The TSW Blog

As I talked about earlier on this blog, the XML/Scripted dialog system will be included in "WebCoder.NET" as well. Therefore, the dialogs will look almost the same as in WebCoder 2005, since they are based on the same (although more tidy) XML files :). I have added a small but pretty cool feature though. By using the "htmlAttribute" property of the controls in the XML file, you may make WebCoder aware of which HTML attribute the control is used for. Since WebCoder already knows which tag the dialog is registered for, it can now check the attribute by using the same datafiles used for the HTML Inspector and HTML IntelliSense, and tell you if there are anything you should be aware of when using the given attribute. Of course, this is based on the (X)HTML definition you are currently using for the active document. The dialogs will not be nagging you about these things, but using information icons, it will tell you about it in a subtle way. Have a look at this screenshot where you can see how the controls are marked with icons:

The green icon tells you that the attributes is required, the blue one will normally mean that the attribute has been deprecated. There is of course tooltips for the icons when hovering over them with the mouse. Now, let's try switching the document to XHTML and see the same dialog:

The blue icons have become red, because these attributes are simply not defined within the XHTML standard. If you make your own tag dialogs, they will be able to use this system as well, since it's entirely based on the information from the dialog XML file as well as information about tag and attributes from the active HTML definition, which you may edit as well.

In WebCoder 5, we went from the top tabcontrol with the tags and dialogs, to the right aligned "toolbox". Only a few people complained about this, and I personally think that it worked better this way. However, it did take up some extra space, and it couldn't be moved, which I didn't like that much.

In the next version of WebCoder, I have experimented a bit again, and converted the toolbox to a true tool window, just like the rest of the tool windows in WebCoder. This allows you to move it around, float it and position it just the way you want it. This also means that you can tab it along with the other tool windows, with the added benefit that the toolbox will no longer use an extra piece of space.

A different control is used for the toolbox as well, which means that you can now have more than one group visible at the same time. In fact, only your resolution sets the limit, as you can see on the screenshot. So, what do you think of the new toolbox? All feedback is appreciated.