GUI - Shelves Manager

Owned by thomas (Unlicensed)
Last updated: 04 Jun, 2014
2 min read

Shelves are a convenient way to organize RealFlow's functions, tools, scripts, plugin, and graphs. They can be seen as drawers or containers where you can attach different elements to group them or provide quick access. It is, for example, possible to attach graphs and use them as one of RealFlow's internal tools. The shelves themselves are also not fixed, and you can change their order simply by dragging and dropping them to new positions. Shelves are stored automatically and you do not have to save them with RealFlow's layout.

RealFlow's standard layout already contains some shelves with access to the most important nodes and file operations. But, this set of shelves is not static and you can tailor it to your needs with the “Shelves Manager”:

Tools > Shelves Manager

When you open the manager you will see a window that is subdivided into four main areas: "Shelves", "Selected Shelf Commands", "Full RealFlow Command List", and the "Button Bar".

 

The "Shelf Manager's" default view.

 

The first panel shows all currently available shelves. In the second panel there is nothing more than a hint: “Select a single shelf from the list to display its command list”

When you select a shelf from the left area you will see its elements in the middle panel. The “Daemons” shelf, for example, contains the entire list of available daemons.

 

The "Shelves Manager's" user interface with a selected entry.

 

The third panel is called “Full RealFlow Command List” and it is a representation of all currently available RealFlow nodes, tools, commands, etc. – including your own scripts, plugins, and graphs. From this section you can choose arbitrary elements and group them into a new shelf, or attach them to an existing one.

 

All areas, the associated right-click menus, and the buttons are explained separately in the following chapters.

Drag and Drop Actions

Drag and drop is possible from

  • the “Commands Manager” to the “Shelves Manager”, and the GUI's shelves.
  • the “Shelves Manager” to the GUI's shelfs.
  • external files to the GUI's shelves. This action creates file reference commands. Allowed extensions are: PY, RFS, RFG, and XML.
  • plain text can be dragged to the GUI's shelves. If the text appears to be XML RealFlow creates a new “Embedded Graph” command and displays an "Edit Command" dialog. Otherwise, it will create an “Embedded Script”, independent from the contained text type. This process is similar to clicking on "Add new Embedded Graph/Script".