Using custom preset system - as in the actual presets themselves, not a browser

[ustk]

@DanH Oh in fact you don't even need to create a JSON file, all can be kept internally in a variable since the tag list is gathered at init...

[Orvillain]

We're covering a lot of this in this thread:
https://forum.hise.audio/topic/13701/custom-browser-custom-preset-file-format/29

Basically, you've got this:

namespace PluginUserPresetHandling {

    const UserPresetHandler = Engine.createUserPresetHandler();

    inline function onPresetSave() // this is your main preset save method
    {
        Console.print("onPresetSave triggered");
    }

    inline function onPresetLoad(obj) // this is your main preset load method
    {
        Console.print("onPresetLoad triggered");
    }

    inline function preLoadCallback() // things you want to happen before loading a preset happen here - looking for samples, looking for graphical assets, etc.
    {
        Console.print("preLoadCallback triggered");
    }

    inline function postLoadCallback() // things you want to happen after loading a preset happen here - updating preset name labels in your UI, triggering other UI updates, etc.
    {
        Console.print("postLoadCallback triggered");
    }

    inline function postSaveCallback() // things you want to happen after saving a preset happen here - copying samples to an external location, removing any dirty flags you might've setup in the UI layer, etc.
    {
        Console.print("postSaveCallback triggered");
    }


    inline function init() {
        UserPresetHandler.setUseCustomUserPresetModel(onPresetLoad, onPresetSave, false); // this line is essential
        UserPresetHandler.setPreCallback(preLoadCallback);
        UserPresetHandler.setPostCallback(postLoadCallback);
        UserPresetHandler.setPostSaveCallback(postSaveCallback);
    }
}

You can achieve a hell of a lot with this, without discarding the HISE preset system.

For example, here is my onPresetSave method in my current project:

    inline function onPresetSave() {
        Console.print("onPresetSave triggered");
        PluginSharedHelpers.forceAllOuterSlotsEnabled();

        if (PluginSharedData.presetMode == "Global") {
            return saveGlobalPreset();
        }
        if (PluginSharedData.presetMode == "FXChain") {
            return saveFXChain();
        }
    }

In this way, I'm able to gate different save functions based on a master type, which means I can either write the HISE .preset file, or I can write a custom file using my own data model.

My load one is this:
inline function onPresetLoad(obj) {
Console.print("onPresetLoad triggered");
PluginSharedData.isRestoringPreset = true;

    if (PluginSharedData.presetMode == "Global") {
        loadGlobalPreset(obj);
    }
    if (PluginSharedData.presetMode == "FXChain") {
        loadFXChain(obj);
    }

    PluginSharedData.isRestoringPreset = false;
}

The loadFXchain method is this:

inline function loadFXChain(obj) {
        if (!isDefined(obj)) return;

        Console.print("we are now attempting to load an fx chain");
        PluginSharedHelpers.forceAllOuterSlotsEnabled();

        local fxSelections = obj.fxSelections;
        local fxChainOrder = obj.fxChainOrder;
        local params = obj.parameters;

        // Set effect menus by stable id (this loads the networks)
        if (isDefined(fxSelections)) {
            for (i = 0; i < fxSelections.length; i++) {
                local sel = fxSelections[i];
                if (!isDefined(sel) || !isDefined(sel.id)) continue;

                local idName = (isDefined(sel.idName) && sel.idName != "") ? sel.idName : "empty";
                UIEffectDropDownMenu.setMenuToId(sel.id, idName, true); // fire callback
            }
        }

        // Restore FX parameters for the current fxchainScope, skipping selectors (already set)
        if (isDefined(params)) {
            for (i = 0; i < params.length; i++) {
                local p = params[i];
                if (!isDefined(p) || !isDefined(p.id)) continue;
                if (!_isFxParam(p.id)) continue;
                if (p.id.contains("EffectSelector")) continue; // handled above

                local c = Content.getComponent(p.id);
                if (!isDefined(c)) continue;

                c.setValue(p.value);
                c.changed();
            }
        }

And you can hopefully see, that what that is doing is skipping userPresetLoad altogether - and instead is manually iterating around whatever data exists in the file, finding the right UI component, and setting the value. This allows me to circumvent some of the HISE assumptions; namely that if a UI component is not specified when loading a user preset, it gets reset to the default value. Which is super no bueno.

Bear in mind some of this stuff can be asynchronous. So I don't think you can always rely on the order of things.

[Orvillain]

@Christoph-Hart along these lines....

Calling:
updateSaveInPresetComponents(params) does indeed have the effect of setting any non specified parameters to their default value. This is not optimal for all use cases, for example my fx chain use case. Because what is happening is my synthesis generators are being reset to their default state, and the only way I can see how to avoid this is by iterating over all controls I do want to edit, and calling .setValue and then .changed() on them... which is actually quite slow it turns out.

Could anything be done about this???

[ustk]

@Orvillain I'm not certain my brain gets all this so pardon me if it's not helping...
But can't you do it the other way round, saving the module state with addModuleStateToUserPreset and then restore the UI components from it with updateConnectedComponentsFromModuleState?

[Orvillain]

@ustk Yep, indeed you can! the XML data you get from the module state call isn't pretty, but it does work. I think you'd do that if you had some module that did not have any UI controls, but you still wanted the preset to dictate its internal state when loading or saving.

[DanH]

@ustk clever - but possibly running through all the presets every time you load a new preset is going to take a while.... I'd need to cache them somehow.

How does saving panel data work? Do you have to save the preset (bad for my use case)? Does it auto update / write to the .preset file? Where is the data in the .preset file?!

EDIT - Oh it's not persistant... doh

[ustk]

@DanH said in Using custom preset system - as in the actual presets themselves, not a browser:

@ustk clever - but possibly running through all the presets every time you load a new preset is going to take a while.... I'd need to cache them somehow.

No, only at init when for checking if new presets are present

How does saving panel data work? Do you have to save the preset (bad for my use case)? Does it auto update / write to the .preset file?

Yes true... but it should be possible to just write it in the preset dynamically without the need to save. but that would require some clever string handling, don't know if it's secure enough and/or doable, but that might worth a try...
That might be where the already existing custom preset system is better...

Where is the data in the .preset file?!

Under the panel's value, like all other components

EDIT - Oh it's not persistant... doh

Yes it is if in the preset..., it's recalled like any other value, that's what I do a lot in the things I've worked on

[DanH]

@ustk said in Using custom preset system - as in the actual presets themselves, not a browser:

that's what I do a lot in the things I've worked on

of course Ok I'm obviously passing the data in wrong. Will take another look...

[DanH]

@ustk ok got it working. Is it possible to update the .preset file without using Engine.saveUserPreset ?

[ustk]

@DanH Yeah that's where the biggest job resides.
might doable with some XML parsing, and save as XML but the object might live as strings that are difficult to read/write. I won't be able to make tests within the next days so...

[DanH]

@ustk I think it's too risky. One mistake in a preset file and it doesn't load.

[David Healey]

@DanH what about with HISE's xml parser?

[DanH]

@David-Healey don't know anything about it

[David Healey]

@DanH These two

[ustk]

@David-Healey I tried in during my testing and even if I could make it work, the parsing of an array that contains strings is bad bad bad. You need to rework the result to remove the escape char and other things.
This might just be normal, but then what about rewriting it back? Might work, might be risky, this I'm not sure until further testing it