Re-using Lively UI items

[rickmcgeer]

What would you like to achieve?
I'd like a set of high-level UI items and widgets I can use in my projects, and I know that they are already available in Lively. These include (but aren't limited to):

1. Drop-down menus
2. Menu bar
3. File browser
4. Search box attached to 1-3

The thing is, I know this stuff is already in Lively. For example, the Module Browser is amazing. But these components aren't really available to Lively developers for items other than Lively development.

How are you trying to achieve that
ATM, rolling my own (badly) by looking at the code and guessing.

Additional Resources
I think 80% of this is documentation and the remainder are a (few) very high-level methods. For example:

1. Setting the action of a button should be a single method call -- it's actually pretty much there for buttons, since there's an action field already
2. Same thing for a drop-down list: it should be a single call (addItem(label, action))

Most of this is really easy (or should be) but it's not done and a user/developer really doesn't have the information to do it themselves

Version: Please paste the lively.next commit on which the problem occurred here (use the copy button of the Version Checker in the bottom left corner).
af0c362

[rickmcgeer]

As I think about this, there's actually a straightforward way to do this (and get documentation, too!). Factor the Lively UI into Lively-specific applications of reusable components, with an emphasis that the Lively level should be very thin. I will do the same with Galyleo. The general idea is that we'll not only have reusable components for the UI, we'll also have working examples of how to use them

[linusha]

You are absolutely right. This has been on our roadmap basically since we started working focused in 2021. We have #529 and want to ship it this summer! I'll leave this open to up the pressure on us 😂

[rickmcgeer]

I want them today! :-) Which means I'll be happy to help.
In particular, I was looking at the code for the dropdowns from the top bar (we replicate these in Galyleo, but I think @merryman just copied this, so I wasn't involved), and I confess I really don't understand the code. If I can an idea of the anatomy of it, I'll be happy to work on this one.