Altair: Move variables to a split pane instead of a dialog

[jedwards1211]

I love Altair so far! But one of the things I miss from GraphiQL is having the variables section visible below the query section. Having to open and close the dialog is less convenient.

[imolorhe]

@jedwards1211 There's a lot of things going on in the UI. Having several panes makes the UI a lot busier than it should be, and less functional in some cases. I'm trying to make the best use of the real estate by having things like variables and headers in dialogs rather than keeping them open.

[jedwards1211]

@imolorhe I see. I agree with keeping headers in dialogs because I think most people use headers for things common to every request like authentication, and they won't need to change the headers often. Variables on the other hand will often differ from request to request, plus it would be nice to be able to visually compare the variables with the query at the same time.

GraphiQL allows collapsing the variables pane, so it doesn't cause any layout problems. It's like a dialog in that it can be opened in closed, but it doesn't block the rest of the screen while it's open, so I think it's altogether more helpful than a dialog. If you haven't used GraphiQL, I think you would find their variables pane more functional than a dialog.

[imolorhe]

@jedwards1211 I think the most used panes are more specific to each developer scenario. For example, some developers need to set headers for each request because of authentication tokens, and so they would use the headers more than the variables. I'm not saying the current layout is the best but I am trying to accommodate everything in a way that works for everyone. Would having keyboard shortcuts to open and close the panels be a useful feature to help with this?

Ps: I'm still open to layout design suggestions that works for every scenario (I'm more a developer than a designer 😅).

[imolorhe]

@jedwards1211 I've created an issue to handle keyboard shortcuts in Altair. #316

[jedwards1211]

@imolorhe yeah keyboard shortcuts would help!

[igat64]

@imolorhe
I really like this tool, especially the ability to add queries from docs panel.

In my daily work, I wrote a lot of queries and mutations. But when I have to set variables and sometimes a have a lot of them and before opening variables window I need to remember their names and that is hard and things become harder when I forgot some of them. Before I sand mutation I open and close this window a lot of time and that annoying me 😞 This is just my use cases and feelings. And I totally agree with @jedwards1211 it would be very useful to put variables section somewhere in front of eyes and make it collapsible for people that do not use this section or maybe make an option in the settings.

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[igat64]

Dear @imolorhe,

Is it planned to move the variables window in front of the eyes?

[imolorhe]

@igat64 Yeah there are.