[Paraview-developers] Changes to 3D Widget panels in ParaView 5.1

[Utkarsh Ayachit]

Folks,

It's known to many that since ParaView 4.* we've been in the process
of deprecating the old panel customization code (pqProxyPanel class
hierarchy [1]) and replacing that with customizible property widgets
(pqPropertyWidget class hierarchy [2]). While most filters had already
moved over to the new framework, the few things that remained the old
style were the panels for 3D widgets (pq3DWidget and subclasses [3]).

A recent merge [4] finally upgrades the 3D widget panels to be
subclasses of pqPropertyWidget, introducing a new class hierarchy:
pqInteractivePropertyWidget. The changes needed for
ServerManagerConfiguration XML to use the property widgets are
documented here [6] and are consistent with mechanisms to customize
property widget for others types of properties.

If you had a custom 3D widget panel, then that will need to be
refactored to be a pqPropertyWidget subclass. Comparing the pq3DWidget
subclass with it's pqInteractivePropertyWidget counter part will be a
way to get started. If you need any assistance, please don't hesitate
to use the mailing list or contact me.

After this change, pqProxyPanel hierarchy (or what we often call the
old property panels) is ripe to be finally removed entirely. Since
folks have been warned about their imminent demise since 4.3.1
(January 2015)[7], unless there's a strong objection, we will continue
to work towards removing them entirely for the next release i.e. 5.1.

Utkarsh

[1] http://www.paraview.org/ParaView3/Doc/Nightly/www/cxx-doc/classpqProxyPanel.html
[2] http://www.paraview.org/ParaView3/Doc/Nightly/www/cxx-doc/classpqPropertyWidget.html
[3] http://www.paraview.org/ParaView3/Doc/Nightly/www/cxx-doc/classpq3DWidget.html
[4] https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview/merge_requests/547
[5] http://www.paraview.org/ParaView3/Doc/Nightly/www/cxx-doc/classpqInteractivePropertyWidget.html
[6] http://www.paraview.org/ParaView3/Doc/Nightly/www/cxx-doc/MajorAPIChanges.html
[7] http://www.paraview.org/Wiki/ParaView_Release_Notes#Note_to_plugin.2Fcustom_application_developers