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Very few people seem to be aware of the ability to import/export/share Eclipse preferences. We should add to the WorkbenchPreferenceDialog dialog a shortcut to Import/Export preferences. Similarly to what Oomph does, it could be some buttons added nearby the help button.
+1 for the idea Side note: I think the option to handle preferences across installations should be provided by platform. Currently Oomph provides this but IMHO this should be a Platform feature.
(In reply to Lars Vogel from comment #1) > Side note: I think the option to handle preferences across installations > should be provided by platform. Currently Oomph provides this but IMHO this > should be a Platform feature. AFAIK, on the long run, there are plans to have users store their preferences in the cloud via user storage (most likely provided by MPC). The format of the preferences could be either the one from Platform export, or the one from Oomph. I don't think going to the cloud is the responsibility of Platform, but providing the import/export as smoothly -both from UI and APIs- as possible would make sense for such future stories.
New Gerrit change created: https://git.eclipse.org/r/105792
Gerrit change https://git.eclipse.org/r/105792 was merged to [master]. Commit: http://git.eclipse.org/c/platform/eclipse.platform.ui.git/commit/?id=448060f3d02df89a42ce6fbc5c72567d9cc746c6
Thanks a lot Lucas! Can you please add an entry about it in the N&N (with a small screenshot of those new buttons)?
New Gerrit change created: https://git.eclipse.org/r/106296
Gerrit change https://git.eclipse.org/r/106296 was merged to [master]. Commit: http://git.eclipse.org/c/www.eclipse.org/eclipse/news.git/commit/?id=49c5d58ad722a1eff8b726c6a5191089b2a1fbbb
Thank you Lucas!
Lucas, the icons look fuzzy for me on Linux? How did you create them?
(In reply to Lars Vogel from comment #9) > Lucas, the icons look fuzzy for me on Linux? How did you create them? I use the same logos that are present in the File dropdown menu. I am able to include a higher resolution version of the image.
(In reply to Lucas Bullen from comment #10) > (In reply to Lars Vogel from comment #9) > > Lucas, the icons look fuzzy for me on Linux? How did you create them? > > I use the same logos that are present in the File dropdown menu. I am able > to include a higher resolution version of the image. Looks to me that they are resized, at least they appear larger to me. If that is the case you should create larger versions of them and use these. You find the svg versions in the eclipse.platform.images repo.
New Gerrit change created: https://git.eclipse.org/r/110159
Gerrit change https://git.eclipse.org/r/110159 was merged to [master]. Commit: http://git.eclipse.org/c/platform/eclipse.platform.ui.git/commit/?id=1c2f30831e1bc4ee20c49ec1c51f81f79f82669b
Created attachment 271315 [details] Screenshot of the preference dialog footer (In reply to Lars Vogel from comment #11) > Looks to me that they are resized, at least they appear larger to me. If > that is the case you should create larger versions of them and use these. > You find the svg versions in the eclipse.platform.images repo. Reopening, because at least for the Java EPP package (presumably every package with Oomph installed), this doesn't look good yet. The attached screenshot IMHO shows several problems: - The separator between import and export seems out of place, as Oomph's preference recorder doesn't add one. - The import / export icons don't fit the circle look of both (?) and the preference recorder. - The icons look a bit large IMHO, the optimal layout would be (?) | (record) import export [Cancel] [Apply and Close] but I'm not sure how hard it would be for an external contributor (Oomph) to control its own placement. An alternative placement would be (?) | (record) import export [Cancel] [Apply and Close] What do you think?
This thing has a big usability issue: it does not export what the user sees in the preference dialog. Instead, it exports the currently saved preferences. So, if I go and choose my desired preferences and then export, it will not export them! The command must detect unsaved changes and then ask the user to either apply them or ignore them during the export.
(In reply to Dani Megert from comment #15) > This thing has a big usability issue: it does not export what the user sees > in the preference dialog. Instead, it exports the currently saved > preferences. So, if I go and choose my desired preferences and then export, > it will not export them! > > The command must detect unsaved changes and then ask the user to either > apply them or ignore them during the export. I would relate this to Bug 507411. Without a way to detect unsaved changes, we could have a dialog warning that non-applied changes will not be exported and have the option to apply them there.
(In reply to Lucas Bullen from comment #16) > (In reply to Dani Megert from comment #15) > > This thing has a big usability issue: it does not export what the user sees > > in the preference dialog. Instead, it exports the currently saved > > preferences. So, if I go and choose my desired preferences and then export, > > it will not export them! > > > > The command must detect unsaved changes and then ask the user to either > > apply them or ignore them during the export. > > I would relate this to Bug 507411. Without a way to detect unsaved changes, > we could have a dialog warning that non-applied changes will not be exported OK. > and have the option to apply them there. Not sure what you mean by "apply them there".
(In reply to Dani Megert from comment #17) > Not sure what you mean by "apply them there". Have the popup dialog say "All unapplied changes to preferences will not be exported" with the options to "Continue" or "Apply"
(In reply to Lucas Bullen from comment #18) > (In reply to Dani Megert from comment #17) > > > Not sure what you mean by "apply them there". > > Have the popup dialog say "All unapplied changes to preferences will not be > exported" with the options to "Continue" or "Apply" I see. In that case it should be "Apply and Continue". Note that there are further usability issues ahead: some preference changes open a dialog asking for a full build.
(In reply to Andreas Sewe from comment #14) > What do you think? It's not possible from Platform to control where Oomph places the recorder icon. About the separator, then it would be more up to Oomph to add one in its dialog extension if we think it's better. That's something we could contribute. I agree the icons may seem a bit too large, they are in the standard size of a menu icon (16x16) AFAIK. We could use some smaller ones there. About moving the Import/Export closer to "cancel" and "apply and close", I think it would be confusing as the later ones do control the dialog lifecycle whereas the import/export are "just" links to another dialog so they wouldn't really fit together. I believe leaving them located as they are right now and cleaning stuff a bit (smaller size, add a separator to Oomph...) is a low-hanging fruit whereas other approaches may be riskier and harder. (In reply to Dani Megert from comment #15) > The command must detect unsaved changes and then ask the user to either > apply them or ignore them during the export. As mentioned by Lucas, there is already an issue about it and it's close from being impossible to fix across all preference pages. So we shouldn't count on such detection to improve the workflow. I like the idea of a confirmation popup when exporting to warn users.
New Gerrit change created: https://git.eclipse.org/r/111087
Gerrit change https://git.eclipse.org/r/111087 was merged to [master]. Commit: http://git.eclipse.org/c/platform/eclipse.platform.ui.git/commit/?id=7542927361a8ebd3764cd141c7b238ad826500a7
Should be better now. If anyone has any concern, please create new bugs and link to this one rather than reopening as reopening makes it harder to track what's done and missing milestone after milestone. Thanks a lot Lucas and others!
"If there are any unapplied changes to preferences, they will not be exported" Is too complicated to parse. I've replaced it with: "Unapplied changes to preferences will not be exported."
