Provide clarification on what Server Address means

[Brett208]

I think Server Address is supposed to be the IP address of the actual server on Outpost Universe. However, I'm not certain and we change it fairly often as a troubleshooting technique.

Perhaps adding a tooltip when hovering over the IP address field with more explanation. This might get in the way of actually typing and selecting a previous IP address though.

At a minimum, we should add something to a readme file that explains it, although I would prefer more description in the application if there is space on screen.

[DanRStevens]

It can be an IP address or a DNS name. If it looks like a numerical IP address in dotted notation, it will first attempt to convert it that way. It can optionally take a ":" followed by a port number.
Ex: 192.168.1.2:47800.

If the numerical conversion fails, then it attempts a DNS lookup on the string. This can also take an optional port number.
Ex: netfix.outpost2.net:47800

The address can either be an instance of the NetFixServer, or an instance of Outpost2.exe running as a game host. This allows the NetFix code to run even without an operational game server. This may have some benefits in terms of NAT punchthrough, and reduced need for port forwarding, though that's dependent on the routers involved and security settings used by them.

Not sure how to summarize that in a tooltip, but you're right. Ideally people should know what to put into that box just by looking at it. I guess I was too close to the details of the code and network protocol to really notice that wasn't obvious to other people.

[Brett208]

I played with adding a tooltip today. Apparently, a tooltip cannot be added to combo-box controls if Type is set to dropdown. When type is set to Drop List, it does work.

I then tried adding the tooltip to the text control that writes out Server Label. It appears text controls also cannot have tooltips.

Quick google search revealed it is probably possible to write some sort of custom control, although I'm not sure we want to go that route...

Maybe it would be acceptable to put a little ? Icon next to the words Server Address that contain the tooltip? I didn't play with this idea, but now that I think about it, I kind of like it because it would keep the tooltip from popping up when trying to select something in the dropdown, and would be a very clear visual cue. Maybe the downside is it isn't as aesthetically pleasing to have a question mark icon in the middle of the form.

Open to other ideas.

[DanRStevens]

Interesting idea. I'm not too sure what to suggest.

Writing user interface code against raw Win32 API C-style functions is not exactly pleasant. I guess I've been hesitant to get too fancy with the UI because of that. It can probably be managed though. Especially now that much of the code base has been cleaned up.

[Brett208]

OK, I managed to get a multi-line tooltip with an extended delay time to work. Results are below.

You get the tooltip when hovering over the ServerAddress label. This isn't very intuitive, but it works. I tried adding a bitmap of a question mark, but it was behaving strangely by wrapping part of the image to the right side of the image.

If this screenshot looks good enough, I'd like to clean up and add to code base. Open to suggestions on how the tooltip reads.

[DanRStevens]

Hey, looks neat.

The popup on label hover a bit unintuitive. Would be nice if we could use the textbox itself.

Would be interested to see the code.

[Brett208]

See PR #109

I suspect moving the tooltip to the combo box is possible somehow, but currently beyond my knowledge of win32 programming.

The text is updated in the PR a little from what is shown in this screenshot.