Hello @holgerbiebrach,
please excuse the wait. So, this is possible in Python and quite easy to do. This new behavior is just the old dialog folding which has been reworked a little bit. I have provided a simple example at the end of the posting. There is one problem regarding title bars which is sort of an obstacle for plugin developers which want to distribute their plugins, it is explained in the example below.
I hope this helps and cheers,
Ferdinand
The result:
The code:
"""Example for a command plugin with a foldable dialog as provided with the
Asset Browser or Coordinate Manger in Cinema 4D R25.
The core of this is just the old GeDialog folding mechanic which has been
changed slightly with R25 as it will now also hide the title bar of a folded
dialog, i.e., the dialog will be hidden completely.
The structure shown here mimics relatively closely what the Coordinate Manger
does. There is however one caveat: Even our internal implementations do not
hide the title bar of a dialog when unfolded. Instead, this is done via
layouts, i.e., by clicking onto the ≡ icon of the dialog and unchecking the
"Show Window Title" option and then saving such layout. If you would want
to provide a plugin which exactly mimics one of the folding managers, you
would have to either ask your users to take these steps or provide a layout.
Which is not ideal, but I currently do not see a sane way to hide the title
bar of a dialog. What you could do, is open the dialog as an async popup which
would hide the title bar. But that would also remove the ability to dock the
dialog. You could then invoke `GeDialog.AddGadegt(c4d.DIALOG_PIN, SOME_ID)`to
manually add a pin back to your dialog, so that you can dock it. But that is
not how it is done internally by us, as we simply rely on layouts for that.
"""
import c4d
class ExampleDialog (c4d.gui.GeDialog):
"""Example dialog that does nothing.
The dialog itself has nothing to do with the implementation of the
folding.
"""
ID_GADGETS_START = 1000
ID_GADGET_GROUP = 0
ID_GADGET_LABEL = 1
ID_GADGET_TEXT = 2
GADGET_STRIDE = 10
GADEGT_COUNT = 5
def CreateLayout(self) -> bool:
"""Creates dummy gadgets.
"""
self.SetTitle("ExampleDialog")
flags = c4d.BFH_SCALEFIT
for i in range(self.GADEGT_COUNT):
gid = self.ID_GADGETS_START + i * self.GADGET_STRIDE
name = f"Item {i}"
self.GroupBegin(gid + self.ID_GADGET_GROUP, flags, cols=2)
self.GroupBorderSpace(5, 5, 5, 5)
self.GroupSpace(2, 2)
self.AddStaticText(gid + self.ID_GADGET_LABEL, flags, name=name)
self.AddEditText(gid + self.ID_GADGET_TEXT, flags)
self.GroupEnd()
return True
class FoldingManagerCommand (c4d.plugins.CommandData):
"""Provides the implementation for a command with a foldable dialog.
"""
ID_PLUGIN = 1058525
REF_DIALOG = None
@property
def Dialog(self) -> ExampleDialog:
"""Returns a class bound ExampleDialog instance.
"""
if FoldingManagerCommand.REF_DIALOG is None:
FoldingManagerCommand.REF_DIALOG = ExampleDialog()
return FoldingManagerCommand.REF_DIALOG
def Execute(self, doc: c4d.documents.BaseDocument) -> bool:
"""Folds or unfolds the dialog.
The core of the folding logic as employed by the Asset Browser
or the Coordinate manager in R25.
"""
# Get the class bound dialog reference.
dlg = self.Dialog
# Fold the dialog, i.e., hide it if it is open and unfolded. In C++
# you would also want to test for the dialog being visible with
# GeDialog::IsVisible, but we cannot do that in Python.
if dlg.IsOpen() and not dlg.GetFolding():
dlg.SetFolding(True)
# Open or unfold the dialog. The trick here is that calling
# GeDialog::Open will also unfold the dialog.
else:
dlg.Open(c4d.DLG_TYPE_ASYNC, FoldingManagerCommand.ID_PLUGIN)
return True
def RestoreLayout(self, secret: any) -> bool:
"""Restores the dialog on layout changes.
"""
return self.Dialog.Restore(FoldingManagerCommand.ID_PLUGIN, secret)
def GetState(self, doc: c4d.documents.BaseDocument) -> int:
"""Sets the command icon state of the plugin.
This is not required, but makes it a bit nicer, as it will indicate
in the command icon when the dialog is folded and when not.
"""
dlg = self.Dialog
result = c4d.CMD_ENABLED
if dlg.IsOpen() and not dlg.GetFolding():
result |= c4d.CMD_VALUE
return result
def RegisterFoldingManagerCommand() -> bool:
"""Registers the example.
"""
return c4d.plugins.RegisterCommandPlugin(
id=FoldingManagerCommand.ID_PLUGIN,
str="FoldingManagerCommand",
info=c4d.PLUGINFLAG_SMALLNODE,
icon=None,
help="FoldingManagerCommand",
dat=FoldingManagerCommand())
if __name__ == '__main__':
if not RegisterFoldingManagerCommand():
raise RuntimeError(
f"Failed to register {FoldingManagerCommand} plugin.")
