VBoxContainer as button

[quasi osprey]

Hello, I've been working on an inventory system for my rpg game but I'm having trouble implementing the skills menu.

I want to have it so the player selects skills on the left-most menu, then they have the option to select one of the characters on the right.

I want a button to emcompass the entire character's info box but I'm not sure how to do that since buttons can't overlap with other ui elements to my knowledge.
Is there some way to turn the vbox into a button, or have a button overlap with the vbox containing the character's information?

[jolly cipher]

If you set all the VBoxContainer's children's mouse filter to ignore, you can override _unhandled_input in the container:```php
func _unhandled_input(event: InputEvent) -> void:
if event is InputEventMouse:
if event.button_mask & MOUSE_BUTTON_LEFT:
# do stuff

[radiant sage]

You could also make the character's info box a TextureButton, I think

[quasi osprey]

This method seems to partially work for me.
Unfortunately TextureButtons seem to not respect the .disabled bool and can be put in focus even when they're disabled.
They also seem to not have the outline normal buttons have but this is a negligible issue compared to .disabled not working.

TextureButtons also seem to have the undesirable outcome of behaving very inconsistently in the ui and sometimes conflicting with the player information rather than always covering it.

[quasi osprey]

Can unhandled inputs respond to gaining and loosing focus?
I want the player to be able to navigate the menu using their keyboard alone but from what I can tell looking at the _unhandled_input function's documentation it largely exists to catch keyboard & mouse inputs rather than emulate button behaviour of responding to focus.

[jolly cipher]

Actually, can you use a script that sets the attached Control's size and position + button with invisible modulate and just add it as a sibling of the container?

[quasi osprey]

It'd be easy to insert a script in since a script already runs to update the ui element when the menu is open, but I don't know how I'd go above setting the size and position since it's a ui element that I imagine would need to scale depending on the user's monitor.

I can add new nodes as a sibling of the container but I'm not sure what you mean by modulate.

[sage wasp]

I did this thing, used a container as button (any container)

What you need to do is to use a regular container, add a button as its first child and then, in the SORT_CHILDREN notification, make the button use the full container rect

[jolly cipher]

You can just set the button's size and position to match that of the vbox container at all times

[quasi osprey]

I couldn't find anything about a SORT_CHILDREN notification in godot and couldn't get any results when I tried looking it up, could you elaborate what it is exactly?

[quasi osprey]

Doing this doesn't seem to work in-game, even after setting the button node to be a child of the ui and setting the global position & size to match the data of the HBox containing the character's information, it can't be selected in-game and can't seem to enter focus either.

[sage wasp]

Here

[quasi osprey]

Here?

[sage wasp]

sorry, a screenshot was supposed to be attached to that message

[quasi osprey]

ahh, all good

[sage wasp]

basically, in your container (name it BoxContainer or PanelContainer, any container) add this code:

func _notification(what):
  if what == NOTIFICATION_SORT_CHILDREN:
    fit_child_in_rect(button, Rect2(Vector2(), size))

where button is a reference to your button node

it must be a valid reference, so you need to verify if is_instance_valid(button) before calling the function, specially for @onready references

I suggest to call queue_sort() on _ready just to ensure that the button is always covering the container

also I suggest that button is the first child, and all other siblings has mouse_filter set to pass or ignore

[quasi osprey]

What does the what variable do for the _notification function?

[sage wasp]

the passed notification, what is the name used in documentation to define the argument name

is just a single number that corresponds to a certain notification

https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/classes/class_object.html#class-object-private-method-notification

[quasi osprey]

I see

[sage wasp]

here's the documentation about container btw, there are amazing things that can be done with custom control nodes https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/classes/class_container.html#class-container-method-queue-sort

[quasi osprey]

Is the notification system function handled automatically or is it called manually?

I tried calling the fit_child_in_rect arbitarily in _ready but noticed that didn't do anything, I see the _notification function doesn't appear to bring the what data into the fit_child_in_rect function either though.
I assumed it wouldn't need to be in the notification function specifically but I'm not sure if I'm wrong in that assumption or if it's an issue of my implementation.

Sorry for all the questions, the notification system is completely new to me and i'm having a little trouble understanding it

[sage wasp]

it did something, but it was overwritten by its internal call to the notification (sorting happens just right before [or after?] the draw, just right after ready or after the node enters the tree, before ready)

that's why i suggest to use fit_child_in_rect in the notification, and calling queue_sort in ready

[quasi osprey]

Ohhh

[sage wasp]

forgot to mention that both functions are from Container class, so your script must be attached to a container and it must have a button reference

[quasi osprey]

Alright

I'll need to sit down and read through the documentation proper at some point but this seems enough to be functioning for now

[sage wasp]

you'll not see changes in editor btw, try seeing the changes re-launching the scene

oh you already managed to do it, nice

[quasi osprey]

Thankyou ❤️❤️❤️

[sage wasp]

don't forget to call if is_instance_valid(button) in the notification to avoid errors

[sage wasp]

and doing this to avoid blocking the button

[quasi osprey]

Ah, right

Gotcha

[sage wasp]

congrats

[quasi osprey]

Thankyou for the help Dex