Asset Browser: User Interface
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Authored by Julian Eisel (Severin) on Dec 2 2020, 11:00 PM.

Details

Reviewers

Brecht Van Lommel (brecht)
Hans Goudey (HooglyBoogly)

Maniphest Tasks

T82819: Merge Asset Browser Milestone 1 (Not Necessarily Feature-Complete)

Commits

rB2d6a69ae4e99: Asset System: New Asset Browser editor

Summary

This introduces the UI part of the Asset Browser.

Additions:

Asset Browser as sub-editor of the File Browser.
Asset repository dropdown, showing "Current File" and all custom repositories.
Display popover, filter popover and search box (partially dummies, see T82680).
Navigation region showing asset categories.
Asset metadata editing UI in the sidebar (preview, description, tags).
Make asset files draggable (with preview image).
If a repository with invalid path is selected, draw a message in the main region to help the user understand what's wrong.
Operators to add and remove asset tags.
"Only Assets" option for Link/Append.

Asset Browser UI:

Demo (a bit old, UI changed slightly since then):	Threaded generation of object previews:

Diff Detail

Repository

rB Blender

Branch

asset-browser-ui (branched from master)

Build Status

Buildable 11531
Build 11531: arc lint + arc unit

Event Timeline

Julian Eisel (Severin) requested review of this revision.Dec 2 2020, 11:00 PM

Julian Eisel (Severin) created this revision.

Harbormaster completed remote builds in B11531: Diff 31553.Dec 2 2020, 11:00 PM

@Bastien Montagne (mont29) feel free to add yourself as reviewer (just like for the other patches where you're not already). Just thought you wouldn't mind so much about the UI changes.

release/scripts/startup/bl_ui/space_filebrowser.py
270	autopep doesn't wrap these lines, even if I use a 80 char max width...

Julian Eisel (Severin) edited the summary of this revision. (Show Details)Dec 2 2020, 11:06 PM

Feedback on the screenshots:

Is there a reason the datablock name is not editable, while the metadata is? Would be convenient to edit the name in the same place.
For the name field, perhaps display the datablock type icon left of the name, and leave out the "Name" label? Same as done for strips in the sequencer sidebar.
In the repositories dropdown, I wouldn't use two columns but rather just a separator line. Then you would also get rid of the "Custom" title, which I don't really like using. Maybe a single "Repositories" title would help users to identify what this menu contains, since there is not label next to the button.
This seems to list all node groups under "Shading", which will make little sense once we have geometry nodes. Perhaps move to Misc for now.
I can't really make sense of the order of the categories. It seems neither alphabetical, nor by order of usage, or by importance. Any of them can be fine, just Scenes follows by Animations as first two items seems odd.

In D9725#242017, @Brecht Van Lommel (brecht) wrote:

Feedback on the screenshots:

Is there a reason the datablock name is not editable, while the metadata is? Would be convenient to edit the name in the same place.

It's just technically a bit ugly - the UI is built from the active file's data in .py. If we want to allow renaming the data-block from there, we have to let the file name RNA property rename the the data-block itself. I've done it that way now (to be committed), but am not too happy with it. I agree though, it should work.

For the name field, perhaps display the datablock type icon left of the name, and leave out the "Name" label? Same as done for strips in the sequencer sidebar.

In the repositories dropdown, I wouldn't use two columns but rather just a separator line. Then you would also get rid of the "Custom" title, which I don't really like using. Maybe a single "Repositories" title would help users to identify what this menu contains, since there is not label next to the button.

I can't really make sense of the order of the categories. It seems neither alphabetical, nor by order of usage, or by importance. Any of them can be fine, just Scenes follows by Animations as first two items seems odd.

Agreed on all points. These are things that I can easily tweak in master then, I'd like to do some polish with the UI team anyway, see T82680.

In terms of implementation it seems fine, I have nothing to add to my previous comment.

This revision is now accepted and ready to land.Dec 11 2020, 3:23 PM

Julian Eisel (Severin) retitled this revision from Asset Browser UI to Asset Browser: User Interface.Dec 11 2020, 3:27 PM

Agreed that there is a fair amount of room to improve the UI organization and presentation, but doing it in master is fine with me too, I doubt anything will change that much.

Kenzie (kenziemac130) awarded a token.Dec 12 2020, 5:24 AM

Closed by commit rB2d6a69ae4e99: Asset System: New Asset Browser editor (authored by Julian Eisel (Severin)). · Explain WhyDec 15 2020, 5:07 PM

This revision was automatically updated to reflect the committed changes.

Julian Eisel (Severin) added a commit: rB2d6a69ae4e99: Asset System: New Asset Browser editor.