Preserving Order of Controls

Quote
have to manually re-order the controls again?!

Yes you have. Any changes in the target component's set of inputs will reset all incoming connections. You can observe the same behavior with Bomber (check-uncheck HDR) or Smudge (check-uncheck Orthogonal).

Feature request: My 2 cents, a "lock" to keep the custom order of controls so that when you edit anything in FF they don't move around. If you add controls if it's locked, that control is added to the bottom of the list of controls.
Rickster the Forgster

I guess that the point is : FF is set to detect only controls that are connected ( directly or not ) to the Result.
That's why, if we build a branch of components but we don't connect it with the Result, no controls of that branch will appear.
This also means that, every time that we detach something ( a single control or more ), the program deletes it from the list and "forgets" it. When we connect it again, the program probably detects it as a new control and adds it at the end of the list.

The alternative would be to set the program to detect all controls that we add, no matter if they are connected to the Result or not.
This would create errors in some old filters.
Some filters have controls that are not connected to the Result.
The reasons are three :
- The maker of the filter forgot to delete them.
- The maker of the filter, knowing that they wouldn't appear, simply let them there as a chance to change the filter.
- They aren't used as controls, but only as information about a particular area of the filter ( the name of the control is probably something like "Area for circular shape", "Branch to add color", etc. )
Making all controls appearing in the list would bring up these controls too, that can't be used to control the filter.

So...
I guess it would be necessary to have two ways for FF to handle the controls.
"By connection to the Result" as basic ( this way the old filters wouldn't be messed up ) and "not by connection" as alternative.
It may be nice.
But I'm not a programmer. I have no idea how complex and costly it can be.

This will fix the order alphabetical ... its a vbs script for windows. Its ugly but it works


'
Call RunFunctions

Sub RunFunctions

Dim va_array2()

if 1=1 then
vs_file = "C:\Users\Adam Law\AppData\Roaming\Filter Forge 3\My Filters\AJLDilateColourToAlpha.ffxml"
vs_filetext = ReadTextFile(vs_file)
'WScript.Echo("File: " & vs_1)
else
vs_file = Wscript.Arguments(0)
vs_filetext = ReadTextFile(vs_file)
'WScript.Echo("File: " & vs_1)
end If

va_array1 =GFMatchArray(vs_filetext, "<[^<]*<[^<]*value\-en[^>]*>", true ,true ,true)
ReDim va_array2(2, UBound(va_array1))

For count=1 To ubound (va_array1)
va_array2(0,count)=count
vs_1="id\='[^']*'"
vs_1=Replace(vs_1,"'", Chr(34))
va_array2(1,count)= GFMatch(va_array1(count), vs_1, true, true, true)
va_array2(2,count)= GFMatch(va_array1(count), "value\-en[^>]*", true, true, true)
Next

vs_1 = GFMatch(vs_filetext, "<ControlsOrder>[\S\s]*<\/ControlsOrder>", true, true, true)

va_array3 = TransposeDim(va_array2)
Call sortarray(va_array3, 2)
va_array3 = TransposeDim(va_array3)

vs_replace= "<ControlsOrder>"+ vbnewline
vs_replace= vs_replace+ "<Automatic value='false'/>" + vbnewline
vs_replace = Replace(vs_replace,"'", Chr(34))
vs_replace= vs_replace+ ""+ vbnewline
For count=1 To ubound (va_array1)
vs_replace= vs_replace+ "<Item " + va_array3(1,count) + " order=" + Chr(34) +CStr(count)+Chr(34) +"/>" + vbnewline
Next
vs_replace= vs_replace+ "" + vbNewLine
vs_replace= vs_replace+ "</ControlsOrder>"

vs_filetext = Replace(vs_filetext, vs_1, vs_replace)
Call WriteTextFile(vs_file +"",vs_filetext)

If 1=0 Then
I also have XSLT Code ... but you need Altova Community Edition
Set objAltovaXML = CreateObject("AltovaXML.Application")
Set AltovaXMLXSLT2 = objAltovaXML.XSLT2

AltovaXMLXSLT2.InputXMLFileName=vs_1
AltovaXMLXSLT2.XSLFileName ="C:\Data_Server\Onehub\AAA_Data_OneHub\SV2\Data_VDrive\Data_QDrive\Febooti\FilterForge.xsl"
output = AltovaXMLXSLT2.Execute(outputfile) 'outputfile irrelevant

Set AltovaXMLXSLT2 =Nothing
Set objAltovaXML = Nothing
End if

End Sub




Function ReadTextFile(vs_1)
'Make sure that Febooti does not save unicode which is default

if 1=0 then
set adb = CreateObject("ADODB.Stream")
adb.Open
'.Type = adTypeBinary
adb.LoadFromFile vs_1
adb.Type = 2 'adTypeText
adb.Charset = "ascii" '"utf-8"
strText = adb.ReadText(-1) '
adb.Close
adb.Close
end if

Const ForReading = 1
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
'WScript.Echo( vs_1 & len(vs_1))
Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(vs_1, ForReading)
'WScript.Echo( "End")
ReadTextFile = objFile.ReadAll()
'ReadTextFile = objFile.ReadLine
objFile.Close
set objFSO =Nothing

End Function


Sub WriteTextFile(vs_1,vs_2)
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
'OpenTextFile Parameters:3.'-Filename4.'-The 2 is for writing... 1 is reading and 8 is appending5.'-The "True" is to create if not already there
Set fl = fso.OpenTextFile(vs_1, 2, True)
fl.Write(vs_2)
fl.Close
Set fl = Nothing
Set fso = Nothing
End SUb

Sub SDeleteFile(vs_2)
'Turn off error handling
On Error Resume Next
'file might not exist
'Create an instance of the FileSystemObject
Dim objFSO
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

if objfso.fileexists(vs_2) then objFSO.DeleteFile(vs_2)
set objFSO = Nothing
End Sub


Function GFMatch(strString, strPattern, wglobal, wignorecase, wmultiline)

Dim RegEx, arrMatches
Dim colmatches
Dim wmatch
Dim Count


Set RegEx = New RegExp

RegEx.IgnoreCase = wignorecase

RegEx.MultiLine = wmultiline

RegEx.Global = wglobal

RegEx.Pattern = strPattern

Set colmatches = RegEx.Execute(strString)

Count = 0
For Each wmatch In colmatches
Count = Count + 1
If Count = 1 Then GFMatch = wmatch
Next

End Function



Function GFMatchArray(strString, strPattern, wglobal ,wignorecase ,wmultiline)


Dim RegEx, arrMatches
Dim tmatcharray()


Set RegEx = New RegExp

RegEx.IgnoreCase = wignorecase

RegEx.Global = wglobal

RegEx.MultiLine = wmultiline

RegEx.Pattern = strPattern

Set colmatches = RegEx.Execute(strString)

xdim = colmatches.Count
ReDim Preserve tmatcharray(xdim)

Count = 0
For Each wmatch In colmatches
Count = Count + 1
tmatcharray(Count) = wmatch.Value
Next

GFMatchArray = tmatcharray

End Function


Sub sortarray(arrayname, sortcolumn1)

' sortcolumn1 = 0
'Optional wnumeric As String = "numericstrings"

For i = LBound(arrayname, 1) To UBound(arrayname, 1) - 1
For j = LBound(arrayname, 1) To UBound(arrayname, 1) - 1
If wnumeric = "numericstrings" Then
Condition1 = CDbl(arrayname(j, sortcolumn1)) > CDbl(arrayname(j + 1, sortcolumn1))
Else
Condition1 = (arrayname(j, sortcolumn1)) > (arrayname(j + 1, sortcolumn1))
End If
If Condition1 Then
For Y = LBound(arrayname, 2) To UBound(arrayname, 2)
t = arrayname(j, Y)
arrayname(j, Y) = arrayname(j + 1, Y)
arrayname(j + 1, Y) = t
Next
End If
Next
Next

End Sub


Function TransposeDim(v)
' Custom Function to Transpose a 0-based array (v)

Xupper = UBound(v, 2)
Yupper = UBound(v, 1)

ReDim tempArray(Xupper, Yupper)
For X = 0 To Xupper
For Y = 0 To Yupper
tempArray(X, Y) = v(Y, X)
Next
Next

TransposeDim = tempArray

End Function

Or you can use this

Code

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">    <xsl:output indent="yes"/>    <xsl:strip-space elements="*"/>    <!--Identity Transform.-->    <xsl:template match="node()|@*">       <xsl:copy>          <xsl:apply-templates select="node()|@*"/>       </xsl:copy>    </xsl:template>    <xsl:template match="ControlsOrder/Items">       <Items>          <xsl:for-each select="//Name/@value-en">             <xsl:sort select="." order="ascending"/>             <Item>                <xsl:attribute name="id">                   <xsl:value-of select="../. ./@id"/>                </xsl:attribute>                <xsl:attribute name="order">                   <xsl:value-of select="position()"/>                </xsl:attribute>             </Item>          </xsl:for-each>                </Items>    </xsl:template> </xsl:stylesheet>

(nb there is no space between the ". ." above. The post is mangling it

We started the war of Controls. Ha! Ha!

Let's say the point.
We have two different lines among filters creators :

- Somebody believes in "click and go" filters.
Filters with no more than 10 controls, generally simple and fast.

They clearly have no interest about the Controls order trouble, because their filters probably don't even need the "Custom" option.

- Other filter makers prefer to have more Controls in their filters.
This doesn't necessarily make the filter slow or huge.
It simply gives in the hands of the user a filter with a wide range of interactions and customization.

It is clear that the makers of this kind of filters are interested that the order of controls is not messed up every time that they pass from Simple Filter to Surface.
It takes a lot of time to reorder 50-60 controls ( and the Automatic way is completely useless with many controls. It doesn't even put them in alphabetical order. ), and it is not something that we can avoid to do.

There is more.
It would be very useful if there was a bit more space for the Controls name.
In my case I have filters using the same Component several times. Because it is the same component, also the Controls will have the same functions, but in completely different areas of the filter. Sometimes I'm obliged to write cryptic names like "Rotation P1" or "Mode S4", because there is no enough space for writing a more explicative name.

Doing this doesn't mean to "forget the aim of FF", like it was said in other topics.
Nobody wants to change Filter Forge to a new Photoshop.
We only want to do good filters. Filters that may be good for who simply wants to finish all with one click, but also for who needs to customize and adapt the result to different kinds of pictures, effects, textures.