[Tips] Time-saving tactics in the Method Editor

by Troy Elliott
Data Mosaic

The documentation bundled with Servoy is much like the product itself - solid, but continually improving. Unfortunately, it is on the large side and unless I am looking for something in particular, documentation reading of any kind is not what I do in the evenings for enjoyment. In this post I'll take a few moments to share three small features I use regularly within the method editor.

First off is a tip to help you keep your hands where they should be - on the keyboard. Up until a month or so ago, whenever I wasn't sure of what I'd called a column name, global, or relation, I would scroll through the navigation or outline pane until I found what it was I needed. Then one day while searching for something totally unrelated I stumbled across a post on the servoy forums. When in the method editor, press ctrl-space (hold the ctrl-key and tap the spacebar). When you do this a little menu pops up giving access to everything available in both navigation and outline panes. Press enter to select an option. Your navigation can be sped up even further by typing the first letter of what you're after. Want globals? g, ctrl-space. Database manager? d, ctrl-space and so on. Once the menu pops up, typing the first few letters of the desired variable jumps you right there. No more scrolling!

The next two tips deal with getting into and out of the method editor quickly. Let's say that you've been coding like a monkey for a bit on a method and would like to quickly get to a form. Of course you can see the form name in the navigator pane. It seems quite logical that right-clicking on the form name would do something. And something it does indeed - 'Show Form' - just what the doctor ordered. An additional plus here for you intel-Mac toting folks is the two finger tap. When enabled, a two-fingers-at-once tap functions as a right-click. Before picking up my new MacBook I didn't think much of this feature, but it does feel quite natural and shaves an extra millisecond or two off.

Your Mac touting friend may have the swank right-click double-tap thing going on, but this next tip is Windows-only. When in layout mode and you need to quickly open a method attached to an event, hold the ctrl-key and double click on the method name in the properties pane. Voila! (Note, this used to work on a Mac pre-Java 5.0; perhaps if everybody complains loudly enough, it will work again).

There we have it - three method editor time-saving tips. Please feel free to leave a comment and share some other shortcuts that you use in your own workflow.