Update Terms

[jb]

I can imagine that there might be reasons one wouldn't want the Terms List updated automatically, but I think that I'd much prefer not to have to take that extra step.

Would it be possible to set a preference for this updating to be automatic upon changes in the relevant data?

[Jon]

Term List are updated automatically as you add terms. The only time you might need to update Term Lists is when you delete a term or a reference.

Jon
Sonny Software

[jb]

Yes, I should have been more precise.

It is the need to update after deleting a term that was in my way today, as I was doing a lot of house-cleaning.

May I rephrase my question to apply to *this* aspect of the updating process?


Thanks

[Jon]

To be honest, that's not a high priority. It's not trivial to implement, it's not a common need, and it's not nearly as important to keep the item count correct or to remove a term that's no long used as it is to add new terms (you may disagree, of course). What I might consider is having a preferences option that would tell Bookends to store or not the term list in the database itself. That's what Bookends does now. If that were turned off, the term list would be created de novo each time the db was opened. This would exclude unused terms, of course. For a large db (5-10K+ references) this would of course increase the time to open, but probably not by more than a few seconds (whatever the time it takes now to update the term list). Would you find that useful?

Jon
Sonny Software

[jb]

Jon, you're too kind.
It is indeed a small matter and hardly an impediment to functionality. I simply found it a bit annoying at a somewhat-less-than-rational level, I suppose.
And in any case, it won't happen often that I go through and delete a dozen or more old keywords that are no longer useful.
I'd rather see you spend time on more important matters, to tell the truth.
It's quite possible that I'm the first (and last) person to feel this minor bump, and if that's the case I wouldn't ask you to make any change at all. If others think the option you mention would be useful, however, I'd be happy to see it. But don't do it just for me!

Thanks for your attentiveness and generosity.
James

[Jon]

Adding features that users request is one of the ways Bookends improves (the other is adding features I request).

Anyone else think this would be a useful addition (rebuilding Term Lists on db open, as an option)?

Jon
Sonny Software

[hrashid]

Would it have to be on open? Could you create a button to do it? Or a check box to "rebuild terms on next launch?"

[Jon]

I don't understand. What I'm suggesting is a checkbox in Preferences that says something like "Update Term List on database open". If checked, Bookends would not store the term list in the database and would regenerate it each time the db was opened. If unchecked, Bookends would store the term lists in the database itself and simply load it into memory each time the database was opened (which is what it does now). You can always force an update at any time by opening any Term List and pressing the Delete key or using the Action popup menu or a right-click contextual menu.

Jon
Sonny Software

[hrashid]

Sorry, that's what I was missing. I thought it was going to be rebuilt on every open for every user. All clear now. Thanks.