Regarding the new "Choose From List" action, it seems that there are some issues:
1- Separator line
Adding a separator line seems to not work as expected. I can’t see any line when the menu is displayed.
It’s possible to add actions to the separator line, I wonder if this is by design.
The last thing is that the separator line is showed as “Context menu item” in the editor (I think it should be shown as “Separator line”)
2- Submenu
Adding a submenu seems to not work properly. The submenu item is visible, but the items inside the submenu are not accessible. If I click the submenu item, all the menu is gone. If I select the submenu and I press return, all the menu is gone.
The separator line has disappeared from the drop-down menu of the item type, I suppose it was your intention, but just to mention this change if you were not aware.
In version 4.790, the submenus are still not functional; we cannot access them, nothing happens. Are there plans for fixes to make them fully functional?
In the latest version of BetterTouch 4.804, the submenu bug is fixed. I have a suggestion for the panel: would it be possible to adopt a design similar to Raycast for the background and commands, or to offer more customization options? Between the background and the gray text, visibility is insufficient; some adjustments would improve clarity.
It would be good to be able to adjust the size of the panel. I also noticed that when new panels are called up, they remain in the previously selected submenu. Would it be possible for them to return to their original position?
Lastly, I noticed that when searching for an action, it does not display the actions in the submenus.
Lastly, I noticed that when searching for an order, it does not display the orders in the submenus.
I really do love the Choose from list action and I'm looking forward for more customization options!
Just to mention this: in Version 4.817 I can still not open a submenu using the keyboard. Hitting enter produces an error sound and using the right arrow key lets the menu close. When I then reinvoke the action shortcut (still using your preset's default fn+D) it does open inside the submenu.
I just downloaded version 4.820. I can confirm that I can now enter the submenu by hitting return. However, it does still produce the error sound, same goes for the Go back menu of the submenu.
When testing this I noticed another unexpected behavior: when I enter the submenu, the search string is the same that I used to find the menu with submenu and filtering is already applied. That means, inside the submenu, before I delete the search string, no submenus are shown (because none of them matches the search string for the parent menu).
And another thing: when I Go back to the parent (or first level) menu, the search string is deleted but instead of moving the cursor to the input field the first item is selected (meaning that I have to use up arrow to get back to the input field.
And one and half more things: the variable BTTPromptInput is nicely updated with every key press in the input field. However, it is not updated to be empty (i.e. BTTPromptInput = "") when either the menu is shown initially (upon a new call to the trigger that opens the Choose from list action) or when I return from a submenu (although, as mentioned above, in that case the input field is emptied).
Observing changes to BTTPromptInput is also related to another feature that I had hoped to be able to implement: dynamically provide menu items (or specifically submen items) based on the input to the search fields. What I have in mind is e.g. a dynamic way to display folder/subfolder contents, i.e. navigating through the file hierarchy, or providing different lists of apps for an Open with ... action of Finder's selected files. I thought that I could maybe use the update_menu_item command with the simple JSON format. Is that currently possible?
@Andreas_Hegenberg , thanks for your fast reaction!
I highly appreciate that you're working on improvements of this functionality because I think that this feature can become tremendously powerful!
I just downloaded version 4.822.
I can now enter the submenu and the Go back menu by hitting enter without error sound.
Also, when I enter the submenu, the search string is set to be empty and all submenus are shown and the BTTPromptInput variable is set to "" and the respective variable value has changed action is triggered (some kind of BTTPromptInputParentUUID or similar would be nice to tell the current state of the menu).
However, the search field is in both cases not focused until I hit cmd+L (+1 for immplemeting this as a default shortcut!), although using this shortcut also produces an error sound.
Using the up or down arrow keys when entering the submenu or returning to the parent menu now results in error sounds and does not move the selection , i.e. cannot neither be used to move the focus back to the input field.
weird I can't seem to reproduce this. Arrow keys don't work at all?
I'll soon add some options for the focus behavior, personally I like the search field highlighted for the main menu but not for submenus. I'll make this configurable
Dynamically loading submenus is not yet possible. This is however on my TODO list for the Simple JSON Format (Simple JSON Format · GitBook), which will soon allow to specify a function instead of providing menu items manually in the submenu property.
I'll soon add some options for the focus behavior, personally I like the search field highlighted for the main menu but not for submenus. I'll make this configurable
Dynamically loading submenus is not yet possible. This is however on my TODO list for the Simple JSON Format (Simple JSON Format · GitBook), which will soon allow to specify a function instead of providing menu items manually in the submenu property.
That sounds great!!
weird I can't seem to reproduce this. Arrow keys don't work at all?
I tested this again. Admittedly, when I enter the submenu I can use the arrow keys as expected (although still the first menu item, not the inpzt field is focused). When I select Go back then there is a really strange behavior that sometimes I can use the down (not the up) arrow key once or twice but it does not really select menu items (it shows a kind of greyish selection not even visible on the screenshot but you can see that after the first item the separator is not shown):
Weird does your menubar still contain the BTT's main menu? (Unfortunately macOS makes it hard for menubar apps like BTT to update the menubar, possibly you need to switch to another app after closing the BTT UI)
And one more observation: when I select the Go back menu from the submenu of a submenu it returns to the top level list, not to the parent (sub-) menu.
Yes that is currently by design. The menu only really supports one level of submenus at the moment. Future versions will keep track of the whole submenu stack.
Weird does your menubar still contain the BTT's main menu?
No, the menubar (top left, switching to ficused app) does not contain BTT anymore when I close the UI. I have BTT not shown in dock, only as status bar item (top right).
Weird! I'll try to explicitly disable BTT's menubar when the searchable list is visible (live view can only be triggered through the menubar). Maybe macOS doesn't show the BTT menubar but still has it active because the BTT process has keyboard focus when the searchable list is visible.
