how to call the API to rename a new tab?

[Zhixun Qu]

As the title suggests， how to call the API to rename a new tab?

[Alan Kilborn]

@Zhixun-Qu

I presume you mean you have a new 4 tab, for example, and you want to rename it but still not save it into the file system, i.e., you want to keep it “soft named”.

I asked for this, HERE , and it was rejected by the Notepad++ author with this reasoning:
“I don’t add the features which are requested by (very) few users, and the features in question needs a lot of coding effort.” (SOURCE ).

See also HERE for a plugin request that would need this N++ support to be fulfilled.

[Alan Kilborn]

@Alan-Kilborn said in how to call the API to rename a new tab?:

it was rejected by the Notepad++ author

Apparently author has reconsidered, see HERE ; the issue in question has been reopened.

[Zhixun Qu]

@Alan-Kilborn :: SendMessage (nppData. nppHandle, NPPM-MENUCOMMAND, 0, IDM-FILE-RENAME); Can a naming dialog box be displayed? How can I use the program to operate this pop-up dialog box?

[Mark Olson]

This can already be done using
SendMessage(NPPM_INTERNAL_SETFILENAME, intptr_t bufferId, const char * newName);
However, because you are directly calling an internal API and circumventing the normal machinery of Notepad++, calling NPPM_INTERNAL_SETFILENAME does not automatically trigger the NPPN_FILEBEFFORERENAME and NPPN_FILERENAMED notifications, which may cause strange behavior in plugins that respond to those notifications, and is therefore perhaps not a great idea. That said, I do this myself in the JsonTools plugin and it seems to work fine.

[Alan Kilborn]

@Mark-Olson said in how to call the API to rename a new tab?:

This can already be done using…

Ah. I was not aware of this.

In the N++ source code near the NPPM_INTERNAL_SETFILENAME definition is a comment “Used by netnote plugin”.

Plugins Admin shows a NppNetNote plugin and a link to its site: https://sourceforge.net/projects/npp-plugins/files/NppDocShare/ although that’s a bit confusing because it is called “share” instead of “note”.

Anyway that plugin has a date of 2008 on it, so it is really old and apparently hasn’t been modified since then.

It’s curious why, if a plugin was going to use it, why it wasn’t made into a full-fledged plugin message rather than an “internal” message.

Also interesting is that it provided a means to rename a soft-named tab (e.g. new 5) to something less generic, many years before a Notepad++ release allowed such tabs to be renamed.

[Alan Kilborn]

@Zhixun-Qu said in how to call the API to rename a new tab?:

SendMessage (nppData. nppHandle, NPPM-MENUCOMMAND, 0, IDM-FILE-RENAME);

I’d think something like that would get you the Rename Current Tab dialog displayed if executed when a soft-named tab is active.

Can a naming dialog box be displayed?

Yes (see above / below).

How can I use the program to operate this pop-up dialog box?

I wouldn’t do this if I were doing it. I’d create my own renaming interface in whatever language I’m writing the plugin in. It gives you more direct control over what’s going on.

---

For my purposes (and I do have some), I just want to (have a script) rename the softnamed tab with a single (script) command…no popup prompt from N++ wanted (I already know the name I want to give the tab). Thanks to Mark’s posting, I can now achieve this with a little bit of SendMessage code.

[Alan Kilborn]

@Mark-Olson said in how to call the API to rename a new tab?:

calling NPPM_INTERNAL_SETFILENAME does not automatically trigger the NPPN_FILEBEFFORERENAME and NPPN_FILERENAMED notifications,

I can’t think of any circumstance where I’d care about this. But, I suppose it could be important to others…