[Qgis-developer] Print composer changes: several side-effects

[Andreas Neumann]

 Yes - there is a problem of "lost" elements in the print composer.

 A while back I suggested to introduce a tree view in a separate panel 
 where one could see all items present in the composer layout. Similar to 
 the object tree in Illustrator or the XML tree in Inkscape. So far, 
 noone had the time or finance to implement this.

 Through such a tree one could select, rearrange and remove items and 
 groups.

 Some idea for the future ;-)

 Andreas

 On Wed, 20 Feb 2013 17:13:07 +0100, Olivier Dalang wrote:
> The thing a like with having a frame by default is that you still see
> the element even if its blank. Currently, when creating a map which
> displays nothing (no visible layer) you can loose it on the layout.
>
> 2013/2/20 Andreas Neumann <a.neumann at carto.net>:
>> Hi Olivier,
>>
>> Thank you for your reply. For me its fine. I had to change other 
>> stuff in my
>> layouts anyway (new email address, etc.). I am almost through all 
>> the
>> changes.
>>
>> My projects have to stay on the current version all the time. They 
>> should
>> live for several years and improve gradually - along with 
>> improvements in
>> QGIS. It is not an option to have older QGIS versions around for 
>> older
>> projects. But that's our problem.
>>
>> So basic shapes (rects, ellipses, triangles) should have a black 
>> stroke by
>> default - a stroke-width of 0.2 mm, in my opinion. All other 
>> elements
>> probably without a frame and background by default. Does this make 
>> sense?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Andreas
>>
>>
>> On Wed, 20 Feb 2013 16:51:16 +0100, Olivier Dalang wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi !
>>>
>>> Those change appear because some properties have been added and 
>>> some
>>> removed to make the UI and the code more consistent (removing
>>> duplicate border color settings for Shape item, for instance).
>>> Upon opening an old project, the added properties will be set to
>>> default, while the duplicate one will take the old unused property.
>>>
>>> I'd say there's no easy way to avoid such side-effects (without 
>>> coding
>>> some dirty compatibility code). One way to handle such changes 
>>> would
>>> be to implement a kind of "old version file converter" to allow
>>> backwards compatibility without making the code too complex.
>>>
>>> But I'm not sure that if it's worth it. A general rule in software
>>> usage is to keep the same version of the software throughout a
>>> project, an to use new versions only when starting new projects.
>>>
>>>
>>> However, it is possible to discuss if which composer items should 
>>> have
>>> a background and/or frame by default. (in your case, this could 
>>> change
>>> whether composer items should have a background by default)
>>>
>>> For now, I think all the composer items have a white background and 
>>> no
>>> frame by default, excepted the ComposerShape which has also a 
>>> frame.
>>>
>>>
>>> Olivier
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> 2013/2/20 Andreas Neumann <a.neumann at carto.net>:
>>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> With the recent modifications in print composer, while I agree 
>>>> that the
>>>> UI
>>>> has much improved, there are unfortunately also some side-effects. 
>>>> Here
>>>> are
>>>> two problems I have detected:
>>>>
>>>> * legend boxes which had a white background now have a transparent
>>>> background
>>>> * Basic shapes (like rects, ellipses, triangles) that had a black 
>>>> border
>>>> now
>>>> have either no border or a white border
>>>>
>>>> For organizations like us, with a lot of QGIS projects with a lot 
>>>> of
>>>> different layouts, this is quite annoying if we have to manually 
>>>> change
>>>> each
>>>> of the projects.
>>>>
>>>> But I am also aware that we are using master / unstable and that 
>>>> there
>>>> are
>>>> modifications. I can live with such changes but I assume that 
>>>> other users
>>>> will have similar problems if backwards compatibility breaks.
>>>>
>>>> Just to let you know - thanks for the improvements in the UI!
>>>>
>>>> Andreas
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> --
>>>> Andreas Neumann
>>>> Böschacherstrasse 10A
>>>> 8624 Grüt (Gossau ZH)
>>>> Switzerland
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Qgis-developer mailing list
>>>> Qgis-developer at lists.osgeo.org
>>>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-developer
>>
>>
>> --
>> --
>> Andreas Neumann
>> Böschacherstrasse 10A
>> 8624 Grüt (Gossau ZH)
>> Switzerland

-- 
 --
 Andreas Neumann
 Böschacherstrasse 10A
 8624 Grüt (Gossau ZH)
 Switzerland