Bug in Tag Browser

Ignition
1

Hi All,

I verified that this bug exists on a few different computers in my office which have ignition installed.

Scenario:
In ignition designer with Project Browser, Tag Browser, and Property editor stacked on the left side; with the Tag, Value, and Datatype columns visible in the tag browser.
There is a long list of tags so that the Tag Browser has a scroll bar on the right side, and the width of the Tag column is too small to view the full name of some of the tags.

Bug:
Hovering the mouse over the Tag column and using the mouse scroll wheel to scroll down causes the contents of the Tag column to move left until the right-side of the column aligns with the right-side of the longest tag name. The bottom scroll bar does not change size or move to accommodate this shift.

If this feature was intentional, it is not useful, because in order for me to use this feature to see the right-end of a long tag name, I would have to start with with the subject tag out-of-view and scroll down to it.

Suggestions:
Option 1:
When a tag is selected in the Tag Browser, if its name is too long to be completely visible, allow the user to use the arrow keys to move the Tag column left and right.
Disadvantage: the arrow keys are already in use for expanding and collapsing the tag tree.

Option 2:
When a tag is selected in the Tag Browser, if its name is too long to be completely visible and the mouse is hovered over the tag browser, holding shift while scrolling the mouse wheel will move the column left or right.
Disadvantage: this would be an obscure feature.

Option 3:
If the Tag column of the Tag Browser is too narrow to view all the full tag names, add a separate left-right scroll-bar to the bottom of the Tag Browser.
Disadvantage: This would reduce the amount of visible area for the user to see tags.

Option 4 (my favorite):
If the Tag column of the Tag Browser is too narrow to view all the full tag names, put a little icon on the right side of the column header (maybe with two arrows like this: “< >”) that the user can click and drag left or right to move the visible area in the column.
Disadvantage: if the column width is too small, you’ll have to decide whether to show the arrows or the column name in the header. I think the arrows should take priority. “Tag” is a pretty small name for a column header anyway.

OK. Any thoughts? Angry replies? Does this bug not exist on anyone else’s machines?

Thanks!
Zac Slade

1 Like
2

I found the left-right scrollbar at the very bottom of my tag list. I suppose you can ignore the part about this being a bug.

The scrolling is still not desirable, though, and the scrollbar at the bottom is not that useful. The above suggestions are still effectively my suggestions.

3

bumping this as I was just going to report this as a bug myself.

4

Response from program is different from what a decade of different operators expect == It's a bug. It's a massive time waster too. But I suppose that the 2016 date on thread means abandon-all-hope ye who enter here. /sigh

5

What version are you using? I can't reproduce this behavior.

6

Kevin, Thank you for responding to this! I was shouting-into-the-void not expecting a response.

I have been working on designer 7.9, we plan to go to 8.0 if we ever get a lul in the work. When you change the width of the tag value and data type columns the second scroll bar will appear at the bottom of the sub-window. It wouldn't be so bad if it didn't auto hide at the bottom or if the column labels at the top didn't autohide.

It's also annoying that the second scroll bar is polarized ( up is ok but down is not /sigh)

7

The Tag Browser was rewritten in 8.1. I suspect the bug was fixed or just made irrelevant by the rewrite.

Unless I’m missing something about the reproduction criteria it’ll be fixed if you ever upgrade some day.

If you need to justify the upgrade somehow, it’s worth knowing that support for 7.9 ended almost a year ago. There are no more bug fixes, security fixes, features, etc… coming, and support is somewhat limited.

8

Ya that tracks, thanks for responding I will try to do more breathing exercises before I post.

Have a good day!

1 Like