[Request] Favorite Hotkey

[chinagreenelvis]

I'm just looking for a simple way to build a plugin that ties a keyboard shortcut to favoriting the currently selected game in the desktop UI so that I can navigate through without having to use the mouse.

[JoeViking245]

First you'd need to create a global hook to detect your key/key-combo using P/Invoke or something similar and have that activated when LaunchBox starts. 

Then you'd need to have a SelectionChanged event in OnEventRaised via the ISystemEventsPlugin interface to detect [if and] which game is selected, while navigating around LaunchBox. 

If your keypress is detected and the current selection is a game, set the game's Favorite flag to True.  Or better yet, invert the current state. aka: create a toggle On/Off.

 

3 hours ago, chinagreenelvis said:

navigate through without having to use the mouse

Curious.... how are you currently, say.. selecting a different Platform? Or Playlist?  Then selecting a game.  ...without using a mouse?

 

Unless you're feeling creative and ambitious, you might would rather upvote this feature request, spread the news asking others to upvote it and hope that it innately gets implemented.

Feedback - LaunchBox: Add Keyboard & Controller Shortcut Support for Favoriting Games

[chinagreenelvis]

Quote

Curious.... how are you currently, say.. selecting a different Platform? Or Playlist?  Then selecting a game.  ...without using a mouse?

Tabbing, shift-tabbing, and using the arrow keys. Obviously I still use the mouse but I'm trying to have to do that as little as possible for workflow reasons.

I can tab over to the favorite icon and use the spacebar to select it, but the number of tabs it takes is inconsistent, so using AHK to automate it with a hotkey is out of the question.

I'm currently stuck with 12.9 because this is the version I paid for and I don't like a lot of the changes in 13. Is there a decent resource on information on making plugins specifically for my version and pulling the information you mentioned?

 

Edited 7 hours ago by chinagreenelvis

[JoeViking245]

33 minutes ago, chinagreenelvis said:

I'm currently stuck with 12.9 because this is the version I paid for and I don't like a lot of the changes in 13. Is there a decent resource on information on making plugins specifically for my version and pulling the information you mentioned?

Well, kinda. Sorta. No.  Depends on your level of C# programming.

Here's the LaunchBox/Big Box Plugin API Documentation site that has all the available API calls. 

Here's a tutorial video Jason created a few years ago on how to create a plugin. It doesn't cover specifically the interface I mentioned, but does help to get-you-going.  Visual Studio has been updated since then, but is generally the same for navigating.  

Let's Build Some Plugins! - 2017-05-08 - LaunchBox Development Live Streams - YouTube

 

[chinagreenelvis]

Thanks. I'm a hobbyist programmer but these days I find myself relying more on AI assistance since my goal in even doing any programming at all is to save on time, but those links will help when I have to triple-check things myself (and I always do). If it's possible to actually create a plugin that does this, I'll find a way to make it happen now that you've put me on the right path.

Just wondering - can other flags be set the same way, do you think? Ones like "hidden" et al that aren't exposed by interface buttons?

[JoeViking245]

1 minute ago, chinagreenelvis said:

Just wondering - can other flags be set the same way, do you think? Ones like "hidden" et al that aren't exposed by interface buttons?

Yes.  Anything in the IGame interface (which is pretty much everything in the Game - Edit screen) can be set.

There is (at least?) one forum member that exclusively uses AI to [completely] create their plugins.  Myself, all my C#/WPF "learning" has been from using the above 2 references and a lot of Googling (which these days brings up an AI response for the task (simple like, get all files in a folder) I'm trying to accomplish).  But [proudly] have never asked AL to tell me how do something specific with the LB API. 

[chinagreenelvis]

Yeah, I mean, some people like to program, and some people just want to play video games. As a former Skyrim modder, I've spent way too much time doing the first one and not enough of the second.