A couple of expansion questions

[rzrsharpeprod]

I am once again revisiting the world of expansions. I have implemented them in a couple of releases successfully now (massive shoutout and thanks to @d-healey for the huge help on helping me figure them out) but I now have a different use case/requirement and not sure about the best way to tackle it.

1. Instead of the standard preset browser additional column, an expansions 'page' is required. Presumably I can use the file system or get expansions call to find the installed expansions, but is it possible to have them arranged as tiles in a grid formation on this page rather than just a list going down?

2. Previously I haven't had to change the UI upon expansion change, only the samplemaps and presets. My UI is mostly paint routines with a png background. I will need at least 3 variations of the paint routines to colour the knobs & sliders depending on whether the background is light, medium or dark.
   Do I need to build all variations into the plugin itself and then have them change depending on which expansion is loaded or can I build a background & paint routine into each expansion so it just loads when selected? That options sounds best but I don't know how much can be stored inside an expansion?

Thanks in advance

[d.healey]

@rzrsharpeprod said in A couple of expansion questions:

but is it possible to have them arranged as tiles in a grid formation on this page rather than just a list going down?

Yep, I do this for Rhapsody using child panels

@rzrsharpeprod said in A couple of expansion questions:

Do I need to build all variations into the plugin itself

This. There is no method to contain this in the expansions.

[rzrsharpeprod]

@d-healey said in A couple of expansion questions:

Yep, I do this for Rhapsody using child panels

Ah ok so at least it is possible, that saves a difficult conversation. I just need to figure out how to make it work now.

@d-healey said in A couple of expansion questions:

This. There is no method to contain this in the expansions.

Ok so I would just build all the known variations at the time of build including all of the different backgrounds etc and a way to switch between the UI colour schemes and then if further expansions are created that aren't in the original build then you just build an updated plugin with those newer variations/backgrounds included?

[d.healey]

@rzrsharpeprod Yes that sounds about right. I would have a hidden knob on the UI, and the value of the knob determines the UI/background to show. Then you can have it save the knob's value in the preset, so each time you save a preset for the expansion it will save the knob value.

[Chazrox]

@d-healey I like this trick. Im gonna use this for some general theme changes! Cool tip!