UX: Prevent click-through panels and used header area #92364

New Issue

Pablo Vazquez · 2021-10-20T12:50:48+02:00

Pablo Vazquez commented

2021-10-20 12:50:48 +02:00

The Problem

It's possible to click-through areas of the interface which are not expected to be clicked-through, leading to frustration.
This is not new, as far as I can remember this issue has been around since Region Overlap was introduced back in the days.

Blender 2.79b
{F11320741, size=full, loop}

Blender 3.0 alpha
{F11320307, size=full, loop}

In the 3D Viewport, the following parts marked in red are click-through:
{F11320410, size=full}

Proposal

In order to keep things feasible, preventing the following (in order of importance) areas from click-through would be great as a first milestone.

Panels and sub-panels.

Background only, headers work properly and can't be clicked-through. *This is the highest priority*.

Sidebar Tabs. Not only the background of the tabs area, but click-drag on tabs actually runs the active tool (Select Box by default).
Used Header/Tool Settings area. I assume this can be tricky so it's listed last. But having some kind of mask around the widgets (including labels) to prevent click-through would solve the issue.
For a first milestone, preventing clicking through the entire header/tool-settings bar would already be better than the current click-between-widgets behavior.
Perhaps a quick hack could be to make everything but layout.separator_spacer() not clickable?

{F11320413, size=full}

There are other cases, but to keep things practical, covering what's in this task would be already a huge improvement in usability.

## The Problem It's possible to click-through areas of the interface which are not expected to be clicked-through, leading to frustration. This is not new, as far as I can remember this issue has been around since `Region Overlap` was introduced back in the days. **Blender 2.79b** {[F11320741](https://archive.blender.org/developer/F11320741/sc_-2021-10-20_12.33.12.mp4), size=full, loop} **Blender 3.0 alpha** {[F11320307](https://archive.blender.org/developer/F11320307/sc_-2021-10-20_11.45.06.mp4), size=full, loop} In the 3D Viewport, the following parts marked in red are click-through: {[F11320410](https://archive.blender.org/developer/F11320410/current_click_area.jpg), size=full} ----- ## Proposal In order to keep things feasible, preventing the following (in order of importance) areas from click-through would be great as a first milestone. * **Panels and sub-panels**. ``` Background only, headers work properly and can't be clicked-through. *This is the highest priority*. ``` * **Sidebar Tabs**. Not only the background of the tabs area, but click-drag on tabs actually runs the active tool (Select Box by default). * **Used Header/Tool Settings area**. I assume this can be tricky so it's listed last. But having some kind of mask around the widgets (including labels) to prevent click-through would solve the issue. For a first milestone, preventing clicking through the entire header/tool-settings bar would already be better than the current click-between-widgets behavior. Perhaps a quick hack could be to make everything but `layout.separator_spacer()` not clickable? {[F11320413](https://archive.blender.org/developer/F11320413/ideal_click_area.jpg), size=full} There are other cases, but to keep things practical, covering what's in this task would be already a huge improvement in usability.

Pablo Vazquez commented

2021-10-20 12:50:48 +02:00

Changed status from 'Needs Triage' to: 'Confirmed'

Pablo Vazquez commented

2021-10-20 12:50:48 +02:00

Added subscriber: @pablovazquez

Pablo Vazquez changed title from ~~Prevent click-through panels and used header area~~ to UX: Prevent click-through panels and used header area

2021-10-20 12:56:17 +02:00

Pablo Vazquez commented

2021-10-20 12:56:17 +02:00

Added subscriber: @JulienKaspar

Julian Eisel commented

2021-11-03 17:14:50 +01:00

Added subscribers: @ideasman42, @JulianEisel

Julian Eisel commented

2021-11-03 17:14:50 +01:00

Was facing some related problems while working on #92501, which made me realize what's probably the issue here.
There are two things to ensure:

Handle regions in the order as visible on screen. Practically this just means handling overlapping regions before non-overlapping ones.
Don't handle any other regions after having found one containing the mouse pointer.

P2573 is a quick & dirty patch for this. Would be good to have someone test it to see if there are other issues caused by it.
For a proper patch I'd like to add a way to iterate over regions so that overlapped regions are first. This one just iterates over regions twice.
@ideasman42 do you see any issue with that in principle?

Was facing some related problems while working on #92501, which made me realize what's probably the issue here. There are two things to ensure: * Handle regions in the order as visible on screen. Practically this just means handling overlapping regions before non-overlapping ones. * Don't handle any other regions after having found one containing the mouse pointer. [P2573](https://archive.blender.org/developer/P2573.txt) is a quick & dirty patch for this. Would be good to have someone test it to see if there are other issues caused by it. For a proper patch I'd like to add a way to iterate over regions so that overlapped regions are first. This one just iterates over regions twice. @ideasman42 do you see any issue with that in principle?

Julian Eisel commented

2021-12-10 19:13:41 +01:00

Created a proper version of my earlier patch and submitted it: D13539: UX: Prevent click-through panels and used header area.

Created a proper version of my earlier patch and submitted it: [D13539: UX: Prevent click-through panels and used header area](https://archive.blender.org/developer/D13539).

blender-admin commented

2022-01-27 18:35:43 +01:00

This issue was referenced by 87c13ac68c

This issue was referenced by 87c13ac68c477486adecd8d548a016309fc2b54d

Julian Eisel commented

2022-01-27 18:48:54 +01:00

Changed status from 'Confirmed' to: 'Resolved'

Julian Eisel closed this issue

2022-01-27 18:48:54 +01:00

Julian Eisel self-assigned this 2022-01-27 18:48:54 +01:00

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UX: Prevent click-through panels and used header area #92364

The Problem

Proposal