Keymap Editor

[bobshortt]

My users have been asking for a way to customize Accelerator keys, but I've been loathe to write one myself.

IntelliJ Idea has a pretty clever keymap editor.

[JIDE Support]

This can be part of Action Framework reqiurement but the scope of it could be huge.

Thanks,

[bobshortt]

Why would the scope of this be any greater than, say, the IntellijOptionsDialog?

What I am imagining is simply a facility to map strings to keystrokes. It would then be up to the user to map those strings to actual actions (i.e. by calling JMenuItem.setAccelerator()). I don't think it would be necessary to integrate this with ActionFramework, or even to persist the data. In fact, it would probably be even easier to use if it were a standalone utility.

-Bob

[JIDE Support]

We are visioning it as part of action framework where you can define all actions and its accelerators. That's why I think the scope could be huge. But it looks like you are just looking for a panel which can interactive with user to define keystrokes. Is it right?

[bobshortt]

Yes, the way I see it, the user would specify a set (or a hierarchy) of command names and the keymap editor utitility would provide a mechanism of assigning keystrokes to those command names.

The utility would of course also keep track of what keystrokes are already defined and what commands already have keystrokes assigned to them. But it would not actually assign the keystrokes to actions, and therefore it would have no knowledge of menus, toolbars etc.

This functionality is needed in most applications yet everyone always ends up having to write it themselves. This would be an opportunity to establish a standard UI for this task.

Thanks,
-Bob

[JIDE Support]

I definitely see your point. This is part of our future version of Action Framework. You just brought up the point that this panel itself can be used as standalone component. I think you are right. I'll schedule it as a new component after 1.7 release. BTW, if others are willing to share their implementation, please let us know.

Thanks,

[bobshortt]

Excellent! Thanks.

[bobshortt]

Gentlemen,

There is much interest among my users for a Keymap editor. They use the Accelerator keys like crazy and they want to configure them. I've searched the internet high and low looking for one, but haven't found anything I could use. And I certainly don't want to write one myself.

Are you still considering writing a keymap editor for a future JIDE release (and setting an industry standard in the process) ? As you could imagine, I strongly encourage this!

Cheers,
-Bob