User Panels
User Panels in OpenSpace are custom panels that are developed by users outside of the OpenSpace development team. They allow custom functionality within OpenSpace. By default, OpenSpace does not ship with any such panels, but panels may be available on the OpenSpace Hub.
The User Panels button provides shortcuts to user-created web panels, which are html pages using the OpenSpace javascript API. The “Open Local panels” section needs html pages to be saved as index.html inside individual folders created inside the user/webpanels folder. The “Open from URL” section allows you to create shortcuts to html pages served from elsewhere. The HTML Controls Setup Guide explains the process of creating such html control pages.
The User Panels Panel in OpenSpace.
Note
We will cover some basics of building a user panel in a future article.
Location
Whether you develop one yourself or download one from the Hub, they appear in the OpenSpace/user/webpanels folder.
Open a User Panel
If you have a user panel in that folder, you can access it within OpenSpace’s User Panels Panel via the dropdown under Open Local Panel. With a panel selected, open is via the button.
Open From a URL
You can also open a panel from a URL. A user panel is merely an HTML page, so it is possible to host these on the web and access them via a URL. Adding the URL and a title, then hitting the open button will also open the panel alongside the User Panels.
Links
We include two links in this panel: one for the OpenSpace Hub and one for the Show Composer. These will open in a new panel and will benefit from expanding the width of the panel.
Show Composer
We will cover the Show Composer in a future article.