Ability to customize the status bar

[gijsyo]

Is your feature request related to a problem?

Would there be a way to make the status bar customizable, let's say like the columns, through a context menu? It's too wide for my laptop screen and I have no need for the CPU monitor and the open socket info so I would like to remove them. The CPU monitor was easy to remove by deleting the plugin dir but it seems more sane to be able to (de)select components for the status bar.

Describe the solution you'd like

Anything would be an improvement. My preference is for a right-click menu like the column selector.

Additional context

No response

[stickz]

Hello @gijsyo, the settings to remove items from the status bar are disorganized in ruTorrent. However, they are still present.

1. You can go to settings -> format -> uncheck open status in status bar to remove the open socket info.
2. You can disable the cpuload plugin in the plugins tab without removing it.

Do you think we should add a status bar tab to the settings menu to customize it? I believe this will address your feedback. I would like to hear about @jevenski 's thoughts for setting a milestone of v5.2 for this improvement.

[gijsyo]

Hello @gijsyo, the settings to remove items from the status bar are disorganized in ruTorrent. However, they are still present.

1. You can go to `settings -> format -> uncheck open status in status bar` to remove the open socket info.

2. You can disable the `cpuload` plugin in the plugins tab without removing it.

Do you think we should add a status bar tab to the settings menu to customize it? I believe this will address your feedback. I would like to hear about @jevenski 's thoughts for setting a milestone of v5.2 for this improvement.

Thanks for the tip. Of course it worked. To me it seems logical to have a status bar settings menu if it's not too much trouble.

Maybe get a plugins section in the settings as well instead of its own button?

[jevenski]

To me it seems logical to have a status bar settings menu if it's not too much trouble.

Here are my game plans. I'm not sure if we can complete this in v5.2, though. There might be some fundamental preparations in need before making this leap, and those preparation work might require even more time and efforts.

We can add a context menu to the entire status bar to (de)select display of available items. This will be a visual setting, which will only hide the relevant items. They will still run in the background, like the CPU and the disk space plugin querying server every 5 seconds. If one would like to disable them completely, he/she can disable the plugins, or use separate switches if they are built-in items.

The context will co-exist with current context menus on some parts of status bar like upload/download speed limit and port checker. We can add a divider or a hint text to distinguish the common options from the special ones.

Maybe get a plugins section in the settings as well instead of its own button?

I think plugins can get a page in the settings window, and not stay in the tabs anymore. It's a place more users would think of for tweaking the configurations of ruTorrent. There are only a few pieces of info to display for each plugin, and they don't need constant update like torrents, so I think there is also less need to create an s-table for plugins. Now that we have introduced bootstrap into ruTorrent, we have more powerful components to present the info.

[stickz]

@jevenski I agree with moving the plugins page to the settings menu in v5.2. This will remove clutter from the torrent information display, remove unnecessary context menus and allow for a better overall design of plugin controls.

I disagree with placing more context menus on the status bar. I think it's better to have these controls in the settings menu. It's not mobile friendly to have context menus. I'm looking at ways where we can reduce or eliminate existing ones.

We shouldn't need to have 20 items on the torrent context menu. Details... for instance is the most useless thing ever. There is a general button you can click on the torrent information display. We don't need a longer option to open the general tab. Remove can also be combined into one option with two sub-contexts. Start, Pause and Stop can only be displayed when selectable and combined on mobile. (You can't pause a torrent that is stopped or start a torrent that is already started)

I'm not advocating for making a Windows 11 context menu because that is not by any means user friendly. However, there are some minor improvements that can be implemented.

[jevenski]

Yes, in the long term, context menu should be disabled completely on mobile, after we have implemented equivalent replacement to achieve all functionalities.

On desktop, it is still the best way to perform most actions, in my opinion. This does introduce an inconsistency between desktop and mobile, and thus pose a challenge in designing and maintenance.