[GUI Plugin] Job Spy

[ownedbycats]

Question: I have a plain-text column set in NV to view as HTML. However, I'd prefer to edit it as plain-text:

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

If you edit a long text(html) column, even accidentally, Calibre "helps" with the HTML and breaks it as far as FFF is concerned.

That's why I recommend long text(plain text).

How do I do this?

Normally, I don't edit this column much anyways except to delete references to 404'd URLs. If there is no way, I'll just use MDE for it.

[BetterRed]

Go into Options, press Plain in the Always Use a Specific Text Format radio button group for the column.

BR

[ownedbycats]

Small bug:

1. Have a long-text column set to view as HTML in the NV settings.



2. View that column, and change to 'plain text.'



3. While the viewer is displaying Plain text, click the 'Edit' button. This displays the HTML editor.*



4. Press the 'Cancel Column Edits' button. It fails.



The cancel button works as expected if I do not change to plain first.

*unknown if it is intended to display this or the plain-text editor

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Go into Options, press Plain in the Always Use a Specific Text Format radio button group for the column.

BR

That displays as plain. But I can just switch it when I plan to edit. Thanks.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

That displays as plain. But I can just switch it when I plan to edit. Thanks.

If there's an 'incompatibility' between FFF and Calibre (Qt) I'm surprised it hasn't been sorted out before now.

BR

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

If there's an 'incompatibility' between FFF and Calibre (Qt) I'm surprised it hasn't been sorted out before now.

BR

Calibre 'helping' the HTML is intended, I think.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Calibre 'helping' the HTML is intended, I think.

If you read DaltonST's most recent reply to me, post 1019, you'll see he provides the genesis of the several HTML edit widgets in calibre - they're all based on the same Qt components.

BR

[ownedbycats]

Just out of curiosity, I compared FFF's HTML with it after letting Calibre "help" (pasting it into an HTML longtext column). Main difference I see it adds several more divs, deletes a bunch of 'unused' spans & classes (which FFF uses to identify specific bits of metadata), and splits up the lines all over the place.

I get pretty much the same result if I open the column in NV's HTML editor and then simply save it.

[BetterRed]

Of course you'll get the same result - they're essentially the same beast.

If you put a set of Pirelli P7C2 tyres on your Toyota, and I put the same on my Mazda the tread patterns we leave at the scene of the crime will be essentially the same

Scraping HTML should never have been allowed to happen, it's a hangover from the scraping of 3270 and VT100 traffic that was prevalent in the '70s and '80s. I won a contract to get rid of VT100 scraping in a real time sugar mill pan stage control system more than 40 years ago.

BR

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by DaltonST

. . .

I gather that the beta test version is cleared for normal release.

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Oh yes release it by all means - the new HTML editor has removed one of the reasons I've been breaking out of NV.

Wait up - I used to be able to Tab into the Text box in View mode, and tab through any embedded links - which meant I could press Enter to use (i.e. test) them. If possible I'd really like to have that feature restored.

BR

[DaltonST]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Wait up - I used to be able to Tab into the Text box in View mode, and tab through any embedded links - which meant I could press Enter to use (i.e. test) them. If possible I'd really like to have that feature restored.

BR

When the text type is HTML, then Qt will allow me to set the focus directly at the beginning of the HTML text in view mode. Tabbing once will get you to the first URI.

I have just added the setting of the focus above to occur as soon as HTML is detected and the radio button for HTML is checked in View Mode. Only for HTML; Qt doesn't allow that for QTextEdits for Plain and Markdown, only QTextBrowsers for HTML. Qt knows about needing to tab to links in HTML.

There is also the CTRL+N shortcut to do the same in the Menu, but it appears that its activating signal is getting consumed sometimes. I will look into it.


DaltonST

[DaltonST]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Small bug:

1. Have a long-text column set to view as HTML in the NV settings.

Attachment 201005

2. View that column, and change to 'plain text.'

Attachment 201006

3. While the viewer is displaying Plain text, click the 'Edit' button. This displays the HTML editor.*

Attachment 201007

4. Press the 'Cancel Column Edits' button. It fails.

Attachment 201008

The cancel button works as expected if I do not change to plain first.

*unknown if it is intended to display this or the plain-text editor

Yeh, clicking Plain and then Edit on HTML is an unforeseen sequence that was not tested. Plain is for Plain Text, not HTML. The expected sequence was View HTML to Edit HTML.



Fixed in the next version.




DaltonST

[DaltonST]

Attached is the 2nd beta, with a different file name in case it fails for you and you want to revert to the 1st beta still on its own previous post.

This has the "cancel edits" for View HTML using Plain then Edit in HTML fix, plus the automatic focus on the HTML text box in View Mode. NV must already have the window focus, of course.

New feature: "HTML" Button that is hidden except when editing Plain and Markdown has been renamed "To HTML". It now will convert Markdown to HTML, not just Plain to "basic" HTML. The Markdown to HTML conversion is full-featured.

When canceling edits for Markdown and HTML, NV will immediately restart in situ. That approach guarantees no changes and restores NV to a clean state. Plain edits cancellation will not restart, just revert.


DaltonST

[BetterRed]

Alt+C (Cancel Edits) shortcut not working in Edit HTML - pretty sure it did before.

BR

[DaltonST]

Version 1.0.232 -2023-04-13 Notes Viewer: Added the Name of the Source of the Sort Value after "Sort Value" in the Sort Value Column in the Search Results list. Add current BookID in lower left of NV window. New full HTML Editor. The "To HTML" (previously "HTML") button now converts Plain Text to basic HTML, and Markdown Text to its full HTML equivalent. Shortcuts and Context Menus now broadened in their ability to be triggered, and their responsiveness when triggered has been improved.

When in HTML View Mode, the CTRL+N shortcut will move the focus of the cursor to the very start of the HTML text. You must TAB to move the cursor to the first and subsequent link so you can press ENTER to activate it. If you have no links, then the cursor won't move. You will have to use the mouse rather than the keyboard to navigate to select specific text in link-less HTML. The latter is always true for Plain and Markdown as well.

The context menu can be triggered anywhere in the main NV window via a right-click of the mouse. Exception: The Text Box, which has its own context menu.

The Search Results top horizontal header and left side vertical header can be right-clicked for the context menu to view the actions and their shortcuts to sort the Search Results by the different columns.


DaltonST