Detailed Description

The Node Container is used for node-based ui file tiling.

The target routing is configured in the cdpTargetRouting property and nodes are filtered based on the model types specified in the modelFilter property. The resulting nodes will load using the UI/form file specified in the uiFileName property. By default, they will be displayed as tiles in a flow-style layout. Other layout styles are selected using the defaultLayout property, or by editing the childContainerName property and adding a container that aligns better with your preferences and needs.

Configuring the childContainerName property enables adding one of the following containers:

• The Flow Widget is already the default, displaying nodes as tiles based on size.
• The Row is used when you want to show the tiles horizontally or vertically based on the window size.
• The Tab Widget shows the tiles on separate tab pages displaying the node names on the tab buttons.
• The Picture can be used to place nodes on pixel positions rather than container layouts. A typical use case is to make the picture show a map and load nodes on top of it at different locations. The UI/form file showing the nodes must be created using Picture or Picture Sequence as the form template. They both include properties for controlling the position and can be used as containers when needing to show more than just a picture.
• Other containers, like Group Box, Frame, and plain Widget can be added.

The loaded ui file can be based on any widget, but a RoutingContainer is often used to enable a temporary target routing while editing its relative routings. Target routing set on a top-level RoutingContainer will get replaced when loaded by the Node Container.

There is also a property, forcedNodes, which allows hardcoding a fixed set of nodes to be loaded as UI tiles. This is useful when working with a subset of nodes from the cdpTargetRouting, or when testing the layout within CDP Studio Design mode.

By default, forced nodes are only displayed in Preview Mode. This is because dynamically adding or removing widgets in layouts created by Design mode can interfere with its internal structure, potentially resulting in instability or crashes — especially when modifying layouts that Design mode also manages.

However, to support design-time tasks such as adjusting sizing or spacing, it is possible to override this behavior. You can do so by setting a dynamic boolean property named showForcedNodes. When this property is true, forced nodes will also be shown during normal editing in Design mode.

Important: Always save your project before using the showForcedNodes property, and be aware of the following:

• Always ensure that widgets are placed inside valid layouts.
• Always configure childContainerName if you intend to add widgets to the container.
• The container specified by childContainerName must not contain any widgets.
• For the most reliable editing experience, prefer using ordinary Preview Mode.

The cdpTargetRouting can also be executed as a slot in runtime to load nodes from a different target.

See Creating a Dynamic GUI for Showing Dialogs for an example demonstrating how the Node Container can be used to load dialog buttons for controlling Sine components.