re: PATCH: Improve status bar in Edit Data window

Hi

On Sat, Dec 28, 2013 at 12:32 PM, J.F. Oster <jinfroster(at)mail(dot)ru> wrote:
> Hello Dave!
>
> Monday, December 16, 2013, 7:39:52 PM, Dave Page wrote:
>
>>> I'd suggest adding a setting in Options dialogue, say "Default rows
>>> limit", defaulting itself to "No limit" to retain current behaviour.
>>> Please let me know if it is worth trying to implement this proposal.
>
> DP> Iirc, that's exactly why we added the Top/Last 100 rows feature. The
> DP> problem with the modification as you suggest is that we're bound to
> DP> end up with confused users that don't realise a limit was set (because
> DP> a colleague did it, or they did it and then forgot) who then mail us
> DP> asking why they only see 1000 rows. We'd need to make it very clear
> DP> that some rows were omitted somehow. If you can figure out a clear,
> DP> but non-intrusive way to do that, it might make sense.
>
>
> 1. I suggest to append a well-visible label ("LIMIT") to rows counter in
> the status bar if the limit was set and (possibly) worked. Also it
> is handy to see if any filter expression was set. For example:
>
> 1000 rows LIMIT
> 1000 rows LIMIT, FILTER
> 797 rows, FILTER
>
> Will that help distracted users?

I think adding a bright yellow warning exclamation would be a good
idea too. Something like:

/!\ Data filtered

or

/!\ Rows limited

> 2. Here is another useful feature (and most wanted personally by me :) ).
> Second part of status bar now shows description for currently selected
> column. After playing a while with it's format I ended up with
> following (seems most helpful and easily readable):
>
> isLocked, boolean (NOT NULL, DEFAULT)
> id, integer (PK)
> id, integer (PK, DEFAULT)
> name, character varying(80) (NOT NULL): Person's full name

Not entirely sure I like that. It at least partially duplicates what's
already in the header row (and gets it wrong, in the case of a serial
column). I would be inclined to display just the column description in
the status bar, and extend the markers in the header to include "NN",
and "DEF" as they currently do for "PK". Or something like that.

> According to docs, pg_catalog.col_description() is available in
> PostgreSQL 7.3, hope it wouldn't cause compatibility issues.

No problem there.

> I can't figure out if all those labels (LIMIT, DEFAULT etc) are to be
> translated, so the usage of _() and wxT() is possibly wrong.

They shouldn't be translated, and should only be capitalised, if they
are SQL keywords.

> 3. And by the way, I want to ask to loosen restriction on minimal size
> for Edit Data window. Sometimes a user has to look at just a few
> records in several reference tables, but they hardly fit the screen
> because of their min height.

I have no problem with that, but it needs to take into account whether
or not the scratch pane is visible, and be able to deal with it
properly if the user turns the scratch pane back on, when the window
is small.

--
Dave Page
Blog: http://pgsnake.blogspot.com
Twitter: @pgsnake

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