Allow dropdown menu customization in profiles.json

[JBanks]

We'll probably need a settings redesign that allows you to specify the contents of the menu instead of adding a new profile type.

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original content

Summary of the new feature/enhancement

Allow MenuFlyoutSeparator to be programmed in profiles.json

Proposed technical implementation details (optional)

My thoughts are to have a flag that allows a "profile" in the profiles.json to be interpreted as a MenuFlyoutSeparator in App::_CreateNewTabFlyout()

[DHowett-MSFT]

We'll probably need a settings redesign that allows you to specify the contents of the menu instead of adding a new profile type.

I'm just gonna mark this as out of scope for 1.0. 😄

[zadjii-msft]

(directly including the request from #2330 here cause it's a great idea)

Right now I have 5 profiles I use. I just played a bit with adding a ssh-profile and it works fine. But when I want to add all the profiles I have in Putty in WT I need to add another 20+ ssh-profiles. This means the list is going to be really long.

So being able to make submenus and put my profiles in a multiple submenus would be much welcomed.

Initially the menu looks like this:

PowerShell
CMD
WSL
SSH-Group1 > 
SSH-Group2 > 

When a submenu is selected, something like this

PowerShell
CMD
WSL
SSH-Group1 >
SSH-Group2 > +--------+
             | Host 1 |
             | Host 2 |
             | Host 3 |
             +--------+

[thorsig]

I was just about to create a new ticket when I stumbled upon this one. I wish to add "mee too" on this - it's very important to a subgroup of the Terminal power-users - namely the administrators. Currently we are using MobaXTerm which does a wonderful job at storing 100s of distinct host entries (profiles) each with their own access and communication parameters. On MacOS we have a toolbar menu and on Linux simply a very large aliases file. In Terminal, I'd love to see this change:

Instead of doing like this:

"profiles":
    [
        {
            "guid": "{aaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeeeeeeee0}",
            "hidden": false,
            "name": "Company 1, Server X",
            "commandline": "ssh root@serverX.company1.com",
        },
        {
            "guid": "{aaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeeeeeeee1}",
            "hidden": false,
            "name": "Company 1, Server Y",
            "commandline": "ssh root@serverY.company1.com",
        },
        {
            "guid": "{aaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeeeeeeee2}",
            "hidden": false,
            "name": "Company 2, Server X",
            "commandline": "ssh root@serverX.company2.com",
        },
        {
            "guid": "{aaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeeeeeeee3}",
            "hidden": false,
            "name": "Company 2, Server Y",
            "commandline": "ssh root@serverY.company2.com",
        },
        {
            "guid": "{aaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeeeeeeee4}",
            "hidden": false,
            "name": "PowerShell 7 Preview",
            "source": "Windows.Terminal.PowershellCore"
        }
    ],

I would rather like to do (something like) this:

    "profiles":
    [
        {
            "folder": "Company 1",
            "items": [
                {
                    "guid": "{aaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeeeeeeee0}",
                    "hidden": false,
                    "name": "Server X",
                    "commandline": "ssh root@serverX.company1.com",
                },
                {
                    "guid": "{aaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeeeeeeee1}",
                    "hidden": false,
                    "name": "Server Y",
                    "commandline": "ssh root@serverY.company1.com",
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "folder": "Company 2",
            "items": [
                {
                    "guid": "{aaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeeeeeeee2}",
                    "hidden": false,
                    "name": "Server X",
                    "commandline": "ssh root@serverX.company2.com",
                },
                {
                    "guid": "{aaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeeeeeeee3}",
                    "hidden": false,
                    "name": "Server Y",
                    "commandline": "ssh root@serverY.company2.com",
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "guid": "{aaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeeeeeeee4}",
            "hidden": false,
            "name": "PowerShell 7 Preview",
            "source": "Windows.Terminal.PowershellCore"
        }
    ],

Which would help very much in organizing and accessing a configuration with tens or hundreds of defined servers and several companies/categories of servers.

[tiksn]

I would propose something like this

{
    "profiles": {
        "defaults": {},
        "list": [
            {
                "guid": "{61c54bbd-c2c6-5271-96e7-009a87ff44bf}",
                "name": "Windows PowerShell",
                "commandline": "powershell.exe",
                "hidden": false
            },
            {
                "guid": "{0caa0dad-35be-5f56-a8ff-afceeeaa6101}",
                "name": "Command Prompt",
                "commandline": "cmd.exe",
                "hidden": false
            },
            {
                "guid": "{574e775e-4f2a-5b96-ac1e-a2962a402336}",
                "hidden": false,
                "name": "PowerShell",
                "source": "Windows.Terminal.PowershellCore"
            },
            {
                "guid": "{58ad8b0c-3ef8-5f4d-bc6f-13e4c00f2530}",
                "hidden": false,
                "name": "Debian",
                "source": "Windows.Terminal.Wsl"
            },
            {
                "name": "Company Project 1",
                "hidden": false,
                "defaults": {
                    // Put settings here that you want to apply to all profiles in 'Company Project 1'.
                    // Proposal - inherit from parent "defaults"
                },
                "list": [
                    {
                        "guid": "{a3a2e83a-884a-5379-baa8-16f193a13b21}",
                        "hidden": false,
                        "name": "PowerShell 7 Preview",
                        "source": "Windows.Terminal.PowershellCore"
                    },
                    {
                        "commandline": "nu.exe",
                        "guid": "{2b372ca1-1ee2-403d-a839-6d63077ad871}",
                        "hidden": false,
                        "name": "Nu Shell",
                    },
                    {
                        "commandline": "elvish.exe",
                        "guid": "{6ddf0352-a8c2-46c3-9734-0034762b954c}",
                        "hidden": false,
                        "name": "Elvish"
                    }
                ]
            }
        ]
    }
}

By doing so each group/folder will pretty much be like "profiles" section containing defaults (which will be inherited hierarchically) and "list" of profiles.

We can have groups inside of groups.

[tiksn]

Forked repo, implementing it in my fork

[zadjii-msft]

As a follow up to my previous comment:

• add enum for NewTabMenuEntryType
• add deserialization for enum to TerminalSettingsSerializationHelpers
• add winrt class for NewTabMenuEntry { NewTabMenuEntryType Type; }
• class for ProfileEntry : NewTabMenuEntry { String Profile; } (.cpp, .h, .idl)
• class for SeparatorEntry : NewTabMenuEntry (.cpp, .h, .idl)
• class for FolderEntry : NewTabMenuEntry { IVector<NewTabMenuEntry> Entries; } (.cpp, .h, .idl)
• You might be able to get away with all those classes being in one idl, but you'd probably want separate files for the h's and cpp's
• cpp implementations for those Entry's
  • Not sure there's too much to do for those. WINRT_PROPERTY should likely take care of most of that
• ConversionTrait's for entries (a la the one in ApplicationState.cpp)
• a newTabMenu property in GlobalAppSettings of type IVector<NewTabMenuEntry>
• Build the actual menu in TerminalPage::_CreateNewTabFlyout if that property is set (or fall back to the one we currently have if it isn't)
  • parsing the string names -> profiles might be the hardest part

That would be enough for an initial PR, I'd think

[FWest98]

Ok I've been at this for a few days now, and I am not getting the simplest things to work and I'm out of ideas, so I would be very grateful if anyone could offer some help.

My problem is that after adding cpp/h/idl for SeparatorEntry, I am no longer able to link Microsoft.Terminal.Settings.Model (the .Lib builds and links fine). It gives this error:

Microsoft.Terminal.Settings.Model.Lib.lib(module.g.obj) : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol "void * __cdecl winrt_make_Microsoft_Terminal_Settings_Model_SeparatorEntry(void)" (?winrt_make_Microsoft_Terminal_Settings_Model_SeparatorEntry@@YAPEAXXZ) referenced in function "void * __cdecl winrt_get_activation_factory(class std::basic_string_view<wchar_t,struct std::char_traits<wchar_t> > const &)" (?winrt_get_activation_factory@@YAPEAXAEBV?$basic_string_view@_WU?$char_traits@_W@std@@@std@@@Z)

I interpret this as meaning it did not find the factory for SeparatorEntry. However, the code is just there in the header file, it has the exact same style as all other factories for other idls, and I have no clue what goes wrong.
88a336b is the commit that breaks my build and I am out of ideas honestly.

Does anyone have any thoughts? Or is it better to discuss this issue separately from this thread?

[zadjii-msft]

@FWest98 I got chu. This was a copypasta error I make all the time:

diff --git a/src/cascadia/TerminalSettingsModel/Microsoft.Terminal.Settings.ModelLib.vcxproj b/src/cascadia/TerminalSettingsModel/Microsoft.Terminal.Settings.ModelLib.vcxproj
index 80e0cb0ec..83f331876 100644
--- a/src/cascadia/TerminalSettingsModel/Microsoft.Terminal.Settings.ModelLib.vcxproj
+++ b/src/cascadia/TerminalSettingsModel/Microsoft.Terminal.Settings.ModelLib.vcxproj
@@ -166,12 +166,12 @@
     <ClCompile Include="EnumMappings.cpp">
       <DependentUpon>EnumMappings.idl</DependentUpon>
     </ClCompile>
-    <ClInclude Include="NewTabMenuEntry.cpp">
+    <ClCompile Include="NewTabMenuEntry.cpp">
       <DependentUpon>NewTabMenuEntry.idl</DependentUpon>
-    </ClInclude>
-    <ClInclude Include="SeparatorEntry.cpp">
+    </ClCompile>
+    <ClCompile Include="SeparatorEntry.cpp">
       <DependentUpon>SeparatorEntry.idl</DependentUpon>
-    </ClInclude>
+    </ClCompile>
     <ClCompile Include="VsDevCmdGenerator.cpp" />
     <ClCompile Include="VsDevShellGenerator.cpp" />
     <ClCompile Include="VsSetupConfiguration.cpp" />

You had the c++'s marked as "Include" files, not "Compile" ones. I do that all the time when I'm hand-editing the vcxproj's (which I do exclusively).

That should get you unblocked 😉

[ghost]

🎉This issue was addressed in #13763, which has now been successfully released as Windows Terminal Preview v1.17.1023.:tada:

Handy links:

• Release Notes
• Store Download

[Jan1torEarl]

This is so incredibly awesome. Thanks for all the hard work!

[nclemons78]

Is there a good document on how to create these new folders and move profiles into them? I was looking at the spec, but it was somewhat confusing to me, especially given that it referenced multiple approaches that weren't pursued. Can anyone point me at how to set up what was actually implemented?

[zadjii-msft]

In lieu of me writing something longer, try starting here:

    "newTabMenu": [
        { "type": "remainingProfiles" },
        {
            "type": "folder",
            "name": "WSLs",
            "entries": [
                {
                    "source": "Windows.Terminal.Wsl",
                    "type": "matchProfiles"
                },
            ]
        },
        {
            "type": "folder",
            "name": "misc",
            "entries": [
                { "type": "profile", "profile": "Ubuntu-18.04" },
                { "type": "profile", "profile": "Ubuntu-22.04" },
                { "type": "profile", "profile": "AlmaLinux-8" }
            ]
        },
        {
            "type": "folder",
            "name": "VS",
            "entries": [
                {
                    "source": "Windows.Terminal.VisualStudio",
                    "type": "matchProfiles"
                },
                { "type": "profile", "profile": "VS 2019 (CMD)" },
            ]
        },
        {
            "type": "folder",
            "name": "Canonical",
            "entries": [
                {
                    "source": "CanonicalGroupLimited.Ubuntu18.04onWindows_79rhkp1fndgsc",
                    "type": "matchProfiles"
                },
                {
                    "source": "CanonicalGroupLimited.Ubuntu22.04LTS_79rhkp1fndgsc",
                    "type": "matchProfiles"
                },
                {
                    "source": "CanonicalGroupLimited.Ubuntu_79rhkp1fndgsc",
                    "type": "matchProfiles"
                }
            ]
        },
    ],

Admittedly, you likely won't have all those profiles, but that should point you in the right direction