Detail Pane

Introduction

This pane appears on the right hand side of the display and shows detailed information about the currently selected snippet or section heading, along with some other information (see below).

Tabs

Information is displayed in one or more tabs. Items selected in the Overview pane are normally displayed in the currently selected tab, overwriting previous contents. This behaviour can be changed as follows:

• Ctrl clicking items in the Overview pane causes them to be displayed in a new tab.
• Pressing Ctrl+T, or choosing the View | New Tab menu option opens a new empty tab ready to display the next item chosen in the Overview pane, for example.
• Ctrl clicking snippet and category links in the detail pane displays them in a new tab.
• Newly created snippets and categories may be displayed in new tabs. This happens only if the feature is selected in the Display page of the Preferences dialogue box.

When multiple tabs are displayed you can quickly cycle through them from left to right by pressing Ctrl+Tab or from right to left using Shift+Ctrl+Tab.

You can close tabs in one of three ways:

• Close the selected tab using Close Tab menu option displayed on the View menu, the detail pane's context menu or any tab's context menu. Alternatively press Ctrl+F4.
• Close all except the selected tab by right clicking the tab and selecting the Close All Other Tabs option from the tab's context menu. Pressing Shift+Ctrl+F4 has the same effect.
• Close all open tabs using the View | Close All Tabs menu option.

Some other types of information are always displayed in new tabs. See below for details.

Views

There are various types of item that can be displayed in a details pane tab. These are referred to as "Views".

Every view has a context menu displayed by right clicking or by pressing Alt+F10. The content of this menu various according to the view or the selected element within it.

Each type of view is described below.

Snippet View

The snippet view displays detailed information about a snippet. The display can be customised and may include the following components:

• The snippet's name. This component is always present and its placing is fixed.
• For snippets downloaded from the Code Snippets Database an image is displayed at the right hand end of the line containing the snippet name that gives information about the level of testing applied to the snippet. The images are:
  •   the snippet has been given some basic testing before uploading to the database.
  •   the snippet has been more rigorously tested, for example by unit testing.
  •   the snippet has not been tested and should be used with care.
  This information is not displayed for user-defined snippets. Instead there is a link that can be clicked to edit the snippet.
• A brief description of the snippet.
• Additional information about the snippet, if present.
• The snippet's source code (syntax highlighted).
• The kind of snippet this is.
• The category to which the snippet belongs. This forms a link to the category's contents.
• A list of standard Delphi units required by the snippet. Not displayed by default for unit snippets.
• A list of other snippets called by the selected snippet. This list contains links to the snippets. Not displayed by default for unit snippets.
• A cross reference to other similar snippets, labelled "See also". Again, this list contains links to the snippets.
• A table indicating which compilers the snippet is compatible with. The compilers whose results are displayed in this table can be changed using the Configure Compilers dialogue box. Not displayed by default for freeform snippets.

The components present in a snippet view are specific to the snippet kind. The program's default settings for these views can be customised using the Snippet Layout page of the Preferences dialogue box.

Section Contents View

Selecting a section header (a category, an intial letter or a snippet kind) in the Overview Pane causes a table to be displayed in the detail pane that lists the names of the snippets contained in the section, along with their descriptions. Following a search, the listed snippets are just those contained in the current database selection, if any.

Snippet names are links that, when clicked, display the chosen snippet in the detail pane.

If the section contains no snippets, a message to that effect is displayed instead of a table of contents.

Welcome Page View

The Welcome Page is displayed when the program starts and may also be re-displayed at any time from the View | Welcome Page menu item. This view is always displayed in a new tab.

Database Update View

When the main DelphiDabbler Snippets database has been installed or updated, all open tabs are closed and a new tab is created that simply informs that the database has been updated successfully.

Empty Tab View

When a new tab is created (View | New Tab or Ctrl+T), nothing is displayed except "Empty Tab" in light grey.

View History

Whenever a snippet or section contents view is displayed, it is added to the view history list. You can return to the immediatly preceeding view by clicking the Previous toolbar button or by pressing Alt+Left. Once you have gone back in the history list you can go forward once again using the Next toolbar button or by pressing Alt+Right.

You can also jump directly to a recent view by selecting its name from the drop-down menus adjacent to the Previous and Next buttons.

Deleting or editing an existing snippet or category will clear the history.