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In the Eclipse help system, the user can expand a table of contents item (given that it has children) in one of two ways: a. Clicking the plus next to the item's label b. Double-clicking the item's label I would like to propose a third method that could be introduced: c. Single-clicking the item's label We have found that many of our users expect that tree items will expand "automatically" by clicking once on them. This is especially the case when the parent item itself does not have a corresponding page, resulting in a "Nothing's happening, do I need to keep going?" reaction. One possible way of implementing this passively could be to change the TOC xml schema to accept an optional attribute on the topic tag, such as "self-expand=true". If the attribute is set, it overrides the default double-clicking behavior. In this case, I would assume that double clicking causes the item to expand and then immediately collapse again.
Single clicking an item's label will display the content of that node (if any). In Eclipse 3.3 all nodes have content - if there is no href associated with the node a page will be generated showing the subtopics, this was not the case in Eclipse 3.2. Single clicking on the label already has a specific meaning and we don't really want to change that.
I'm not proposing to change the behavior of what shows in the browser/viewing area of the help system when a parent item is single-clicked. In fact, I think the auto-generated subtopics page in Eclipse 3.3 is quite nifty. My request lies in the *tree* portion of the TOC and the expansion of the item there. Why couldn't single-clicking the parent display the subtopics page AND expand the item one (or more?) levels in the tree, if the option was enabled?
Unfortunately, since Eclipse 3.3 M7, double-clicking the item's label no longer expands/collapses a "container" topic.
I support this request. The Windows file explorer already does this: it expands a node and shows its contents in the right pane. Given that double-click does not work any more in latests builds, I even think this is a bug, not an enhancement (since you are now forced to hit a tiny target area to expand/collapse a node).
Correcting severity and changing summary from "Add ability to make parent TOC items self-expanding".
This issue still makes me hate the Help system whenever I open it. > Why couldn't single-clicking the parent display the subtopics page AND > expand the item one (or more?) levels in the tree [..]? I agree. Expand on single-click would be nice to have. Expand on double-click is a must-have to meet platform expectations.
I like expanding a node on single-click, but let's not entirely model the TOC behavior after Windows explorer. Reading documents is different than browsing a file system. Also, Windows explorer does things like closing open nodes when you select a sibling node. I'm not a usability designer, but here's how I think it should behave: 1. Single click of '+' expands the node. 2. Single click of a label on a closed node expands that node and displays content for node in content pane. 2. Single click of a label on an open node re-displays the content in content pane. It does not collapse the node. 3. Single click of '-' collapses node. 4. Double-click on a label could close or open a node.
Hi, About this behavior: 2. Single click of a label on a closed node expands that node and displays content for node in content pane. I am recalling (from the Eclipse dark ages) that before lazy loading, this behavior caused performance issues. I mean, this is for the use case where I want to read the topic content that's associated with the label, back then, a user would: a. Single click that label. b. Eclipse would expand that node. In the olden days, that would take forever if there were a gazillion nested topics under that node. (Especially for a network infocenter). c. Finally, after getting a cup of coffee, the topic that the user wanted to view would load in the contents pane. It is entirely conceivable that lazy loading of the TOC tree has mitigated this factor and the behavior to both expand the node and load the content pane on single click of a label is now viable. One would want to test it out on large infocenter doc sets. I like Lyndsey's suggestion of a self-expand attribute for the flexibility and control it gives to the content creator. On the flip side, it might introduce user feedback about 'inconsistent' behavior in a TOC tree if some topics behave that way and others do not. --Lee Anne
Hi Markus, Would you please elaborate on why "expand on double-click is a must-have to meet platform expectations"? Which platform do you mean? Eclipse Platform, or operating system platform? And are you primarily thinking about this behavior of the TOC when it is in the side help view, or in the separate help system contents window? (I noticed that MSDN TOC does a whole refresh if I double click a heading. It's a little disconcerting--the whole browser page refreshes if I double click on something like "Articles and Overviews" in the MSDN tree. It is true that it expands the tree underneath it: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa139630.aspx)) --Lee Anne
I will add an expand on double click for 3.4M5. I don't like expand on click because if all you want to do is open a topic I don't think it should be expanded, particularly since this can involve calling the server to load the child nodes which is unnecessary work for that server. Expand/Contract on double click matches the behavior of an SWT tree and feels natural. I will set it up so the that the page opens as well.
Fixed in HEAD
Works great in I20080204-0010, thanks. (In reply to comment #9) > Would you please elaborate on why "expand on double-click > is a must-have to meet platform expectations"? > > Which platform do you mean? Eclipse Platform, or operating system platform? I meant the Eclipse platform. Most tree views (e.g. Package Explorer, Navigator, ...) expand an item on double-click (and if it's a file, it's also opened). > And are you primarily thinking about this behavior of the TOC when it is in the > side help view, or in the separate help system contents window? This was only a problem in the TOC of a separate help window. Tray help TOC already expands/collapses topics on single-click (unless the container topic has its own associated help page).
