Tiling sessions - multiple sessions on one screen

[robertmcnaught]

Hi, I had a look through forums for this, there was surprisingly little on this feature:

I found a post from last year:

"It is possible to get the Window menu by using a custom menu. However, it doesn't support being able to tile or navigate to specific tabs. I will add your request to our development database for consideration in a future version."

I was looking for a feature like this where you could split the window up to 2 or 4 screens. Using a large monitor, and debugging network problems where you are watching two/four machines communicate needs two windows, and you have to continually switch back and forth between the sessions to see what is going on. Continually, we use watch, or tail -f to look at logs, but still want to control the application with a command on another screen and observe the logs, we need more windows for that.

Before I purchased SecureCRT, I used QuadKonsole on linux, which was amazing, it split up the screen into 4 sessions and was great for debugging network problems across hosts. I think Putty Connection Manager has a similar feature where you can tile sessions across the screen by dragging also.

I know you can have multipe SecureCRT windows open at once and move/tile them yourself, but there is menu overhead on the screen, and whenever you switch monitors, or go back to the laptop screen, they never fit right and continually need adjusted.

I was wondering if this was getting any traction in the roadmap for SecureCRT - you would have my vote.

Robert

[rtb]

Hi Robert,

Thanks for your suggestion. I have created a feature request in our SecureCRT development database to add the capability of tiling 2 or 4 sessions in the SecureCRT window.

Should a future release of SecureCRT have this capability we will post to this forum thread. If you would like to be notified personally, please send an email to support@vandyke.com with a subject of Feature Request in Forum Thread #4601.

[robertmcnaught]

Hi,

Thanks for the quick reply, I think that this has already been requested in a previous posting from a year or so ago, where it was added as a feature request.

Does the VanDyke Product Team have any reason why it has not already been included thus far?

Robert

[rtb]

Hi Robert,

Feature requests are prioritized based on a number of factors, including, but not limited to the number of requests, and the amount of implementation work required.

We have received requests for this feature, but it has not yet become a top priority for implementation.

After this holiday week, I can check with the SecureCRT product director to see if there is anything to add regarding the status of this feature request.

[robertmcnaught]

Thanks Todd, it would be good to know if it is ever likely to get implemented in SecureCRT.

:-)

[Maureen]

Robert,

Tiling sessions in SecureCRT is something we're planning to implement in the next version. I'll post here when we have something for you to try.

Maureen

[robertmcnaught]

Great, thanks Maureen. This will be Version 7? - do you have any estimation of when this will be available?

[Maureen]

I'm not sure what the version number will be yet, but it would be the next version after 6.5. We might have something ready for pre-beta testing early next year (Q1 2010).

Maureen

[wwinfrey]

Robert - Have you considered running screen (http://www.gnu.org/software/screen/) or dvtm (http://www.brain-dump.org/projects/dvtm/) on the remote server and using that to accomplish your tiling needs? dvtm in particular is quite unobtrusive.

[cr1275]

From my guess in the replys. The ability to tile multiple open sessions is being looked into for SecureCRT.

For example tile open sessions like you would do in most windows programs then only have to scroll around in the SecureCRT window to see all of the sessions as they are tiled on the screen.

This would be a great feature and very very use full. I really think this would be a great addition.

Tabs, Open to New Window, and if it is added ? Tile open sessions. What more could you ask for in a session display ? I am very excited that this may be added

Thanks
cr1275

[bgagnon]

Hello cr1275,

I have added this thread to a feature request in our development database to support the ability to tile (or split) sessions. Should a future release of
SecureCRT include this feature, notification will be posted here.

If you prefer direct e-mail notification, contact support@vandyke.com and include "Feature Request - Forum Thread #4601" in the subject line.

[robertmcnaught]

Yes, I have used screen, but really being able to do this in the client application is very useful. I love everything SecureCRT does, except that it does not allow tiling. I have been using QuadKonsole on a Linux vnc sesssion to do this when I need to, but I dont get any features which secureCRT does. I tried Putty Connection Manager for this which allows tiling, but it was too unstable.

Is there any updates on a timeline for a trial of this?

[bgagnon]

Hello robert,

I have no timeline information beyond what Maureen (SecureCRT product director) posted in this thread previously:

I'm not sure what the version number will be yet, but it would be the next version after 6.5. We might have something ready for pre-beta testing early next year (Q1 2010).

I received your e-mail and added your contact information to the feature request in the development database. I also sent you a possible workaround.

[nrwilcock]

I too am interested in this feature - can my contact details also be added to this feature request in the development database.

[rtb]

Hi nrwilcock,

Thanks for your interest in this feature. Your contact details can be and have been added to our development database, so that you can be notified if this feature is added to a future release of SecureCRT.

Please see my response to the email that you sent.