I find the Designer tool to often be more of a burden than a help in coding. I've found options for things like exporting to XML (but no import function) and intermediate publishing (actual code seems to be obfuscated), but nothing that looks promising for editing handler code outside of Designer. Is there any such? Even Notepad would be better than Designer for some tasks, given how frustrating it is to even just enter (much less edit!) conditionals and variables and the huge amount of screen space required for even just a few handler steps (which even then can be quite confusing, as the the flow lines are often very poorly positioned and can't be moved manually and adding arbitrary steps to help with flow lines clutters and confuses things nearly as much)

No, there is no way to edit handlers except through Interaction Designer. I've been using Interaction Designer for over 17 years, so I guess I'm just used to the quirks. One thing that helped me a lot was when someone pointed out I can copy an expression (click in the expression field, hit the End key, hold Shift and hit the Up arrow key to highlight the whole expression, then Ctrl-V to copy) and paste it into the Notes field on the tool step general tab, edit it there, then copy/paste back into the expression field. I rarely use Expression Editor Assistant. Mostly typing/autocomplete.

Another veteran of handler development here. I can also confirm I hardly use the expression editor unless its something simple like sRandomString = "Test". Depending on your monitor resolution you should be able to fit a decent amount of code on the screen at 1 time. For instance I have a 1080p monitor and feel like I can see enough of the code to be useful. If you have a larger monitor you can change the zoom level to something smaller to see even more. For the most part the lines should be easy to follow and you can drag the lines to move them out of the way. You can always rearrange the steps to make the lines not get all messed up, otherwise if you right click on the line you can add an anchor which allows you more flexibility to move the lines around things. When the handler is published a copy is saved to x:\i3\ic\server\handlers folder and then a class file is created. The Class file can be opened via notepad if you are so inclined and you can see it looks almost like BASIC coding where there are a bunch of gotos between the steps. I would strongly caution against trying to edit these class files as you have a very good chance of messing something up and who knows how the system will respond to a messed up handler class file also the changes to the class file would not line up with the ihd file. The reason I bring this up is sometimes I will do a search against the class files to look for attribute names or other useful things.

Adding to the two previous posts.... I have worked with several developers who were new to Designer over the years and all have had the same complaint. All have also become proficient within a couple hours of use.

Thanks for the input, people. Depressing tho it is :( Frankly I'm surprised that something so bad as the expression editor hasn't been updated in the years this product has been available... if ININ's own "best practices" page says that it's better to not use it at all (ie, using the "notes" field instead and copy/pasting) that should be a pretty clear signal that it's a seriously broken piece of UIX...! @tcannon: becoming proficient at a task is not the same thing as it becoming a good user experience... I could become quite proficient at shoveling horse manure in a matter of a few hours, but I doubt I'd ever enjoy it!

Originally posted by MarkT;33717
If you have a larger monitor you can change the zoom level to something smaller to see even more.

Yes, that's a big part of my complaint - I'm often working at a remote location on my laptop, so a 28" 1080p monitor is not an option. Quite aside from that just being plain ridiculous as a requirement for getting actual use out of an IDE... ;)

Originally posted by MarkT;33717
For the most part the lines should be easy to follow and you can drag the lines to move them out of the way. You can always rearrange the steps to make the lines not get all messed up, otherwise if you right click on the line you can add an anchor which allows you more flexibility to move the lines around things.

That's very helpful, thank you! I'd tried moving lines around before with no success, but with some more fiddling it seems that the lines that are connected to a step can't be moved but lines that only connect to other lines can be.

Originally posted by MarkT;33717
When the handler is published a copy is saved to x:\i3\ic\server\handlers folder and then a class file is created. The Class file can be opened via notepad if you are so inclined and you can see it looks almost like BASIC coding where there are a bunch of gotos between the steps. I would strongly caution against trying to edit these class files as you have a very good chance of messing something up and who knows how the system will respond to a messed up handler class file also the changes to the class file would not line up with the ihd file. The reason I bring this up is sometimes I will do a search against the class files to look for attribute names or other useful things.

Very good info, thanks! I shall take your advice to heart - I am not wanting to blow things up, and editing files this way looks like it's on a par with "flashing your BIOS with a custom ROM" level of scary...! :eek:

Originally posted by samandiriel;33721
That's very helpful, thank you! I'd tried moving lines around before with no success, but with some more fiddling it seems that the lines that are connected to a step can't be moved but lines that only connect to other lines can be.

I just took another look at this thread...did you know you can right-click on any line and add a "handle" (or multiple handles, if needed) which then allows you to rearrange the line?

Originally posted by GGanahl;34158
I just took another look at this thread...did you know you can right-click on any line and add a "handle" (or multiple handles, if needed) which then allows you to rearrange the line?

I found that out during the handler class recently, thanks :) Unfortunately that doesn't help an awful lot with the connection points often being in inconvenient places in terms of flow, especially since moving things around often makes custom line routing very wonky indeed.