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| Summary: | Regular Expression option for file name pattern is confusing | ||
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| Product: | utilities | Reporter: | steady |
| Component: | Search | Assignee: | Jaroslav Havlin <jhavlin> |
| Status: | RESOLVED FIXED | ||
| Severity: | normal | CC: | psomol |
| Priority: | P4 | Keywords: | UI, USABILITY |
| Version: | 7.2 | ||
| Hardware: | PC | ||
| OS: | Windows XP | ||
| Issue Type: | DEFECT | Exception Reporter: | |
| Attachments: |
Mockup of adjusted Find in Projects dialog
Screenshot - Dialog with separators and examples Proposed Patch Proposed Patch v2 Screenshot - Dialog with separators and examples |
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Description
steady
2012-04-12 13:13:02 UTC
I'm sorry, I am not able to reproduce. What search scope did you select? What other text pattern options and file name options are active? Thank you. Closing. Please reopen if you can provide us with some additional information. Sorry, my fault. It is usability problem. I've used 'Regular Expression' for 'File Name Patterns' instead of 'Regular Expression' for 'Containing Text'. The 'Regular Expression' checkbox was on the bottom of the dialog before the version 7.2. Is it possible to make context boundaries to prevent such mistakes? I see, it is quite confusing. We'll try to improve it, rename the option or add boundaries. Thank you. What about renaming the option to "Path Regular Expression", or "Regular Expression on Path"? Petr, please, do you have any idea? I think the boundaries could solve this problem. The long texts for options is less user friendly. Boundaries seem OK here. I'll try to adjust the layout and provide a mockup (in a couple of days..) Created attachment 122685 [details]
Mockup of adjusted Find in Projects dialog
Tried to add boundaries but the result was not satisfactory enough. Eventually it seems the simplest idea works the best, thus I endorse renaming the RegEx checkbox. Additionally I suggest adding horizontal separator lines to improve "legibility" of the layout without actually changing the appearance or size of dialog too much. See the attachment.
Looks very good for me. The only small inconsistency between the names is a bit confusing: "file NAME patterns" -- "file PATH regular expression" It is indeed inconsistent as I got the explanation that the RegEx switch actually changes the scope of the pattern - with RegEx the pattern needs to address whole file path, without RegEx not necessarily. Please jhavlin comment on this as you know more.. (In reply to comment #10) > It is indeed inconsistent as I got the explanation that the RegEx switch > actually changes the scope of the pattern - with RegEx the pattern needs to > address whole file path, without RegEx not necessarily. Please jhavlin comment > on this as you know more.. Yes, exactly. Maybe it is not so much inconsistent. If the checbox is unchecked, only the last path element is considered to be file name, and one or more simple patterns (*.foo) can be specified. If it is checked, the whole path is considered to be the file name, and a regular expression can be specified, which can include several patterns, e.g. ((/src/)|(/test/)). I agree it is not very nice, and better labels would make it more intuitive. >
> Maybe it is not so much inconsistent.
> If the checbox is unchecked, only the last path element is considered to be
> file name, and one or more simple patterns (*.foo) can be specified.
> If it is checked, the whole path is considered to be the file name, and a
> regular expression can be specified, which can include several patterns, e.g.
> ((/src/)|(/test/)).
>
> I agree it is not very nice, and better labels would make it more intuitive.
"Better" labels may not be that easy to define. But certainly the explanation would help if displayed as RegEx checkbox tooltip.
Created attachment 130366 [details]
Screenshot - Dialog with separators and examples
Created attachment 130368 [details] Proposed Patch > "Better" labels may not be that easy to define. But certainly the explanation > would help if displayed as RegEx checkbox tooltip. The tooltip was added (patch). > Created attachment 122685 [details] > Mockup of adjusted Find in Projects dialog Thank you, it seems very good. > Tried to add boundaries but the result was not satisfactory enough. > Eventually it seems the simplest idea works the best, thus I endorse > renaming the RegEx checkbox. The checkbox is not renamed in the patch, I'm sorry, I'll update the patch and screenshot soon. > Additionally I suggest adding horizontal separator lines to improve > "legibility" of the layout without actually changing the appearance or size > of dialog too much. See the attachment. I've also tried to add some examples (they were there before 7.2). Please see the screenshot how it looks now and let me know what do you think. Thanks in advance. Created attachment 130450 [details]
Proposed Patch v2
Updated patch
Created attachment 130451 [details]
Screenshot - Dialog with separators and examples
Screenshot. Updated "File Path Regular Expression" check-box and example, and "Text to Find" regular expression info string.
http://hg.netbeans.org/core-main/rev/a8efc474edfa Fixed. Thank you for your help. Integrated into 'main-golden', will be available in build *201301300001* on http://bits.netbeans.org/dev/nightly/ (upload may still be in progress) Changeset: http://hg.netbeans.org/main-golden/rev/a8efc474edfa User: Jaroslav Havlin <jhavlin@netbeans.org> Log: #211098: Regular Expression option for file name pattern is confusing |