PA 2007 - file association UI oddities

[mwb1100]

In PA 2007 Beta 5 I find the Configuration UI for file Associations to be a bit unintuitive:

If I select a file type to be associated with PA then press ‘OK’, the association does not actually get made. If I reopen the Configuration dialog (even after a restart of PA), the box remains checked.

It seems I must press the ‘Associate Now’ button, just pressing ‘OK’ is not enough.

By standard UI conventions, changes made in the dialog should be made to take effect when OK is pressed. My initial understanding of the ‘Associate Now’ button was that it would behave like an ‘Apply’ button - I still expected the changes to take effect on ‘OK’ even if ‘Associate Now’ was not pressed.

On a related note - if I uncheck a file type, then only press OK (without pressing ‘Associate Now’), the file association is halfway broken. A double click on a file of that type will not open PA, but the icon for the file remains a PA icon.

[RJWaring]

Well spoted!

You can see from a logistic point of view that pressing “Associate now” confirms that you wish to make changes.

Maybe if you were to make changes to that screen and were to press ok, a pop up could apear saying “You have made changes to your a Compression Assocites. Please press the Associate button to confirm” and are given then 3 buttons

OK, Associate and Cancel.

Either that or just set the ok button to do all the work

[spwolf]

@mwb1100:

In PA 2007 Beta 5 I find the Configuration UI for file Associations to be a bit unintuitive:

If I select a file type to be associated with PA then press ‘OK’, the association does not actually get made. If I reopen the Configuration dialog (even after a restart of PA), the box remains checked.

It seems I must press the ‘Associate Now’ button, just pressing ‘OK’ is not enough.

By standard UI conventions, changes made in the dialog should be made to take effect when OK is pressed. My initial understanding of the ‘Associate Now’ button was that it would behave like an ‘Apply’ button - I still expected the changes to take effect on ‘OK’ even if ‘Associate Now’ was not pressed.

On a related note - if I uncheck a file type, then only press OK (without pressing ‘Associate Now’), the file association is halfway broken. A double click on a file of that type will not open PA, but the icon for the file remains a PA icon.

it means it is an bug. So what exactly doesnt work, both checking and unchecking?

[mwb1100]

It means there are 2 similar bugs:

1. checking a file association and pressing OK has no effect except that the check box remains checked

2. unchecking a file association and pressing OK has half the intended effect. Double-clicking such a file will no longer open PA (good), but the file will still have a PA icon (bug).

PA 2007 Beta 5, Win XP SP2

[spwolf]

here is how it works:

• Associate now associates right away
• Ok associates at startup

Unchecking works, it is only that Windows keeps icon cache, thats something we can not influence.

From B6, it will automatically apply/associate if settings have been changed…

[ivan]

Thanks!

We will do something for Beta 6.

[mwb1100]

@spwolf:

Unchecking works, it is only that Windows keeps icon cache, thats something we can not influence.

When setting the association, the icon shows up immediately (any open explorer windows appear to go through a refresh of some sort). I assumed that the same would happen for un-associating, but Windows is sometimes a mysterious place, eh?

[spwolf]

@mwb1100:

When setting the association, the icon shows up immediately (any open explorer windows appear to go through a refresh of some sort). I assumed that the same would happen for un-associating, but Windows is sometimes a mysterious place, eh?

mysterius is probably good word to describe it :)

[mwb1100]

This is fixed in Beta 6 - pressing OK now makes associations take effect.