Wireshark · Ethereal-dev: RE: [Ethereal-dev] Saving all packets between the first and the l ast marked packet

[Biot Olivier <Olivier.Biot@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I partally agree. I'm in favor of decoupling how the end-user interacts with
the system and the way the system is implemented. Anyway, I think we will
move to a more powerful selection mechianism in a stepwise manner.

The questions I have, are all related to how intuitive the UI is to a human.
For this reason and because it makes sense to me to decouple dfilter from
selection criteria (although the implementation does not allow full
separation of both).

Additionally, If one wants to print/save only a selection of packets, why
wouldn't we let the user enter the ranges, just like it is already
implemented in various SW products in the "Print pages" widget? I think it'd
be much mode interesting if an end-user could specify ranges like "-20",
"25-40", "120-" or a combination of those:

( ) Specify ranges: [ -20 35-37 45 78- ]

Would then select only packets (first) to 20, 35 to 37, 45, 78 to (last).
And even then, it would still make sense to apply the dfilter on demand for
the entered selection.

Regards,

Olivier

| -----Original Message-----
| From: Ulf Lamping
| 
| Dick Gooris wrote:
| 
| > Biot, Guy,
| >
| > Adding all the proposals :
| >
| > +-- Select packets to be %s ------------------+
| > | (*) all packets  {N packets}                |
| > | ( ) selected packet {1 packet}              |
| > | ( ) marked packets {N packets}              |
| > | ( ) range from first to last marked packet  |
| > + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - +
| > | [x] apply display filter on the above       |
| > +---------------------------------------------+
| >
| >
| > Taken that the 'selected packet' is always only one packet. Please 
| > confirm.
| >
| > If there is only one marked packet, we will save just one packet in 
| > case we choose the range from first to last marked packet.
| >
| > Regards,
| >
| >    - Dick Gooris
| >
| > Biot Olivier wrote:
| >
| >> Some remarks:
| >>
| >> Can we select more than one packet in the GUI? IMHO we can only do 
| >> this by
| >> having pop-up windows with individual packets being displayed.
| >>
| >> Range between first and last marked packet is only 
| possible when at 
| >> least 2
| >> packets have been marked.
| >>
| >> Maybe we can group functionality based on applying the 
| dfilter or not:
| >>
| >> +-- Select packets to be %s ------------------+
| >> | (*) all packets                             |
| >> | ( ) selected packets                        |
| >> | ( ) marked packets                          |
| >> | ( ) range from first to last marked packet  |
| >> + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - +
| >> | [x] apply display filter on packet range    |
| >> +---------------------------------------------+
| >>
| >> where %s is either printed or saved, (*) is the default 
| selected radio
| >> button of the radio button group, and [x] represents a 
| selected check 
| >> box.
| >>
| >> Regards,
| >>
| >> Olivier
| >>
| >> PS in Dutch-speaking Belgium, it is customary to write last name 
| >> first (as
| >> does our corporate Exchange server). People call me Olivier :)
| >>
| >> | -----Original Message-----
| >> | From: Guy Harris
| >> | | On Tue, Dec 23, 2003 at 02:37:30AM -0800, Dick Gooris wrote:
| >> | > Guy, Biot, Ulf,
| >> | > | > Would it be an idea to make a set of radio buttons 
| instead | 
| >> of a check | > button.
| >> | | That's what the "Print" dialog box has.  I think that 
| the "Print" 
| >> and
| >> | "Save" dialog boxes should have the same options for 
| selecting which
| >> | packets to {print,save}.
| >> | | > I think of the following design then (for Save As.. ) :
| >> | > | > O  Save all packets
| >> | > O  Save only packets currently being displayed
| >> | > O  Save only marked packets
| >> | > O  Save packet range between first and last marked packets.
| >> | > O  Save currently displayed packet range between first 
| and | last 
| >> marked | > packets.
| >> | | Or
| >> | |   +-Save | 
| >> Range-------------------------------------------------------------+
| >> |   |                                                           
| >> |              |
| >> |   | O  Selected packets only, {N} packets                     
| >> |              |
| >> |   | O  Marked packets only, {N} packets                       
| >> |              |
| >> |   | O  All packets captured, {N} packets                      
| >> |              |
| >> |   | O  All packets displayed, {N} packets                     
| >> |              |
| >> |   | O  Displayed packets between first and last marked | packet, 
| >> {N} packets |
| >> |   | O  Captured packets between first and last marked 
| packet, | {N} 
| >> packets  |
| >> |   |                                                           
| >> |              |
| >> |   | 
| +-------------------------------------------------------------
| >> | -----------+
| >> | | along the lines of what we have in the Print dialog box.
| >> | | Should we have another one for "Marked displayed packets"?
| >> | | > Proposed UI rules :
| >> | > | > -  All the above are radio buttons
| >> | | ...as is the case currently in the Print dialog.
| >> | | > -  The default is the first one: 'Save all packets'
| >> | | ...as is *not* currently the case in the Print dialog, but as 
| >> arguably
| >> | *should* be the case in the Print dialog.
| >> | | > -  "Save only marked packets", "Save packet range between | 
| >> first and last | > marked packets", and "Save displayed 
| packet range 
| >> between | first and last | > marked packets", will become not 
| >> selectable in case no | markers are set.
| >> | | Yes.
| >> | | > -  "Save only packets currently being displayed", 
| and "Save | 
| >> displayed | > packet range between first and last marked packets" 
| >> become | unselectable | > when there is no display filter set.
| >> | | Yes (that's already the case for "All packets 
| displayed" in the 
| >> Print
| >> | dialog box).
| >> | | "Selected packets only" is unselectable if there is no 
| | selected 
| >> packet.
| >> | | The rule is that if {N} is 0 for any item, the item is not 
| >> selectable.
| >> | | > We can add a radio button later which says ' O  Save packet 
| >> list  [ | > Entry for packet list ] '  based on unfiltered 
| packets, 
| >> and | again a list | > of displayed packets. The last 
| becomes rather 
| >> complex due | to the holes | > in the numbering of the 
| packets showed.
| >> | | I assume that's for user-specified packet ranges?
| >> | | Ulf, what did you have in mind for the range?
| >>  
| >>
| >
| >
| > _______________________________________________
| > Ethereal-dev mailing list
| > Ethereal-dev@xxxxxxxxxxxx
| > http://www.ethereal.com/mailman/listinfo/ethereal-dev
| >
| Hi!
| 
| I think the solutions already suggested could be more 
| flexible, without 
| adding too much complexity for
| the implementation and the user.
| 
| Let me outline a solution to the whole topic, which will include the 
| save marked frames thing.
| 
| Of course, the "selection" of selecting which packets to print/save 
| should be the same,
| or at least very similar between printing and saving.
| 
| When start enhancing the printing dialog, I had in mind to 
| find a good 
| solution for this,
| and then "copy" the code in some way to the save(as) dialog.
| 
| As the printing dialog isn't finished, I didn't started with the save 
| dialog.
| 
| 
| I was thinking quite a while about the range thing today.
| 
| My current favorite:
| 
| Adding a checkbox just below the range "radios", with two 
| text entries, 
| e.g.:
| 
| (*) Selected packets only, 1 packet
| ( ) Marked packets only, 0 packets
| ( ) Displayed packets only, 123 packets
| ( ) All packets captured, 1234 packets
| [ ] Limit packets from: [123] to: [345], 32 packets
| 
| The two text entries are sensitive only, if the checkbox is enabled.
| 
| Everytime, one of the radio buttons are pressed, the two text entries 
| will be filled with the values
| corresponding to this setting, e.g. when "Displayed packets only" is 
| pressed, the text entries will be set
| to the first and last packet currently being displayed.
| 
| Now the user can select a more narrow selection he wishes.
| 
| One can look at this, as a subset of the packets, already selected by 
| the radio buttons.
| 
| We could add some buttons, setting the entries to some reasonable 
| values, independant of
| the radio selection, e.g.: <Selected> <Marked> <Displayed> <Captured>
| 
| The <Marked> button will set the entries to the first and last packet 
| currently marked.
| 
| As a side effect, the user can see, which will be the first and last 
| packet printed :-)
| 
| I think this is a more flexibel and easy to use solution to 
| this topic.
| 
| Regards, ULFL
|