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I created a project and forgot to set it as my main project. Now I want to build it. The build menu doesn't offer a way to do it - it will just build the main project. And I can't easily figure out how to set my new project as my main project - I checked the project properties but it wasn't there. What do I do if I need to build two projects in tandem - one tag library and one web module for example? Am I really supposed to run build on the ANT target on the files tab? I would really like a comile action, at least on the sources folder, to verify that the stuff I'm working on is OK.
1. There is a Set Main Project action in the File menu and it is also available in the context menu of every project in the Projects tab. 2. All projects can be built from their context menus in the Projects tab, main project or not. There is no need to go to the Ant script. 3. The default is for newly opened, and newly created, projects to be set as main. 4. If you have no project set as main, and try to build the main project, you will be prompted to choose one to set as main at that time.
I didn't say that there was no way of doing it, the bug description says that it is not easily discoverable. So let's discuss this a little more before you close it as invalid (and preferrable involve the HIEs). I have several projects mounted (so I guess it wasn't the last one I mounted that I wanted to build, but that's immaterial). I want to build one of them. It does not strike me as natural to go to the "File" menu to set something at a project level. I would expect to find that in a "Project" menu, or somewhere on the project itself - I don't expect to see that action in a menu called "File". As for building - OK - there is apparently a build action. I missed it because for whatever reason, the IDE seems to come up with the files view and not the projects view selected, and seems to shift to the files view while I'm running it too (has this been filed). But that brings up the issue - why can't I initiate the build from the files view? Because I can initiate building the main project from there...
"...and preferrable involve the HIEs" - AFAIK the HIEs *have* been involved all along and the current behavior was settled on. I will leave it open for Jano to comment on, but significant changes for D at this point (after feature freeze) are unlikely. Minor changes like menu labelling may be possible. No particular opinion re. "File" vs. "Project" (vs. both). (We did use to have Set Main Project in both the Build and Run menus, since both contain main-proj-sensitive actions, but this was deemed too confusing and so it was moved to the File menu where other generic project-wide actions live.) "the IDE seems to come up with the files view and not the projects view selected, and seems to shift to the files view while I'm running it too" - I'm not sure what you're talking about exactly, but such things sound like fodder for separate bug reports (with details to reproduce). "why can't I initiate the build from the files view?" - you can, on the build script that is. The Projects tab is the primary UI element for working on projects according to the principal development-time support features. The Files tab is explicitly discouraged for this purpose and is there as a fallback for operations that are impractical or impossible in the Projects tab. Among other things, there is not a 1-1 mapping between projects and top-level nodes in this tab. The two tabs are intentionally differentiated both visually and behaviorally. "I can initiate building the main project from there" - you can build the main project regardless of what window(s) are open and where the focus is; it is a global action.
We did 2 usability studies and I don't remember participants having problems with building a project. I agree with one portion of this bug report saying that if the user accidentally works in the Files window, she might have problems discovering the Build contextual actions. In the usability studies a few users worked the whole time "accidentally" in the Files window. But as I said, there were no problems in the usability studies with building projects... closing as wont-fix.
closed