Advice needed: Displaying help for ListGrid columns and displaying help in general

[Blama]

Hi Isomorphic,

is it possible to customize the Hovers for ListGrid columns? I'd like to show some help / explanation in the Hover.
I was thinking of a customizer with a title:String and ellipsisShown:boolean parameter.
This way I could display either only the title if ellipsis is shown (= the current default) or also show some explanatory text.

I think that in one of the other ListGrid header-texts someone else also asked for this but you rejected the idea.
Do you have another idea for ListGrid-column help (context menu?) and help in general?

I was thinking if something like this would be possible:

• Show a light opacity-mask like window
• Loop though all drawn (and visible in viewport?) widgets.
  • If of a SmartGWT subclass of mine, get location
  • If help text present, at the top right of the item, draw a question mark icon
  • On hover of the icon draw a light red border around the item (similar to what you do in your Developer Console "Watch"-tab)
  • On click of the icon display a help window

This this feasible? If so, how to start here best (the loop though all drawn widgets)?

Thank you & Best regards
Blama

[Isomorphic]

As far as modifying the default hovers, there's setHeaderHoverFormatter().

We really don't think that a help system that starts from widgets and widget classes makes sense for end users, as help is very contextual, and doesn't typically have anything to do with the widget's class. We think a system that takes this approach would end up providing the same, generic help all over the UI ("It's a button. You click it"), infuriating users who are expecting actually useful, contextual help.

No, we don't currently expose an API that would let you get the list of all currently drawn widgets (which would also include a lot of internal details..), so if you wanted something like this, you'd need to keep track of the widget you drew yourself.