Feature requests from newbie coming from HRD

[w9tvx]

I've been using Log4OM for a couple of weeks (coming from HRD 6). It is an excellent program and I particularly like it's accuracy in determining station information for QSOs as well as the ability to log in real time to multiple external logs.

I do have a few feature requests

• Better award tracking/management. Currently built-in awards such as WAS and DXCC seem limited. For example ARRL allows for rewards by different digital modes (JT65, etc) while Log4OM only seems to support a single Digital mode. Along this line, it would be great if the user could create custom awards that take different digital modes into account - currently it seems as if only Phone/CW/Digital are supported. This is probably my biggest issue and currently I am running Log4OM and HRD in parallel for this reason
• One of the features that I really liked about HRD was the ability to save different "layouts" for the QSO views. Basically a layout is the set of columns and their ordering. This is very nice and powerful as you can use different QSO layouts depending on the activity in which you are engaged
• Remember my layout between invocations of Log4OM. It would be really nice if the program would remember the layout (and sizing) that I set between invocations of the program vs resetting to a default each time
• More flexibility in views. Right now I have limited ability to view the information I need. For example, I can view cluster information (F9), or recent qso information (F8); however there is no way to view them at the same time. For example being able to see recent QSO information with a horizontal split plane separating the cluster information. Another example is when I'm viewing the QSO Information window (F7). There is a horizontal split pane with "worked" information on top of a world map. It would be really nice to be able to replace the map with cluster information. I guess what I am asking for is the ability to decide what I see in the different split panes vs having fixed views. This is because what I need to look at can change based on my operating mode: Contesting vs rag chewing. Digital vs Phone etc etc
• Column resizing is quite awkward right now (for example in Recent QSO view). Specifically the user has to go into the layout window and resize the columns there guessing at what the right size should be. Resizing directly in the view i.e. by being able to drag the column header separators would be very useful
• Auto-Width: Having a button that would resize each column to the width of it's widest cell would be welcome
• When a new QSO is entered into Log4OM - for example via a 3rd party program such as JTAlert - the whole QSO views refreshes. It would be really nice if the new QSO was just inserted into the view so that there would no longer be a "flash" while the view is updated

Thank you again for an excellent program

[NN7D]

Hi,

Better award tracking/management. Currently built-in awards such as WAS and DXCC seem limited. For example ARRL allows for rewards by different digital modes (JT65, etc) while Log4OM only seems to support a single Digital mode. Along this line, it would be great if the user could create custom awards that take different digital modes into account - currently it seems as if only Phone/CW/Digital are supported. This is probably my biggest issue and currently I am running Log4OM and HRD in parallel for this reason

As far as I know, (I could be wrong) but DXCC is limited to "Digital" for all digital modes. WAS is another matter and does break them down by digital mode. So Log4OM WAS categories probably do need to be expanded.

DXCC_Categories.jpg (34.91 KiB) Viewed 3147 times

One of the features that I really liked about HRD was the ability to save different "layouts" for the QSO views. Basically a layout is the set of columns and their ordering. This is very nice and powerful as you can use different QSO layouts depending on the activity in which you are engaged.

I like this suggestion!

Remember my layout between invocations of Log4OM. It would be really nice if the program would remember the layout (and sizing) that I set between invocations of the program vs resetting to a default each time.

This has been suggested for some time and Daniele is aware of it and is working on a solution.

More flexibility in views. Right now I have limited ability to view the information I need. For example, I can view cluster information (F9), or recent qso information (F8); however there is no way to view them at the same time. For example being able to see recent QSO information with a horizontal split plane separating the cluster information. Another example is when I'm viewing the QSO Information window (F7). There is a horizontal split pane with "worked" information on top of a world map. It would be really nice to be able to replace the map with cluster information. I guess what I am asking for is the ability to decide what I see in the different split panes vs having fixed views. This is because what I need to look at can change based on my operating mode: Contesting vs rag chewing. Digital vs Phone etc etc

See my post on detached windows - viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1917

Column resizing is quite awkward right now (for example in Recent QSO view). Specifically the user has to go into the layout window and resize the columns there guessing at what the right size should be. Resizing directly in the view i.e. by being able to drag the column header separators would be very useful

I agree, but I believe this is a restraint of the components being used. You will notice that some grids can be adjusted in the traditional manner by dragging the column divider, such as the Cluster grid, but the database grids can not. Maybe in Version 2?

When a new QSO is entered into Log4OM - for example via a 3rd party program such as JTAlert - the whole QSO views refreshes. It would be really nice if the new QSO was just inserted into the view so that there would no longer be a "flash" while the view is updated.

Likely a constraint of the database and display grid. When JTAlert sends the qso to Log4OM, it does so by directly writing to the Log4OM database. Once that is done, you would not see the new qso, so a display grid update is called, and that is what causes the display to flash, as the entire display is updated.

I hope this helps.

Doug - W7DRM

[w9tvx]

Doug,

Thank you for taking the time to write such a complete response. You are of course right about DXCC supporting only digital. It still would be really nice to have support for different digital modes for WAS and for custom awards. Thank you again

73

Ross