Color-code enum

[Shinton]

I propose that enum controls be more customizable such that each enum item may also be given a background color and font color to allow the items to be color-coordinated.  Here is an example of what I'm wishing I could do:

Excuse the poor art, but I don't have time to make it look fancy, you get the idea.  I think it's quicker and easier for people to correlate two objects by color instead of by small-print font, so when a user needs to connect a front panel control to a hardware I/O pin for example, having a color-coding scheme makes things more user-friendly.  Also the first four channel colors just happen to correspond to the channel colors of my oscilloscope, another example of why this could be useful.

I realize that changing some of these colors may be possible to some extent by using property nodes, but that wouldn't work if this is control is placed into an array--changing the color of one element will alter the color of every element in the array.

I'm on LV2012, if this feature already exists in a future version then forgive me.

[A-T-R]

Nice!

[PaulG.]

I'm down for *anything* that makes front panel controls easier to use and bettter to look at. Coloring a large number of identical controls breaks down the monotony and makes the different functions easier to see.

[Jeffmg]

I agree.  Please implement this feature.  I am configuring a display so that users can setup a test that runs a pattern.  The pattern is an array of enums and it would be very helpful for the users to visually see the difference between the items in the array.

[Intaris]

I would propose nof or enum but yes for rings.

[AristosQueue (NI)]

Shinton, jeffmg: Can you not use a picture ring for this request? That would seem to me to be far more appropriate than using an Enum control anyway... enum controls on end-user-visible front panels are generally a bad idea. Our general style guide would say to use a ring on the end-user-visible panel and translate that into an enum value on the diagram. This allows for easier localization and for correcting late-in-development issues like a change of spelling without cascading through the rest of your application. Or, worse, someone deciding that the items need to be reordered on the front panel for usability and that breaks some conversion-to-integer code somewhere. Using a ring and translating to an enum separates interface from implementation. Putting colors on the enum control would bind these two very disparate things together.

[Shinton]

That might work...I remember trying a bunch of different things and eventually settled on putting a color box right next to the enum.  Maybe I tried the picture ring and couldn't get it to work the way I wanted, or maybe I overlooked it.  It's been a while and I'm working on another project now, but when I get a chance to work on that GUI again then I'll have to revisit the picture ring.  Thanks for the suggestion!