Discussion: Subapps as Widgets and the Future

What does everyone think about the potential to use subapps as functional widgets?

The plus side is that all the objects would be in one package. The down side is that you have to use Global Values and Strings to communicate data, basically. However, the subapp can be visual for certain uses.

Also, now that we see that Widgets can be as useful as extensions are, what might we consider for the future? Should a future version of MMF allow for more specific ways to create Widgets that users can just plug into their apps and games? Do you have any ideas about the way you would like to see that implemented?

I am looking forward to ideas and discussion on this.

It could be useful to somebody....
A feature I would like is a Folder Object that you can copy files into and you would be able to give that a behaviour(to make multiwidgets better)

This is what me and Atom had to suggest on the future of widgets in a different thread a while back:

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Originally Posted by Atom

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Event Editor - Temp Instance Of Extensions
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I would like to see a way to make a temp instance of a extension in the event editor so one that is not required to be in a frame. This would allow you to make a widget that contains a extension etc so for example you could use something like 'Drag Object' and setup all of the events you needed inside the widget.

What this means is you would be able to save it to your library and instantly drag and drop the object complete with actions and ready to go right away rather than having to do it from the start or loading an example in and copying the code and extensions setups over into a frame each time.

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Originally Posted by Raylax

Widgets are obviously really helpful, but as Atom said, if they have multiple extensions and objects, they all need to be put into the frame manually. To speed things up, I think a new save file type, used exclusively for widgets, would be really handy. The creator of the widget would use Save As... > Widget (I'm just gonna use a non-existant *.wgt extension from now on). Then, the person wanting to use the widget would be able to use Import > Widget (or grab it from a special library). MMF2/3 would then go through the file, drop the necessary extensions onto the frame, then any actives with their behaivour(s).

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Good thinking and on spot.

Already the idea is articulated well and sounds compelling. I think that helps support a potentially useful addition.

Ideas start the process, obviously.

I didn't deal with widgets very much before but the widget competition showed me that widgets could be very useful and this is a powerful feature of MMF2.

The idea what others said is really great. A widget file, or only a "Widget folder" that contains all of the neccessary extensions and objects for the widget would be good (and we could also change the icon of the folder...). Users had to put only the folder into the frame.

With these ideas, MMF2/MMF3 could be edited to load *.wgt files as extensions.

Another interesting idea would be to be able to mask say a value or string input for the widget and use it just like an extension in the events editor also. So you have behind the scenes a counter with 0 = off and 1 = on then in the editor you see something like Hide Shadow and Show Shadow or whatever you were doing so basically using the widget just like an extension object with simple to follow commands because you have this already to a degree with the alterable values etc but if you set up commands for inputs you would have to know what they were doing this would basically be just giving you a menu for this and making it a nice way to use values and widgets for dynamic input.

It also means that if the widgets already using internal values you wouldn't have to go inside and find the comment telling you what value does what and is like a visual mask that simplifies more complex input based widgets.

I have always had an idea for a program Clickteam could release. This program would allow you to use the features of other MMF extensions, create variables and menus, and then build a new MMF extension.

Can't you just use the Global Function object to send data if you have too many Global Values used up.

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Originally Posted by Jaffob

I have always had an idea for a program Clickteam could release. This program would allow you to use the features of other MMF extensions, create variables and menus, and then build a new MMF extension.

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That would be awesome! Apart from it not actually helping anything...