New and Noteworthy for Mylar 0.3

Covers 0.3.1 (released July 11, 2005) to 0.4.0 (released October 28, 2005).  Send questions to mylar-users@eclipse.org.  Submit feature requests to Bugzilla.

Task context

JUnit testing of task context

To automatically test every element in your task context add one of the two Mylar JUnit launch configurations visible below.  This has the effect of automatically creating a suite with every interesting test in your context (those that you've selected and edited), as well as every test that has a predicted interest (those whose test methods show up in the Active Search view).


Linked mode for Active Search

The Active Search view now has a "Link with Editor" button.


Predicted interest of errors

The predicted interest of errors can be turned and off in the Java preferences. When on, Java elements that have errors get a predicted interest, which means that they show up in views such as a the package explorer.  Once the errors are fixed the predicted interest goes away.  Set this on the Java preference page.  Off by default.


Reduced context size

When a context is saved it now gets collapsed to remove redundancy in how interaction events contribute to interest. This results in an order of magnitude file size reduction, and much faster activation/deactivation.

Open Type integration

If a task context is active, the Open Type dialog will first types that are in the task context, and then place those matches on top of the list as you type.  When no task is active the Open Type dialog reverts to its standard behavior of showing types that you have selected from within the dialog.


Qualified names in Active Search

A toolbar button controls whether element names are qualified in the Active Search view.


Increased laziness

When no task is active, Mylar is inactive and Eclipse should behave as if Mylar were not installed.  Also, when the Active Search view is closed, no background searches will be run.

Drag-and-drop Landmark creation

Elements such as methods and types can be drag-and-dropped into the Active Search and Active Hierarchy views.  This will cause them to become landmarks, and to populate those views with related elements.  To get rid of an element from an active view it needs to be made less interesting than a landmark, which can be done by right-clicking it in any view and selecting the "Make Less Interesting" action, or by hitting Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Down Arrow when editing that element.


Active Search

As you work and elements become landmarks (bold decoration), Active Search eagerly finds related elements.  To force an element to populate the Active Search view manually make it a landmark by right-clicking or hitting Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Up Arrow.  Use the pull-downs on the toolbar to alter the degree-of-separation scope of the search.  Note that elements with predicted interest are gray.


Active Hierarchy

Similar to Active Search, this view actively finds and presents the type hierarchy of the current set of landmarks.


Filter declarations in Package Explorer

If you don't like Mylar's constant showing of Java members in the Package Explorer, select the drop-down menu, then "Filters..." and enable the "Mylar Java Declarations Filter".  It will then stick in the menu in case you want to toggle between modes.


Interest filter exclusions

Resources that are always considered interesting can be configured to always show when the interest filter is on, via the root Mylar preference page.  Note that the parent of the resource, e.g. the project or folder, needs to be interesting for it's children to show. 


Context highlighters

You can associate a task with a highlighter. This can be useful if you are using Mylar without the filtering support.  It also allows you to distinguish between task contexts if you have multiple tasks active.  


Ant editing

Interest-based filtering is now supported in the Ant editor's Outline view by toggling the glasses.


Interest-based content assist

The top of the content assist menu will put the items that are in your task context on top of the list, to enable quick selection via arrow keys. Once you start typing the menu will work as usual. Note that the Mylar Java Editor needs to be set as default for ".java" files (this is the only new functionality that comes from the Mylar Java editor).


Navigator interest filtering

Interest filtering works in the navigator, similarly to the Package Explorer.  To temporarily un filter a node Alt+click it


Toggle auto folding

Pressing the editor toolbar button with the Mylar glasses on it will enable/disable Mylar's automatic folding.  This can be useful when needing to browse through the code, or copy/paste code around (since Eclipse's folding support can cause odd expansions when copying folded regions, bug 104648).  The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F.


Show all filtered children

When you are using filtering in a Mylar view you have the option of temporarily showing all children of a filtered node by Alt+clicking a node that is not currently selected.  For example, you can Alt+click a source folder, keep the Alt+key down, and continue drilling down until you find a method of interest. To navigate using the keyboard alone use the Right Arrow key instead of Alt+clicking, and the Down Arrow key to select elements. 

Alt Click


Search within task context

The automatically updated Mylar Task Context working set can be searched as any other working set, either via the popup menus or using the search dialog.  For example, to find all System.out/err calls before checking in, search for "System." within the task context. To quickly search all references click Alt+Shift+G.


Directly manipulate interest

Directly manually manipulate the interest level of one or more elements by right clicking them and using the two Mylar actions in the popup menu.  Keyboard shortcuts for these are Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Up Arrow for Make Landmark, and  Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Down Arrow for Make Less Interesting.  This now supports disjoint selections.


Interest filtering for the Java Browsing perspective

Interest filtering can be toggled for the Packages, Types, and Members views simultaneously by clicking the leftmost toolbar button visible below.

 

Task List

Task history

The task list now has a back/forward navigation history with drop-downs of previously activated tasks.


Synchronization state

If a bug report has information on it that has not been viewed, such as new comments, the blue "incoming" overlay is displayed.  If a bug has changes on it that have been saved but have not been committed to Bugzilla, the gray "outgoing" overlay is displayed.  A red overlay appears if there is a conflict.


Offline mode

You can now explicitly state whether you want to work with cached copies of Bugzilla reports and avoid refresh with the server.  In offline mode the cached bug copy is always used.  In online mode the Bugzilla server is always checked for the latest report.


Task history navigation

Navigate between previously activate tasks using the Task List view's pull down menu (upper right-hand corner of the toolbar).


Focus on a single task category

To see only the tasks for a single category select the "Go Into Category" action from the context menu.  To go back to viewing all tasks and categories under the root use the "Go Up To Root" action in the Task List's toolbar pull down menu (visible above).


Quick filter

To filter task by name or regexp type the filter text into the field and all matched tasks will display.  Note that this will temporarily suppress all other filters.  To clear the query press the "x" button to the right of the text field.


Reminders

Set a reminder for a task when creating it, or by selecting the "Summary" tab of the Task Editor.  When you start using Eclipse on the given day the reminders will come up.


Open reports in web browser

Bug reports can be opened with either the Bug Editor or the Internal Web Browser.  This can be set as a Task List preferences.  When the Bug Editor is open you can click the hyperlink to show the report in the browser (e.g. to use a feature not yet available in the editor, such as voting). 


Move tasks directory

Bug reports can be opened with either the Bug Editor or the Internal Web Browser.  This can be set as a Task List preferences.  When the Bug Editor is open you can click the hyperlink to show the report in the browser (e.g. to use a feature not yet available in the editor, such as voting). 

Bugzilla Client

Support Ctrl+click in Java Editor to navigate to bug

Ctrl+click on a comment that contains one of the following forms will open the bug with the given id: bug# 123, bug 123, Bug #123, Bug#123. (Note that all of these are case insensitive and can be followed by a colon or whitespace).


Custom queries

To create a custom Bugzilla query paste the query URL into the New Bugzilla Query dialog. This enables support of queries that can not be configured via the dialog, and as such some query hits may not open or format properly.