Thanks all for your comments (and fixes). Jeremy Goecks wrote, On 06/05/2010 12:00 PM:
With some tools, the list boxes are replaced at run time, with others - not at all. Is there any way to turn this thing off ? force a parameter in my XML file never to be converted to this custom list box ?
No way to turn it off right now -- do you want a way to turn it off? Ideally, the box should behave like a normal select with additional search capabilities, so there shouldn't be a need to turn it off.
Yes, I want a way to turn it off or force it always on. I agree that it's a cool feature from a technical POV, but I think it's not optimal from a usability POV. Users like (and need) consistency. IMHO it's more important than cool features. Think about a history with ~30 items, of different types of files. A tool that takes TXT files can handle all the datasets, so the listbox will be replaced with a custom one. Another tool takes only BED files (and let's say there are only 19 datasets of BED in the current history) - it will show the original listbox. If a user re-runs and generates just one more BED dataset, clicking again on the BED tool will show a custom list box. Confusing. A similar (but worse) things happen in a tool that has a "columns" parameter (example: the "merge columns" tool in "text manipulation"). Select an input dataset that have less than 20 columns - normal listbox is shown. Select a different dataset with more than 20 columns (without reloading the tool) - the listbox is dynamically changed to a custom one. Not good. Either always turn it on (e.g. for dataset selection), or always turn it off - that's my opinion. -gordon