Panel won't stay pinned to any side other than right

[kiwichick888]

Since Npp v8.9.3 the Snippets panel won't stay pinned to any side other than the default of the right side. I move it to another side but when Npp is restarted, Snippets is back on the right side.

[rdipardo]

Outdated: see #77 (comment)

---

Simple problem, with a simple fix:

nppsnippets/DlgConsole.cpp

Line 1539 in 24248b6

tbd.pszModuleName = L"Snippets"; // name of the dll this dialog belongs to

The pszModuleName member must include the .dll file extension, or else the Docking Manager will fail to locate and reload the plugin when the application starts, and any saved position will be ignored. The correction looks like this:

- 			tbd.pszModuleName = L"Snippets";				
+ 			// corrected as per https://github.com/ffes/nppsnippets/issues/77#issuecomment-4603305090
+ 			tbd.pszModuleName = L"NppSnippets.dll";

The same issue has been reported and fixed elsewhere, e.g.

• NppTbData.pszModuleName is not properly assigned when Markdown panel is docked mohzy83/NppMarkdownPanel#90

[pryrt]

tbd.pszModuleName = L"Snippets.dll";

the DLL name is actually NppSnippets.dll, so that's what would have to be used...

[kiwichick888]

nppsnippets/DlgConsole.cpp

Thanks but I've searched for it and I can't find that file in my Npp installation.

[pryrt]

Thanks but I've searched for it and I can't find that file in my Npp installation.

It's a file in the source code of the plugin. It's not something that you as the end user can change/configure after the plugin is already installed. @ffes would need to update the code and release a new version of the plugin.

[pryrt]

@rdipardo ,

I tried building my own copy (I was hoping to make a PR, to make @ffes's life easier), with using L"NppSnippets.dll"; or using L"NppSnippets"; , but using the DLL from the artifacts produced by either of those builds failed to use the saved docking position, either.

Looking at the docking line from config.xml, I am sure that it saw my updates, because I see either

<PluginDlg pluginName="NppSnippets.dll" id="-1" curr="0" prev="-1" isVisible="yes" />

or

<PluginDlg pluginName="NppSnippets" id="-1" curr="0" prev="-1" isVisible="yes" />

... as appropriate.

Is there another place in the code that we need to fix the name to match?

[kiwichick888]

It's not something that you as the end user can change/configure after the plugin is already installed.

Thanks but it would've been helpful if you'd mentioned that to start with.

[rdipardo]

@pryrt

Looking at the docking line from config.xml, I am sure that it saw my updates, because I see either

<PluginDlg pluginName="NppSnippets.dll" id="-1" curr="0" prev="-1" isVisible="yes" />

or

<PluginDlg pluginName="NppSnippets" id="-1" curr="0" prev="-1" isVisible="yes" />

You are correct that there is more going on here. The id="-1" attribute is invalid; it's supposed to be the index of the plugin command which the Docking Manager should execute on startup, 0 in this case:

nppsnippets/NppSnippets.cpp

Lines 335 to 338 in 24248b6

	// The most important menu entry
	int index = 0;
	g_funcItem[index]._pFunc = SnippetsConsole;
	wcscpy(g_funcItem[index]._itemName, L"Snippets");

However, the plugin's business logic currently depends on the invalid index; I get an access violation if I manually correct the id to 0 in config.xml after correcting the source code to assign pszModuleName as NppSnippets.dll and rebuilding the plugin module 😖

[rdipardo]

Some progress

• the access violation comes from the assumption that g_db will be initialized before ::SnippetsConsole runs.
  But the current initialization in the NPPN_READY callback is too late; evidently the Docking Manager calls ::SnippetsConsole even before the first notification message is sent (when the id is correctly set to 0, of course)

• after patching the above, reading a correctly serialized config.xml throws no exception, but . . . the docked panel still does not appear! It is orientated the way the user left it before shutting down, as confirmed by the content of config.xml, and by opening the panel manually on the plugin menu. It just fails to open automatically.

This patch collects all the changes needed to at least fix config.xml serialization without throwing an exception:

diff --git a/DlgConsole.cpp b/DlgConsole.cpp
index ae8b535..ec25158 100644
--- a/DlgConsole.cpp
+++ b/DlgConsole.cpp
@@ -1515,6 +1515,10 @@ void SnippetsConsole()
 		// Set it now already so other routines work properly
 		s_bConsoleVisible = true;
 
+		// Initialize the database
+		if (g_db == nullptr)
+			g_db = new SnippetsDB();
+
 		if (!s_bConsoleInitialized)
 		{
 			// Get the right database filename
@@ -1535,8 +1539,8 @@ void SnippetsConsole()
 			// Initialize everything for the console window
 			tTbData tbd;
 			ZeroMemory(&tbd, sizeof(tTbData));
-			tbd.dlgID = -1;									// Nr of menu item to assign (!= _cmdID, beware)
-			tbd.pszModuleName = L"Snippets";				// name of the dll this dialog belongs to
+			tbd.dlgID = 0;									// Nr of menu item to assign (!= _cmdID, beware)
+			tbd.pszModuleName = L"NppSnippets.dll";				// name of the dll this dialog belongs to
 			tbd.pszName = L"Snippets";						// Name for titlebar
 			tbd.hClient = s_hDlg;							// HWND Handle of window this dock belongs to
 			tbd.uMask = DWS_DF_CONT_RIGHT | DWS_ICONTAB | DWS_USEOWNDARKMODE;	// Put it on the right
diff --git a/NppSnippets.cpp b/NppSnippets.cpp
index 4ac6297..72b9b9f 100644
--- a/NppSnippets.cpp
+++ b/NppSnippets.cpp
@@ -53,6 +53,9 @@ bool g_HasLangMsgs = false;
 extern "C" __declspec(dllexport) void setInfo(NppData notpadPlusData)
 {
 	g_nppData = notpadPlusData;
+
+	// Create the console dialog once we have a valid N++ handle
+	CreateConsoleDlg();
 }
 
 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
@@ -99,9 +102,6 @@ extern "C" __declspec(dllexport) void beNotified(SCNotification* notifyCode)
 	{
 		case NPPN_READY:
 		{
-			// Initialize the database
-			g_db = new SnippetsDB();
-
 			if (g_Options->GetShowConsoleDlg())
 				SnippetsConsole();
 			break;
@@ -408,9 +408,6 @@ BOOL APIENTRY DllMain(HANDLE hModule, DWORD reasonForCall, LPVOID lpReserved)
 			g_funcItem[index]._pShKey = NULL;
 			index++;
 			assert(index == nbFunc);
-
-			// Create the console dialog
-			CreateConsoleDlg();
 		}
 		break;
 
 

[rdipardo]

It just fails to open automatically.

Not quite, as it turns out.

The plugin author implemented his own automatic restore feature, independent of the Docking Manager, which he clearly did not know about, or at least didn't fully understand (and it's a commonly misunderstood feature of the plugin API, after all).

If the docking panel is left open at shutdown, the option to open it immediately on startup is passively enabled:

nppsnippets/DlgConsole.cpp

Lines 1484 to 1489 in 24248b6

	case WM_CLOSE:
	{
	OnClose(hWnd);
	g_Options->SetShowConsoleDlg(s_bConsoleVisible);
	break;
	}

When the correct data is saved to config.xml, the Docking Manager calls ::SnippetsConsole to create the dialog. Later, the NPPN_READY callback will call ::SnippetsConsole a second time, if the _showConsoleDlg option is true. The second call closes the dialog, the same as if the user clicked on the plugin menu option while it's already showing:

nppsnippets/DlgConsole.cpp

Lines 1501 to 1505 in 24248b6

	void SnippetsConsole()
	{
	if (s_bConsoleVisible)
	{
	// Hide the window and uncheck the menu item

That's why it seemed like the earlier patch would not open the dialog — it was getting closed again before the application window was fully drawn!

@kiwichick888, see if one of these build artifacts resolves the issue: https://github.com/rdipardo/nppsnippets/actions/runs/27283902684#artifacts

[pryrt]

@rdipardo , thanks for digging into that more. I don't know enough about the docking to have been able to find all that.

[kiwichick888]

see if one of these build artifacts resolves the issue

I'm using Npp x64 and tried the x64 build artifact. Success!!!!!! Thank you so much for working on this.