XAF Team is constantly working on improving the Model Editor usability. Recently we published the Model Editor Enhancements blog post, describing the Model Editor improvements that we rushed to you in v2010 vol 1.6 version. “But wait?!” I hear you cry, “what about 2010.2?!” Well, let’s take a look at what functionality will be available in the upcoming release.
Now you can select multiple nodes to perform various operations with them at once! Just select a bunch of nodes in the normal way – hold down SHIFT and click a node to select sequential nodes, or hold down CTRL and click a node to select individual nodes – then drag as normal. For instance, you can expand several Action Container nodes, select multiple Action Link nodes within them, and drag them all to another Action Container.
You can use the context menu commands, when several nodes are selected (except for Generate Content and Add commands). The command will be applied to each selected node. For instance, you can select several nodes and reset their differences at once.
This animation shows you what I mean:
Multi-selection functionality can also be used when sorting a certain node’s child nodes (navigation items, columns, layout items, etc.). You can select several nodes and drag this group up or down the list. The indexes of child nodes will automatically be modified to correspond to the new arrangement. You can use the context menus Up/Down commands, also available via the ALT+UP/ALT-DOWN shortcuts.
This animation shows you the UP command executed on several Navigation Item nodes are selected:
Note that when the top selected node reaches the top of the list, its index stops decrementing and equals zero. If you repeat the Up command again, this node stays on top, and other selected nodes will continue moving up (cool eh?). Obviously, the corresponding thing happens when doing the same thing with the Down command.
Of course, the multi-selection support is not the only improvement the Model Editor will get in the upcoming release. There are many enhancements to be announced later. But I don’t want to spoil it by telling you all the plot now!
That’s all for this post, until next time, happy XAF’ing!