C# Correct way to design/implement this UI?

Question

Hi All,

This is my first tryst with C#. The form that i have in mind consists

1. A textfield which will be supplied with the path of an executable.
2. A "Run" button which will call the executable(cosole app)
3. The executable console output should be displayed in the rich textbox.

Now when i click on a line in richtext box, i select and get the text in the line. This text maps to some other text info. I need to display this text info as a tooltip over the line.

More explanation: The output of the exe is displayed in the text box as

Address1=Value

Address2=Value

Now when i click the line "Address1=Value", i map this text to find some info regarding what bits are set like

enable : 1

select : 0 ..etc

this info i need to display as tooltip over the line. Is such a thing possible? Is there better alternative to RTB/tooltip for this problem?

Thanks

Vivek

Answer 1

What I understand from your question is that when you click on the line in the RTB, your code scans the text on that line, identifies the extra data associated with that line and then inserts it into the tooltip for the RTB.

Technically I believe that this is possible to do - although I am not 100% sure of the mechanics of inserting tooltip text. However as a user interface feature I would personally not do that as the tooltip text is displayed whenever the mouse pointer is anywhere over the RTB. Thus if a user clicks on line #1, (and sees the data associated from line #1) but hovers the mouse of line #3, they might think that the tooltip is associated with line #3.

You could alleviate my concerns with a strongly worded tooltip, but I feel that what you are doing is misusing the tooltip for something other than what it was intended to be used for. IMHO it may be that you are better off displaying your data with a tree control rather than with a RTB, as the tree control more naturally expresses the functionality that you desire (click on a node, expand it to see details etc).

Answer 2

I would recommend using a ListBox for each string of data returned and then if you use a tooltip it makes alot more sense because you are hovering over a list item specifically not the whole text field.

Using the ListBox and items should make it alot easier to work with overall since it will be separating them into defined items instead of just appending lines to a text box.

Also I think you might have alot of work in store for you for trying to make the text box behave the way you want it to for it to treat each line differently dependent on the text of the line.

If you're using the textbox because later you want to be able to select all the output to copy and paste it I would have the textbox hidden by default and have a button that says like "Toggle Raw Output" that will show/hide the text field so users can get the text easily. While using the ListBox as the primary display for information.