DarkEDIF - Taking suggestions

[Atom]

Ideas/Requests -

A way to launch a exe (MMF2 made also hopefully), jar or webview containing a swf or javascript from the edittime side of things would be really useful. What i have in mind for a extension is a editor that you generate a string output with, so it doesn't need a return to work as you would just paste it into the extensions parameter input in a action etc.

If you could launch local hosted apps and have returns back to propeties or if not directly through a string reader or something that would be even better though since i can make nice editors 100x faster with MMF2 than i can with C++ code.

---

A way to have one control switch values within the JSON or by reading a local txt would be really cool. Basically i am thinking along the lines of presets for a objects properties, so if it was a particle maker extension then you could switch between the different effects simply by changing a dropdown lists item etc. Hopefully this would be possible also as it might be similar to the multi-language setup you describe.

---

You could maybe have a automatic documentation generator which reads the JSON and outputs a HTML template etc ready to edit. I notice some developers don't make docs but if most of the process is automated and they just need to add descriptions manually it might change that.

[Phi]

Atom, not sure about your first point. Maybe an explanation on ClickConverse would be better.
The second points looks good, "Load properties from files". This effect can be achieved with a MFA with those objects in, though
I will add it though.
The third point is also nice, although that's not really an SDK but more of an program beside it per se. That will be part of the SDK as well

[LB]

Though it still would be great if it had documentation, as it would allow a absolute newbie to C++ to make extensions. Even a simple example extension [...] would be good. A extension that actually does something (simple), but is simple enough for anyone to understand. That would still allow a absolute newbie to C++ to learn from the example extension and then make their own extension, it just might take them a little bit longer to understand what code they need to use to make the extension they want to make.

That's what the EDIF Template extension is

[Atom]

Thanks Phi that sounds great

For my first point i basically just mean in the JSON you would add some code to add a edittime button that appears in the properties (which sounds like the current plan), however when pressed it would then launch a EXE you had in a Data\Runtime extension folder or some other MMF2 folder which the SDK would be able to find.

I am not sure how you will be doing the GUI controls in the JSON code but with a quick guess for the button to run a exe you could maybe have something like this -

"Editor Properties":
[
[0, "Value Input" , "Name:Test 001", "Min:0", "Max:100", "Default:0"] // Some other control
[1, "Value Input" , "Name:Test 001", "Min:0", "Max:100", "Default:0"] // Some other control
[2, "Button" , "Name:Run Map Editor", "OnClick: Load("Data\Runtime\ExtName\MapEditor.exe");"] // The button that loads the EXE you want
]

Then with MapEditor.exe (or any other exe you wanted) you would just use it for whatever you needed like a helper tool, in this case to make a map file that could be saved and loaded with the extension actions etc.

I guess my idea would just be a way of running helper apps that would normally be external tools but if you added in a way for extensions to load properties from files also they could get saved data back also and work together as if the EXE was a dialog from the extensions properties.

With my second suggestion i mentioned a external TXT/INI file based preset system which would be great but another useful thing you could do with the EXE launching would be to directly manage those TXT/INI files to add.remove a preset etc. It sounds like you wanted Multi-linguistic INI's so i guess you could do basically the same thing same again with that and launch a EXE tool to directly manage them also.

[LB]

I can do one better; make it an action that you click in the action menu that runs the program and when the program finishes the action is already set up to load the map

[MattEsch]

Can you add a flag which adds conditions/actions/expressions for manipulating the object properties? Some extensions rely completely on these object properties. Automatically adding conditions/actions/expressions for object property manipulation (based on type) could save a lot of time.

This allows for easily creating objects which solely contain properties, avoiding abuse of the alterable values or strings on an active (which don't facilitate floating point values in the editor for example).

[Phi]

In most cases, people run some setup code in CreateRunObject which needs that preset condition. For example, defining an editbox as a password must be done while creating it. Recreating the window control would lose all the properties the old one had. And you can't modify that is-password property for obvious security reasons.

As far as forcing an override.... hmm. Not sure that's a good idea, or that it's even possible - when the object is created, the data set at edittime is given to the runtime for re-storage.
An action doesn't change the property the same way that the edittime->runtime change does.
Secondly, it would also be impossible to determine if there's already an action/etc that modifies that. For example, a "Set Default Path Enabled" action would modify a filename path, but take no parameters. I'd have to force the developers to reveal which variables they are setting with each a/c/e, which if they don't want properties to work would defeat the point of the feature.

Otherwise, just have an override setting for all the variables, which could cause unexpected results plus would require the object to be recreated (if it's a window control like Editbox). I'm going to have to refuse this change.

[Atom]

I can do one better; make it an action that you click in the action menu that runs the program and when the program finishes the action is already set up to load the map

That is a great idea, running exe's directly from the action menu will be really great also and that is the main part where this type of feature would be most useful but for some reason i had not even thought of doing that before. Being able to launch a exe from the object properties would still be useful also if you just wanted to quickly launch something for whatever reason. If you could give some quick SDK examples for doing both of these when you release the SDK that would be helpful.

Thanks Phi, this SDK is going to be the best yet.

[Phi]

To be honest, still lost about your point Atom, I'd get it a lot better if we IM'd on ClickConverse. It's available in the subtopic of Open Topic Community Forum

[Atom]

For a really simple idea of what i mean add the XLua object to the frame, go to the first page of it's Properties and there should be a button that says "Edit", click that and it will make a window appear where you can then code with LUA. Other objects to test that have custom windows which either after getting added, double clicked or pressing a "Edit" button in the About pages are Flame Object, Active Gradient object, Color Selector and the Blowfish Object but i am sure there are others also.

Put simply my idea is rather than built in windows appearing it would be a .exe that loads instead.