FNS_PaletteRegistry

Palette Registry #

TouchDesigner's Palette Browser leaves a 32 px strip free above its component list — exactly a folder-tab row. This registry puts a tab strip there: TD's own Palette first, then one tab per contribution, each showing a panel from the tool that published it.

Nothing stock is copied, moved or re-expressed. The registry loads TD's own folderTabs widget into the free row and shows each contributed panel through a Select COMP mirror; the stock panels only get their display flag toggled while a contributed tab is in front. /ui is never saved with a project, so the whole surface is rebuilt on every load.

It ships as its own core package, promoted to /sys (global shortcut op.FNS_PALETTEREGISTRY), alongside the other surface registries.

With nothing contributed it claims nothing at all — no strip, no mirrors, an untouched palette dialog. The surface appears with the first registration and disappears with the last.

For tool authors #

A tool that wants a palette tab ships a small host copy of this registry — the same shape as a toolbar or navbar entry. The host's Registration page names the tab:

• Tool COMP — the contributing tool (defaults to the host's parent).
• Canonical Name — unique id for the tab; empty uses the tool's name. palette is TD's own tab and is rejected.
• Tab Panel — the panel COMP to show; defaults to the tool itself.
• Callbacks DAT — optional; onPaletteTab(canonical, previous) fires on every tab change.
• Expose in Palette / Shown in Palette / Tab Label / Tab Order — the usual publishing controls. Shown in Palette is written back to the host, so a hidden tab stays hidden with the tool.

From Python, op.FNS_PALETTEREGISTRY.RegisterTab(comp, 'mytool', panel=panel, label='My Tool', order=20) does the same; Tabs(), SetTabDisplayed(), ShowTab(), CurrentTab() and UnregisterTab() are the rest of the API.

Your panel is resized while it is registered. A Select COMP cannot push its size into its source, so the registry rewrites the panel's width and height to slot expressions and restores the originals when the tab goes away. Do not re-point them behind its back.

The tool's panel keeps its state across tab switches — a Web Render's browser process included — because mirrors are views, not copies.

Several tabs from one tool #

The Registration pars define the first tab; the Tab sequence on the same page adds one more per block:

• Canonical Name — empty means no tab, which is how a block stays inert (TouchDesigner always keeps at least one block in a sequence).
• Tab Panel — empty reuses the first tab's panel. That is how one panel serves several tabs: register them all, then route on onPaletteTab.
• Tab Label / Tab Order / Shown in Palette — as above.

A block with a bad or duplicate name is reported in Registration Status and skipped; it never costs the tool its first tab.

Hotkey #

TDX_SearchPalette's ctrl+shift+f calls ShowTab('palette') on this registry before focusing its search field — that field lives in the stock palette list, which a contributed tab hides. Any tool whose UI is hidden by a contributed tab can do the same.