Documentation

VisuaLeaf Blank Activity

Blank Activity

Blank Activity is what a fresh tab looks like in VisuaLeaf. Big centered search, three category dropdowns underneath, and no MongoDB or SQL context pinned to it — a scratchpad you can drive to any collection, table, or command in the workspace. Under the hood it embeds the Command Palette and filters it down to the three categories you're most likely to want from a new tab: Create, Saved, and Navigate.

Quick Start

Open a blank tab and jump wherever you want:

  1. Click the + button on any panel's tab strip — or press Ctrl+K / Cmd+K and search "Blank Activity".
  2. Focus the search input (auto-focused on mount) and start typing a collection name, table name, or command.
  3. Press Enter to run the top result — the new activity replaces the blank tab in the same panel slot.

Opening Blank Activity

  • The "+" button on a panel — the fastest way. Every tab strip has a plus icon that opens a Blank Activity in that specific panel, so split-panel workflows stay in the right pane.
  • Command Palette — press Ctrl+K / Cmd+K, type "New Tab" or "Blank Activity", and hit Enter. The palette's Create category has this at the top.

Anatomy of the hero

The page is a single centered column with two blocks:

Search input

A full-width input with the placeholder "Collection, database, or command...". Focus and click both open the results dropdown; blur closes it after a short delay so a click on a result still lands. Below the input, a small hint reminds you that selects and / navigate.

Three category dropdowns

Row of three buttons directly under the search. Each button carries the category's item count and expands into a scrollable panel of every item in that category.

Button Palette category Icon Accent color
Create Create fa-solid fa-plus emerald
Saved Saved Items fa-solid fa-bookmark amber
Navigate Navigation fa-regular fa-compass sky

Only one dropdown can be open at a time. Clicking an already-open button collapses it. Opening a dropdown also clears any active search query so the panel owns the screen without competing with search results.

What Blank Activity is for

Blank Activity is designed to sit between workflows, not inside one. Common uses:

  • Cross-database scratch work — jump from a Mongo collection in one connection to a Postgres table in another without threading through the sidebar.
  • Migration planning — use the Create dropdown to spin up an aggregation, a chart, or a shell script while comparing schemas.
  • Note-taking / staging — open a Blank Activity in a second panel next to a busy pane and use it as a launcher for one-off queries or exports.
  • Team onboarding — the three dropdowns give a new user the same map of the app the sidebar does, without needing them to memorize icons.

Why only three categories?

The Command Palette exposes seven categories in total. Blank Activity intentionally shows just three of them because the other four are already at your fingertips in the surrounding chrome:

  • Workspace, Settings, and Account live in the sidebar and the Ctrl+K palette — a new tab isn't the natural place to switch workspaces, toggle themes, or log out.
  • Collections / Tables is not a dropdown category because there are usually too many rows for a dropdown. Instead, collections and tables show up inside the search results when you type — and the default suggestion list also seeds with them (see below).

How search works

What search walks

Search only walks items in Create, Saved Items, Navigation, and Collections / Tables. Items from the excluded categories (Workspace, Settings, Account) never show up in Blank Activity's results even if their labels or keywords would match.

What counts as a match

A query matches if it appears (case-insensitively) in any of:

  • the item's label,
  • the item's category,
  • the item's description,
  • any of the item's keywords.

The 80-row cap

Blank Activity caps the number of rows it mounts in the dropdown at 80. Search itself still walks the full item list — only the rendered slice is bounded, so short queries stay snappy even in workspaces with thousands of collections and tables. The moment the 80th match is found, the search short-circuits and stops scanning.

Default suggestions

When the input is focused but empty (either right after mounting or after deleting your query), the dropdown fills with the top slice of Collections / Tables instead of going blank. This mirrors the "type nothing, see something" behavior you'd want from a jump-to-collection launcher.

Search results vs. category dropdowns

The two views are mutually exclusive:

  • Typing a query closes any open category dropdown so the results dropdown owns the screen.
  • Opening a category dropdown clears the query and the search results.

Sub-action chips on Collections / Tables rows

Collection and table result rows carry the same inline chip strip as the Command Palette — Documents, Aggregator, Shell, Schema, Charts, Indexes, Export, Import for Mongo; Rows, Schema, Editor, Constraints, Export, Import for SQL. Clicking a chip runs that sub-action instead of the row's main action, so you can jump straight to indexes or the aggregation builder without opening the collection view first.

How selection replaces the tab

Running a result doesn't append a new tab. Instead, the Blank Activity swaps itself out and the opened activity takes its place in the exact same panel slot — so if you split-paned four panels and hit "+" on the third, the new collection view lands in that same third pane. If the action opens a modal instead of an activity (like New Connection), the blank tab is simply removed.

Keyboard shortcuts

The search input owns the keyboard while it's focused — global shortcuts elsewhere in the workspace are not intercepted.

Key Action
Enter Run the highlighted result.
/ Move the active result up or down (wraps around).
Esc Clear the query. If the query is already empty, does nothing (the blank tab stays open).

Tips

  • Split a panel, then hit "+". Blank Activity respects panel context — opening one from a specific panel's plus button keeps the new activity in that same panel.
  • Use the Create dropdown as a checklist. The count badge on each dropdown button shows exactly how many actions are available given your current license and feature flags — a good sanity check when items go missing.
  • Empty query still shows something. Click the search input on a fresh Blank Activity and you'll see your top collections and tables. No need to type anything to start browsing.
  • Use chips to skip steps. Search a collection, then click Indexes or Aggregator on its row instead of opening the default view first.
  • Missing Settings or Workspace? That's by design — use the sidebar or Ctrl+K / Cmd+K for anything outside Create / Saved / Navigate.
  • Command Palette — the same engine that powers Blank Activity's search, but with every category and a global Ctrl+K shortcut.
  • Layout System — how tabs, panels, and split views hold the Blank Activity you open.
  • Workspace Manager — multiple workspaces of tabs, each of which can have its own Blank Activity tabs.
  • Saved Queries — reachable from Blank Activity's Saved dropdown.
  • Sidebar — the Navigate dropdown mirrors the sidebar's top icons.

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