[Bf-committers] proposal for better integration of addon functionality

Gaia gaia.clary at machinimatrix.org
Tue Feb 26 13:19:31 CET 2013


On 26.02.2013 12:55, CoDEmanX wrote:
> 1.) you can set the plugin-icon for any custom menu entry, see python
> template "Addon Add Object". This isn't used by most addons though, and
> I actually like it - the plugin icon (as well as the old 2.49 snake
> icon) kind of annoy me in menus - most menus don't have any icons, and
> the ones with plugin-icon would get the most (visual) attention; menus
> like Add > Mesh do have icons, but the plugin-icon doesn't mean anything
> here, the icon should indicate what shape to expect.
I agree. I also believe that the icon space in the menu entries should 
be reserved to
functional aspects of the entry.  Actually i had something else in my 
mind when i
mentioned "mark entries as addon" That could be a small green dot or a 
small "a"
icon on the top right side of the menu entry. It could even just be a 
different background
color, whatever. Anything that visually indicated "i am just a guest..."
> 2.) I like the idea, but the menu entry should read as "Online Manual
> (addon)" or something like that. There should be an indicator if that
> entry was created by an addon, and it should be possible to jump to the
> addon docs - bl_info['wiki_url'] - but not sure if it's a good idea to
> replace the online manual target, maybe rather add an additional entry
> like "Addon Manual".
We can do that already. You can specify to where the "RMB -> Online Manual"
will beam your borwser. We use this feature frequently in our addons to 
point to
our own context sensitive documentation on the web.
Maybe it is a good idea to mark the online link as "points to Blender wiki"
or "points to addon docs". Especially because when it points to addon 
docs there is
always meaningful documentation around, while when it points to blender 
wiki,
it mostly goes to some meaningless defaultpage at the moment :(
> 3.) Well, how? Using an index number won't work, if another addon
> already added something, maybe even in different (non-subsequent)
> places, your entries will end up somewhere - but not where you wanted
> them. And new built-in menu entries may be added, and they also may
> change. So a "before/after menu entry of name x" wouldn't work either.
> Nonetheless, I'd like to have an operator / low-level API for
> re-ordering panels - currently it's like with menus, either prepend or
> append...

It could be done easily (for menu entries as well as for panel order) like:

append_after(bpy.ops.view3d.snap_selected_to_cursor)

I see no issue in the case where multiple addons want to append after the
same blender operator. However then the order of appearance depends on
the order of enabling the addons. But i believe that should work well in 
general.

> Am 26.02.2013 10:41, schrieb Gaia:
>> Hi;
>>
>> Currently you can not tell if a button or a panel has been added by an
>> addon.
>> We also can not always add additional functionality to meaningful locations.
>>
>> A hypothetical example:
>> =====================
>>
>> Lets say my addon has added a new transform function in Object mode:
>>
>>       "Transform Origin to Active"
>>
>> The natural location for that new option would be (marked with "[A]"):
>>
>> Object -> Transform -> ...
>>
>>                           Origin to Geometry
>> Origin to 3D Cursor
>>                       [A] Origin to Active
>>
>>                           Randomize Transform
>>                           ...
>>
>> But an addon can not add new menu entries "inbetween" existing entries.
>> We only can add a menu entry to the top or the bottom of a menu.
>> And we can not tell if a function has been added by an Addon or if it is
>> a Blender default.
>>
>> A possible solution:
>> =================
>>
>> 1.) mark menu buttons as addon using a color code and/or an icon,
>> similar to how blender 2.49 marked python scripts.
>> 2.) Optional: allow to click on the marker icon and get beamed to the
>> online documentation of that function (currently available under RMB ->
>> Online manual)
>> 3.) Allow to add menu buttons at any functional reasonable location
>> within a menu.
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Bf-committers mailing list
>> Bf-committers at blender.org
>> http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
>>
> _______________________________________________
> Bf-committers mailing list
> Bf-committers at blender.org
> http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers



More information about the Bf-committers mailing list