Godot: Some QOL improvements for Asset Library interface

[vnen]

The Asset Library is not very polished yet, so I wanted to make some pointers about the interface and open the discussion.

The interface is a bit cryptic and it's hard to tell what some buttons and links do.

• The "Support.." come from Blender's "Supported", but the interface there is different (it actually shows the list, not only when you click). So I proposing this to something like "Channels" (which reminds me of apt) or "Stability" (which is not quite what it means, but because of the "Testing" that seems to apply).
• The double-arrow button after Sorting has no tooltip. I suppose it means "Ascending/Descending", but the icon doesn't help. Is pressed ascending or descending? Some standard "AZ" icon would be better.
• The pagination numbers are bizarre. What do they mean? What is "0-0/1"? Also, they occupy way to much space. Since there's only one item, I'm not sure how the navigation will work.
• The category in the item is a link. If this link will make the Library go that category, then that'll be okay, but what happens now is that the category changes when you click on the asset.
• The "test-hash" below the category I suppose it's the asset version (though in the asset page it shows an actual version number, so why the hash shows here?). It is also a link. Where will it point to?

[djrm]

support -> Channel.
Site -> Host | Origin
let me know if you need a custom sort icon

[ghost]

After our little talk with vnen, I decided to make a little mockup of AssetLib window that would reduce the amount of clicks needed for stuff to actually happen. If user wants to apply filters to search, right now he needs to:

1. Click on first filter
2. Select filter
3. Click on category filter
4. Select filter
5. Optionally click on "Support" filter.
6. Select filter
   This can be reduced by combining all menus in one group. For example
   
   Here user can click on "Filters" button and enter one filter menu, where he can select all toggles. It's not really necessary but it would be nice if, depending on "descending/ascending" option labels would change names (like "Most popular/Least popular", "Most expensive/Cheapest".
   "Sort by name" option name is a bit icky but that's not particularly a problem.
   Since users don't change repositories often, repository selection is in the "Settings" dropdown. From there user can also import assets from the disc and open plugin settings.
   
   Here is an example of "main" view. On top one of the featured assets is displayed with short description. It's followed by icon grid of newest assets. On the bottom of the icon category and rating of the asset is displayed. Background is darkened for better readability.
   That's my take on AssetLib. Less clicks and more content on the main view.

[akien-mga]

One year later (!) this hasn't seen much work, and 3.0 is around the corner. Assigning to the 3.1 milestone, as I think we might get new ideas and motivation to improve the assetlib as new 3.0 content starts being added to it.

[Calinou]

Bugsquad note: This issue is still relevant as of commit https://github.com/godotengine/godot/commit/a1f835df771464e9db6909fd104751ccbbc1b91a.

For the record, this is how the Asset Library interface looks like in the editor as of 2018-04-04:

[vichug]

Hello, there are some usability mysteries about the asset library :
when one downloads an example demo using the built-in asset downloader, first it downloads the thing ; then you have to clic "install" to install it. That's two buttons where one could have been enough (if prompted about the location at the start of the download process), but i guess that's fine.
While it is downloading,you have the option to continue browsing the asset lib and begin the downloads of other demos/assets so you can download in parallel several assets without problem, which is cool, but...
when you clic "install" for a specific asset that has finished downloading, you are prompted for a location in which to install, and then you have a choice between just 2 options :
either "cancel" or "install and launch".
If you cancel, well the operation is cancelled. If you "install and launch" the asset will install and godot editor launches, _and all the other downloads will go to the void_. You can not batch install them, which is strange considering you can batch download them.

[flurick]

The only thing left to do is deciding what to call the "support" button

[Calinou]

@flurick Do we have any more suitable name? We could rename it to "Support Level" (it seems we have enough space to do it), but I'm not sure what else we could do.

[Anutrix]

Isn't calling it Channel fine?
Stability Channel/Stability Level also seems nice.