PopDialog Custom COMP Examples

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This page contains examples of how to set up a popDialog custom component. All examples assume a basic knowledge of TouchDesigner and Python.

For full documentation of popDialog, see: PopDialog Custom COMP.

Example 1 - Notification Pop-Up Dialog[edit]

Notification Pop-Up Dialog

In this example, we will create a very simple popDialog that gives the user a notification which must be clicked.

Creating a popDialog[edit]

To create a popDialog, drag one from the Palette (Derivative>UI folder) into your network.

Setting the basic parameters[edit]

To create the example pop-up, go to the Pop Dialog custom parameter page and set the parameters to duplicate the image below:

Notification Pop-Up Dialog Pars

  • Title: text for the title bar.
  • Text: main dialog text.
  • Buttons: number of buttons to display.
  • Button Label 1: text for button 1. Note: button 2 is ignored because Buttons is set to 1.
  • On Esc Press Button: if Esc key is pressed, simulate a press of the chosen button.
  • On Enter Press Button: if Enter key is pressed, simulate a press of the chosen button.
  • Esc On Click Away: if True, clicking anywhere but on the dialog (or switching to another application window) will simulate an Esc key press.

For details on all popDialog parameters, see popDialog wiki.

Opening the popDialog[edit]

To test the popDialog, click the Open parameter. That works for testing, but a dialog like this is generally opened in a Python script. To open, simply invoke the popDialog's Open method. You can do so by typing this in the textport:

op("<path to your popDialog>").Open()

Example 2 - Selection Pop-Up Dialog[edit]

Selection Pop-Up Dialog

In this example, we will create a popDialog that gives the user a few buttons to choose from. We will also write a script to react to those buttons.

Creating a popDialog[edit]

To create a popDialog, drag one from the Palette (Derivative>UI folder) into your network.

Setting the parameters[edit]

To create the example pop-up, go to the Pop Dialog custom parameter page and set the parameters to duplicate the image below:

Selection Pop-Up Dialog Pars

The following parameters are notably different from the first example:

  • Title: set to blank just to see what a popDialog looks like with no title bar.
  • Buttons: we want four buttons this time.
  • Button Label 1-4: these are the four options available.
  • On Esc Press Button: we want to pick the "Cancel" button if Esc is pressed.
  • On Enter Press Button: since there is no obvious default choice for Enter, just pick the "Cancel" button in this case too.

You can now test the dialog by clicking the Open parameter. It looks right, but doesn't do anything yet.

Writing an onSelect callback[edit]

For this step, we will need a Text TOP in the network next to your popDialog. Create that and make sure its name is "text1". Now, to edit the popDialog's Callback DAT, click the Edit Callbacks parameter on the Callbacks page. Enter the following text into the DAT:

def onSelect(info):
	"""A button has been pressed"""
	if info['button'] == "Cancel":
		return
	else:
		textTOP = info['ownerComp'].op('../text1')
		textTOP.par.alignx = info['buttonNum'] - 1

The popDialog callbacks use the TouchDesigner Python Callback System, which sends all callbacks a single argument (info) which holds a dictionary of relevant information. In the if statement at the top of this callback, you can see that info['button'] holds the text of the button that was pressed. If that button is "Cancel" we exit the callback without doing anything. If not, we look at info['buttonNum'], which holds the number of the button pressed. This number, minus one, corresponds to the textTOP's alignx parameter to set the appropriate alignment. Notice that when identifying the textTOP location, we start from the popDialog itself, which is stored in info['ownerComp'].

Save your callback DAT and try the popDialog again while looking at the text1. Pressing the dialog buttons now sets the alignment of the text!

Example 3 - Text Entry Pop-Up Dialog[edit]

Text Entry Pop-Up Dialog

In this example, we will create a popDialog that allows the user to enter text. We will also write a script to use that text.

Creating a popDialog[edit]

To create a popDialog, drag one from the Palette (Derivative>UI folder) into your network.

Setting the parameters[edit]

To create the example pop-up, go to the Pop Dialog custom parameter page and set the parameters to duplicate the image below:

Selection Pop-Up Dialog Pars

The following parameters are notably different:

  • Text Entry Area: if True, the dialog will have a text entry field.
  • Text Entry Default: the text that will start in the text entry field.

You can now test the dialog by clicking the Open parameter. It looks right, but doesn't do anything yet.

Writing another onSelect callback[edit]

For this step, we will need a Text TOP in the network next to your popDialog. You can use the one from example 2. Make sure its name is "text1". Now, edit the popDialog's Callback DAT to contain the following text:

def onSelect(info):
	"""A button has been pressed"""
	if info['button'] == "Cancel":
		return
	else:
		textTOP = info['ownerComp'].op('../text1')
		textTOP.par.text = info['enteredText']

This callback is similar to the one in example 2. The only real difference is we set the textTOP's text parameter to info['enteredText'].

Save your callback DAT and try the popDialog again while looking at the text1. Entering text now sets the TOP's contents.

Example 4 - Creating a Pop-Up Dialog using script[edit]

Script Pop-Up Dialog

In this example, we will create a popDialog entirely from script.

In actual practice, you will rarely have to work with the parameters of an individual popDialog. Since popDialog is designed with the idea that only one will be on screen at a time, it is generally safe to just use the system popDialog located in op.TDResources. TIP: If you do use the system dialog, be sure to provide all the arguments to the Open method OR (better yet) use the OpenDefault method.

Creating a popDialog script[edit]

To begin, create a Text DAT in your network. Enter the following text:

def dialogChoice(info):
	debug(info['button'])
	debug(info['details'])

op.TDResources.PopDialog.OpenDefault(
			text='This is a dialog',
			title='The title',
			buttons=['OK', 'NO'],
			callback=dialogChoice,
			details='Any python object',
			textEntry=False,
			escButton=2,
			enterButton=1,
			escOnClickAway=True)

This script does two things. It defines the callback for the dialog, then opens it. The dialogChoice function will work exactly like the onSelect callback used in the last two examples. The command after that opens the system popDialog. Most of the arguments are obvious, with the exceptions being the callback argument, which takes a python function to be called when a selection is made and the details argument which contains a single python object containing whatever user information you may need in the callback. Note: details can contain a list or dictionary if multiple bits of user information is needed.

To open the dialog, right-click on the Text DAT and select Run Script. Save your callback DAT and try the popDialog again while looking at the text1. Entering text now sets the TOP's contents.