Option to stop GSX menu from automatically closing

[virtuali]

I'll try to explain it in a different way:

When the icon is Active

- GSX will be able to open/close the menu remotely, if it needs to.

- You will be able to see the text notifications, when GSX is asking to do something. That's not necessarily something you need to open the menu for, usually it's beeping to tell you to close/open a door or do something else that doesn't necessarily involves opening the menu.

- IF you need to open the menu with the icon Active, you must click the toolbar icon twice, first to deactivate it, and again to re-open the menu. THAT'S why, in some cases, when GSX *knows* the next *likely* action will require opening the menu ( for example at the end of the pushback when confirming Engines start ), it would automatically close it to SAVE you from that double click!


When the icon is not Active

- GSX cannot open the menu, only you can.

- You won't see any text notifications, so you'll need to figure out what GSX wants with a beep, which most of the times come with a voice (that's the main point for the voice, to clarify what is being asked when the icon is not active, because we miss the tooltips )

- Reopening the menu would only require a single click in this case.

I hope is clearer now.

It would work so much better if only Simconnect applications were permitted to access the JS Framework to make a call to open a panel programmatically, if we could do that, none of this would be necessary.

[HAExperts]

This was really helpful thanks.

Just one last thing.  So, I understand, the menu "SHOULD" open automatically when it needs user intervention that is from GSX menu (confirm engine start) for example?  That seems to be the crutch I experience as sometimes it doesn't work but now with this better understanding I will mess with it in a bit and see what it does without pressing the menu button this time.

As others have said, maybe have an option to change the timeout of the menu to something longer or user choice.  Since, for me at least, sometimes I just do not hit the button in time while I am doing a bunch of other things.

[virtuali]

So, I understand, the menu "SHOULD" open automatically when it needs user intervention that is from GSX menu (confirm engine start) for example? 

That's precisely the moment when it shouldn't, which I discussed to make an example of when GSX auto-closed the menu ( after starting pushback ), because your next likely action would be opening the menu to confirm engine start. If the menu didn't auto-close, you would have to click twice on the icon.

The confirm engine start is made to not open the menu automatically (if it was, it wouldn't auto-close on pushback start! ), on the assumption you might be busy...starting the engine, so GSX doesn't want to intrude with a pop-up menu.

[HAExperts]

Ok so here is what happened with my testing.

I am using PMDG 737-700.

Loaded in at gate.  Pressed GSX, it highlighted, then I pressed start boarding.  Menu closed after a little bit.  Then heard beeping, GSX menu was no longer highlighted.  Had to hit it again twice and wait for the menu to be gone and start seeing and hearing notifications.  Is this accurate?  Shouldn’t it stay highlighted after hitting board plane?  Also does hitting the X on the menu clear the GSX icon activation?  Because it did once or twice.

Also, for some reason the back left door and right front door open along with the front left.  I have disabled staircases and only using jetway here in KLAS.  Any other setting I should look at?  I also tried disabling the door completely on the left AFT through airplane modification.  That did not do anything.

I have set Assistance services auto mode and unchecked Automode ignores doors.  I notice with the automode when it goes from boarding complete to Catering/fuel GSX icon again deactivated.  Again, I am not sure if I am doing something wrong but I would hope the icon stays on the entire process?  Is it best to just do them one at a time?

Other than that the pushback seemed to work without any issues.

Thanks

[virtuali]

Loaded in at gate.  Pressed GSX, it highlighted, then I pressed start boarding.  Menu closed after a little bit.  Then heard beeping, GSX menu was no longer highlighted.  Had to hit it again twice and wait for the menu to be gone and start seeing and hearing notifications.  Is this accurate?  Shouldn’t it stay highlighted after hitting board plane?

That's correct. GSX cannot possibly anticipate your next move, that's why I said the menu auto-closes depending on your next LIKELY action. After boarding, GSX assumes your next likely action would be calling another service, so it auto-closes it to *SAVE* your from clicking twice to call a new service, which you would have to do if it didn't auto-close.

But this result in not seeing notifications so yes, it's a compromise, either you get all notifications ( if the icon is always active ), but then you'll have to *always* double click to do *anything*, or you miss some text prompts, but you'll be spared from some double-clicks.

Also does hitting the X on the menu clear the GSX icon activation?  Because it did once or twice.

It always does. The only time the icon stays active is:

- When you select a menu option, and GSX in *THAT* particular situation is programmed to NOT auto-close

- When you open the menu, don't choose anything, let the timeout expire AND GSX in *THAT* particular situation is programmed to NOT auto-close

Also, for some reason the back left door and right front door open along with the front left.  I have disabled staircases and only using jetway here in KLAS.  Any other setting I should look at?  I also tried disabling the door completely on the left AFT through airplane modification.  That did not do anything.

That's because you called Boarding and Catering at the same time, so it's possible the menu commands on the FMC overlapped.

I have set Assistance services auto mode and unchecked Automode ignores doors.

That's  why services are overlapping. Auto-mode is Disabled by default, and I don't suggest using that option, I think it cause more problems than it solves, we only added because some users asked for it, but it's way better if you call the services yourself, when you need them.

Automode ignore doors won't prevent the auto-door option to try open doors, if it knows of to do it.

[alexberry]

Please don’t shoot me down, but Navigraph, as an example,  provides an in-sim toolbar integration which, once clicked on to open initially, can be hidden or brought back into focus by means of a hot-key. Perhaps this sort of functionality is what folk are suggesting in terms of GSX.

Nowhere I ever said you can't bring up a closed toolbar menu, I said this can be done only from JS so, if a toolbar add-on is written completely as a self-contained JS program, it can do that. However, this ability is not available to Simconnect applications that runs externally to the sim, like GSX.

EDIT:

I installed the Navigraph toolbar utility, and it works *exactly* like GSX: while you can open/close the menu with a key ( CTRL+N ), this works only as long the toolbar ICON is Active. The moment you close the icon, it deactivates, so the hotkey doesn't work anymore until you reactivate the toolbar icon again. While this might not be a problem for that app, it is for GSX, because there's no way to prevent users disabling the icon, and there are several situations ( Refuel, Deicing, etc. ) where GSX needs to pop-up a menu after a while, as part of a procedure that started earlier, which won't work if the icon is Disabled.

That's true and certainly a limitation, but not insurmountable.  So, if there was a hotkey (one that didn't interfere with default keyboard bindings) that could hide and show the GSX menu while it's active, this would work.  And as long as users were aware that if they close the GSX menu with the red cross in top right corner, the GSX in-game menu/icon will be no-longer active, the hot key won't work and auto popups won't happen until they re-activate it via the toolbar at the top.  Given it's already an issue for users that choose to close the GSX in-game menu via the red-cross top right in terms of whether the menu will automatically reappear when user-input is required, I don't see the option of a show/hide key is massively different.

Buy hey-ho, just a thought, and I know this is probably really unhelpful and unwanted...

[fahdriyami]

It would work so much better if only Simconnect applications were permitted to access the JS Framework to make a call to open a panel programmatically, if we could do that, none of this would be necessary.

Is there a feedback request in the MSFS Forum for this that we can upvote? I did a quick search for "SimConnect Javascript" but didn't find anything specific.

[HAExperts]

So, I want to understand a little more clearly.  If I was to hit boarding and let GSX do it’s thing and not touch anything at all.  The Menu will close AND the GSX icon will also deactivate?  That is what happened to me when I hit boarding.  I will try it without the “auto” mode and see what results I get.

The problem I foresee is not knowing when something is completed.  I noticed when I tried it yesterday it never told me when things were completed (boarding completed, fueling completed, etc).  I wonder if it had something to do with auto mode.

[virtuali]

So, I want to understand a little more clearly.  If I was to hit boarding and let GSX do it’s thing and not touch anything at all.  The Menu will close AND the GSX icon will also deactivate?  That is what happened to me when I hit boarding

That's precisely what's has been explained here which is supposed to happen. If it didn't close, then next time you needed to use the menu, you would have to click twice. Please try to re-read all the explanations here, I've tried to explain it as best I could.