Any plans on `group-nodes` support?

[gothy]

Hi again :)

Looking at this image I had a feeling that group nodes are supported like a droppable target for some types of nodes.
But it's clearly not the case now.

Any plans on implementing those? Maybe you can point me in the right direction if I'm going to investigate this possibility deeper?

Thanks!

[dylanvorster]

So grouped nodes are an interesting topic. I would like to implement something similar to: https://ni.i.lithium.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/68375i4C76101D2548C8AA?v=1.0 but I have not done it yet because its a little bit more involved:

1. firstly, I want group nodes to move their children. We can do this by having a new GroupNode which allows you to add child nodes, and when the translate method fires on the group, it can apply offsets to each descendant. The problem is that this logic is handled in the MoveEvent inside the DiagramWidget, so the logic would need to rather be implement there, as apposed to the model. Its actually not too difficult to do, but I have an idea in mind that relates to 'when any model is going to be moved, every model that is being moved, should be able to return an array of items including itself that need to be translated'. With this, implementing groups would be a relatively trivial task.

2. I want groups to be infinitely nest-able, but as mentioned in the previous point, this would be possible as a result.

3. I want groups to be collapsable, but that requires grouped elements which would hide, to have a visibility identifier. It would also require links that are connected to the elements which would hide, to rather connect to a temporary port that is at the center of the collapsed node. This however would need to NOT reflect in the model because it is purely a visual change, and not a change that should change which ports the link point to (even if it is temporary). So that particular feature would need to be implemented in the DiagramWidget code.

Groups are cool, but I've been thinking about the best, multi-functional way to do this that is more correct rather than just a hack. You are welcome to try implement it, but I at least am going to need some time to refine some of the concepts/finer implementation details before I could make this a reality.

[gen4sp]

Groups are cook and are essential )

I think groups should be like this:

{
"id": "f94a9a46-9ce3-49aa-8ecf-b4c74a86d283",
  "offsetX": 0,
  "offsetY": 0,
  "zoom": 100,
  "links": [{},{}],
  "nodes": [{
      id:'0',
      type:'default',
      ports:[{},{}]
},{
      id:'1',
      type:'group',
      ports:[{},{}]
}],
  "groups": [{
      id:1,
      "offsetX": 0,
      "offsetY": 0,
      "zoom": 100,
      "links": [{},{}],
      "nodes": [{
            id:2,
            type:'group',
            ports:[{},{}]
      },
      id:2,
      "offsetX": 0,
      "offsetY": 0,
      "zoom": 100,
      "links": [{},{}],
      "nodes": [{
            id:3,
            type:'default',
            ports:[{},{}]
      }]
}

the root level contains only nodes and group-nodes with only id and ports. All content of groups described in flat (not nested) array "groups".
But groups could be nested of corse (see example - group1 contains group2)

so root element and each group contains only elements to render and dont contains deeper elements

[dylanvorster]

I don't really want to handle groups as top level because groups can be nested. Im going to introduce a new type of node that is a group with addNode and removeNode on it. The nodes will then be an array of id's on the group that gets serialized.

[Timopheym]

@dylanvorster hey, thanks you so much for the library, when do you plan to introduce this? We having quite complex application for react-diagrams and this feature is very important for us. Will it be soon or is it more reasonable to do it by our own?
From my vision it should also have a widget that will show inner graph on big zoom and on zoom out it could show some icon f.e.
Thanks.

[dylanvorster]

@Timopheym Due to my own circumstances, I don't really have the need just yet for this feature, or the time to implement it properly. It would probably best if you could implement this yourself. It goes without saying though, that I'm fully open to pull requests :)

[dylanvorster]

I have sort of started working on this, you can read all about it here: http://dylanv.blog/2017/09/13/storm-react-diagrams-v3/

[kfrajtak]

Great work! Can I suggest to include a playbook example whenever a feature like this is added? Also, can the playbook page contain some additional information or source code to describe what's going and how can I use it in my project without looking into the source code? Something like a "1.000ft" view documentation.

[cemremengu]

Any examples on group nodes? Is it still WIP?

[dylanvorster]

Still need to get around to implementing a group widget, but would like to point out that using and overriding this method will allow moving a single node the ability to tell the system what other nodes should be moved:

react-diagrams/src/models/NodeModel.ts

Line 40 in 2c6d02f

getSelectedEntities() {

[cemremengu]

Thanks for your work! The use case for grouping for me is to show a link from the group itself to another group. So that it is possible to define a group based connection in addition to individual nodes inside the group.

So I guess, group is just another node with in/out ports that can have other nodes inside it.

[dylanvorster]

@cemremengu exactly right

[dylanvorster]

I have started work on this although its incredibly incomplete: #203