[announcement] SearchBar Mod: search through tools, objects, preferences and more

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suzanne.soy
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[announcement] SearchBar Mod: search through tools, objects, preferences and more

Post by suzanne.soy »

Warning: this mod is still unstable.

:!: Several issues related to the C++ memory management interacting badly with Python's have caused lots of segfaults during development. :!:

:!: Most of these should now be solved, but save your work often and proceed with caution while testing this extension. :!:

Description

This mod adds a search bar next to the What's this? tool.

The results include tools, objects, preferences, and more can be added by registering a result provider (tools, objects and preferences are already providers).

It will display a panel with extra information about the object, tool or parameter. A future version could display the What's This? help for tools, if available (the official FreeCAD What's this? feature does not work on my installation, so I'll need to figure out why first).

Bugs

Please report issues to https://github.com/SuzanneSoy/SearchBar/issues or as replies to this post.

Feedback is really appreciated :) , I'll wait for some other users to test this before adding it to the official addons repository.

Screenshot

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screenshot.png
screenshot.png (97.82 KiB) Viewed 3774 times
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Installation

Code: Select all

# Linux
git clone https://github.com/SuzanneSoy/SearchBar ~/.FreeCAD/Mod/SearchBar
For other platforms, see https://wiki.freecadweb.org/Installing_more_workbenches

Uninstallation
  • Remove ~/.FreeCAD/Mod/SearchBar or the folder which was cloned during installation on other platforms.
  • Optional: Remove the cache (~30MB) ~/.FreeCAD/Cache_SearchBarMod or equivalent on other platforms
:?: Please mark your posts as [solved] :!:
:idea: If the answer you got is a good fit for the wiki, you can edit it!
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TheMarkster
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Re: [announcement] SearchBar Mod: search through tools, objects, preferences and more

Post by TheMarkster »

Snip macro screenshot-90a004.png
Snip macro screenshot-90a004.png (102.6 KiB) Viewed 3707 times
hmk
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Re: [announcement] SearchBar Mod: search through tools, objects, preferences and more

Post by hmk »

suzanne.soy wrote: Sat Oct 16, 2021 8:56 pm :!: Several issues related to the C++ memory management interacting badly with Python's have caused lots of segfaults during development. :!:
:!: Most of these should now be solved, but save your work often and proceed with caution while testing this extension. :!:
If still relevant, this could/should be added to the GitHub README.md and Wiki page.
hmk
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Re: [announcement] SearchBar Mod: search through tools, objects, preferences and more

Post by hmk »

suzanne.soy wrote: Sat Oct 16, 2021 8:56 pm This mod adds a search bar next to the What's this? tool.
I don't have this tool by default. How can I add it to the task bar? I think if would be useful to give instructions in GitHub README.md and Wiki.

Thanks for developing this add-on!!
chrisb
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Re: [announcement] SearchBar Mod: search through tools, objects, preferences and more

Post by chrisb »

hmk wrote: Wed Nov 17, 2021 2:37 pm I don't have this tool by default. How can I add it to the task bar? I think if would be useful to give instructions in GitHub README.md and Wiki.
I don't understand. Isn't that what this whole topic is about? What problems do you have?
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Re: [announcement] SearchBar Mod: search through tools, objects, preferences and more

Post by hmk »

chrisb wrote: Wed Nov 17, 2021 5:04 pm
hmk wrote: Wed Nov 17, 2021 2:37 pm I don't have this tool by default. How can I add it to the task bar? I think if would be useful to give instructions in GitHub README.md and Wiki.
I don't understand. Isn't that what this whole topic is about? What problems do you have?
Argh, I just found out that the What is? button is in the "File" toolbar. This is the only toolbar that I have deactivated! :roll:

Not sure if the File toolbar is the right place for What is?. Maybe there should be a "Help" toolbar (even if it would have only a single tool) :?:
(Well the File toolbar seem to be more a "Misc" toolbar anyways...)
suzanne.soy
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Re: [announcement] SearchBar Mod: search through tools, objects, preferences and more

Post by suzanne.soy »

TheMarkster wrote: Sun Oct 17, 2021 12:53 am Snip macro screenshot-90a004.png
The screenshot with the cylindrical part is absolutely not the right screenshot, do you have any idea how this was triggered? I fear there might be some cache based on filenames and the documentation of some other mod preloaded a file named "screenshot.png" in your cache…
hmk wrote: Wed Nov 17, 2021 5:13 pm
chrisb wrote: Wed Nov 17, 2021 5:04 pm
hmk wrote: Wed Nov 17, 2021 2:37 pm I don't have this tool by default. How can I add it to the task bar? I think if would be useful to give instructions in GitHub README.md and Wiki.
I don't understand. Isn't that what this whole topic is about? What problems do you have?
Argh, I just found out that the What is? button is in the "File" toolbar. This is the only toolbar that I have deactivated! :roll:

Not sure if the File toolbar is the right place for What is?. Maybe there should be a "Help" toolbar (even if it would have only a single tool) :?:
(Well the File toolbar seem to be more a "Misc" toolbar anyways...)
I modified the add-on, it will now create its own toolbar (now I need to make it possible to hide it).
hmk wrote: Wed Nov 17, 2021 2:32 pm
suzanne.soy wrote: Sat Oct 16, 2021 8:56 pm :!: Several issues related to the C++ memory management interacting badly with Python's have caused lots of segfaults during development. :!:
:!: Most of these should now be solved, but save your work often and proceed with caution while testing this extension. :!:
If still relevant, this could/should be added to the GitHub README.md and Wiki page.
Good point, I added that to the README. I'm also going to make the 3D preview widget (which seems to be the source of these crashes) enabled only after confirmation from the user.
:?: Please mark your posts as [solved] :!:
:idea: If the answer you got is a good fit for the wiki, you can edit it!
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Kunda1
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Re: [announcement] SearchBar Mod: search through tools, objects, preferences and more

Post by Kunda1 »

Thanks for sharing @suzanne.soy
Exciting stuff!
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Please mark thread [Solved]
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Re: [announcement] SearchBar Mod: search through tools, objects, preferences and more

Post by chennes »

Heads up that I've just submitted a PR to your repo to address some minor issues with the package.xml file in anticipation of the 0.20 release happening shortly.

https://github.com/SuzanneSoy/SearchBar/pull/14
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Re: [announcement] SearchBar Mod: search through tools, objects, preferences and more

Post by OficineRobotica »

hmk wrote: Wed Nov 17, 2021 5:13 pm Not sure if the File toolbar is the right place for What is?. Maybe there should be a "Help" toolbar (even if it would have only a single tool) :?:
(Well the File toolbar seem to be more a "Misc" toolbar anyways...)
Thank you so much @suzanne.soy for the addon. I also feel like @hmk about the default placement in the file toolbar. Can the addon create it's own global toolbar? Just as humble feedback, I also disable the file toolbar to free up space for the other icons in workbenches. Disabling the file toolbar allot of times means having only 2 rows of icons instead of 3 at least on a 16:9 1080p screen.
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