Drag Object in GeDialog.AddEditText

pyxelrigger

can I drag an obj into an AddEditText to then get string?
similar to the example I show through user data

ferdinand

Thank you for reaching out to us. Please share your code in the future, especially when you have a demo. In the days of AI it is not that time consuming anymore to pump out a basic setup, but it still costs me time to write the query to ask the AI to write me a GeDialog with an edit field in it and then fix the little mistakes the AI makes.

What you want to do is not directly possible. The edit field of a dialog does not support drag and drop events for scene elements. You are comparing it with the multiline edit of the console and with a string parameter in a description, which are both entirely different things.

What you can do, is implement the drag handling yourself. At least to some degree. You cannot mimic the drag-and-drop mouse cursor because the edit field over-rules you there. You can only set the drag cursor when you implement the gadget yourself. You could implement for example a text field with a GeUserArea which lets you both type and drag, and then also displays the correct drag cursor.

Here is a quick and dirty version, which simply handles the drag event on a dialog level.

Cheers,
Ferdinand

Result

Code

"""Demonstrates how to handle drag events in a GeDialog.
"""
import c4d
from c4d import gui

class MyDialog(gui.GeDialog):
    """A simple dialog that displays a text edit field.
    """
    ID_TEXTEDIT: int = 1000

    def CreateLayout(self) -> bool:
        """Called by Cinema 4D to let the dialog populate its controls.
        """
        self.SetTitle('My Dialog')
        self.AddEditText(MyDialog.ID_TEXTEDIT, c4d.BFH_SCALEFIT, 200, 26)
        return True

    def InitValues(self) -> bool:
        """Called by Cinema 4D to let the dialog initialize its controls.
        """
        self.SetString(MyDialog.ID_TEXTEDIT, "Initial text")
        return True

    def Message(self, msg: c4d.BaseContainer, result: c4d.BaseContainer) -> bool:
        """Called by Cinema 4D to convey events to the dialog.

        We use it here to handle drag events.
        """
        # This is an on-going drag event, i.e., the user is actively dragging something over the 
        # dialog and the user is hitting the edit text field.
        if (msg.GetId() == c4d.BFM_DRAGRECEIVE and 
            self.CheckDropArea(MyDialog.ID_TEXTEDIT, msg, True, True)):
            # Set the cursor: Does not work because we do not own the gadget implementation, the 
            # edit text field overwrites our cursor.
            # self.SetDragDestination(c4d.MOUSE_POINT_HAND)

            # We unpack the drag data from the drag message. The drag data is a dictionary with two
            # keys: 'type' and 'object'. The 'type' key holds the type of the drag data (e.g., 
            # files). The 'object' key holds the actual drag data (e.g., a list of files).
            dragData: dict = self.GetDragObject(msg)
            dragType: int = dragData.get('type', c4d.NOTOK)
            dragObject: any = dragData.get('object', None)
            if dragType == c4d.NOTOK or dragObject is None:
                return c4d.gui.GeDialog.Message(self, msg, result)
            
            text: str | None = None

            # An atom array (a C++ thing which does not exist in Python) is a list of scene elements.
            # Objects, tags, layers, shaders, materials, etc. are currently dragged over the dialog.
            if dragType == c4d.DRAGTYPE_ATOMARRAY:
                text = (", ".join([obj.GetName() for obj in dragObject]) 
                        if len(dragObject) > 1 else dragObject[0].GetName())
            # Unknown file types, images, or scenes are currently dragged over the dialog.
            if dragType in (c4d.DRAGTYPE_FILES, c4d.DRAGTYPE_FILENAME_IMAGE, 
                            c4d.DRAGTYPE_FILENAME_OTHER, c4d.DRAGTYPE_FILENAME_SCENE):
                dragObject = list(dragObject) if not isinstance(dragObject, list) else dragObject
                text = (", ".join(dragObject) if len(dragObject) > 1 else dragObject[0])
            
            # We set the text in the edit text field when we had a valid drag event.
            if text is not None:
                self.SetString(MyDialog.ID_TEXTEDIT, text)

        return c4d.gui.GeDialog.Message(self, msg, result)


dialog: MyDialog = MyDialog()
if __name__=='__main__':
    dialog.Open(dlgtype=c4d.DLG_TYPE_ASYNC, xpos=-2, ypos=-2, defaultw=400, default=400)

pyxelrigger

hmm is it not possible to add the same element that is in the user data?
I tried using

self.AddCustomGui(IDOBJ , pluginid=c4d.CUSTOMGUI_STRING, flags=c4d.BFH_SCALEFIT, minw=0, minh=0, customdata=c4d.BaseContainer())

but it didn't work

ferdinand

Hey @pyxelrigger,

sure you can use the string custom GUI. You could also use a base link or a filename field which be the more natural solutions for this. But you asked for AddEditText and that is what I answered.

Cheers,
Ferdinand