[DEPRECATED] XT Reorder - Drag & Drop in the Inspector!

Ever wanted to reorder Components in the Inspector using drag and drop?

Asset Store Link

 

One of the most amazing utilities for the Unity editor. I really say that can not be without it. The previous version was already an achievement but with the new version we are close to a native behavior in the inspector.

Very fast when moving components, the hotkeys solution for expand/collapse and restore as well as the undo function are awesome.

Very happy with this update.

Thanks Xeleh for your work

 

@_xeleh_ I get nullreference exceptions all the time with your XT.Utilities plugin, and cannot do anything about them because your plugin is a DLL. Can you open up the source for those of us who are using it, so we can assist in fixing the errors?

I noticed many of the errors happen when using a Custom Inspector.

 

Ben, while I really appreciate your feedback on XT Utilities I think this thread is not the most appropriate place for it. Please feel free to contact me at support@xeleh.com and I will do my best to help you. In the meantime, remember you can disable some of the features of XT Utilities in its Preferences pane.

 

Hi! Just to let you know that a new updated version (2.1) is already available on the Unity Asset Store:

http://u3d.as/content/xeleh-tools/xt-reorder

This new version supports 3 activation modes (automatic, manual and modifier). While in the previous version the default mode was the automatic one, in this version the default method is holding down a modifier key (Alt) to enable the reordering support. This feels more natural than it sounds and also implies not having any "resident" components after the reordering is performed, an inconvenience reported by some users. I hope this solution could work for everyone. Anyway, you can change the mode (among other settings) in the new preferences page.

 

Just to let you know that XT Reorder is now FREE.

This is an ironic celebration after the recent announcement on twitter made by an Unity employee about a similar component reordering support coming (likely) in 5.6. That's not the problem because I think it's good for all users to have this feature natively integrated in the Editor and I knew they were working on it. What it really bothers me is the total absence of some form of public attribution to my work.

So, to the attention of Unity: Next time you're sherlocking someone else's product, please do it classy.

 

The celebration is over: XT Reorder is NO LONGER FREE...

...BUT now you have an incredible NEW VERSION (v2.3) available on the Unity Asset Store.

Easy comes, easy goes.

 

I think it's fair to announce here that Unity has just featured XT Reorder in the Editor Extensions > Utilities category of the Unity Asset Store. This is a nice gesture that I will take as some kind of public recognition to my work. You see? It seems like not such a big deal but this gesture makes a difference, at least to me. Thanks, Unity.

 

Bug report:

IndexOutOfRangeException: Array index is out of range.
XT.Reorder.ReorderingSupport.DragAndDropSupport ()
XT.Reorder.ReorderingSupport.OnInspectorGUI ()
UnityEditor.InspectorWindow.DrawEditor (UnityEditor.Editor editor, Int32 editorIndex, Boolean rebuildOptimizedGUIBlock, System.Boolean& showImportedObjectBarNext, UnityEngine.Rect& importedObjectBarRect) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/unity/build/Editor/Mono/Inspector/InspectorWindow.cs:1235)
UnityEditor.DockArea:OnGUI()

happens when dragging a component out of the inspector

 

Thanks so much for reporting. Allow me to ask some questions so I can have debug this: Which XT Reorder version are you using? Which Unity version? Windows, Mac, Linux? Does the issue reproduce when you drag a component out of the Inspector and over any other window/tab (Console, Project, Scene, Game, ...) or it is only over a concrete window?

 

- Dec 7, 2016

- Dec 13, 2016

Well that was quick. Also I wouldn't say they're sherlocking your product. Component reordering has been on the Unity wishlist for quite a while now.

 

According to Wikipedia: "Despite this, "Sherlocking" has become an accepted term used within the Mac and iOS developer community for Apple announcing a new system feature that seems similar to an existing third-party application."

Just because something had been for a while in the wish-list does not mean Unity can't sherlock it. You know what else has been in the wish list for a while? better text rendering... now, how would you call it if Unity had decided to develop a custom solution instead of purchasing TextMesh Pro?

Anyway, in my case I wasn't requesting a purchase but just some kind of attribution to my work (which FYI was quite a technical achievement) to compensate their massive inattention. At last -really late- they featured XT Reorder in the store. That was not formally a public attribution, but it was good enough for me to close this chapter.

 

Well, this isn't the Apple community it's the Unity community.

Competition. Good or bad business decision depending on profit.

Maybe they were not aware of your asset?

Don't get me wrong. I think the asset you've made is really cool. I just found it amusing that within the span of a week you went from "FREE ASSET!" to "NO LONGER FREE!".

 

Oh, really?! thanks for clarifying that to this ignorant Asset Store publisher of mine...

Now, seriously, I used that term because I thought it was widely accepted. It is irrelevant if the company is Apple or Unity, it is exactly the same concept. The Sherlock case was just one of the first documented cases and this awful practice took its name from it, that's all. But hey, if you are not convinced yet we can always invent another term specially tailor-made for the Unity world... mmmhh, what about "XTReordering"?

No, competition is when another publisher creates a similar product. When the platform/store owner (name it Unity, Apple or whatever) copies an existing product instead of purchasing and integrating it, that can't be considered a fair competition but a blatant abuse of power. Unity as the store owner has a privilege position but also some responsibilities with its publishers and not betraying their trust is one of them.

Trust me, they were. I posted about my utility virtually everywhere where a conversation about component reordering was in place, but they simply ignored me. Example:
https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/w...ponents-in-the-inspector.428452/#post-2813067

Thanks. The amusement was intended. Maybe you missed the part where I wrote "This is an IRONIC celebration..."

 

It is competition. It will promote competition in that asset publishers selling a similar product might have to lower their price and make sure the product provides features Unity hasn't implemented or a higher quality product (ie. fewer bugs).

In the thread you posted it doesn't seem like the Unity rep is ignoring you. You don't even @ him or quote him. He might not even be watching the thread.
I found this old request: https://feedback.unity3d.com/sugges...ponents-ordering-in-inspector?page=1#comments
but no Unity rep replied to anyone who commented and other commenters also posted a link to their asset, not just you.

Also, what do you want Unity to do? Buy your asset? You're not the only one with a Component re-ordering asset out there. See: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/64838
There are even some free ones I found although they don't seem as easy to use as yours or the one above.

 

What competition? If Unity implements native component reordering that is automatically "game over" for my product. Why would someone install a plugin to get a support that is already integrated on the platform natively? That, my friend, is exactly the concept of sherlocking a product. Sorry, but you are missing totally the point here

You may be right or not regarding Unity not ignoring my product. It is true that I never contacted any rep directly to say "Hey, look what I did!" but I supposed that given that a contributed thread is automatically watched unless you opt-out, they would have been notified on my replies. Anyway, once they tweeted about their reordering coming in 5.6 I replied on twitter and the best answer I received was something like "we need a better process to give heads up to extensions that may be obsoleted", but nothing like "holy crap, how do you manage to do that without our source code?" or "holy crap, how did I miss that?" which I would have expected from a tech rep or a pro evangelist.

I think I have written several times in this thread that I didn't expect Unity to buy my asset. I only wanted some kind of public attribution to my work, a tweet, a reply on the forum, something! ... at last they decided to feature XT Reorder and, as I said, that was good enough for me.

Regarding the "other" component reordering assets, yeah, I am not the only one with a component reordering asset, but I am the only one who managed to create a completely transparent reordering support with no additional panels or windows or whatever, that is, feeling totally native.

But I am also the first one who implemented it integrated in the Inspector. Previous assets (the free ones) were all based on a separate window. Maybe that is not a great deal for you, but for me and my supporters it is important to clarify this.

Now, regarding the asset you link as my competence... that is gonna be interesting. Ok, if you look at the initial release dates, you will see mine is from July 2015 and the one you linked is from Jun 2016 and -with differences- in essence it was basically an improved version of XT Reorder 1.0 with more buttons. Want a reference? ok, this is how XT Reorder looked like back then:


Original link: http://imgur.com/AOb4m7O

So, yeah, the Component Tool Panel guy did a good job in taking my original idea to a new level with more features and of course he deserves some credit for it, but he did ONE YEAR LATER than me and by that time I had already abandoned the original idea because I was in the process of creating something better: XT Reorder 2.0, which was technically way ahead of any other similar utility. Have you seen any clones of it? exactly...

Ok, enough. Thanks for your replies and for giving me a chance to tell the story of this little utility that no one cares.

 

@_xeleh_ I don't develop for the Asset Store and I don't know a whole lot about how it all works behind the scenes at Unity Technologies, but that Twitter exchange was pretty disappointing. Drag and drop reordering of components is a *huge* deal for the convenience of working in Unity, and to give you the response you got seemed kinda dismissive if it was all you got.

 

Yeah, kinda dismissive. My interpretation of that reply on Twitter was: "I don't give a S*** about your XT Whatever because is getting obsolete as soon as we release ours". And yes, that was the best I got... It was then when I decided to make this "ironic celebration" here just to get some attention on the fact that Unity didn't care too much. As I said this chapter is already closed, but anyway thanks so much for understanding my feelings after their response.

 

Well, Unity has had component re-ordering for a while but it was really badly implemented with a Move Up / Down button hidden in the Component's Context menu. You noticed it could be done better and developed a drag & drop to re-order Components asset that feels more native than Unity's own current implementation of Component re-ordering.

I don't know how well Unity will implement this new drag & drop functionality but yeah, if they copy yours exactly there won't be much you can do on that. Maybe you can try to get their attention and see if they might be interested in buying your asset to save on development costs since you've already made it.

If you enjoy making Editor extensions I have a ton of ideas I could tell you about if you're interested in hearing them. I honestly think the whole Unity Editor design is pretty lacking and bad in a lot of places.

 

Oh, but this is not a future thing! Unity already included drag and drop component reordering in Unity 5.6 and yes, it is exactly like XT Reorder but implemented natively. So, no point in competing and no point in contacting them about this, because honestly I have better things to do with my time.

Speaking of which, yes, I will love to know about your ideas to improve the Editor, but I think this other thread could be a better place to post them and get some feedback, please take a look:

[Official] Unity wants your feedback on usability and artist workflows!

 

Just to let you know that I have agreed on deprecating XT Reorder and it is no longer available on the Asset Store.

Next actions from here? I don't know. I will probably move the "collapse / expand all components" options into the next update of XT Utilities (which you should get now while is free) but still not sure about opening the source code.

So, not the very best end for such a sophisticated hack, but it was fun coding it after all. Thanks to everyone who supported me in this adventure and <ironic>special thanks</ironic> to those who treated me with indifference.

See you!

 

Well, you could still have left it on there. Not everyone is on 5.6.

 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯