Beta-release with classic menu bar option available

[Marco Kalter]

We have made a beta release for PL/SQL Developer 12.0.4 available that includes an option for a classic menu as an alternative to the ribbon. We have made both the 32 bit version and the 64 bit version available for download.

After installation you can go to Preferences > User Interface / Appearance and press the "Switch to menu" button. The ribbon will now be replaced by a classic menu and toolbar.

You can let us know your findings by replying in this thread.

 

[Matthias Martin]

Hello Marco,

the new option to switch back to the old style menu interface in PL/SQL Developer 12 is really great.

However, here are some things that should be improved:

• When the preference User Interface -> Options -> Use projects is unchecked, the ribbon Projects will disappear. However the menu item Projects does not disappear. In PL/SQL Developer 11 the menu item Projects disappeared when the preference was unchecked.
• When there are no Plug-Ins installed, the (empty) ribbon Plug-Ins disappears. However, an empty menu item Plug-Ins is still there.
• I have tried to add one more toolbar called "custom" with two commands (buttons) Reports (i.e. Run a report) and Documents (i.e. View Documents). Then I have tried to arrange this additional custom toolbar in one row with the standard toolbar (i.e. Classic Toolbar). However, whenever I close and reopen PL/SQL Developer, the additional custom toolbar is displayed in a second row. I also tried to do a "View -> Save Layout". However, that did not help. Is there a way to fix this? Hint: In PL/SQL Developer 11 I have checked the two options "Reports as main menu item" and "Documents as main menu item" to have these two items on the main menu. Therefore, I tried to come "close" to this configuration with the additional custom toolbar.

At the moment, I am still using PL/SQL Developer 11, because I could not get familiar with the new ribbon interface during the PL/SQL Developer 12 beta test phase. The other enhancements in version 12 were not so important to me, to outweigh the perceived disadvantage of the new ribbon interface. However when PL/SQL Developer 12.0.4 will be out of beta with the new option for a classic menu as an alternative to the ribbon, I will immediately register PL/SQL Developer 12.

Best Regards
Matthias

 

[Marco Kalter]

Thanks for your feedback. We'll look into this.

 

[Marco Kalter]

We have made a 12.0.4 beta 2 available both as 32 bit version and 64 bit version. It fixes the following 2 issues that are related to the classic menu bar:

• Project and Plug-In menu items were not hidden when unused
• User-defined toolbars were not positioned correctly after a restart

A complete list of fixes since 12.0.3 can be found in the included whatsnew.txt.

 

[Nicolas D.]

2 issues I can see with the new menu style related to plugins in 12.0.4.1824 (I will add those to the thread as well):

- Enabling/Disabling a plugin that create a tab/menu do not create/hide the new menu item/the new ribbon tab - both affected if you start the program in menu mode. You have to restart to have the menu to show properly. If you start the program in ribbon mode, enabling a plugin will also fail - ribbon (and menu if you switch) do not show. But disabling it will work in ribbon mode. It will stop working if you switch to Menu mode again within the session.

Icons designed for "large button" in ribbon mode got truncated in menu mode as they are too big. Most likely not that much you can do there, as you probably don't want to include an image processor to force resize the resource here.

 

[vlevi]

Looks great!
But I have an other plugin question.
I have created plugin submenu items with PL/D 11.
With version 12, I had to be change the plugin menu callback ( function CreateMenuItem(Index: Integer): PAnsiChar; cdecl to use the ribbons.
But How can I determine, when the user switched to classic menu in PL/D 12?
Because now I have wrong plugin icons at a wrong place.

Another question.
Did you changed anyithing with the editor?
Because, the annoying edit window flicker disappeared!

 

[vlevi]

update:
Sorry, but the edit window flickering re-appeared

 

[Marco Kalter]

We have made a 12.0.4 beta 3 available both as 32 bit version and 64 bit version. It fixes the following 3 issues that are related to the classic menu bar:

• When a Plug-In was disabled, its main menu item would still be visible
• Plug-In menus with large images were not resized to fit the menu
• Hiding a Plug-In Group did not hide the corresponding menu items

A complete list of fixes since 12.0.3 can be found in the included whatsnew.txt.

 

[Nicolas D.]

Just tested the update.
Concerning: When a Plug-In was disabled, its main menu item would still be visible
Tested using Visual Studio Demo plugin, which create its own Menu/Tab

There is still an issue when:
* You start PL/SQL Developer with the plugin disabled
* Enable it
* Menu/Tab do not appear.

But if the plugin is active when you start,
Disabling properly clean the menu and enabling it again make it appear.
Issue only when the the plugin is disabled at start.

Log (using DebugPlugIn, plugin is disabled at start):
00:00:07.139 PlugInMainMenu(Tools)
00:00:07.745 PlugInMainMenu(Configure)
00:00:11.306 IDE_DebugLog() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.306 Plug-In: Called: OnActivate()
00:00:11.307 IDE_GetAppHandle() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.307 IDE_GetWindowHandle() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.307 IDE_CreatePopupItem(Popup Menu for on a Package) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.308 PlugIn.AddPopup %1(Popup Menu for on a Package) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.308 IDE_CreatePopupItem(Popup Menu for on a Package Body) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.308 PlugIn.AddPopup %1(Popup Menu for on a Package Body) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.309 IDE_CreatePopupItem(Popup Menu for on a Type) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.309 PlugIn.AddPopup %1(Popup Menu for on a Type) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.309 IDE_CreatePopupItem(Popup Menu for on a Type Body) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.310 PlugIn.AddPopup %1(Popup Menu for on a Type Body) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.310 IDE_CreatePopupItem(Popup Menu for on a View) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.310 PlugIn.AddPopup %1(Popup Menu for on a View) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.311 IDE_CreatePopupItem(Popup Menu for on a Table) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.311 PlugIn.AddPopup %1(Popup Menu for on a Table) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.311 IDE_CreatePopupItem(Popup Menu for on a Trigger) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.311 PlugIn.AddPopup %1(Popup Menu for on a Trigger) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.312 IDE_CreatePopupItem(Popup Menu for on a Procedure) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.312 PlugIn.AddPopup %1(Popup Menu for on a Procedure) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.312 IDE_CreatePopupItem(Popup Menu for on a Function) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.313 PlugIn.AddPopup %1(Popup Menu for on a Function) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.313 IDE_CreatePopupItem(Popup Menu for on a Sequence) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.313 PlugIn.AddPopup %1(Popup Menu for on a Sequence) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.314 SYS_RootDir() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.314 IDE_CreateToolButton() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.314 BitmapFile = (C:\PLSQLDeveloper64\\icons\Bulb.png) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.315 File loaded, BitmapHandle = (FFFFFFFF870525C6) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.315 PlugIn.AddButton %1() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.316 IDE_DebugLog() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.316 Plug-In: Called: OnConnectionChange()
00:00:11.316 IDE_Connected() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.317 IDE_GetConnectionInfo() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.317 SQL_Execute() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.392 SQL_Field() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.392 SQL_FieldType() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.393 SQL_FieldType() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.393 IDE_SetMenuVisible() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.393 PlugIn.ShowMenu (2) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.394 SYS_RootDir() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.394 SYS_RootDir() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.394 SYS_RootDir() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.395 SYS_RootDir() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.395 SYS_RootDir() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.395 SYS_RootDir() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.395 SYS_RootDir() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.396 SYS_RootDir() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.396 SYS_RootDir() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.396 SYS_RootDir() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.396 SYS_Version() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.397 IDE_CreateToolButton() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.397 BitmapFile = (C:\PLSQLDeveloper64\\icons\Preferences.png) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.398 File loaded, BitmapHandle = (190525A5) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.398 PlugIn.AddButton %1() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.399 IDE_CreateToolButton() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.399 BitmapFile = (C:\PLSQLDeveloper64\\icons\Smile.png) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.400 File loaded, BitmapHandle = (31052854) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.400 PlugIn.AddButton %1() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.400 IDE_CreateToolButton() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.401 BitmapFile = (C:\PLSQLDeveloper64\\icons\RegFile.png) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.402 File loaded, BitmapHandle = (F052683) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.402 PlugIn.AddButton %1() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.402 IDE_CreateToolButton() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.403 BitmapFile = (C:\PLSQLDeveloper64\\icons\Setup.png) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.403 File loaded, BitmapHandle = (FFFFFFFFD50527CB) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.404 PlugIn.AddButton %1() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.404 IDE_CreateToolButton() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.404 BitmapFile = (C:\PLSQLDeveloper64\\icons\SQLPlus.png) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.405 File loaded, BitmapHandle = (3D0525CA) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.405 PlugIn.AddButton %1() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.406 IDE_CreateToolButton() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.406 BitmapFile = (C:\PLSQLDeveloper64\\icons\Tool.png) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.407 File loaded, BitmapHandle = (FFFFFFFF8B052805) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.407 PlugIn.AddButton %1() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.407 IDE_CreateToolButton() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.408 BitmapFile = (C:\PLSQLDeveloper64\\icons\Info2.png) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.408 File loaded, BitmapHandle = (FFFFFFFFF405252D) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.409 PlugIn.AddButton %1() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.409 IDE_CreateToolButton() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.409 BitmapFile = (C:\PLSQLDeveloper64\\icons\MSDOS.png) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.410 File loaded, BitmapHandle = (3B0526D5) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.410 PlugIn.AddButton %1() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.411 IDE_CreateToolButton() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.411 BitmapFile = (C:\PLSQLDeveloper64\\icons\Nuts.png) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.412 File loaded, BitmapHandle = (490528AF) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.412 PlugIn.AddButton %1() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.412 IDE_CreateToolButton() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.413 BitmapFile = (C:\PLSQLDeveloper64\\icons\Help1.png) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.413 File loaded, BitmapHandle = (FFFFFFFF830527A1) [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]
00:00:11.414 PlugIn.AddButton %1() [Visual Studio Demo PlugIn - x64]

 

[Marco Kalter]

We'll check it out.

 

[gad]

Hello Marco,
The ribbon interface is OK by me, but the new horrendous icons are something else. Please return the old icons!
It's not just the matter of old habits, the new icons are smaller and somehow blurry. Some may argue that the old icons where a bit boring and they where, well, old, but icons are kind of a language and you don't alter your language just to freshen things a bit, especially not to gibberish.

I'd be happy to know if others share my opinion and request.

gad

 

[Marco Kalter]

Can you send me a screenshot of a blurry icon?

 

[Maxmix]

I guess gad tried to say, that new icons are both small and not very saturated. May be light silver background adds to the perception.
All this makes icons to appear ... well, the same

 

[Marco Kalter]

Version 12.0.4 has been released today. Thank you for your feedback.