Clicking outside the editor no longer works

[Frida]

In node-red@latest, I can no longer close the editor when I click outside the editor, now I have to click either cancel or done.
Can it be made to work again?

[dceejay]

See this long thread for the explanation

Request for feedback: Closing the Edit Dialog

A PR has been proposed to change a behaviour in the editor and I wanted to get wider feedback. Currently, if you have a node's edit dialog open, clicking outside of the dialog will close the dialog as if you had confirmed the changes. This is the behaviour we've had since the early days of Node-RED. Originally we treated a click outside the dialog as a 'cancel' - but we had complaints that it was then too easy to accidentally loose changes - so the current behaviour was set. The PR proposes…

[Steve-Mcl]

There is a default shortcut of ctrl+esc you can use to close and discard changes and ctrl+enter to close and accept changes.

if you are are working on windows ctrl+esc will simply open the windows start menu (browser's are not allowed to take that shortcut) but you can change it in the settings to just be esc

[Frida]

Now more work than I'm used to.
I hate when clicks are added to clicks to clicks to get something done.

Maybe I should go back to a version that doesn't have it and stick with it.

[knolleary]

@Frida this change was made in @next (4.1.0-beta.2) not @latest (4.0.9)

As a beta it's out there to get feedback on the changes prior to the final release.

Thank you for sharing your feedback. We'll look at how we can improve for the final release.

[Frida]

Sorry, I'm using @next (4.1.0-beta.2) when I discovered it,
We always have reload before Deploy if we regret something.

[spacerabbit]

This is really not ergonomic

Please add the option to have it the way it used to be

I downgraded but i’d rather not be stuck to that version forever.

[Colin]

@spacerabbit

Please add the option to have it the way it used to be, and maybe another option, instead of cancel it could also accept the changes ?

I thought that clicking outside used to accept the changes, which might not be what is intended and is the reason it was changed.

[spacerabbit]

I was misled by this

“Originally we treated a click outside the dialog as a 'cancel' - but we had complaints that it was then too easy to accidentally loose changes - so the current behaviour was set. The PR proposes…”

I edited my message

Please add an option to have the classic behavior

Also you can always ctrl-z or get back in the editor. so i’m not sure there’s even a point to locking it like that…

[GogoVega]

This way?

Request for feedback: Closing the Edit Dialog

To satisfy everyone, a compromise would be: ctrl-enter: saves changes and closes the edit box. ctrl-escape: discards changes and closes the edit box. (actual default keys) A new selection parameter in the editor settings: nothing: (default for new users) assumes that clicking outside the edit box does nothing. save and exit: (default for current users) keeps the current behavior (saves changes and closes the edit box). discard and exit: discards changes and closes the edit box. (my prefere…

[Frida]

I was a beginner myself once, and I learned how the editor worked. Why do all editors have to look the same?

[Paul-Reed]

Not liking this recent change!

If I'm looking for something in a flow, I double tap on a node, scan it's content, and the without moving the touchpad, I just simply tap it again and the window closes.
Then move onto the next node...

Not any more. Now I have to use the touchpad and move and click on cancel, then move back to my flow again.

As it's a Windows laptop, ctrl+esc will not help, and I shouldn't really have to change the Windows default settings to accommodate this.

[Steve-Mcl]

@Paul-Reed

As it's a Windows laptop, ctrl+esc will not help, and I shouldn't really have to change the Windows default settings to accommodate this

Agree. Improve edit dialog escape situation · Issue #5198 · node-red/node-red · GitHub

[Paul-Reed]

TBH, It was much better as it was previously, and this change feels like a regression, as sufficient safeguards were already in place to prevent users losing data;

1. The node itself would have a blue circle on it denoting that changes had been made, and...
2. The 'Deploy button' would also be highlighted, again denoting that changes had been made.

For some reason, I missed the earlier discussion about this, otherwise I would have posted earlier.

[Paul-Reed]

Afterthought... Would it be possible to only have to use the Cancel/Done buttons if changes had actually been made to the node?
Otherwise allow a click outside of the editor to close the window.

[GogoVega]

The problem is that the click action must trigger the oneditsave mechanism to determine if a change has been made to the node before accepting or denying the click action. This mechanism can trigger other actions in the editor, which could create intentional behavior.

Detecting change events in inputs, buttons, etc. is also unreliable because the editor doesn't know in advance what DOM content might be dynamically generated.

[Frida]

Honestly why not remove "cancel & done", and just use "reload & deploy". That's what I use in the version where it works.
The fewer clicks the better.

[ThingsTinkerer]

Seems like save by default is the way to go. Editors used to prompt a save/discard dialog when closed, but it’s much smoother to just auto-save (or semi-save) like vscode or notepad++.

[spacerabbit]

Please roll it back the way it used to be. There is literally NO POINT changing this. You can always ctrl-z the changes away.

[dougle03]

Bump.

Please roll it back. I’ve never heard of anyone complaining about the way it used to work.

The Dev’s just need to admit, this was a change no one really wanted… There are many other areas for improvement that need Dev time, this was not one of them.

Thanks.