Feature Request: Preserve user-entered file name in SaveDialog when navigating folders

[YourRobotOverlord]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

1. User opens a SaveDialog to save a new file.
2. They enter filename at the end of the path in the path field.
3. They notice that they are in the incorrect folder and navigate to the correct one.
4. They click 'Save', and it does nothing.
5. The filename they provided is gone, often without them noticing, which they perceive as "not working" -or- they are annoyed that they have to type the filename again.

Describe the solution you'd like
A separate text field above the path field, bound to a FileName property.
This field would not change as the user navigated folders, and would be appended to the full path whenever either changed.

[tznind]

Hmn interesting. The single text box was a deliberate choice for the following reasons

• user can paste in a full path and hit enter to select
• can use tab autocompletion on paths just like on console
• can use up/down to cycle through tab autocomplete options
• same ui handles both selecting a dir or a file

Splitting the file path into two ui elements breaks this design

I do appreciate the use case, however... maybe changing the directory can somehow keep the filename under certain circumstances.

[YourRobotOverlord]

The single text box was a deliberate choice for the following reasons

Ah, I understand.

maybe changing the directory can somehow keep the filename under certain circumstances.

Something like that would be extremely useful, I think. In my use case the app provides a complex pre-formatted default file name to be compliant with a DCS naming convention and this is lost whenever the user navigates folders.

fwiw, I think the dialog always behaves exactly as you would expect if you are using it to open or overwrite a file, just not as much when creating a new file.

[tznind]

RQ 1

So something like

mydlg.Style.PreserveFilenameWhenChangingDirectory = true;

This would mean that when selecting a folder

• By clicking it in TreeView
• By clicking it in TableView
• By navigating up/down to it in either TreeView or TableView

Then the FilePath would update to:

<selected directory>/<Path.GetFilename(currentPath)>

RQ 2

What would happen if:

• User typed filename "Blah.txt"
• User clicked to highlight a folder (updates to /folder/Blah.txt)
• User pressed down button to select a file

This should presumably change to the full path of the selected item

RQ 3

Following on from RQ 2, what would happen if:

• User then presses up, to select a directory again

Does it show the original file path or the last one selected? @YourRobotOverlord what do you think?

Is this feature about prioritising the filename user typed in themselves as a sort of 'cached' value to use whenever a directory is selected?

Alternative suggestion

We could make this user event driven instead

So have

public class FileChangedEventArgs
{
    View SourceOfChange {get;}
    string NewPath {get; set;}
    string OldPath {get;}
    string SelectedPath {get;}
}

This has most freedom but requires the API user to do all the work

[BDisp]

My opinion is behave like Explorer. If the user typed filename "Blah.txt" and is only doing folders up or down navigation, or click on a folder, then the user typed filename "Blah.txt" must be preserved. It the user navigate or click to an existent file then the selected file will replace the user typed filename.

[YourRobotOverlord]

My opinion is behave like Explorer. If the user typed filename "Blah.txt" and is only doing folders up or down navigation, or click on a folder, then the user typed filename "Blah.txt" must be preserved. It the user navigate or click to an existent file then the selected file will replace the user typed filename.

This is the exact behavior I would expect.

[tig]

@YourRobotOverlord would you mind sharing the Theme you are using? I like.

[YourRobotOverlord]

@tig Not at all!

Here are the basic schemes (I have other colors which are used for TreeView and ListView color getters):

        schemes["Base"] = new ColorScheme()
        {
            Normal = new Attribute(new Color("#c0caf5"), new Color("#1a1b26")),
            Focus = new Attribute(new Color("#c0caf5"), new Color("#292e42")),
            HotNormal = new Attribute(new Color("#c0caf5"), new Color("#1a1b26")),
            Disabled = new Attribute(new Color("#3b4261"), new Color("#1a1b26")),
            HotFocus = new Attribute(new Color("#00FF6A"), new Color("#292e42")),
        };

        schemes["Dialog"] = new ColorScheme(schemes["Base"])
        {
            Normal = new Attribute(new Color("#c0caf5"), new Color("#16161e")),
            Focus = new Attribute(new Color("#00FF6A"), new Color("#292e42")),
        };

        schemes["Menu"] = new ColorScheme(schemes["Base"])
        {
            HotNormal = new Attribute(new Color("#00FF6A"), new Color("#1a1b26")),
            HotFocus = new Attribute(new Color("#00FF6A"), new Color("#292e42")),
        };
    
        schemes["Error"] = new ColorScheme
        {
            Normal = new Attribute(new Color("#16161e"), new Color("#B20A26")),
            Focus = new Attribute(new Color("#16161e"), new Color("#B20A26")),
            HotNormal = new Attribute(new Color("#16161e"), new Color("#B20A26")),
            Disabled = new Attribute(new Color("#16161e"), new Color("#B20A26")),
            HotFocus = new Attribute(new Color("#16161e"), new Color("#B20A26")),
        };

        schemes["ComboBox"] = new ColorScheme(schemes["Base"])
        {
            Normal = new Attribute(new Color("#00FF6A"), new Color("#16161e")),
            Focus = new Attribute(new Color("#16161e"), new Color("#00FF6A")),
            HotNormal = new Attribute(new Color("#00FF6A"), new Color("#292e42")),
        };

        // i use this for TreeViews and ListViews
        schemes["DialogSelectable"] = new ColorScheme(schemes["Base"])
        {
            Normal = new Attribute(new Color("#bb9af7"), new Color("#16161e"),
            Focus = new Attribute(new Color("#bb9af7"), new Color("#292e42")),
            HotNormal = new Attribute(new Color("#bb9af7"), new Color("#09090C")),
            HotFocus = new Attribute(new Color("#bb9af7"), new Color("#292e42")),
        };
        
        // this is to make text readable when readonly, which renders text as disabled
        schemes["TextView"] = new ColorScheme(schemes["Base"])
        {
            Focus = new Attribute(new Color("#00FF6A"), new Color("#16161e")),
            Disabled =  new Attribute(new Color("#c0caf5"), new Color("#16161e")),
        };

[tig]

Wow. Mind blown.

I have no seen ColorSchemes used like this.

I'd love to figure out how to enable this level of customization as part of

• Attribute System Should honor terminal settings #2381

Ideally, all of what you did above would enabled via a ConfigurationManager Theme.

[YourRobotOverlord]

Complex Color Themes #4056