Hey,
We've received enough request for this that we decide now it's the time to implement it.
OSA is a powerful ScrollView adapter that can display any kind of data as a list or grid.
This message is both for developers and Playmaker users, so sorry if some info is too technical - please ignore it, I'd really use your help with the other questions
We want to allow Playmaker users to use this asset with minimal code-writing and we need some help, because a lot of the ScrollView's behavior is specified by the user through custom scripts and overriding functionality.
For reference, a model is a data structure that describes what an item has (title, age, image, etc.)
Our major obstacles are:
1. How do I know where and in which format the user stores his data?
ATM, they use a generic class named DataHelper<T> which does basic operations on an internal list, T being the plain C# class (that he needs to create) containing the specific fields (title, image, age etc.). Because he can retrieve these models from internet, local disc or simply create them manually, there's no single way of handling model creation/retrieval, so that's why that was left on the user. If you check the feature video for OSA, you'll see how different the data models can be from case to case (a chat is inherently different from a contact agenda, for example). Ultimately, maybe the solution is to still delegate the model creation/retrieval to the users, but doing it visually. Problem is it's not obvious what's the most common use case to start supporting the first time.
2. The Array (using Playmaker 1.9.0) can only store custom c# classes as UnityEngine.Object, and I tried making ItemModel (using this as an example) extend UnityEngine.Object, and simply creating them using "new ItemModel and it seems to be a probable direction we could take, but I'm not sure how we could handle massive data sets (OSA supports around 2 billion items, although obviously not all items are created at once - that's the whole point).
3. What's the most common way people are storing items in a list using Playmaker? Should I focus more on transforming json data directly into views (i.e. storing models as simple strings and converting them to a json object each time they're needed to be bound to views, and also automatically inferring which view takes which data), should I create a visual tool where they can design their item model and how each of its properties bind to what view?
All of these questions come from not knowing what an average Playmaker user would expect from a plugin like this. We don't want to work on something that won't ever be used.
We're really determined to provide support for Playmaker, so please let me know anything that you think would help bridge the gap between the 2.
Thank you so much for your time!
Best Regards,
George @ TFG