[Feature Request] Hierarchical and drag/drop ordering for the layout contents

[MarkVabulas]

Would it be possible to have the Layout Control function as a Tree View, with a collapsible hierarchy, and items we can drag/drop instead of the up/down buttons? The ordering would be unchanged, only the visual representation would change; this could potentially allow for the cool ability to toggle entire groups perhaps.

For the xml representation of the .cmp file, just create a new section for the headings and their associated info, then in the layouts you can specify who their parent in hierarchy is? This would further unlock the ability to have dependent placement of things, if it wouldn't be too complicated, of moving entire groups based on an offset instead of individual elements. Later on, scripting could be used to duplicate entire layout sub-layouts and place them programmatically... (With the Addition of &[], the Incept language is now Turing complete because of #(if)# and #repeat#, but let's kindly ignore that fact.)

Principally, the ability to drag/drop to change the orderings and also group elements of the layout is the main request. Having layouts with 100+ pieces can really make it hard to change the ordering and place things or duplicate them. Only a single level of organization would be a huge benefit. Obviously making it deeper would be awesome, but I'm not suggesting a major overhaul of the systems.

Here's some quick visualizations of my idea, and with C# sources as well: Treeview with checkbox in WPF and Codeproject Tri-State Tree View

This is similar to #121 I believe. Element references could still function identically, and maybe even include element group references?

[nhmkdev]

Ha, yea this has always been an annoyance. The up/down buttons and the keyboard shortcuts don't really help a ton.

I have definitely explored alternative controls but never felt comfortable using an open source control that might lose support over time.

I'll probably check into this and see what all the options are like. It could also be time to just implement my own solution that works a bit more like Photoshop's layers (simplified of course).

[nhmkdev]

I have started to explore making my own tree view that could potentially support this. It will be a slow to develop based on what I have tried out so far.

Basically: If you really need this... it might be a while. 😅

[MarkVabulas]

More like a "it'll make my life significantly easier" rather than "I need this."