EDIT

But in a way you are right and the details view when used via distribution editor and the distribution editor itself should maybe even have the same subject.
Except if you want to allow a bit more in the details view then it could have a subject like /taxeditor/distributionEditor/detailsView/ . But for now this is not needed I think.

Anyway, at the moment the details view for the distribution editor still does not use the distribution editor preferences I think.

now the distribution status comes from the same preference and the input of the combo box is updated depending on the area selection.

now, the vocabulary defined in the distribution editor preference is used for the area filter

When trying to edit a distribution in facts view I get an IAE:

login : admin
editor version : 5.8.0.201907180811
server : test.e-taxonomy.eu (edit-test) / rem_conf_am
schema version : 5.5.0.0.20190221
os : Windows Server 2012 R2 6.3 amd64
java : 1.8.0_121
org.eclipse.swt.SWTException: Failed to execute runnable (java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Invalid UUID string: )
    at org.eclipse.swt.SWT.error(SWT.java:4533)
    at org.eclipse.swt.SWT.error(SWT.java:4448)
    at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Synchronizer.runAsyncMessages(Synchronizer.java:185)
    at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.runAsyncMessages(Display.java:4211)
    at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.readAndDispatch(Display.java:3827)
    at org.eclipse.e4.ui.internal.workbench.swt.PartRenderingEngine$4.run(PartRenderingEngine.java:1121)
    at org.eclipse.core.databinding.observable.Realm.runWithDefault(Realm.java:336)
    at org.eclipse.e4.ui.internal.workbench.swt.PartRenderingEngine.run(PartRenderingEngine.java:1022)
    at org.eclipse.e4.ui.internal.workbench.E4Workbench.createAndRunUI(E4Workbench.java:150)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench$5.run(Workbench.java:693)
    at org.eclipse.core.databinding.observable.Realm.runWithDefault(Realm.java:336)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.createAndRunWorkbench(Workbench.java:610)
    at org.eclipse.ui.PlatformUI.createAndRunWorkbench(PlatformUI.java:148)
    at eu.etaxonomy.taxeditor.Application.start(Application.java:24)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.app.EclipseAppHandle.run(EclipseAppHandle.java:196)
    at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.runApplication(EclipseAppLauncher.java:134)
    at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.start(EclipseAppLauncher.java:104)
    at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:388)
    at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:243)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.invokeFramework(Main.java:673)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.basicRun(Main.java:610)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.run(Main.java:1519)
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Invalid UUID string: 
    at java.util.UUID.fromString(UUID.java:194)
    at eu.etaxonomy.taxeditor.ui.section.description.detail.DistributionDetailElement.getStatusListForArea(DistributionDetailElement.java:102)
    at eu.etaxonomy.taxeditor.ui.section.description.detail.DistributionDetailElement.createControls(DistributionDetailElement.java:72)
    at eu.etaxonomy.taxeditor.ui.section.description.detail.DistributionDetailElement.createControls(DistributionDetailElement.java:1)
    at eu.etaxonomy.taxeditor.ui.section.AbstractCdmDetailElement.updateContent(AbstractCdmDetailElement.java:107)
    at eu.etaxonomy.taxeditor.ui.section.AbstractCdmDetailElement.setEntity(AbstractCdmDetailElement.java:94)
    at eu.etaxonomy.taxeditor.ui.section.description.detail.AbstractDetailedDescriptionDetailElement.<init>(AbstractDetailedDescriptionDetailElement.java:51)
    at eu.etaxonomy.taxeditor.ui.section.description.detail.DistributionDetailElement.<init>(DistributionDetailElement.java:57)
    at eu.etaxonomy.taxeditor.ui.element.CdmFormFactory.createDetailedDescriptionDetailElement(CdmFormFactory.java:3132)
    at eu.etaxonomy.taxeditor.ui.section.description.DescriptionElementDetailElement.createControls(DescriptionElementDetailElement.java:42)
    at eu.etaxonomy.taxeditor.ui.section.description.DescriptionElementDetailElement.createControls(DescriptionElementDetailElement.java:1)
    at eu.etaxonomy.taxeditor.ui.section.AbstractCdmDetailElement.updateContent(AbstractCdmDetailElement.java:107)
    at eu.etaxonomy.taxeditor.ui.section.AbstractCdmDetailElement.setEntity(AbstractCdmDetailElement.java:94)
    at eu.etaxonomy.taxeditor.ui.section.AbstractCdmDetailSection.setEntity(AbstractCdmDetailSection.java:135)
    at eu.etaxonomy.taxeditor.view.detail.CdmSectionPart.setFormInput(CdmSectionPart.java:160)
    at org.eclipse.ui.forms.ManagedForm.setInput(ManagedForm.java:210)
    at eu.etaxonomy.taxeditor.view.e4.AbstractCdmDataViewerE4.refresh(AbstractCdmDataViewerE4.java:162)
    at eu.etaxonomy.taxeditor.view.e4.AbstractCdmDataViewerE4.setInput(AbstractCdmDataViewerE4.java:143)
    at eu.etaxonomy.taxeditor.view.e4.details.DetailsViewerE4.setInput(DetailsViewerE4.java:196)
    at eu.etaxonomy.taxeditor.view.e4.details.DetailsViewerE4.setInput(DetailsViewerE4.java:163)
    at eu.etaxonomy.taxeditor.view.e4.AbstractCdmEditorPartE4.showViewer(AbstractCdmEditorPartE4.java:233)
    at eu.etaxonomy.taxeditor.view.e4.details.DetailsPartE4.selectionChanged_internal(DetailsPartE4.java:106)
    at eu.etaxonomy.taxeditor.view.e4.AbstractCdmEditorPartE4$DelaySelection.run(AbstractCdmEditorPartE4.java:90)
    at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.RunnableLock.run(RunnableLock.java:35)
    at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Synchronizer.runAsyncMessages(Synchronizer.java:182)
    ... 23 more

This error is a blocker!!

Andreas Müller wrote:

This error is a blocker!!

I tried to fix with 955fadf4. Will see if it works

The fix seems to work. Katja, can you please check, why empty strings are possible here. It is a bit strange. In the DB the strings look ok:
c9fc9fe0-91a6-4cf0-9f57-31a4b24c3b24;c3ee7048-15b7-4be1-b687-9ce9c1a669d6;310373bf-7df4-4d02-8cb3-bcc7448805fc;42946bd6-9c22-45ad-a910-7427e8f60bfd;b74dc30b-ee93-496d-8c00-4d00abae1ec7;2fda5393-7423-4076-814c-1fa7678d7d33
and
c9fc9fe0-91a6-4cf0-9f57-31a4b24c3b24;c3ee7048-15b7-4be1-b687-9ce9c1a669d6;ddeac4f2-d8fa-43b8-ad7e-ca13abdd32c7;e191e89a-a751-4b0c-b883-7f1de70915c9;42946bd6-9c22-45ad-a910-7427e8f60bfd;59709861-f7d9-41f9-bb21-92559cedd598

These should be split correctly without empty strings. But maybe the handling in the PrefCache is different.

The preference menu is not correct. You put it to UI-DistributionData-VocsAndStatus

UI is only for UI! (as the name says)

Preferences that are data specific should be handled there (e.g. here at Factual Data). Maybe we should put all data related preferences to a common main menu "Data" and then Submenu Factual Data, Taxa, Names, but that needs discussion.

However, the now implemented prefs belong to factual data and might be called distributions ("vocabularies" is anyway the wrong label, should be "areas"). In UI-Distribution Editor we may have a submenu "Areas and status". This could do the same as the above but with always setting "distributionEditor" as part of the subject so it is specific for the distribution editor. Additionally we should have a "use default" switch which allows to use the default values from "factual data" which will be chosen in most cases. We may create a new ticket for this last issue.

Is there a reason why if used in distribution editor, the Status field and the modifying text field in details view is disabled? I understand that "Area" needs to be disabled, but the former fields could (and should) be editable I think.

Beside these issues the implementation works correctly as it looks like. This gives more consistency to data and UI.