[Feature] Option to create new actor from template as a copy, not a child

[mohorko]

Summary / Description

Add an option to the Create New Actor dialog to create a new actor as a copy of a template, instead of a child.

Motivation / Use Case

Creating a UI Actor from an empty new actor requires lots of repetitve boiler plate code creation ... which could be made into a template.

Proposed Solution / Feature Details

Add a checkmark or radio button options to the Create New Actor dialog, allowing to select if the new actor will be a copy or a child of the selected template.
(NOTE: obviusly, if the default actor is selected, this option should be disabled)

Alternatives / Workarounds (optional)

No response

Possible Implementation (optional)

No response

Additional Context (optional)

No response

[svelderrainruiz]

I am moving this into a discussion per @niACS request.

[niACS]

This functionality is already available as part of the Events for UI Actor Indicators package. https://www.vipm.io/package/events_for_ui_actor_indicators/

As a first pass at answering this request, I'd be happy to break out that feature into a separate package.

Moving forward, I'd be quite happy to see this functionality rolled into the existing Create Actor menu option. The existing tool presents a pulldown menu of actor templates stored in a particular folder in vi.lib; I'd keep that behavior.

An open question would be whether to allow selecting both a template and a parent. There may be use cases for both, but being able to select both might lead to some odd conflicts (i.e. if the template MUST inherit from a particular parent).

[mohorko]

I wrote the example use case for the UI Actor, because I think that is the most commonly used way of "boilerplate code repetition" using AF.

Another non-ui example where a copy feature would be usefull for, is something like a HAL Actor, with a HAL Intereface Class implemented (with stop events, helper loop, etc.). That way, you simply create a HAL Actor (as a copy) and feed it the concrete class impementation (child of HAL Intereface Class) before starting the actor.

[niACS]

The consensus from the open meeting at GDevCon NA was that the two features (inherit from existing actor vs. copy from template) are largely exclusive of each other, so some sort of selector should be provided. I think I like the idea of a radio button, personally.

[matrixx567]

Hi,

I'm using a simple approach to copy existing actors. My actors are using common folder names within the folder structure. So the messages are stored in a Messages subfolder and the actor's class is stored in an Actor subfolder without the actors name. To copy an existing actor it is only necessary to Save as the lvlib of the actor to a new folder and rename the actor class.

Therefore I've patched the project provider to create new messages in the Messages subfolder (without the actors name). You can find the changes in my repo. To be aligned with the original code I'm using a config entry within the LabView.ini as described in my Readme.