Code Explorer Panel Discontinued in TestComplete 14

[dbattaglia]

I just read the release notes on TestComplete 14 (https://support.smartbear.com/testcomplete/docs/general-info/whats-new.html) and am a bit puzzled about the discontinuation of the Code Explorer panel.

"The Code Explorer panel is now deprecated. Starting from this version, it is hidden by default. The panel will be removed in one of the future releases."

How will developers navigate the project tree without the Code Explorer?

The tiny little dropdown box in the toolbar of the code editor is much less efficient than having a navigation tree like the Code Explorer panel.

Daniel

[tristaanogre]

I'll be honest... I don't use the Code Explorer much.  I use Project Explorer all the time and only use Code Explorer on occasion to research metrics... for that reason, having it on the code editor makes better sense for me so I'm right there, in the code, to be able to evaluate and potentially correct issues in code make-up.

[dbattaglia]

that's funny. we don't use the code metrics at all--oops, did i say that out loud?...

i primarily use the Code Explorer panel as a navigation pane. it gives you a sorted list of all the assets.

you sort of get that in the editor drop down--but only for the open file. you have no visibility of what files are in the current project.

so, with the Code Explorer panel going away, you will have to go to two places to see everything you can see in one place today:

Project Explorer for the list of all files

Code Editor dropdown for the list of all code things in each file

Code Metrics ...??? not sure where that is going. maybe just away...

[Dmitry_Nikolaev]

Hello,

The Code Explorer panel was an unpopular feature, so we hide it by default. However, it is still in TestComplete, and we are not going to remove it completely. To make it visible, open the Select Panel dialog (View | Select Panel...) and double-click the Code Explorer item.

[dbattaglia]

...you say that the Code Explorer panel will not be removed, then why do the release notes state

"The panel will be removed in one of the future releases."

...?

losing this panel would not break the app, but i find it helpful.

[dbattaglia]

 ^^^

@Dmitry_Nikolaev 

@TanyaYatskovska  -- looks like mentioning does work afterall! it seems like the @ does not trigger the user selection dialog if it is directly next to another character, like next to a left parenthesis--(@

perhaps i did something like that.

thanks for the response!

daniel

[Dmitry_Nikolaev · Accepted solution]

Hello,

Ok, there seems to be a confusion indeed. We are not going to improve the panel and will stop testing it in future versions of TestComplete to release resources for other testing tasks. However, there is no intention to remove it completely.

We will delete the note about the panel's removal in the documentation to avoid further confusion.

[TanyaYatskovska]

Thanks for the clarification, Dmitry!

[dbattaglia]

thanks for clarifying @Dmitry_Nikolaev  i appreciate that.

one question though, if you are not going to test the panel what good is keeping it in the app?
(assuming it will eventually break)

might as well just remove it, right?

[AlexKaras]

Hi,

> (assuming it will eventually break)

My understanding of 'we will not test' in the context of SmartBear is 'we will not test it extensively but will verify basic functionality and do simple corrections'.

So I do not expect showstopping crashes.

Just my expectation... 🙂