Help popups

[Lex-DRL]

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Create visual popups when a mouse curser is hovered over a node (in node graph) or a parameter (in parameter view).

There's already "help" tag in XMLs, so this is only a GUI enhancement request.

It would be the best if this popup help won't be like usual popup (like in browsers), but instead will be like windows' tooltips from tray area, with the cross to close it.

Additionally, there should be scrollbar supported for very long descriptions, text selection supported for easier reading and image supported for parameters to better illustrate what this parameter does.

[ymesh]

Actually, there's s special class "QWhatsThis" in Qt library, that provides a simple description of any widget. After pressing "Shift+F1" (or special ToolButton), cursor turns to arrow with question sign, and widgets that have description can be clicked and popup window appears (until next click or Esc). I think, this is even better than annoying popups on every node parameters in WorkArea like ToolTips. Docs says that it can support images and rich text formating. (though, I didn't try it yet...)

Unfortunately, it doesn't allow text selection and scrolling and works only with QWidget (not QGraphicsItem that used for drawing parameters labels in nodes... ).

But it works in NodeParameters View. So, now it looks like this:

[Lex-DRL]

I guess, even pressing some hotkey or pre-clicking toolbar icon complicates the workflow. Especially if you look for these popups quite often. Why don't just use middle-mouse click for popups? For now, it's used only in the node graph. You may change behavior a little, so that if a user middle-clicked in the empty area then he moves the canvas (as it is now), but if he clicked on the node then node's description appears (with an image if it's provided).

[ymesh]

If node will interrupt MMB-paning in WorkArea, this is not very elegant solution also... I'm thinking now about adding small round (green) info button to node header for "hand-made" node description popup.

[Lex-DRL]

Popup vs panning conflict? I don't think so. It's not a big deal to move your mouse cursor over an empty area before you start to zoom in/out. But even if this confuses you... well... here's a solution :) : https://github.com/ymesh/meShaderEd/issues/10 Alt+MMB - pan; MMB - help popup.

As for "hand-made" description - yep, it's good idea. But I'd prefer not to replace the default one with it, but add custom description above the default. Sometimes all you need is just get a clue of what this nodes is supposed to do. Especially when you open the old graph, with the older dev versions of the nodes, which may have significantly different behavior from what they do now. So, the best solution for me looks like this: a default node description with it's picture is always displayed in popup. But if a user has added his own description, then in a popup it's added before default one and separated with horisontal line or something like that.

P.S.: нафига мы по-английски общаемся? :D