Feature Request(s)

[Michael_K_13]

Apologies if there is somewhere else to post this, but had a couple suggestions that would make life easier, particularly in the projects pane:

Basic (most important - probably easy to implement):

• Allow for the creation of project groups (or folders). Even one level deep would assist with organization tremendously.
• Please, please, let me rename a project without having to remove it, then add it? Similarly, project and directory name should NOT need to be the same.

Mezzo (less important - may be more difficult):

• When removing a project, give the option to also delete the associated directory
• Let me copy a project and all it's contents, settings, and plugins but with a new name (leads into my next one ... )

Grande (would be great - probably most difficult/extensive):

• Provide client-side or cloud versioning control for projects.
• Built-in conversion of graphic resources for icons and splash screens - simple cropping/resizing with an on-screen window and drag function would be sufficient.  I wrote a python script to manage this, but for those who don't have the chops for it (or time) would be great

Again, sorry if this is better put somewhere else?  Love the product, and am enjoying using it to develop - can't wait to see where it goes from here! 

Michael Kastler

43Folders Technology Solutions

[Chris_P_Intel]

Those are great suggestions. I think several of them have been proposed before, but I'm resubmitting yours as a new request.

Thanks,

Chris

[DAVID_M_Intel2]

Can you elaborate on project groups. What functionality do you see over just creating a subdirectory and putting a group of projects in there (each in its own directory). Are you wanting to put several projects in one directory?

I think you can rename a project (or the directory it is in) I know I have done that, but I doubt it has been extensively tested; certainly not by me. But even if that works fine, it is not the same as trying to have multiple projects in one dir, which could, and in fact probably will,  cause file name clashes. In other words, having the directory name the same as the project name is not supposed to be required, and there should not be any code guessing the one from the other, but projects being able to co-exist in one directory has never to my knowledge been a requirement.

Regarding deleting the directory when removing a project. Is there any real advantage to that over using other tools to delete the dir? I worry that people may accidentally click on that and lose their work. I think we would have to back it up with a "really really?" dialog. That's not hard to do if the feature would be useful enough.

The same question really applies to copying a project with a new name, except that while it is easy enough to do with a "cp -rp" or whatever and a couple of "mv"s,, we should test that it doesn't cause any problems. So clearly that is a useful feature, even if we don't add any code.

Thanks for your suggestions. I hope to hear from you further. 

[DAVID_M_Intel2]

Oh, BTW, if you do copy a project from place to place to create a new project, you shoudl go into the xdk file and set the GUID to zeros - keep the format but make the hex digits all 0. This will get updated when you load the new project and will prevent builds and other things, such as what project is loaded onto a given board in the Intel XDK IoT edition, getting confused.

[Michael_K_13]

Hi - thanks for the response David!

Having project groups or project folders, probably the same thing in my mind.  Currently, as you know, the project page just lists every project in a single line, no separation. I consult doing app and web dev, with a focus on repeatable solutions for niche markets, so I have several templated app "types" - and I work projects that fall into several main categories  Being able to have something that looks more like the attached image would be awesome - I'll put that below.

Regarding the project names and folders and such, I wasn't suggesting to put multiple projects into a single directory 

^{Though now that you mention it, it would be lovely to be able to create project group templates, and automatically apply specific changes to all sub-projects (e.g. updated plugins, whitelist entries, screenshots and icons) ... but yeah, I know, I'm way off in left field now so never mind! :)}  

What I was actually referring to is much more basic; the project creation dialogue. User is presented with the options to enter a project directory and a project name - and as you type the project name, it makes that the new directory that you will be adding to your main dir ... so name of project is same as name of directory.  Here's pic of example:

So being allowed to change the name of the project, move the project location, or whatnot, upto and including let me delete the project from HDD at the same time I do from the XDK would be super useful.

I do see your point on the "do you really, really want to do this?" for deleting - but I've seen that in place otherwhere without being too cumbersome, so it may be valuable enough to include.  On a related topic though, since you have us upload projects to your server during build, and suggest it for testing from the server - couldn't some short-term storage / backup occur there as a safeguard?  As an aside to this aside, why can't I delete the uploaded projects and clear up the servers?  I hate not being able to remove "junk" from my digital spaces :) 

Thanks for considering some of these - let me know if anything doesn't make sense!

/michael

Here's that preferred project listing image, mentioned above :

[DAVID_M_Intel2]

Aha - now I get the project group idea. I can see why that would be useful, and I don't think it would be hard to implement. 

And I get the issue with the create project dialog. It would be nice if it remembered where you put your previous project too. There's a bit of tension between those two possible features which would need to be resolved but I don't think that is hard. (i.e. if you create project foo in ~/bar, you want the next project to be ~/bletch, not ~/bar/bletch)