Custom Gui - How to hide the label?

Helper

On 12/01/2015 at 05:35, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Hello Andreas,

Yes, it seems to work fine in descriptions by putting it into a group. It would still be nice if the Custom
Gui would function the same in User Data.

Also, what I have not yet mentioned, is that I had posted a very similar question in the beta forums
months ago where I was trying to implement my own Button Custom Gui. There is the problematic
label again. I will send you the link in a private message as I don't know whether I am allowed to post
it here or not, even though non-beta users won't have access.

About Custom Gui Properties : I think you can set them in a dialog resource, but I have not found
out how you can specify them in description resources, apart from manually creating the custom GUI
in NodeData::GetDDescription() (which would not be available for Python, and this custom GUI should
be used for a Python plugin.

Helper

On 13/01/2015 at 08:01, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Andreas, were you gather more information or ask the developers?
And should I start a separate topic about the Custom GUI Properties in Description Files?

Thanks

Helper

On 13/01/2015 at 08:29, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Hello Niklas,

yes, I have had some time to read the code and also get some developer feedback, but I was lacking the time to answer...
And you won't like the answer... the behavior of the normal button in user data is hard coded. And so is the behavior for other custom guis. There's currently no way to emulate the behavior of the button with a custom gui. Sorry.

So there's currently no option in the implementation of a custom gui to hide the label of a custom gui in user data. Only option is to name the user data (short name) ##. Then the label will be hidden.

Regarding the Custom GUI Properties in description resource files, I did some research as well. I have not found any place this is done in C4D. May be an indicator, this is not possible either. I'll discuss this with the rest of the team tomorrow. Until then there's no need to open another topic.

Helper

On 13/01/2015 at 09:29, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Hello Andreas,

I highly appreciate the time you have invested on finding answers, thank you.

the behavior of the normal button in user data is hard coded. And so is the behavior for other custom guis. There's currently no way to emulate the behavior of the button with a custom gui. Sorry.

This was my biggest fear. Well, one must admit that parts of Cinema are very old that might have been
designed different by today. It would be nice if such old, even seemingly small things, would be adjusted
any time in the future.

So there's currently no option in the implementation of a custom gui to hide the label of a custom gui in user data. Only option is to name the user data (short name) ##. Then the label will be hidden.

Sorry I haven't tested it before, and I still had hope it could be configurable from the plugin, but this
is a solution and that is fine. Wondering where this is documented though?

Regarding the Custom GUI Properties in description resource files, I did some research as well. I have not found any place this is done in C4D. May be an indicator, this is not possible either. I'll discuss this with the rest of the team tomorrow. Until then there's no need to open another topic.

This would be highly unfortunate. The only way to bring custom user interfaces to the Attributes
Manager is via Custom GUIs. Now, if you can not specify their properties in description resources,
the only way to configure them is via GetDDescription(). And this is all not possible from Python.

Kind regards

Niklas

Helper

On 15/01/2015 at 09:33, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Hi Niklas,

forget what I wrote before about CustomGUI properties. It's done all over the place, I simply didn't recognize.

For example a slider:
LONG myID { CUSTOMGUI LONGSLIDER; MINSLIDER 1; MAXSLIDER 1000;}

I think, the problem in your case is, that you expect such properties to propagate through. You'd like to set the properties of a BITMAPBUTTON CustomGUI, which is embedded in your own CustomGUI BANNER. And this won't work.

You will have to implement CustomGuiData for your BANNER and define the needed properties in there. And then you will have to use these to configure the embedded BITMAPBUTTON.

Sorry, for the confusion and that this took a bit longer. I needed some time to unravel the knots in my head.

Helper

On 15/01/2015 at 10:45, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Hello Andreas,

Are you sure these properties are not part of the datatype instead of the Custom GUI? I think MINSLIDER and MAXSLIDER sare part of the ** LONG** datatype, implemented in CustomDataTypeClass::GetProperties(). When creating user-data, you can specify these values not in the "Details" Tab (where the properties are listed) but in the "Properties" Tab (where you change the datatype of the parameter, etc. [Yes, confusing]).

I think, the problem in your case is, that you expect such properties to propagate through. You'd like to set the properties of a BITMAPBUTTON CustomGUI, which is embedded in your own CustomGUI BANNER. And this won't work.

Actually, no. I only have a GeUserArea in my CustomGui dialog and I define the properties in the CustomGuiData subclass.

class BannerGuiCustomGuiData : public CustomGuiData
{
  typedef CustomGuiData super;
public:
  
  // CustomGuiData Overrides
  
  virtual Int32 GetId() override
  {
    return CUSTOMGUI_BANNER;
  }
  virtual CDialog* Alloc(const BaseContainer& settings) override
  {
    BannerGui* dlg = NewObj(BannerGui, settings, this->GetPlugin());
    if (dlg) {
      return dlg->Get();
    }
    return nullptr;
  }
  virtual void Free(CDialog* dlg, void* userdata) override
  {
    if (userdata) {
      BannerGui* gui = static_cast<BannerGui*>(userdata);
      DeleteObj(gui);
    }
  }
  virtual const Char* GetResourceSym() override
  {
    return "BANNER";
  }
  virtual CustomProperty* GetProperties() override
  {
    static CustomProperty props[] = {
      { CUSTOMTYPE_LONG,   BANNERGUI_ICONID,         "ICON_ID" },
      { CUSTOMTYPE_LONG,   BANNERGUI_BGCOLOR_ID,     "BGCOLOR_ID" },
      { CUSTOMTYPE_VECTOR, BANNERGUI_BGCOLOR_VECTOR, "BGCOLOR_VECTOR" },
      { CUSTOMTYPE_FLAG,   BANNERGUI_TRANSPARENT,    "TRANSPARENT" },
      { CUSTOMTYPE_STRING, BANNERGUI_HALIGN,         "ALIGN_H" },
      { CUSTOMTYPE_LONG,   BANNERGUI_WIDTH,          "WIDTH" },
      { CUSTOMTYPE_LONG,   BANNERGUI_HEIGHT,         "HEIGHT" },
      { CUSTOMTYPE_FLAG,   BANNERGUI_LOCKSCALE,      "LOCKSCALE" },
      { CUSTOMTYPE_END, 0, "" },
    };
    return props;
  }
  virtual Int32 GetResourceDataType(Int32*& table) override
  {
    static Int32 _table[] = { DA_LONG, DA_LLONG, DA_STRING, DA_FILENAME };
    table = _table;
    return 4;
  }
};

Best,
Niklas

Helper

On 15/01/2015 at 13:02, xxxxxxxx wrote:

To be honest, I'm not sure at all.

This entire CustomGUI/CustomDataType/resource description/dialog description/dynamic description stuff confused and is still confusing me. No promises made, but sometime I will write an article for the SDK docs, to get this sorted.

On the other hand I tried it here in one of my private plugins.
I just double checked (the plugin contains indeed a CustomDataType as well).
Here's my code:

Int32 ColorHarmonyCustomGuiData::GetId() { return CUSTOMGUI_HARMONY; }
  
CDialog* ColorHarmonyCustomGuiData::Alloc(const BaseContainer& settings)
{
  m_pDlg = NewObj(ColorHarmonyCustomGuiWheel, settings, GetPlugin());
  if (!m_pDlg) {
    return nullptr;
  }
  return m_pDlg->Get();
}
  
void ColorHarmonyCustomGuiData::Free(CDialog* dlg, void* ud)
{
  if (dlg) {
    DeleteObj((GeDialog*&)dlg);
  }
}
  
const Char* ColorHarmonyCustomGuiData::GetResourceSym()
{
  return "HARMONY";
}
  
CustomProperty g_cpHarmonyWheelProps[] =
{
  { CUSTOMTYPE_LONG, HARMONY_RGB_FIRST, "NUM_HARMONIES" }, // SDK Support Test
  { CUSTOMTYPE_END, 0, nullptr }
};
  
CustomProperty* ColorHarmonyCustomGuiData::GetProperties()
{
  return g_cpHarmonyWheelProps;
}
  
Int32 ColorHarmonyCustomGuiData::GetResourceDataType(Int32*& table)
{
  static Int32 l_table[] = { DTYPE_COLOR, CUSTOMDATATYPE_GRADIENT, CUSTOMDATATYPE_HARMONY };
  table = l_table;
  return sizeof(l_table);
}

And in a test resource file, I used:

COLOR ID_TESTOBJECT_HARMONY { FIT_H; SCALE_H; ANIM OFF; CUSTOMGUI HARMONY; NUM_HARMONIES 5; }

I'll double check the LONG datatype tomorrow.

Helper

On 15/01/2015 at 18:19, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Thanks Andreas! Not only to you is it confusing. I don't even want't to tell how much time I had
to invest to get around the CustomGui and CustomDataType stuff. It's poorly documented/explained.

One idea came up while I read your reply: Maybe it doesn't work because the ID of my property
conflicts with an existing ID? BANNERGUI_ICONID for instance has the ID 1000. I'm gonna check
this tomorrow.

Helper

On 23/01/2015 at 07:02, xxxxxxxx wrote:

That wasn't it. The obvious solution was to make a CustomDataTypeClass plugin that exposes the
same custom properties. The settings will be merged in the same BaseContainer that is passed to the
iCustomGui.

I have only one problem left, unfortunately. I want one of the custom properties to be a String.

static CustomProperty BannerGuiProperties[] = {
  { CUSTOMTYPE_LONG,   BANNERGUI_ICONID,         "ICON_ID" },
  { CUSTOMTYPE_LONG,   BANNERGUI_BGCOLOR_ID,     "BGCOLOR_ID" },
  { CUSTOMTYPE_VECTOR, BANNERGUI_BGCOLOR_VECTOR, "BGCOLOR_VECTOR" },
  { CUSTOMTYPE_FLAG,   BANNERGUI_TRANSPARENT,    "TRANSPARENT" },
  **{ CUSTOMTYPE_STRING, BANNERGUI_HALIGN,         "ALIGN_H" },**
  { CUSTOMTYPE_LONG,   BANNERGUI_WIDTH,          "WIDTH" },
  { CUSTOMTYPE_LONG,   BANNERGUI_HEIGHT,         "HEIGHT" },
  { CUSTOMTYPE_FLAG,   BANNERGUI_LOCKSCALE,      "LOCKSCALE" },
  { CUSTOMTYPE_END, 0, "" },
};

But when the property is specified in the Description resource, the entry in the settings container I
get in the iCustomGui is empty (DA_NIL). If the property is left out, I get the default value that I
initialized in CustomDataTypeClass::GetDefaultProperties() (which is fine).

        GROUP {
            BANNER TEST { ICON_ID 5159; WIDTH 16; ALIGN_H "center"; LOCKSCALE; TRANSPARENT; }
        }

class BannerGuiDataType : public CustomDataTypeClass {
  typedef CustomDataTypeClass super;
public:
  
  // CustomDataTypeClass
  
  virtual Int32 GetId() override
  {
    return CUSTOMDATATYPE_BANNER;
  }
  
  virtual CustomDataType* AllocData() override
  {
    return NewObjClear(CustomDataType);
  }
  
  virtual void FreeData(CustomDataType* data) override
  {
    DeleteObj(data);
  }
  
  virtual Bool CopyData(
    const CustomDataType* src, CustomDataType* dest, AliasTrans* at)
    override
  {
    return true;
  }
  
  virtual Int32 Compare(const CustomDataType* d1, const CustomDataType* d2)
    override
  {
    return -1;
  }
  
  virtual Bool WriteData(const CustomDataType* data, HyperFile* hf) override
  {
    return true;
  }
  
  virtual Bool ReadData(CustomDataType* data, HyperFile* hf, Int32 level)
    override
  {
    return true;
  }
  
  virtual const Char* GetResourceSym() override
  {
    return "BANNER";
  }
  
  virtual CustomProperty* GetProperties() override
  {
    return ::BannerGuiProperties;
  }
  
  virtual void GetDefaultProperties(BaseContainer& data) override
  {
    data.SetInt32(BANNERGUI_ICONID, 0);
    data.SetInt32(BANNERGUI_BGCOLOR_ID, -1);
    data.SetVector(BANNERGUI_BGCOLOR_VECTOR, Vector(0, 0, 0));
    data.SetBool(BANNERGUI_TRANSPARENT, false);
    data.SetString(BANNERGUI_HALIGN, "LEFT");
    data.SetInt32(BANNERGUI_WIDTH, -1);
    data.SetInt32(BANNERGUI_HEIGHT, -1);
    data.SetBool(BANNERGUI_LOCKSCALE, false);
    data.SetInt32(DESC_ANIMATE, DESC_ANIMATE_OFF);
    data.SetInt32(DESC_CUSTOMGUI, CUSTOMGUI_BANNER);
  }
};
  
// -------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
BannerGui::BannerGui(
  const BaseContainer& bc, CUSTOMGUIPLUGIN* plugin)
  : super(bc, plugin), iconData(), ownsBitmap(false)
{
  this->ua = NewObjClear(BannerGuiUserArea, this);
  this->iconId = bc.GetInt32(BANNERGUI_ICONID, 0);
  this->transparent = bc.GetBool(BANNERGUI_TRANSPARENT);
  
  if (bc.GetInt32(BANNERGUI_BGCOLOR_ID, -1) < 0) {
    this->bgColor = bc.GetVector(BANNERGUI_BGCOLOR_VECTOR);
  }
  else {
    this->bgColor = bc.GetInt32(BANNERGUI_BGCOLOR_ID);
  }
  
  const String alignMode = bc.GetString(BANNERGUI_HALIGN).ToLower();
  if (alignMode == "right") {
    this->alignH = BANNERGUI_HALIGN_RIGHT;
  }
  else if (alignMode == "center") {
    this->alignH = BANNERGUI_HALIGN_CENTER;
  }
  else if (alignMode == "left" || true) {
    this->alignH = BANNERGUI_HALIGN_LEFT;
  }
  
  this->width = bc.GetInt32(BANNERGUI_WIDTH, -1);
  this->height = bc.GetInt32(BANNERGUI_HEIGHT, -1);
  this->lockScale = bc.GetBool(BANNERGUI_LOCKSCALE, false);
  
  GePrint("HALIGN Dtype: " + String::IntToString(bc.GetType(BANNERGUI_HALIGN)));
  GePrint("Icon ID: " + String::IntToString(this->iconId));
  GePrint("alignMode: " + alignMode);
  GePrint("Width: " + String::IntToString(this->width));
  GePrint("Height: " + String::IntToString(this->height));
  GePrint("LockScale: " + String::IntToString(this->lockScale));
}

An idea where the problem could be? Thanks!

Niklas

Helper

On 26/01/2015 at 10:55, xxxxxxxx wrote:

">I'm not sure where the problem could be!! "I usually get problems with .res files "I like C++ functions more""

what I did in my custom data type class and it worked

  
virtual Bool _GetDescription(const CustomDataType* data, Description& desc, DESCFLAGS_DESC& flags, const BaseContainer& parentdescription, DescID* singledescid)
{
	//won't read res file!!  
	//edited the code
	DescID cid = DescLevel( **/* your ID here, same as the ID used in GetParameter() */ YOURID** , DTYPE_STRING, 0);
	if (!singleid || cid.IsPartOf(*singledescid, nullptr)) // important to check for speedup c4d!
	{
		BaseContainer mstring = GetCustomDataTypeDefault(DTYPE_STRING);
		mstring .SetString(BANNERGUI_HALIGN, "left");
		if (!desc.SetParameter(cid, mstring, DescLevel(0)))
			return true;
	}
	
	flags |= DESCFLAGS_DESC_LOADED;
	return SUPER::_GetDescription(data, desc, flags, parentdescription, singledescid);
}

Helper

On 29/01/2015 at 10:13, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Originally posted by xxxxxxxx

I have only one problem left, unfortunately. I want one of the custom properties to be a String.
        GROUP {
            BANNER TEST { ICON_ID 5159; WIDTH 16; ALIGN_H "center"; LOCKSCALE; TRANSPARENT; }
        }

Hmm, not sure if that's the problem but get rid of the "":

          
            BANNER TEST { ICON_ID 5159; WIDTH 16; ALIGN_H center; LOCKSCALE; TRANSPARENT; }

Also, you shouldn't require a custom datatype to get the settings. At least it works here with a custom gui finely.

Helper

On 11/03/2015 at 12:04, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Niklas,
have you been able to get it working?

Helper

On 22/05/2015 at 06:00, xxxxxxxx wrote:

No unfortunately not. But I had an idea: Could it be that String custom property can not be a hardcoded
string inside the description resource, but must instead be a resource symbol that will be loaded from the
stringtable? I'll try it out as soon as I can.

Helper

On 22/05/2015 at 06:14, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Hmm, I don't think so. The above way does not work for you?
In my custom gui I get the string in the constructor with

m_unit = settings.GetString(MY_UNIT);

and in my description resource it looks like this
REAL ELEMENT_ID { MIN 0; MAX 100; CUSTOMGUI FXUNIT; MY_UNIT SQR_METER; }

then I get a string from the stringtable with

if(m_unit.Compare("SQR_METER")==0)
unit_str = GeLoadString(DPIT_SQR);

works all fine here.

Helper

On 22/05/2015 at 06:23, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Katachi, that is actually what I meant in my previous post. And right now I see in the SDK, the
documentation of CUSTOMTYPE_STRING says: "String data. (An ID from the string table.)".
So, to use it, it must be set up like this?

mydescription.res

CONTAINER mydescription {
    GROUP {
        BANNER MY_BANNER { TITLE MY_BANNER_TITLE; }
    }
}

mydescription.str

STRINGTABLE mydescription {
    MY_BANNER_TITLE "The string to be passed to the TITLE property here";
}

I thought I could use it to write in-line strings into the description. I wanted to use it to specify the
alignment of the banner image using the words "left", "center" and "right" instead of using integers
like -1, 0 and 1 respectively.

Solved [x]

Helper

On 22/05/2015 at 06:38, xxxxxxxx wrote:

yes, exactly like that. Yeah, directly inline won't work but well you can still use LEFT, RIGHT and CENTER instead of MY_BANNER_TITLE right? You would just add each of them to your .str file like:

LEFT "Left";
CENTER "Center";
RIGHT "Right";

Helper

On 22/05/2015 at 07:49, xxxxxxxx wrote:

But my plugin is a Custom Gui plugin, and the other plugin that makes use of the Custom Gui should
not need to add LEFT CENTER and RIGHT to its Stringtable when it wants to use the Custom Gui.

Helper

On 22/05/2015 at 12:32, xxxxxxxx wrote:

It doesn't have to. The other plugin can simply use LEFT, RIGHT and CENTER as well (of course the custom gui must be installed). It doesn't have to redefine them in its stringtable. Or what do you mean?

Helper

On 22/05/2015 at 23:30, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Oh really? In what Stringtable need LEFT,CENTER and RIGHT be defined then?

Helper

On 23/05/2015 at 01:05, xxxxxxxx wrote:

They should be defined in the stringtable of the customgui of yours.
Then once that customgui is installed, the description (and its resources) are registered too so any parsing of your customgui by c4d (no matter where in c4d) shall allow to use these flags.