Is it possible to delete registry keys using the standard FB actions? "Delete Registry Value" throws an error if I don't fill in the value to be deleted.
Minor gripes for the day:
Why does the bottom display default to the messages pane instead of build log if there are messages? I don't need to be told every single time that the script files are read only at the expense of seeing the build log.
Also, to expand the whole build log hitting the "search" button with no search term works but is a bit counterintuitive, and "Show full log" collapses the tree back to just the top node. And what's with the modal dialog box "no error actions" when I click "show errors"?
I think that not being able to delete registry keys is intentional so people don't accidentally wipe out HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software or something. I'll see what we can do about getting it changed - otherwise you may need to use the scripting FileSystemObject's registry methods.
If we do change it, it will probably only be able to delete keys with no children (for safety's sake.)
Re: Display Defaulting to Messages: What do you mean by "script files are read only". If the project file is read only, this should be displayed as a small note on the status bar at the bottom of the screen. The Messages tab is for more serious errors like missing packages, corrupt projects, etc.
Re: Expanding the whole build log, I didn't even know that worked. Expanding the entire log can be a bit risky for big logs, because it can take a long time. Nevertheless, I'll see if we can put "expand all" and "collapse all" context menu items on the to-do list.
Re: The modal dialog, I can only imagine that it's designed to avoid confusion when you click this button and the log goes blank. It might be possible to change this, though.
Currently I'm using a CMD action to silently import a .reg file. Perhaps the "delete key" option could be non-recursive? Hmm, which would also be annoying if you're testing installers that barf junk all over the registry. You decide :)
The messages tab: if I have the .fbv file read-only (because none of the FB files are checked out of source control) then every time I run the script the tab area flicks over to "messages" and tells me that the fbv file is read-only.
The build log... when I'm debugging scripts, especially ones with a heap of quick, independent actions, I often set "ignore failure" on all of them and want to see which ones worked (and what they did). So "expand all" is quite useful. I expect that people with big build logs will only hit the "expand all" button once :) Modal dialogs are just generically annoying, and BTW "search" also likes to tell me that it found nothing. Showing no results conveys the same information without requiring and extra focus change and mouse click.
I was thinking that it might be useful in these situations to have registry actions to export and import registry branches, so you could save the state at the beginning and roll back to it, if necessary. Any thoughts?
That would work well, and it’s effectively what I’m doing by running regedit - it has “delete key” commands in that script. As long as it’s a “force to state” not an “add extra stuff” command your import/export stuff would work really well.