Enhance GUI in "point selection dialog"

[kkarsten62]

At the moment in the "point selection dialog" (three green dots) points can be selected by mouse movement in the elevation graph only.

I would like to enhance the GUI to select a point or a selection of points (range) by clicking rows in the point list also.

Feature "1":
Make the list scrollable by adding a vertical scroll bar with "Down", "Up", "PgDn", "PgUp", "Home" and "End" keyboard keys.

Feature "2":
Make list clickable:
"Left mouse click" in a row: Start a new selection, one point is selected
"Shift-Left mouse click" in a next row: Extent the selection, a range is selected
Selected point or range should be visible in map and elevation graph as well.

Feature "3":
Add seconds in time column. (As I already did for point viewer tab in track edit mode).

Please share your opinion (useful, feasible, reservations, ...) - thanks.

[kiozen]

As this idea comes from ticket #913: This is not the correct place to solve it 😉 This tool is for selecting ranges. And that can be done with the tool buttons quite precisely.

Concerning feature 1:
This is not a list widget. It's a custom widget CListTrkPts (in fact it's a HTML table) that was introduced to avoid the complexity of a full blown tree or list widget. None the less to save as much screen real estate as possible. To replace it can get pretty nasty causing a lot of side effects.

Concerning feature 3:
Yes this is buggy behavior. Seconds should be shown.

How to treat ticket #913? Imho the problem is that the list of points in the track details dialog does not work for the map. When switching from the track details dialog to map canvas a tiny movement of the mouse will loose the selected track point focus. Not to mention that this is very awkward to do anyways.

The feasible way is to move the mouse in the profile and check the timestamps in the info bubble that follows the focus. If the on screen profile is to small use ctrl+E to get a larger and scalable widget.

I agree this is not the same as scrolling in a list as it does not give you a history around the focus point. However to achieve this you need some kind of list next to the map canvas. And this is easier said than done if you think about the details (e.g. what information to list, how to control key focus, place it on the screen or as dock widget, etc).

Another root cause for the situation is the decision to add the track details dialog as tab widget. This has some advantages, like having several tabs for different tracks, using the same screen real estate as the map canvas for large graphs and loads of information. However as a drawback you can't have a map visibly next to the track details. Personally I never missed it. But that is just my opinion.

[HanVroon]

Not sure if I'm supposed to join this discussion as a requester...
First of all I am happy that my suggestion is discussed!

So scrolling and selecting in the Point selection window on the Map view is out of discussion.

But what about the Track details view (the Edit track tab)?
The Points table is scrollable with mouse and keyboard. When selecting a track row, a red vertical line appears on the profile.
Currently that selected row is not shown as green dot on the map, but the green dot will show up when clicking the red line in the profile.
Maybe that could be changed, both clicking in the Points table OR clicking in the profile will show the green dot on the track in the Map view?
Then one has to move the mouse from the Points table to the Map view tab to select it going around the profile window to avoid the red vertical line from moving, but that is easily learned.
A keyboard shortcut to switch to the map tab so that the mouse doesn't have to be moved would help.

[kkarsten62]

A next proposal:

• We use the track edit point list
• A left mouse click in the list will start a range with the selected row/point
• A shift left mouse click will extent the range
• The range is shown in the track edit diagrams (profile, ...)
• The range is shown on the track in the maps as well
• A mouse right click in the point list will show a context menu with one func: "Erase range" (In German: "Bereich zurücksetzen"), as we have already in the diagrams

@HanVroon : Will this help to solve your use case?
@kiozen : What's your opinion: Make this sense? Could it be implemented w/o huge and risky development effort?

[kiozen]

This is still misusing the range selection feature to mark a point on the map for information purposes. It forces the user to select the first point, then the second, then choose an option or abort the sequence by another click. This is how range selection tool is designed. And I don't think we should add another twist on that tool.

There are other options but they have caveats, too.

Show the track's on screen options dialog for the selected point

Caveats:

• On which canvas? (multiple views open)
• What happens if the point is not in focus on the canvas?
• Moving the map will reset the dialog
• Zooming will make it loose the focus point

Show the info bubble on the track point but lock it to make it insensitive to mouse movement

Caveats:

• How to unlock?
• Quite confusing to the user [1]
• On which canvas? (multiple views open)
• What happens if the point is not in focus on the canvas?

Design a complete new widget to mark a track point selected in the list

Caveats:

• All of the others , except that we have to have to take care not to break default behavior

[1] There is a similar situation in the range selection tool. If you start a range in a graph or on the map you have to finish the operation in that graph or map. Everything else is blocked. Very confusing if you accidentally started in a graph and did not notice which one.

[kiozen]

Quite often I want to look up the time a picture was taken in the list of trackpoins to see where that picture was taken.
So I scroll through the trackpoints till the specific time. Then, with a certain row focussed, I want to see where that trackpoint is on the map with the track visible.

Imho you can do that by highlighting the track and moving the mouse along the track. The information bubble displays the timestamps of the track point. This might not be as convenient as a table, but if you have to do that occasionally it's fine.

Another solution would be a script to correlate images with tracks by the timestamp producing a list of waypoints.

[HanVroon]

Sorry for not answering, kkarsten62, a couple of long and intense working days, forgot about the discussion.

I sence some resistance, it wasn't my intention to change functionality in a way the author feels uncomfortable with.
And I underrstand that one can move the mouse along the track, which was good enough.

Changing the range selection feature (the Edit track view) wasn't my intetion, I think it shouldend be changed for this request. The other mentioned options are clearly not desirable.

It's just that I thought that if you can click on a trackpoint in the points list and the red line appears in the profile, a green dot could appear on the track as well.
So, instead of clicking in the profile twice close to each other to show green markers on the map view, one clicks in the trackpoint list.

If the program isn't aware of the specific trackpoint to mark in the map view the same way as when that point was selected in the profile, then my assumption is wrong and you may forget that I even posted this issue.
Regards,
Han

[kiozen]

If you select a point in the list the point is already marked on the map. But in most cases you will not see it as the mouse either entered a graph area or the map. But try this:

• select a point in the table
• now sneak with the mouse around all graphs up the the tab widget's tab bar and select the map tab.

-> you will see the track point marked if the track point is in the visible area of the map. As soon as the mouse enters the map canvas it's gone because now the logic tried to find the next track point close to the mouse.

But this is a pretty awkward way to do it. It's more an academical way 😉

Thinking about this problem the only solution is to add a table view of the track next the profile widget. This should use the same technique as the little profile. Be semi-transparent when not in mouse focus, get solid when having the focus. Be optional like the little profile. Maybe get a real large widget like the profile.

Maybe a QTreeWidget with a delegate that implements a more condensed table to safe space is an idea.

If that works well it could replace the table in the detail view completely.

[HanVroon]

That also works, kiozen. Only one step is required additionally before selecting a point in the table:
The track has to be double-clicked in the Workspace first.
I haven't tried that combination (first double-click, then Edit) so far.
Sneaking around the profile I was already aware of.

Your last suggestion with a new table view next to the profile widget sounds awesome because then you don't need to swich tabs, it is all directly shown o the map view. Being optional is also very good, especially for all those who are not interested in this trackpoints table.
But I wonder if you should change the detail view. If it doesn't "hurt the code", having all details of the track on that edit screen kept as usual would avoid harming those who are used to that and like it the way it is.

So the "double-click track and then edit" procedure already gives me the opportunity to view trackpoints on the map in a more secure way than sliding the mouse over the profile graph, but as said, a table would be very nice.

It is up to you if you thing this adds functionality to the program in general. Of course there are suggestions made that an author never had in mind, never thought of, or never wanted to have avaliable.
On the other hand, these kind of requests like mine are the risk when putting your work to the public, for which I am truly grateful :-)

[kiozen]

I have something roughly working:

https://github.com/kiozen/qmapshack/tree/QMS-913