I've created a number of sub-folders under the ArchiMate standard folders for the model, i.e. Strategy, Business, Application, so on, and as we are using Archi in a team of 10 Architects the model has grown significantly. In order to organise we create numerous meaningful sub-folders to nest the concepts. The problem we face is the speed at which dragging a concept to drop it into a folder is very slow, especially where the list is long, concept to drag at the bottom of the list and folder at the top. Hopeful you understand what I am trying to explain here - it is the scrolling to the destination folder is so slow scrolling 1 node at a time and can't even use the scroll wheel to quickly scroll to folder to drop selected concept to.
Will improvements in v4.5 address this at all?
If not it would be nice to have a feature where on selected concept of even multiple selecting then right click context menu will have an option of 'Move to' that displays the folders in the ArchiMate layer folder grouping as the destination. Taking into consideration that there may be nested folders or more than one level. If this feature is not practical then any chance the scrolling can be made faster or enable the use of the mouse scroll-wheel whilst holding the selected concept(s) in drag operation.
Thanks
One is constrained by the scroll rate of the Tree component when performing a drag and drop action, and this can be a problem with a large number of nodes. The scroll speed will speed up a bit the closer the mouse pointer is to the to top or bottom of the tree, though.
> Will improvements in v4.5 address this at all?
No, this hasn't been looked at for 4.5.
> any chance the scrolling can be made faster or enable the use of the mouse scroll-wheel whilst holding the selected concept(s) in drag operation.
I can't see any way to change this. It's the same speed in Trees in Eclipse itself.
Your "Move to" suggestion seems like a reasonable idea, although the UI might be a bit cumbersome if there are many folders in the Tree.
Perhaps a better solution is to implement "Cut" and "Paste" in the Models Tree.
I have now written some code that implements Cut and Paste in the Models Tree and it all seems to work nicely and solves the problem. However, it's too late to add this to Archi 4.5, but we can consider it for an update after that.
That was very quick turnaround - I look forward to the update after 4.5.
Btw, I just wanted to say that this is a fantastic open source tool that you've created and thanks for all your hard work :-)
Thanks. 8)
Meanwhile, you can make it slightly less painful by using the Search filter to only show the object types you are moving. :)
Yes, I do use the search filters but is still an issue for large models. Phil's tried and tested resolution will make it a lot easier - look forward to it's release after 4.5.
Yes, in the next version there will be improvements in this area. I use these in my test build and they work great on large models:
- Cut and Paste in the Model Tree. Even faster than drag and drop when you use Ctrl-C followed by Ctrl-V.
- Model Tree more responsive overall to internal change notifications
- Model Tree Search improvements - there is a small delay on key presses in the Search box so it gives you more chance to type your search query (rather than updating the tree immediately on each key press) and also an option (in Prefs) to perform the search when Return is pressed rather than as you type
Phil
Hi Phil, a minor point to your last reply, Ctrl-C is a copy not a cut - I presume the full standard shortcut keys is supported, i.e. Ctrl-C (Copy), Ctrl-X (Cut) and Ctrl-V (Paste) - also will these be shown in the right-click context menu? Thanks
Sorry, I meant Ctrl-X.
Yes, Copy and Paste will be in the context menu (alongside Delete) as well as the main menu and toolbar. For Copy we already have the Duplicate command, the reason being that copying and pasting of different concept types between different folder types (Business, Application, etc) is not possible.
All makes sense - thanks :)