[GUI Plugin] Action Chains

[capink]

So the issue here is that if a VL that does not have a tab is applied (either through Virtual Library dropdown menu or View Manager menu), calibre will create a new tab for this VL, and in the process it re-orders the open tabs, and emit the event signal for each tab (I don't know how this happens, but I can see it by inserting debug statements).

The solution to this is to ignore all the emitted signals except the last one. This solution will have the side effect of a little lag before applying the corresponding view.

[ownedbycats]

That fixed it. Thank you. The lag is s lot faster than waiting for it to cycle through all my views.

[ownedbycats]

Just curious: Am I misremembering, or was there an option to make a chain invisible in the menu if the conditions aren't verified?

Also: For my "switch VL" chain, is it possible to set a condition to do an action (clear marked books) unless I'm switching to the Cleanup VL? There's view_manager_last_view but I think that's for the currently selected view.

[capink]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Just curious: Am I misremembering, or was there an option to make a chain invisible in the menu if the conditions aren't verified?

The option is in the conditions dialog, and it greys out the menu entry without making it invisible.

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Also: For my "switch VL" chain, is it possible to set a condition to do an action (clear marked books) unless I'm switching to the Cleanup VL? There's view_manager_last_view but I think that's for the currently selected view.

Action Chains events can pass arguments to their member chains. In case of the "VL Tab Changed" event it has only one argument, the vl tab name, which can be accessed and used in conditions:

program:
    vl = globals(_event_args)

Attached below is a chain, that if added to an event, will print the event arguments to the terminal (you can use it for debugging and exploration of event arguments)

[ownedbycats]

Thanks. It worked. I also added a second condition so it didn't clear when switching away from Cleanup:

program:
    vl = globals(_event_args) != 'Cleanup' && view_manager_last_view() != 'Cleanup'

However, the last_view part isn't quite working. Any ideas?

EDIT: I think the && should be an or. Need to figure that out.

EDIT:

program:
    vl = globals(_event_args) != 'Cleanup' || view_manager_last_view() != 'Cleanup'

= 1
clears it for everything. I'm not sure what I did wrong.

[capink]

You need to remove the assignment:

program:
    globals(_event_args) != 'Cleanup' && view_manager_last_view() != 'Cleanup'

If you want to keep the assignment for readability:

program:
    vl = globals(_event_args);
    vl != 'Cleanup' && view_manager_last_view() != 'Cleanup'

[ownedbycats]

I think I figured out the issue. I don't actually have a view named Cleanup, since it's just whatever view I was using last. Would virtual_libraries() work, or is that for just books?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I think I figured out the issue. I don't actually have a view named Cleanup, since it's just whatever view I was using last. Would virtual_libraries() work, or is that for just books?

The virtual_libraries() function returns a list of virtual libraries. It knows nothing about View Manager views.

[ownedbycats]

I'll take a look at the event chain later and see if there's something I can use. Is there a way to bring up the terminal when running outside debug?

[capink]

Not that I know of.

[capink]

Version 1.13.1

• Fix: Vl Tab Changed Event: Signal vl_tab_changed is emitted multiple times when a new tab is added.

Version 1.13.2

• Update: Vl Tab Changed Event: Add option to turn off event if vl tabs are hidden.
• Update: Vl Tab Changed Event: Add additional event argument: last_vl.
• Fix: Timer Event: Fix timer interval settings not read properly.

There is a modification to the event arguments of the "VL Tab Changed" event as it adds a second argument (previous_vl). You can access the event arguments as follows:

program:
    args = globals(_event_args);
    current_vl = list_item(args, 0, ',');
    previous_vl = list_item(args, 1, ',')

[ownedbycats]

Is 'current' the one being switched to? Just checking.

[capink]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Is 'current' the one being switched to? Just checking.

Yes it is.

[ownedbycats]

Just curious:

program:
	marked = from_search('id', 'marked:true');
	count(marked, ',')

When putting it in Action Chain's condition dialog, I get a "5" for each selected book under template value, regardless of how many books are actually marked. As it works correctly when running the chain, where is it getting the 5 from?

[capink]

This is explained in the Formulas Action documentation, of which the function from_search() is part.

To summarize; from_search() pulls data from multiple books, so it can potentially take up several minutes depending on the size of library and nature of the query. While in template dialog, you cannot allow this to happen, because the template gets re-evaluated with every letter typed, so it can completely freeze the dialog.

As a solution to the above, when in template dialog, from_search() always returns a fixed list of five items (e.g. '1,2,3,4,5') no matter the query being given to it.

Edit: Even though it returns a fixed list, it still verifies the arguments (field_name and search_string), and will return an error if it finds a problem with either.

Edit2: The items of the list and the separator are changed based on the field_name.