Search and filter button label name in maya mel

Question

I am a newbie to coding, and I am trying to find a way to have a search field to filter only the buttons I want.I created an icon text button in a window and want to filter it based on button label name

Here is an example to show what I am trying to do.Also, all those circle label names are circleA,circleB,circleC,circleD. If I type circle, I want to show the buttons that has that name

https://ibb.co/gNnDr5

I found this page that does exactly what I want but, how to I change so that it looks for label names and only show the one I typed for.Also, by default I want to show all the icons

http://melscriptingfordummies.blogspot.in/2011/02/mel-script-example-keyword-search.html

Answer 1

Here's a simple example of the strategy you'd want to use. This uses buttons, not icontextbuttons, but the idea is the same. The structure is the part you'd want to copy; the whole thing is wrapped in a columnLayout for expandability, the filter is a RowLayout with a text field and a button, then all of the buttons are in a second columnLayout that can expand and contract as you show-hide the buttons.

import maya.cmds as cmds

# some dummy commands. Not the use of "_", which is
# a lazy way to ignore the argument which Maya will
# add to all callback functions

def apple_command(_):
    cmds.polyCube()

def orange_command(_):
    cmds.polySphere()

def banana_command(_):
    cmds.polyPlane()

window = cmds.window(title = "filter")
root = cmds.columnLayout()
# filter button and text field
header = cmds.rowLayout(nc=2)
filter_field = cmds.textField()
filter_button = cmds.button(label = 'filter')
cmds.setParent("..")

# hideable butttons
button_list = cmds.columnLayout()
# create a bunch of buttons, storing the name in a dictionary for easier filtering
# this is a dictionary with the label of the button and the commands you want to
# attach to the buttons
button_names = {
    'apples': apple_command, 
    'oranges': orange_command,
    'bananas': banana_comand, 
    'mangoes': apple_command,
    'coconuts': orange_command, 
    'durians': banana_command
    }

button_widgets = {}
for button_name, button_command in button_names.items():
       button_widgets[button_name] = cmds.button(label = button_name, width = 160, c= button_command)
       # in a real application you'd also make the buttons do something....


# this makes the filter button apply the filter
# defining it down here lets it 'remember' the name of the filter
# field and the contents of the button dictionary
def apply_filter(*_):
    # get the current text in the filter field
    filter_text = cmds.textField(filter_field, q=True, text=True)
    # loop over the dictionary, setting the visiblity of the button
    # based on the key and the filter
    for key, value in button_widgets.items():
       viz = True
       if len(filter_text):
           viz = filter_text.lower() in key.lower()
       cmds.button(value, edit=True, visible = viz)

# now hook it too the button
cmds.button(filter_button, e=True, c= apply_filter)
cmds.showWindow(window)

Basically what you do is to collect the filter-able names while you're creating buttons into a dictionary that maps them to the actual GUI widgets. Then you can loop over the whole thing, setting the visibility according to the filter. In a columnLayout they will automatically close up the gaps when you change their visibility.

You could use this trick on sets of controls by creating layouts and show/hiding them the same way instead of managing individual controls.