gdquest / godot-practice-framework

A framework to create interactive coding practices in the Godot engine.

Godot practice framework

A toolkit for creating interactive practices in the Godot engine.

Editing project configuration at build time

You can edit the project settings (the project.godot file) at build time by creating a script named diff.gd in the res://practice_solutions/ folder.

This is useful for removing or adding input actions, changing the project's main scene, or changing the project settings in the workbook and solution projects.

The project settings are used as the reference for the solution project, and the diff.gd script is applied when generating the workbook project.

For example, this code snippet removes all input actions from the workbook, except for the ui_* actions included by default by Godot.

static func edit_project_configuration() -> void:
    const INPUT_KEY := "input/%s"
    for action in InputMap.get_actions():
        if action.begins_with("ui"):
            continue
        ProjectSettings.set_setting(INPUT_KEY % action, null)
    ProjectSettings.save()

Troubleshooting

Instantiated scenes in the workbook project practices point to solution scenes

In some cases, the instantiated scenes in the workbook project practices may appear to point to the solution scenes instead of the files in the res://practices/ folder.

This can be due to a cache problem in the Godot editor. To fix this, you can try the following:

1. Close the Godot editor.
2. Delete the .godot/ folder in the project directory.
3. Open the Godot editor and reload the project.

You can also open the .tscn files of generated practices in a text editor and ensure that the paths to the scenes are correct.

godot-practice-framework's Issues

Upon resetting a practice, GDScript files do not owe to reload on Mac OS

After resetting a practice, some students using Mac OS reported that script files don't get immediately reloaded. After tabbing to another window and coming back, they get a pop-up from Godot offering them to reload or resave the files. The issue doesn't seem to happen anymore with tscn files.

We should see if we can do something extra to force reload scripts, and if not, add mention of problem in user guides.

Reset doesn't always automatically reload the scene

Resetting a practice does not always reload the current scene and all the files automatically when the student is working on the practice scene files.

If possible, when a user resets a practice, we should force a reload of the open scenes and whatever needs a force reload. If that's not possible, the pop-up menu's last message should invite students to reload the scene using the scene menu.

Simplify view options and improve split view when running practices

We don't have the UX set yet for how practice views may end up, but until then, we can make relatively small changes to improve users' experience with practices.

This task has 4 steps:

1. Remove the stacked / ghost view.
2. Make the split view the default (it'll be the only view).
3. The panel should not cover the user practice in split view, but rather reduce the available space for both views when it is open (so as not to hide the practice).
4. Add an overlay and label on the right view to clearly indicate that the view on the right is the reference.

After the changes above the panel and split views should look something like this.