Auto sort tabs (real-time)

dinkumoil

Instead of using the built-in dialog, tab sorting can be done very easily using the Move Tab Forward / Backward commands from the View -> Tab menu.

In the following I provide a solution in NppExec plugin script language. It uses a slightly optimized version of the Bubble Sort algorithm and sorts the tabs case-insensitive per view. The active tabs of the views are restored after sorting.

::SortTabs
npp_console keep

// Retrieve values of some constants
set local $(PrimaryViewId) ~ MAIN_VIEW
set local $(SecondViewId) ~ SUB_VIEW
set local $(PrimaryView) ~ PRIMARY_VIEW
set local $(SecondView) ~ SECOND_VIEW

// Get id of active buffer's view
npp_sendmsg NPPM_GETCURRENTVIEW
set local $(CurViewId) = $(MSG_RESULT)

// Init variables for view switching
if $(CurViewId) == $(PrimaryViewId) then
  set local $(ActiveView) = $(PrimaryView)
  set local $(ActiveViewId) = $(PrimaryViewId)
  set local $(InactiveView) = $(SecondView)
  set local $(InactiveViewId) = $(SecondViewId)
else if $(CurViewId) == $(SecondViewId) then
  set local $(ActiveView) = $(SecondView)
  set local $(ActiveViewId) = $(SecondViewId)
  set local $(InactiveView) = $(PrimaryView)
  set local $(InactiveViewId) = $(PrimaryViewId)
else
  exit
endif

// Remember buffer id of active tab in active view
npp_sendmsg NPPM_GETCURRENTDOCINDEX 0 $(ActiveViewId)
npp_sendmsg NPPM_GETBUFFERIDFROMPOS $(MSG_RESULT) $(ActiveViewId)
set local $(ActiveViewCurBufferId) = $(MSG_RESULT)

// Remember buffer id of active tab in inactive view if this view is visible
npp_sendmsg NPPM_GETCURRENTDOCINDEX 0 $(InactiveViewId)

if $(MSG_RESULT) == -1 then
  set local $(ProcessInactiveView) = 0
else
  npp_sendmsg NPPM_GETBUFFERIDFROMPOS $(MSG_RESULT) $(InactiveViewId)
  set local $(InactiveViewCurBufferId) = $(MSG_RESULT)
  set local $(ProcessInactiveView) = 1
endif

// Start tab sorting in active view
set local $(CurView) = $(ActiveView)

:IterateAllViews
  // Retrieve number of open tabs in current view
  npp_sendmsg NPPM_GETNBOPENFILES 0 $(CurView)
  set local $(MaxTabIdx) ~ $(MSG_RESULT) - 1
  set local $(MinTabIdx) = 0

  // Sort tabs using optimized version of Bubble Sort
  // and "Move Tab xxx" commands from menu "View -> Tab"
  :DoLoopStart
    set local $(Swapped) = 0
    set local $(CurTabIdx) = $(MaxTabIdx)

    npp_sendmsg NPPM_ACTIVATEDOC $(CurViewId) $(CurTabIdx)
    set local $(LeftFileName) ~ strupper $(FILE_NAME)

    :ForLoopStart
      if $(CurTabIdx) <= $(MinTabIdx) goto :ForLoopEnd

      set local $(RightFileName) = $(LeftFileName)
      set local $(NextTabIdx) ~ $(CurTabIdx) - 1

      npp_sendmsg NPPM_ACTIVATEDOC $(CurViewId) $(NextTabIdx)
      set local $(LeftFileName) ~ strupper $(FILE_NAME)

      if "$(LeftFileName)" > "$(RightFileName)" then
        npp_sendmsg WM_COMMAND IDM_VIEW_TAB_MOVEFORWARD
        set local $(LeftFileName) = $(RightFileName)
        set local $(Swapped) = 1
      endif

      set local $(CurTabIdx) ~ $(CurTabIdx) - 1
    goto :ForLoopStart

    :ForLoopEnd
    set local $(MinTabIdx) ~ $(MinTabIdx) + 1
  if $(Swapped) == 1 goto :DoLoopStart

// As long as the inactive view is visible ...
if $(ProcessInactiveView) == 1 then
  // ... and we didn't process all views ...
  if $(CurView) != $(InactiveView) then
    // ... advance to next view and repeat tab sorting
    set local $(CurView) = $(InactiveView)
    set local $(CurViewId) = $(InactiveViewId)
    goto :IterateAllViews
  endif
endif

// If inactive view is visible restore its active tab
if $(ProcessInactiveView) == 1 then
  npp_sendmsg NPPM_GETPOSFROMBUFFERID $(InactiveViewCurBufferId) $(InactiveViewId)
  set local $(InactiveViewActiveTabIdx) ~ $(MSG_RESULT) & 0x3FFFFFFF
  npp_sendmsg NPPM_ACTIVATEDOC $(InactiveViewId) $(InactiveViewActiveTabIdx)
endif

// Restore active tab of active view
npp_sendmsg NPPM_GETPOSFROMBUFFERID $(ActiveViewCurBufferId) $(ActiveViewId)
set local $(ActiveViewActiveTabIdx) ~ $(MSG_RESULT) & 0x3FFFFFFF
npp_sendmsg NPPM_ACTIVATEDOC $(ActiveViewId) $(ActiveViewActiveTabIdx)

I have to admit that it produces lots of screen flickering (depending on the number of open tabs), but as tab sorting normally is not a frequently executed task it should be OK.

Maxitrol - Mat

@dinkumoil said in Auto sort tabs (real-time):

f screen flickering (depending on the number of open tabs), but as tab sorting normally is not a frequently executed task it should be

I don’t mind flickering if it will auto-sort each time I add a new file.

If the author happened to see a comment like that (he won’t BTW), it would totally seal the coffin from such a feature ever happening.

That would make such an author an idiot. Have you done any business, ever?

dinkumoil

@Maxitrol-Mat

Have you done any business, ever?

Notepad++ is not a business, it’s a completely free product. Thus, business rules don’t fit for Npp project.

I don’t mind flickering if it will auto-sort each time I add a new file.

My script will not auto-sort. The script has to be assigned to a keyboard shortcut. Another way would be to install the NppEventExec plugin as well. This plugin is intended to work together with NppExec and can call NppExec scripts when an event is fired.

That would make such an author an idiot.

Because you were insulting, go figure out the solution which is perfect for you by yourself.

Alan Kilborn

Same poster, same topic, DIFFERENT thread.

Alan Kilborn

So not that I find this idea useful, but I needed some mental exercise while waiting for something to happen today, so I gave it a go with scripting, specifically Pythonscripting.

The result is below; it is a bit of a visual treat when a new file is opened into a view with already a lot of tabs. It is probably too annoying to really be practical, but…

I call the script SortFileTabsByFilename.py and here we go:

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

from Npp import editor, notepad, NOTIFICATION
import os

class SFTBF(object):

    def __init__(self):
        self.installed = False

    def install(self):
        if not self.installed:
            notepad.callback(self.file_opened_callback, [NOTIFICATION.FILEOPENED])
            self.installed = True

    def uninstall(self):
        if self.installed:
            notepad.clearCallbacks(self.file_opened_callback)
            self.installed = False

    def is_installed(self):
        return self.installed

    def file_opened_callback(self, args):
        current_view = notepad.getCurrentView()
        other_view = 1 if current_view == 0 else 0
        if notepad.getCurrentDocIndex(other_view) == 4294967295L: other_view = None
        curr_view_paths_list = []; curr_view_sorted_paths_list = []
        other_view_paths_list = []; other_view_sorted_paths_list = []
        for (filename, _, index_in_view, view) in notepad.getFiles():
            if view == current_view:
                curr_view_paths_list.append(filename)
                curr_view_sorted_paths_list.append(filename)
            else:
                other_view_paths_list.append(filename)
                other_view_sorted_paths_list.append(filename)
        curr_view_sorted_paths_list.sort(key=lambda x: x.rsplit(os.sep, 1)[-1].upper())
        curr_view_already_sorted = True if curr_view_paths_list == curr_view_sorted_paths_list else False
        other_view_sorted_paths_list.sort(key=lambda x: x.rsplit(os.sep, 1)[-1].upper())
        other_view_already_sorted = True if other_view_paths_list == other_view_sorted_paths_list else False
        if curr_view_already_sorted and other_view_already_sorted: return  # nothing to do
        processed_other_view = False
        if other_view != None and not other_view_already_sorted:
            self.rearrange_tabs_in_view(other_view, other_view_sorted_paths_list)
            processed_other_view = True
        processed_current_view = False
        if not curr_view_already_sorted:
            self.rearrange_tabs_in_view(current_view, curr_view_sorted_paths_list)
            processed_current_view = True
        if processed_other_view and not processed_current_view:
            # leave the view we started in as the active one:
            notepad.activateIndex(current_view, notepad.getCurrentDocIndex(current_view))

    def rearrange_tabs_in_view(self, view, sorted_name_list):
        notepad.activateIndex(view, notepad.getCurrentDocIndex(view))  # get switched into the correct view
        remembered_active_filename = notepad.getCurrentFilename()
        destination_index = 0
        num_of_tabs = len(sorted_name_list)
        while destination_index < num_of_tabs:
            current_order_list = []
            for (filename, _, index_in_view, v) in notepad.getFiles():
                if v == view: current_order_list.append(filename)
            curr_location_index = current_order_list.index(sorted_name_list[destination_index])
            move_left_count = curr_location_index - destination_index
            if move_left_count > 0:
                notepad.activateFile(current_order_list[curr_location_index])
                for _ in range(move_left_count): notepad.menuCommand(MENUCOMMAND.VIEW_TAB_MOVEBACKWARD)
            destination_index += 1
        notepad.activateFile(remembered_active_filename)

if __name__ == '__main__':

    if 'sftbf' not in globals(): sftbf = SFTBF()

    # each running of the script toggles install/uninstall:
    sftbf.uninstall() if sftbf.is_installed() else sftbf.install()
    notepad.messageBox('SortFileTabsByFilename {}INSTALLED!'.format('' if sftbf.is_installed() else 'UN'), '')

PeterJones

@Alan-Kilborn ,

Nice.

However, when I previously said,

which I believe triggers for both opening an existing file and for creating a new file tab

… I was apparently wrong. Because File > New doesn’t trigger the script’s sorting function for me, whereas Open does. I don’t see a message that does seem to be triggered for New, either. Hmm…

Ekopalypse

I assume because, technically, new, does not open a file.

Alan Kilborn

@PeterJones

Yes, there are limitations.
I should have mentioned.

So, another one is if you “clone” or “move” a file from one view to another.
It won’t be triggered then either.

The ideal way would be to tie it into the “buffer activated” callback.
But, hmm, there’s a problem there: As it switches tabs to move things into proper order (during a firing of “buffer activated”), it will cause more "buffer activated"s to happen.
I didn’t do a lot of testing that way, but when I did give it a go, I got some nice N++'s hangs.
I tried turning off the callback at the start of itself, and restoring it right before it returned; that was not liked either (hangs as well).

But, like I said, this was just a diversion for today, not something for me to seriously use. If anyone really wants to use it, perhaps they also work on it and figure out how to avoid its deficiencies.

PeterJones

@PeterJones said in Auto sort tabs (real-time):

Hmm…

As a workaround, it could be done at FILESAVED, because that would be triggered when the new file is first given a name.

That would require hanging line #13 to

            notepad.callback(self.file_opened_callback, [NOTIFICATION.FILEOPENED,NOTIFICATION.FILESAVED])

Alan Kilborn

@Ekopalypse

Perhaps you have some expertise regarding this…

I noticed that “uninstalling” my script doesn’t actually work.
Meaning that if, after uninstall, you open a file that is out of sort order, it will still be moved into its correct name-order.

I did some debugging, and I see that, with uninstall, this line IS being executed:

notepad.clearCallbacks(self.file_opened_callback)

but, apparently, isn’t being noted by PS??

Didn’t you, at one time, face a similar issue?

Alan Kilborn

@Alan-Kilborn said in Auto sort tabs (real-time):

Didn’t you, at one time, face a similar issue?

I think you did --> https://github.com/bruderstein/PythonScript/issues/153

But maybe doesn’t apply in my case, as issue 153 seems to indicate that “Notepad” object callbacks don’t suffer this fate, just “Editor” object callbacks…

Ekopalypse

Your script is installing/uninstalling for me. Maybe this isn’t
fixed in PS2?? Let me give it a try with 1.5.X

Ekopalypse

Yep, the same script that works with PS3 does not uninstall the callback when you using PS2.

Alan Kilborn

@Ekopalypse said in Auto sort tabs (real-time):

Yep, the same script that works with PS3 does not uninstall the callback when you using PS2.

Thanks for the confirmation.
I keep forgetting about PS3.
But, in truth, I have a few project where I need non-UTF8 encodings, so I’m a bit afraid to make the jump anyway.
I will make a note in my copy of the script that it can’t be uninstalled under PS2.
But, if it is something that someone will use, I don’t think they’ll uninstall it, and will set up the install part in startup.py.

Alan Kilborn

@Alan-Kilborn said in Auto sort tabs (real-time):

The ideal way would be to tie it into the “buffer activated” callback.

So I ended up doing this to the script.
To avoid the script “retriggering” itself, I added a new member variable in the init:

self.is_installed = False

and then changed the callback function (its name, too!) a bit:

    def buffer_activated_callback(self, args):
        if self.in_callback: return  # the script moving tabs around will cause more callbacks to trigger; prevent this
        self.in_callback = True
        ...
        ...what it was doing before...
        ...
        self.in_callback = False

It seems to work okay.
If there’s interest, I can republish the entire script with the mods.

PeterJones

@Alan-Kilborn said in Auto sort tabs (real-time):

I added a new member variable in the init:\
self.is_installed = False
...
    if self.in_callback:

Was that a typo in the first line, or am I confused and those are two separate things?

Assuming that first line should have been self.in_callback = False, I was able to see that work for me.

It’s fun to try to “fight” it: try to rearrange the tabs manually while the script is in effect. ;-) But I guess the kind of person who would want this running all the time would not be the kind who would try to fight it, so wouldn’t accidentally trigger the fight.

Good work on that.

Given that it was multiple changes (adding a variable, changing method name, changing the notification it’s hooked to), it might be good to re-publish, so that future readers won’t make mistakes while piecing the script together, and then complain at you that it doesn’t work.

Thanks for the fun diversion.

Alan Kilborn

@PeterJones said in Auto sort tabs (real-time):

Was that a typo in the first line

Yep, dammit. Sorry.

it might be good to re-publish

OK, will do.

Alan Kilborn

@PeterJones

It’s fun to try to “fight” it: try to rearrange the tabs manually while the script is in effect. ;-)

I certainly did NOT do any type of testing like that!
If it fails during something of that nature, well, sorry, but the user is to blame in that case. :-)

and then complain at you that it doesn’t work.

Hey, how did you make that little complain-at-you popup text?

Okay, so here’s an “a” version of the script, with all the changes previously discussed:

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

from Npp import editor, notepad, NOTIFICATION
import os

class SFTBFa(object):

    def __init__(self):
        self.installed = False
        self.in_callback = False

    def install(self):
        if not self.installed:
            notepad.callback(self.buffer_activated_callback, [NOTIFICATION.BUFFERACTIVATED])
            self.installed = True

    def uninstall(self):
        if self.installed:
            notepad.clearCallbacks(self.buffer_activated_callback)  # <---- may not work until PS 3.0.4+; see https://github.com/bruderstein/PythonScript/issues/153
            self.installed = False

    def is_installed(self):
        return self.installed

    def buffer_activated_callback(self, args):
        if self.in_callback: return  # the script moving tabs around will cause more callbacks to trigger; prevent this
        self.in_callback = True
        current_view = notepad.getCurrentView()
        other_view = 1 if current_view == 0 else 0
        if notepad.getCurrentDocIndex(other_view) == 4294967295L: other_view = None
        curr_view_paths_list = []; curr_view_sorted_paths_list = []
        other_view_paths_list = []; other_view_sorted_paths_list = []
        for (filename, _, index_in_view, view) in notepad.getFiles():
            if view == current_view:
                curr_view_paths_list.append(filename)
                curr_view_sorted_paths_list.append(filename)
            else:
                other_view_paths_list.append(filename)
                other_view_sorted_paths_list.append(filename)
        curr_view_sorted_paths_list.sort(key=lambda x: x.rsplit(os.sep, 1)[-1].upper())
        curr_view_already_sorted = True if curr_view_paths_list == curr_view_sorted_paths_list else False
        other_view_sorted_paths_list.sort(key=lambda x: x.rsplit(os.sep, 1)[-1].upper())
        other_view_already_sorted = True if other_view_paths_list == other_view_sorted_paths_list else False
        if not (curr_view_already_sorted and other_view_already_sorted):
            processed_other_view = False
            if other_view != None and not other_view_already_sorted:
                self.rearrange_tabs_in_view(other_view, other_view_sorted_paths_list)
                processed_other_view = True
            processed_current_view = False
            if not curr_view_already_sorted:
                self.rearrange_tabs_in_view(current_view, curr_view_sorted_paths_list)
                processed_current_view = True
            if processed_other_view and not processed_current_view:
                # leave the view we started in as the active one:
                notepad.activateIndex(current_view, notepad.getCurrentDocIndex(current_view))
        self.in_callback = False

    def rearrange_tabs_in_view(self, view, sorted_name_list):
        notepad.activateIndex(view, notepad.getCurrentDocIndex(view))  # get switched into the correct view
        remembered_active_filename = notepad.getCurrentFilename()
        destination_index = 0
        num_of_tabs = len(sorted_name_list)
        while destination_index < num_of_tabs:
            current_order_list = []
            for (filename, _, index_in_view, v) in notepad.getFiles():
                if v == view: current_order_list.append(filename)
            curr_location_index = current_order_list.index(sorted_name_list[destination_index])
            move_left_count = curr_location_index - destination_index
            if move_left_count > 0:
                notepad.activateFile(current_order_list[curr_location_index])
                for _ in range(move_left_count): notepad.menuCommand(MENUCOMMAND.VIEW_TAB_MOVEBACKWARD)
            destination_index += 1
        notepad.activateFile(remembered_active_filename)

if __name__ == '__main__':

    if 'sftbf_a' not in globals(): sftbf_a = SFTBFa()

    # each running of the script toggles install/uninstall:
    sftbf_a.uninstall() if sftbf_a.is_installed() else sftbf_a.install()
    notepad.messageBox('SortFileTabsByFilename {}INSTALLED!'.format('' if sftbf_a.is_installed() else 'UN'), '')

Alan Kilborn

@Alan-Kilborn said in Auto sort tabs (real-time):

how did you make that little complain-at-you popup text?

I think that I may have…

Well, not quite, because when I click on mine it takes me somewhere (bad) whereas clicking on @PeterJones 's it doesn’t go anywhere.

PeterJones

@Alan-Kilborn said in Auto sort tabs (real-time):

Hey, how did you make that little complain-at-you popup text?

See How to Markdown Code on this forum. 😉

No, really, it’s there:

This is a simple [here](https://www.google.com “go Google!”) link with custom hover pop-up text

The popup hover text is the “title” text of the link. It’s also described at the no-longer-officially-linked daringfireball markdown spec

And then, while I’m typing, you said

I think that I may have [figured it out myself]…

Congrats. Of course, if I weren’t wanting the bragging rights, I wouldn’t have been able to post this reply, since you went and figured it out.

Well, not quite,

Oh, sure, you realize you had a problem while I am still writing about your problem. Let me type this reply! 😠

[text](# "hover") will do what you want. The # is the HTML shortcut for “go to the unnamed anchor on the current page”, which has been HTML shorthand for “do nothing with this link” forever (or, at least, from early forms of HTML in the 90s)