Ideas here!

[chrisgoringe]

Ideas welcome!

[JorgeR81]

• Add a toggle button to the Controller title area to bypass the node ( e.g. Apply ControlNet )

Ideally we should be able to select the panels that will have this button ( e.g. the prompt panel does not need this ).
Maybe you could add a right click option to add bypass toggle 

[chrisgoringe]

Wary of adding complexity to the UI. So (a) if this is included I think it should be on all the nodes and (b) I think it should only appear if the "show advanced" box is ticked.

(I want to make sure the controller can be used as a way of presenting a simple view...)

Added as #72

[JorgeR81]

I think it should be on all the nodes and (b) I think it should only appear if the "show advanced" box is ticked.

Yeah, that would probably be better !

[chrisgoringe]

Wondering about how these two features work together.

Option one: a single toggle (checkbox? Switch?) which bypasses the node and minimises it in the controller - simpler, has a certain logic to it, good link between visual and logical (it's hidden because it's disabled) but not as flexible

Option two: two separate controls. A bit more clutter, more flexible, maybe loses some intuitive feel

Back in the day (Mac 8, I think) there was a thing called "window shade" where you double clicked the title bar to toggle the visibility. If I go with option 2 I think that might be the ux.

[JorgeR81]

• Allow to minimize Controller panels ( show only the title area )
  This would just be for the Controller panel ; the node in the graph would not be changed.

( We could also bypass the node, while it's Controller panel is minimized ( see above feature ).

[chrisgoringe]

[JorgeR81]

It will be all the same "mouse area", right ?

If so I think a "dot" would be enough.

When I mouseover this area, my mouse cursor turns in a hand, so I already know dragging is possible !

Besides, the "3 lines" icon could be confused with a "settings menu" icon, anyways.

[chrisgoringe]

No, there is a button (click to minimise) and a drag (with the hand).

I've got it on a local branch, it seems to be pretty intuitive

[JorgeR81]

I've got it on a local branch, it seems to be pretty intuitive

Yes, it works well.
On a single panel it looks good.

But with many panels, it feels a bit crowded.
It makes the text a bit harder to read, at a glance ( with so much stuff in the text area ).

original:

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How about moving the "3 dots" area to the right corner ?

mockup:

[chrisgoringe]

Maybe... or I'm thinking I could do away with the three lines after all and make the whole title bar the drag area (not the whole node)

[chrisgoringe]

#73. Concern again about making the controller UI too complex....

[JorgeR81]

For the miminze and and toggle button features, I've got inspired by the SwarmUI.
I think they work well there.
https://github.com/mcmonkeyprojects/SwarmUI

And with these, the Controller GUI will be pretty much perfect !
Can't think of other improvements, that would make it more complex.

[chrisgoringe]

Another thought - I'm not keen on a checkbox that bypasses something (a tick meaning it doesn't run isn't obvious).

I'd be more inclined to use something like

[JorgeR81]

Yes, that would be better !

[JorgeR81]

So, instead of tabs, what about some improvements on the group's COMBO box.

The box could get the color of the current group.
And if possible, maybe also change the font color, to make it look more like the group's header ? ( not pictured )

This would help identify color coded groups at a glance.

[chrisgoringe]

done this in 0.9.5 (just merged)

[JorgeR81]

Aesthetics:

Make combo box selection color grey ( instead of pale blue ), because:

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a) -- It will be less confusing, with the colored drop down.

• extra feature: if the drop down has a color, disable the highlight ( if possible ).
  Make just the text dark, when it's selected, like you do now ( I think it may look good )

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b) -- Having 2 tones of blue does not look good to me.

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c) -- Comfy UI already uses a grey color.

[chrisgoringe]

Unlikely. That would require a complete custom element, because css does not support styling the option elements as they are selected.

Can be done but a lot of work and risk for the small benefit

[JorgeR81]

Feature:

If the graph is zoomed out ( no text is visible ) then if we click on node, the Controller will show that group only.
We don't need to use the drop down list.

I think this could be super useful !
It could be almost a new way to interact with ComfyUI.
We don't need to zoom in and zoom out all the time !

[chrisgoringe]

Maybe better to do it on a group basis than node basis?

If you click a group in the workflow it gets selected in the controller.

This could work even when not zoomed out.

[chrisgoringe]

But does this give us anything that the selector on the controller doesn't?

[JorgeR81]

Advantages:

• Requires 1 click, instead of 2
• Allows us to work in a more visual way ( we just need to remember the shape of the group, not a name ).
• Helpfull if you have over 10 or 20 groups ( many users do ), and the dropdown gets very large.

[chrisgoringe]

Added as #100

[JorgeR81]

Feature ( WIP ):

Find a way to have an Image Preview always visible, independently from the Controller group view.

This is a complement of the feature above.
This way I can change groups, in a large zoomed workflow, without having to worry about the position of the preview node.
I think these could be the best features. They would make navigation so much better !

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How to do this ?

Maybe another option in the right-click menu: Include in all group views ?

[chrisgoringe]

Yeah, I like this. #97

[LukeG89]

Adding multiple nodes to Controller

It would be awesome if you can add multiple nodes to the Controller all at once, by selecting them -> right-click -> Controller Panel -> Include these nodes. Same thing to remove nodes from Controller.

[LukeG89]

Improve Controller bar

I think it would improve the aesthetics to make the controller bar as extended as the window, move the advanced controls option to the left side (with a switch instead of a checkbox), and place the refresh button on the right side. Or vice versa.
I made a quick mockup:

Before:

After:

[JorgeR81]

Yes, this looks better !

But the multi column layout also has other drawbacks: #134

Multi colum would be better if it had fully independent columns: #123

[LukeG89]

Font size option

The font size of the prompt in the Controller is really tiny. It would be nice to have an option in the Settings to set the font size.

[JorgeR81]

For me the font size it's OK, but I have a 27 inch monitor. 

On a 15 inch laptop it would probably be too small, so this could be useful.

[chrisgoringe]

I'm looking at single column only (it does solve a lot of complications) at the moment.

I do like the other aesthetics though.

Font size option I'll add as another possible (post 1.0)

[LukeG89]

Show/hide widgets on Controller

It would be nice if one day (I don't expect this option soon) you could decide which widgets to show/hide on each Controller.
There are situations where you want to adjust specific parameters and leave all the others as they are.
This would simply the Controllers.

[JorgeR81]

The current workaround is to connect a Primitive to the node.
And add the Primitive to the Controller, instead.

But you may need to create new slider parameters ( min / max / steps ), based on the title name you give to the Primitive.
And if you use multiple Primitives, you waste space on multiple panel headers.

So, "Show/hide widgets on Controller", would be very usefull.

[chrisgoringe]

Agree it would be nice, but not a very high priority. Added as #143 to keep it in the system.

[LukeG89]

Advanced Controls highlighting

When you enable advanced controls, you can't distinguish them from the "normal" ones.
Since they are "special", why not highlight them with a "special" border?
Quick mockup:

Before:

After:

The color can be different (I used the slider color) and the border can be thicker than that.

[LukeG89]

Pinned Controller

In order to keep a Controller in a specific place of the screen (e.g. on top of the second column), there could be a pinning feature to fix its position.

[JorgeR81]

In the current multi-column implementation, the only thing that keeps the panel on top of the second column, is the specific panel order, in relation to the Controller height.

For this to work, the order of the panels would need to be changed each time you add nodes, or change the controller height.
This would make the multi column implementation even more complex.

I just tried the single_column branch, and it's so much better not having to worry about the second column !

I would still like having multi-column, but with fully independent columns ( see here: #123 ).
This would naturally give us the "pinning" feature. You wouldn't even need to "pin" a panel. Just place it where you want to, and it will keep its position !

[chrisgoringe]

Yeah, having got the single column up and running I was able to throw out a lot of code. Multi column isn't coming back unless it's something like described in 123