War Cabinet 0.8.3 is available!

[Larry2017]

Thanks for the help.

First, the error message was no help. I know it's a pain coding specific error messages but a message pointing at the incorrect path would have steered me in the right direction.

The red highlight didn't help me. The whole game config section was highlighted red from the moment I opened the preferences screen. It was never not highlighted. I assumed it was an indication that that game config was active. It you'd highlighted just the file path text box after I entered the incorrect path, I might have gotten a clue.

No, I wasn't thinking about using War Cabinet for PBEM. That just happened to be the last path I tried while trying to make it work. The instructions indicted to enter the game path. I assumed you meant the folder with the actual game file I wanted to work with: the Saved Games folder or the PBEM Games folder. You should have just said: "C:\...\WinSPWW2\" in the instructions.

Anyway, I did get it to work after I created a test (saved) game. I'm looking forward to trying it out.

BTW, are you collecting all your information from the scenario file or are you also retrieving info from the sdata and scendata database files?

[ErikCumps]

Originally Posted by Larry2017

Thanks for the help.

First, the error message was no help. I know it's a pain coding specific error messages but a message pointing at the incorrect path would have steered me in the right direction.

The red highlight didn't help me. The whole game config section was highlighted red from the moment I opened the preferences screen. It was never not highlighted. I assumed it was an indication that that game config was active. It you'd highlighted just the file path text box after I entered the incorrect path, I might have gotten a clue.

No, I wasn't thinking about using War Cabinet for PBEM. That just happened to be the last path I tried while trying to make it work. The instructions indicted to enter the game path. I assumed you meant the folder with the actual game file I wanted to work with: the Saved Games folder or the PBEM Games folder. You should have just said: "C:\...\WinSPWW2\" in the instructions.

Hi Larry2017,

Thanks, that's valuable feedback!

The error and the red highlighting in the preferences dialog box will be improved in the next (bug or feature) release.

With the "Instructions", do you mean the note that is shown when you hover over the input field?



Or the note that is shown when you select the question mark icon at the top of the dialog box and click on the input field?



I will make these messages more consistent.

Erik

[Larry2017]

I did see: PreferencesHelp1.png. The words "game folder" are at least part of what led me astray. I didn't even think to look at: PreferencesHelp2.png. But the words "installation folder" in that note would have put me on the right track. If I may suggest a note:

"This is the installation folder of the game, something like: ...\WinSPWW2 or ...\Steel Panthers World At War"

I don't think you need to add the words "game config" to the end of the note. If you're a glutton for punishment, you could customize the path reference in the note depending on the type field value.

Even better, you could put your note in the path field as backgound text. When the user clicks on the path field, the backgound text disappears and they type the proper path into the field. Or you could put the game's default installation folder in the field and the user could customize it as needed. You've probably seen those ideas in forms that you've run across on the internet.

About the mechanism for displaying: PreferencesHelp2.png. That mechanism: "select the question mark icon at the top of the dialog box and click on the input field" doesn't seem like a standard UI interface process to me. I can't say that I've ever seen it used.

In my opinion, helpful hints need be obvious; background text or a question mark icon to the right of the field. Having to click twice to see a hint is at least one click too many. But that's just my opinion and I'm not the programmer, you are.

[ErikCumps]

Originally Posted by Larry2017

I did see: PreferencesHelp1.png. The words "game folder" are at least part of what led me astray. I didn't even think to look at: PreferencesHelp2.png. But the words "installation folder" in that note would have put me on the right track. If I may suggest a note:

"This is the installation folder of the game, something like: ...\WinSPWW2 or ...\Steel Panthers World At War"

Hi Larry2017,

Again, thanks for your feedback.

Meanwhile work has started on improving this:



Done:

• The item name has changed from "Path:" to "Installation:"
• The note now explicitly mentions "installation folder"

I agree with your suggestion to remove references to "game config".

Busy:

• Highlight individual items in red, instead of the whole game config box
• In the note of an item, include an explanation for why an item is highlighted in red

Regarding your suggestion for preseeding each field with its note in a background color, I will keep that on hold for now.

Erik

[ErikCumps]

Originally Posted by ErikCumps

Meanwhile work has started on improving this:

Done:

• The item name has changed from "Path:" to "Installation:"
• The note now explicitly mentions "installation folder"

I agree with your suggestion to remove references to "game config".

In the mean time I have made further improvements:

Reworked the "Incomplete preferences" Error dialog box:

• It is no longer an Error, but a Warning instead.
• It now offers a "Review" button to return to the Preferences.
• It now offers a "Continue" button to dismiss the Preferences and continue anyway.

Improved the look&feel of the Preferences dialog box:

• Added explicit label about the expectations for the game configurations.
• Better feedback for incomplete/incorrect fields.
• Renamed "Default game config" to "Preferred game config".
• Slight reorganization of the Preferences items.

Improved the "New dossier" action behavior:

• If the Preferences are still incomplete when this action is invoked, a Warning dialog box is shown.
• This Warning dialog box offers a "Review" button to return to the Preferences so they an be completed/corrected.
• This Warning dialog box offers a "Continue" button to dismiss the Warning and stop the action.

Because I did not want to force users in an endless loop between the Preferences dialog
box and the "Incomplete Preferences" Warning box, I gave them a way out.

But that means that it becomes possible to try to create a New (empty) dossier, even if
no game configurations are filled in at all.

Without any game configurations, War Cabinet can not know for which OOB the dossier
should be made and from which savedir it should present savegames to add to the dossier.

This is why this action must be blocked in that case, while still giving the user the opportunity
to fix the issue by fixing the Preferences.

I wanted to add some screenshots of the new dialog boxes, but that doesn't seem to work
at the moment. I'll try again later...

Erik

[ErikCumps]

Originally Posted by ErikCumps

In the mean time I have made further improvements:

Reworked the "Incomplete preferences" Error dialog box:

• It is no longer an Error, but a Warning instead.
• It now offers a "Review" button to return to the Preferences.
• It now offers a "Continue" button to dismiss the Preferences and continue anyway.

Improved the look&feel of the Preferences dialog box:

• Added explicit label about the expectations for the game configurations.
• Better feedback for incomplete/incorrect fields.
• Renamed "Default game config" to "Preferred game config".
• Slight reorganization of the Preferences items.

Improved the "New dossier" action behavior:

• If the Preferences are still incomplete when this action is invoked, a Warning dialog box is shown.
• This Warning dialog box offers a "Review" button to return to the Preferences so they an be completed/corrected.
• This Warning dialog box offers a "Continue" button to dismiss the Warning and stop the action.

Because I did not want to force users in an endless loop between the Preferences dialog
box and the "Incomplete Preferences" Warning box, I gave them a way out.

But that means that it becomes possible to try to create a New (empty) dossier, even if
no game configurations are filled in at all.

Without any game configurations, War Cabinet can not know for which OOB the dossier
should be made and from which savedir it should present savegames to add to the dossier.

This is why this action must be blocked in that case, while still giving the user the opportunity
to fix the issue by fixing the Preferences.

I wanted to add some screenshots of the new dialog boxes, but that doesn't seem to work
at the moment. I'll try again later...

Erik

All feedback is welcome!

Here are the Screenshots
(these screenshots are based on the same kind of situation Larry2017 was in earlier,
trying to use the "PBEM Games" folder to configure the game path)

The new "Incomplete Preferences" Warning:


The new feedback for incomplete/incorrect fields:


'Hover' notes for the game path:


'Hover' notes for the game type:


The new Warning when trying to create a new dossier while the Preferences are still incomplete:


Erik

[ErikCumps]

Originally Posted by Larry2017

About the mechanism for displaying: PreferencesHelp2.png. That mechanism: "select the question mark icon at the top of the dialog box and click on the input field" doesn't seem like a standard UI interface process to me. I can't say that I've ever seen it used.

In my opinion, helpful hints need be obvious; background text or a question mark icon to the right of the field. Having to click twice to see a hint is at least one click too many. But that's just my opinion and I'm not the programmer, you are.

Larry2017,

This is not a mechanism that I invented.

It's the "What's This?" help feature, for which the Qt framework has standard support.
It seems this feature has gone out of fashion, which is why you don't see it very often
anymore.

Except in War Cabinet, but that's simply because it is old: the first implementation
of the preferences dialog box dates from... 2005.

Yes, 15 years of War Cabinet already!

For more info about the "What's this?", see here.

Erik

[ErikCumps]

Originally Posted by Larry2017

BTW, are you collecting all your information from the scenario file or are you also retrieving info from the sdata and scendata database files?

No, War Cabinet is only using data from the SpSv*.cmt/SpSv*.dat savegame files and the spob*.pbf OOB data files.

Erik