CSSTUDIO-2572: Add a "Jump to Log Entry" TextField to the Logbook application

[abrahamwolk]

This pull request adds a "Jump to Log Entry" textfield to the Logbook application:

By writing a Log Entry ID into this textfield, one can jump to the corresponding log entry.

[kasemir]

How likely it is for an end user to know the ID of a log entry? A plain text search might be more relevant, where entries with that text in the author, title, body will be highlighted, with next/previous buttons to jump between log entries that contain the word.

Otherwise fine.

[abrahamwolk]

@kasemir wrote:

How likely it is for an end user to know the ID of a log entry? A plain text search might be more relevant, where entries with that text in the author, title, body will be highlighted, with next/previous buttons to jump between log entries that contain the word.

The ID of a log entry is displayed when displaying the log entry:

The use case is that a user wants to share a link (or equivalent) to a log entry when using the Phoebus Logbook client. It is not practical to ask another user to search for the log entry in question.

[georgweiss]

It is already possible to share links: see Copy URL button, which is also available in the web client.

[abrahamwolk]

It is already possible to share links: see Copy URL button, which is also available in the web client.

Sharing is currently possible, but opening a link in the Logbook application is not possible. This pull request is intended to allow a user to open a specified log entry in the Logbook application in Phoebus.

[georgweiss]

Log entry ids are always numerical, so the input field should accept only digits.
Also, the cursor is aligned in the middle and after uses presses it jumps back to the start of the entered value.

[abrahamwolk]

Log entry ids are always numerical, so the input field should accept only digits.

If the parsing of the log entry ID fails (e.g., the input contains non-numeric characters), the input is discarded:
https://github.com/ControlSystemStudio/phoebus/pull/3195/files#diff-dadeacf8698c9fa7ab9b014b3b71d535270075a70af2c586c08638f06665e59dR156-R161

Also, the cursor is aligned in the middle and after uses presses it jumps back to the start of the entered value.

Do I understand you correctly: after entering a value, you would prefer the the cursor to be placed to the right of the entered value? If so, I agree with that and I think it would be preferable.

[georgweiss]

Using this new feature and then Back button. Eventually the history is empty, which is indicated by a disabled Back button. At this point I think the input field should be cleared too.

[georgweiss]

If the parsing of the log entry ID fails (e.g., the input contains non-numeric characters), the input is discarded

In my view disallowing invalid input is nicer. That would also eliminate the need to handle the invalid input.

And yes, I think right-aligning cursor is more intuitive. And the entered chars should be left-aligned, in my opinion.

[abrahamwolk]

Using this new feature and then Back button. Eventually the history is empty, which is indicated by a disabled Back button. At this point I think the input field should be cleared too.

I don't think so: isn't 451 the ID of the log entry that is currently being displayed? The "Back" button is disabled since there is no previous log entry to go back to.

[abrahamwolk]

In my view disallowing invalid input is nicer. That would also eliminate the need to handle the invalid input.

How would you realize that? One possibility seems to be to use a TextFormatter. However, I think that is more complicated than the current solution, and the current solution works well, I think.

[georgweiss]

When reaching (in my example) the "last" id 451, the Forward button will take user to 451.

[abrahamwolk]

I have now updated the pull request with the following changes:

1. The text in the "Jump to Log Entry" TextField is now aligned to the left.
2. A condition that the entered value for the log entry ID is greater than 0 is checked, and the error handling when a log entry doesn't load successfully is improved.
3. The caret is moved to the end of the TextField after a value has been entered.

[abrahamwolk]

When reaching (in my example) the "last" id 451, the Forward button will take user to 451.

The textfield should always display the ID of the current log entry. If it doesn't, that is a bug. Is that the case?

[abrahamwolk]

The textfield should always display the ID of the current log entry. If it doesn't, that is a bug. Is that the case?

As you demonstrated to me yesterday, there was an underlying bug: when trying to go to a log entry that doesn't exist, a "go back" action was added to the log entry that was already being displayed. The result is that the current log entry had two entries in the history.

I have now fixed this by only clearing the forward history and adding "go back" actions to the history when the retrieval of a log entry was successful.