Rename all Update/Refresh XLF commands?

[jwikman]

This discussion was originally started in #326, but moved here until we settle on how to to with this topic.

Background

The NAB: Refresh XLF files from g.xlf command was the first command I built in this extension, and the name for this command was just a working name. After a while I was used to that command, so I didn't think of renaming it before publishing the extension on VS Marketplace... The name has annoyed me more than once since then...

Some time later I build the NAB: Update g.xlf for users that don't have symbols available, using VSCode only for translation. After that command was run, they execute NAB: Refresh XLF files from g.xlf.

After yet some more time I got request for a command that did both NAB: Update g.xlf and NAB: Refresh XLF files from g.xlf in a single command. That ended up with NAB: Update all XLF files.

Issue

Now it seems as if the NAB: Update all XLF files is used by mistake by quite a few users, that actually should use the good old NAB: Refresh XLF files from g.xlf command.

Why is this an issue?

The functionality in NAB AL Tools to update the g.xlf file is done by a custom code parser that tries to identify all code that should generate translation units in the xlf files. This parser will never be as good as the native AL Compiler (alc.exe), since it's just built by a lot of regex matching. There are a lot of different, more or less strange, formatting of code that this regex matching will fail to identify - even if we are trying to improving it when issues are reported.

Suggestions to resolve issue

1. Remove the command NAB: Update all XLF files
2. Rename NAB: Refresh XLF files from g.xlf to NAB: Update Localization Files (XLF)
3. Keep the NAB: Refresh XLF files from g.xlf command that shows an error that the user instead should use NAB: Update Localization Files (XLF)
4. Rename NAB: Update g.xlf to NAB: Update g.xlf from source code
5. After NAB: Update g.xlf from source code is executed, the user is prompted to execute NAB: Update Localization Files (XLF) automatically.
6. Add a setting to use as a default answer on above prompt

Thoughts?

[MisterTrojan]

Yohh,

thank you so much for this to consider.

In general I am a big fan of keeping the UI as simple and clean as possible.
Means ... only see what you need for the basic work with the ability to activate advanced settings/commands/features.

So my preferences are always having setting options to be able to use the software as I need it.

In case of renaming I would suggest the following:

• "NAB: Prepare base xlf without Symbols" (instead of "NAB: Update g.xlf")
• "NAB: Update xlf files (without Symbols)" (instead of "NAB: Update all xlf files")
• "NAB: Update xlf files" (instead of "NAB: Refresh xlf files from g.xlf")

In this case a setting would not be needed in my opinion but I would enjoy to have the possiblity to say "EnableWorkingWithoutSymbols" (if it is used my most of the user maybe the default value is true?) to avoid mistakes in the heat of the battle ^^