Feature: Filter search for asset browsers

MirceaKitsune · November 14, 2020

I know there's a lot of work being done on fixing bugs in DR thus new features are likely not on the table at the moment. I still wanted to suggest a little feature which I think would be very powerful, and hopefully not that difficult to implement either. Maybe we could even see this in 2.9.0 if it's simple enough to code?

There already seems to be a preliminary but limited search system. If you open a browser such as the entity browser then start typing a word within its window, you'll be able to use search similarly to searching for words in Notepad; You're taken to the first entry containing that word, can use the next button to select the next one, etc. This is helpful itself to some extent, however I believe filter based searching would be much better and make it easier to find things you need without clutter.

A practical example of what I mean: Let's say I'm quickly looking for a table to add to my scene. I open up a model browser. I type the word "table" in a filter field. This causes all models except those containing the word table to be filtered from the entity browser: The directory tree structure remains the same, you still expand folders and subfolders to see and select their contents... it's just that everything else is treated as it doesn't exist in that window, and empty directories (which don't contain contain assets matching the filter or subdirectories with such) are also not shown. This would make it easy to look at all tables available in the asset repository without being hindered by anything else, as if tables are the only models that exist in TDM at that moment.

Edited November 14, 2020 by MirceaKitsune