Droplets

Droplets are small applications which can be created and placed on the desktop via Settings - General - Droplets. While the droplets are created on the desktop, they are not position dependent. They may be moved to any folder. However, they cannot be renamed. Multiple instances of a named droplet cannot exist, even if moved off the desktop.

You must specify a name for the droplet. If the name contains invalid characters, you will be notified.

You must enter the name of an action to be run or select it in one of two ways. Using the dropdown control attached to the field you can select from a flat list of all non hidden actions. Using the dropdown control at the far right, you can select an action in a menu reflecting the current layout in the Action Manager. Whenever an action name is entered or selected and the droplet name field is empty, the action name will be copied to the droplet name field.

Whenever an action is run by a droplet, named variable Droplet Name will be set. Note that droplets created prior to Yate v7.0 do not set the named variable. There are three methods in which a droplet can be run:

Load Dropped Files and Run Action

When files are dragged to a droplet's icon, the files are opened in Yate with the supplied Open Mode settings and the specified action is run. The supplied Open Mode remains in effect when the action terminates. Named variable Pre Droplet Open Mode is set to the Open Mode's settings prior to executing the action. The Set Open Mode statement with Runtime override enabled, can be used to restore the original settings.

eg.

Copy named variable 'Pre Droplet Open Mode' to named variable 'Set Open Mode Runtime Override'
Set Open Mode using runtime override

Only the files being loaded are preselected and processed by the action. If you want all loaded files to be processed by the action, specify All Files in the Action Manager. Alternately you can put an Expand Execution to Unselected Files statement at the start of the action.

If a droplet is opened and no files have been dragged onto it, the configuration of the droplet will be displayed.

Run Action Without Loading Files

The specified action is run when the droplet is opened.

If a droplet is opened with the Option key pressed, the configuration of the droplet will be displayed.

Run Action With a List of Dropped Files

When files are dragged to a droplet's icon, the specified action is run. Named variable Droplet Files will contain a list of the dropped files delimited by the Default List Delimiter (\~).

If a droplet is opened and no files have been dragged onto it, the configuration of the droplet will be displayed.

Note that renaming an action will not rename the action stored in a droplet. If you want to rename actions specified in a droplet, you have to delete the existing droplet and create a new one.

When a droplet is run and the action cannot be found, files may be still be loaded. No error is issued. For all droplet modes, the action being run will require at least one selected file unless it has Always enabled in the Action Manager.

Suppressing the Popup of the Main Window

When creating the droplet and Suppress opening the main window is enabled, the following holds:

• If Yate is not running, the main window will not open. If Yate is already running and the main window is closed, it will not be displayed.
• The application will run normally but the main window will not be displayed unless one of the following occurs:
  • Yate's dock icon is hit.
  • Window>Show Main Window is selected.
  • There is the need to display a sheet (panel) on top of the main window. For example the Action Editor runs and there are updates.
  • The Batch Processor terminates.

This mechanism provides the ability to start Yate as part of a workflow where you do not want the main window to display. It is possible to write the called action to terminate Yate when it completes.

If you are already running Yate and you want to be able to run a subsequent droplet with the suppress mode, close the main window before started the droplet.

Deleting Droplets

Droplets are registered. In order to delete a droplet you must unregister it. When a droplet is unregistered and it still exists on the desktop, the droplet will be deleted. If the droplet application exists elsewhere than on the desktop, you must manually delete it. The Unregister control is only displayed when there are registered droplets. The control displays a menu of all registered droplets. Selecting an item, unregisters it and possibly deletes it. If more than one droplet is registered, you can elect to unregister all of them.