problem with deleting nodes

[cyberdiva]

Hi, Mouser.  I seem to have a problem deleting nodes from LBC that I no longer need.  Today I wanted to remove one child node.  I highlighted it and selected Delete Note from the right-click menu.  To my dismay, that managed to delete ALL the nodes!  Fortunately, I had a relatively recent copy of the .mcf and .mcp and .ini files on my flash drive, so I moved those over and all was well, except of course that I still had the node I wanted to get rid of.  I should add that I've had similar experiences several times before.  This time I wondered whether all the check marks in the boxes meant that I was going to delete ALL the checked nodes (see accompanying partial screen shot).  Just in case that was the problem, I unchecked all but the node I wanted to delete--unchecking 189 nodes, one by one.  I then tried again to delete the single node I had left checked.  That worked.  I closed LBC, only to be told that I had no nodes configured!  So apparently I needed those check marks after all.  So one by one, I checked 189 boxes.  Now all seems well, except that I'm totally confused.  How do I delete just one node? 

Once again, thanks in advance for your help. 

[mouser]

I feel awful that you had to check and uncheck all of those nodes.. As you discovered they are not related to deleting, they are about enabling the items.  Uncheck is kind of like saying to LBC to temporarily pretend like the node isn't there.

So we are back to your issue with deleting ALL nodes!? LBC is usually really paranoid about deleteing stuff -- so i'm having a hard time figuring out how it deleted so many nodes, except possibly if it thought you were trying to delete the parent node.. Let's me do some testes, perhaps it's possible to right click and confuse LBC about which node you wanted to delete.

The thing that strikes me about your screenshot is how close the AnVir Task Manager Pro node is to the top parent "Very Useful" node..

Can i confirm that you wanted to delete AnVir Task Manager, the first child, and the result would be what would happen if LBC thought you wanted to delete "Very Useful" and all of that node's childredn?

[cyberdiva]

Thanks, Mouser, for your reply.  For some reason, it didn't appear in my listing of unread posts, so I didn't see it until I poked around a bit this morning. 

The screen shot I posted doesn't actually show the specific program node I was trying to delete.  By the time I wrote my message, I had succeeded in getting rid of that node, using the rather cumbersome method I described in my first message.  So I just chose a random part of my LBC listings as an example of what I was trying to do.  And yes, like AnVir Task Manager, the node I wanted to delete was right below the parent node.  But I thought I was pretty careful about indicating which node I wanted to delete.  And, in any event, even if LBC had mistakenly thought I wanted to delete the parent node ("Very Useful"), why should it have wiped out ALL my nodes in all the different categories rather than just those few in "Very Useful"? 

[mouser]

Is it possible that it was a display bug and not a deletion bug?  In other words, is it possible that it didn't actually delete anything but the node you asked it to delete, but that it messed up and displayed an empty tree?  The only way to know would be if you closed the configuration dialog, was your dock still there and filled with items?

[cyberdiva]

Hi, Mouser.  No, I don't think it was a display bug.  I closed the configuration dialog and my LBC icon was no longer in my system tray.  I also have an icon on my desktop (since I've managed to wipe out LBC more than once before), and when I clicked on it, a box came up that said something about there being no nodes, and do I want to configure LBC now.  I said yes, but after I saw that there really was nothing, I bailed out and instead moved the key backup files from my flash drive to the LBC directory.  That worked.  

BTW, shouldn't this thread appear when I click on "Unread Threads" after you've posted a response?  It hasn't done so.

[mouser]

well that certainly is troubling.. first time i've heard of it happening.

i think what i'll do as a stopgap, since im not sure yet how this could have happened -- is check how many nodes are about to be deleted and give a secondary confirmation dialog if LBC is about to delete > 5 nodes or so.  at least it should serve as a safeguard and maybe we can use that to spot the problem.

[cyberdiva]

Thanks very much, Mouser.  What you propose sounds like a good stop-gap measure.  Would it help if I tried to duplicate the problem?  As long as I have a current backup of the three key files on my flash drive, I wouldn't mind trying to delete a child node and see whether I again run into problems.  However, if you don't think this would be all that useful, I'd just as soon not do it.  If you do think it might help, I'll try to do it later tonight.

BTW, this time the thread did appear in my Unread Posts listing.  Not sure why it didn't do so earlier.

[mouser]

Would it help if I tried to duplicate the problem?

definitely.. but maybe wait for my new version so we can see if it triggers the warning.

[cyberdiva]

Would it help if I tried to duplicate the problem?

definitely.. but maybe wait for my new version so we can see if it triggers the warning.

OK, that's fine.  Just let me know when it's ready.  Again, many thanks.

[cyberdiva]

I've now installed version 1.124.01 and tried to delete just one child node.  In fact, I tried to delete the AnVir Task Manager node pictured in an earlier message, since it was located right under the parent node ("Very Useful").  I was asked whether I was sure I wanted to delete this node (i.e., AnVir).  The only strange thing is that the box with the question seemed to claim that the AnVir Task Manager node had one child node (see screen shot).  I assume it thinks there's a child node that will be deleted along with the AnVir Task Manager node, but there is no child node.  Have I misunderstood what this means?

At any rate, I said yes, I was sure I wanted to delete the AnVir Task Manager node with one child node.  I was happy to see that only the AnVir Task Manager node was deleted, not the other 188 nodes in my LBC.  I don't know whether this tells you anything useful, but at least it means I can continue to use LBC without worrying that deleting one node will delete them all.  (But yes, I will continue to be obsessive about backing up to my flash drive.)

Many thanks once again!

[mouser]

Thanks for the report and the note about the child counts being off by one.

What i found when putting in the new warnings before deleting is that it was very easy to select one node, and then right click on a DIFFERENT node to get the context menu and choose delete, and the node that would be deleted was the previously selected node, NOT the node you right clicked on.  So I think that might have been what happened to you.  Now when you right click on a node it is selected first before the context menu comes up, so i think that should solve the problem.

[cyberdiva]

Thanks, Mouser, for your response.  Actually, I don't think that I highlighted one node but right-clicked on a different one, but even if that's what I did, that doesn't explain why ALL my nodes were deleted.  Had I accidentally right-clicked on the "Very Useful" parent node, wouldn't just that node and its handful of child nodes have been zapped?

Oh well, since I've now successfully deleted just a single node, I think I'll stop worrying about the wholesale zapping incident.  Unless, of course, it happens again  .

[mouser]

If you had just opened the configuration tree, left the default selected node alone, which may default to the dock itself (or the file), and right clicked on a node without first left-click selecting it, it could have deleted the entire tree.

ps. Actually if you clicked delete on the file node it would have just closed the file which would have seemed like everything was deleted.  I have since removed this confusing behavior.