Grouping nodes in the popup menu about flume

[chrisjpatty]

Hi @MonliH, I'm definitely interested in implementing this idea. You're absolutely right that there needs to be a better way to organize nodes when you have a lot. I wonder if this system should account for even deeper nesting of menus if someone has a reason to need that, in which case the group type should probably also accept an optional group key to nest that group under an existing group. But I like the API you've envisioned for this. If you're interested in trying to take on this feature I'm happy to chat about the code base with you. Thanks!

[lachjames]

Just bumping this as I'm working on a project requiring a node editor, and Flume seems like the perfect choice for us but for the lack of this very feature.

Supporting multiple levels of groups is very important for us, so while I agree that the above API is a good option, I'd suggest that the groups be given as an ordered list rather than a string (or perhaps either option can be supported).

There are a few options I can see for implementation:

• Add logic to the "filter options" to filter for groups, e.g. "logic/binary/", and then auto-fill the filter when clicking on a group in the menu. Then subgroups/items are only shown in the menu if the corresponding filter is in the search bar. This would keep things in a single menu, allow quick searching without clicking through menus, and probably wouldn't be too hard to implement/hack in.
• Spawn a second menu (like the Blender option given above) with sub-options. This also wouldn't be too hard, but I think the tricky part is hard-coding logic for things like ensuring the menu doesn't clip off the side of the page. Quite doable though, just needs a bit of fiddling.

My instinct is that the first option is easier and probably more usable. I'm going to look into this at some point in the next few days when I have a spare moment, and will report back. Thanks!