The 1.1 branch

[chrisgoringe]

On the 1.1 branch I've done the things shown in https://github.com/chrisgoringe/cg-controller/milestone/23

With the controller being minimizable, and with multiple controllers coming soon, I decided it made no sense to continue to have the sidebar button to toggle the controller. It's just on, hovering there. You can always minimise it.

The keyboard shortcut is also gone. Perhaps when we have multiple controllers it will come back as 'minimise/expand all controllers'.

The benefit of those changes is that it greatly simplifies the way the controller gets positioned, which is going to be essential for doing anything like tabs or snapping windows (or even multiple controllers).

I may have broken stuff :)

[chrisgoringe]

I'm alos going to need to slow things down a bit :). Can I encourage you to let people know about the controller? I'd really like to have more sense of how people use it (much as I love building something just for the three of us...)

[LukeG89]

Would be nice if other people start interacting! Where are all the other "26 stars"?? 😆

Sorry but I don't know how I can promote it, I'm not really good at it.
And it's even harder to promote a tool that changes on a daily basis! 😆
But I think that this new direction (floating, multiple windows, tabs, etc.) will be the "final form" for Controller. It would make it flexible for every use cases.

You could already start by doing what I suggested in the other discussion (#209 (reply in thread)), to let people know about Controller and how powerful it is.
Maybe someone will join us!

[chrisgoringe]

It only changes daily if you're on the latest branch 😀. The main should only change for the dot releases now (weekly?) 🤣

[JorgeR81]

I'd really like to have more sense of how people use it

I think that will depend a lot on the multiple controllers and tabs features.

With a single controller, I think it will be used mostly by more experienced users that build workflows just for themselves.
They have large workflows and just need a few "shortcuts" for some features.
They know their workflows and know exactly what nodes they want in the Controller.
But that's a smaller population, and many of them will be very comfortable using just the nodes, anyways.

On the other hand, if you are a new user that only uses the default workflow, you don't need the Controller, yet.
Just to hide the wires in the default workflow, it's not an incentive enough to use the Controller.
Now we even have a button to hide the wires, in the new Frontend's corner panel.

---

One way I see the Controller gaining popularity is through well known creators that build workflows to share with less experienced users.
For instance:

• ComfyUI youtubers ( e.g. https://www.youtube.com/oliviosarikas, https://www.youtube.com/@NerdyRodent )
• Civitai model creators ( e.g. https://civitai.com/models/642589/flux-modular-workflow )

These creators are interested in bringing more users to ComfyUI, and the Controller can help with that.
But they would probably want to use the tabs and multiple controllers, in their workflows.
A single controller may not be considered useful enough to include it.

Their workflows usually have medium to high complexity ( otherwise it would not be worth it to share them ).
Giving a complex workflow to new users, with a simple Controller, could just "hide" features, and make users lose interest.

These creators would want theirs users to discover most of the workflow's features through the Controller, like a traditional GUI.
Because many of their casual viewers/users may come from traditional image generators ( e.g. A1111, online generators, ... )
And then, later on, their users could start exploring the node's graph, ( as an extra ), and start learning how ComfyUI works.

[JorgeR81]

There are other very important features for people that would want to share their workflows and include the Controller as a "frontend".
If we need to go back and forth between the Controller and the nodes graph, it would just be more confusing, for their new users.

• Toggle _group_ bypass #89
• [ feature ] Open the MaskEditor from the Controller  #214
• [ feature ] Support Power Lora Loader (rgthree) node #106

[JorgeR81]

The keyboard shortcut is also gone. Perhaps when we have multiple controllers it will come back as 'minimise/expand all controllers'.

We may need the shortcut back, to hide them.

I'm planning to stack Controllers vertically and horizontally, to optimize space ( e.g. sliders require less width ).

But even if I collapse them all, I still have some Controllers in the middle of the canvas.

[LukeG89]

@chrisgoringe I wrote a post for the ComfyUI discussion to both promote and ask for help to test Controller.
Tell me what you think and what corrections are needed (I'm italian so my english is pretty limited 😅 ).

About the beta installation instructions, tell me if there are more "user-friendly" methods.

---

Hi everyone!
In the last weeks I have contributed in testing and improving Comfy Controller (cg-controller), a great plugin to keep all nodes and widgets you need in one place!

It's developed by @chrisgoringe, the same developer of cg-use-everywhere

From the initial alpha release, Controller has gradually become a powerful extension with a lot of features, such as:

• Rearrange and collapse/expand Controllers
• Show Controllers per Group
• Show/hide "advanced" Controllers
• Resize text areas (prompts) and images
• Show latent previews from sampler nodes
• Custom min/max/step size on each slider
• Change slider values using scrollwheel
• And more!

Here's a quick demo video of 1.0 version!

1.0_Controller_Demo.mp4

For the next release we need your help! 📣

In the current 1.0 version, Controller is a single sidebar window.
But recently we discussed about:

• Making it an independent floating window (already done in 1.1 beta branch)
• Being able to open multiple windows at the same time
• Opening/switching/rearrange windows tabs

And many other features from previous requests.

This is how beta 1.1 looks like:

And here's a concept mockup of how Controller could look like (created by @JorgeR81)

New feedback and user-experiences are needed for the upcoming releases! 🚀

Check the Milestones and see the Roadmap!

Check the Discussions for news!

Open a Bug report!

Propose a Feature request!

How to install:

Stable releases:

You can install and update the main stable version through the Manager. Seach "Comfy Controller" 🔎

Beta releases:

Installing using git

After you installed the stable release, you can:

• Check the latest branch here: https://github.com/chrisgoringe/cg-controller/branches/active
• Copy the branch name
• Go to your custom_nodes/cg-controller folder
• Open terminal and use this command (replace [branch_name] with the one you copied):

git switch [branch_name]

Tip

After the installation, you can update the current beta branch through the Manager!

Important

When a new branch is released, copy the new branch name and follow the same procedure to install it.

Warning

Update the new current branch before testing, it may be not up-to-date.

Manual installation

If you don't have git installed, you can:

• Click on the latest branch here: https://github.com/chrisgoringe/cg-controller/branches/active
• Click on Code -> Download ZIP
• Extract it and place it in your custom_node folder

Tip

After the installation, you can update the current beta branch through the Manager!

Important

When a new branch is released, delete the old folder and follow the same procedure to install it.

[JorgeR81]

You can install and update the main stable version through the Manager. Seach "cg-controller" 🔎

You can install and update the main stable version through the Manager. Search "controller" 🔎

• Fix typo in Search
• cg-controller won't work, replace it with controller or Comfy Controller

[JorgeR81]

Do you have a title ?

You've got to explain it well in the title, or it will be ignored. Maybe:

[ extension ] Comfy Controller - mirror workflow nodes to build your own slider GUI

[ extension ] Comfy Controller allows you to build a custom GUI for each workflow

---

Use the "Show and tell" in the discussion categories.

Because an "Ideas", could imply there is not an extension yet.
And I think "Announcements" is more for ComfyUI native stuff

[LukeG89]

I wonder if it would be a good idea to change the branch naming convention, so that the name doesn't change from 1.1 to 1.2 etc..

Perhaps once 1.1 is done, I'll move to just having a main branch and a dev branch.

@chrisgoringe It would simplify a lot!

---

Fix typo in Search
cg-controller won't work, replace it with controller or Comfy Controller

Thanks!

---

Do you have a title ?

Maybe something like this could work:

Comfy Controller - The new extension to build custom GUIs on each workflow! [WIP] [Help Wanted]

[LukeG89]

I wonder if it would be a good idea to change the branch naming convention, so that the name doesn't change from 1.1 to 1.2 etc..

Perhaps once 1.1 is done, I'll move to just having a main branch and a dev branch.

@chrisgoringe I see you changed your mind! 😆

[LukeG89]

I've updated my post with the following:

• Comfy Controller instead of cg-controller
• 1.0 Demo video
• 1.1 beta Window
• Other links to actions (milestones, discussion, bug report and feature request)

I still didn't change the installation

[chrisgoringe]

OK, I've fixed a whole bunch of mostly small things, and added a few features that 1.1 needed.

#221 I think is fixed, but I've never been able to reproduce so I'm not sure!

Anything else critical before I redo the images and docs?

[chrisgoringe]

No, I’ve got main and dev for general consumption. 1.2 is very experimental!

…

On Tue, 29 Oct 2024 at 8:56 PM, LukeG89 ***@***.***> wrote: I wonder if it would be a good idea to change the branch naming convention, so that the name doesn't change from 1.1 to 1.2 etc.. Perhaps once 1.1 is done, I'll move to just having a main branch and a dev branch. @chrisgoringe <https://github.com/chrisgoringe> I see you changed your mind! 😆 image.png (view on web) <https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/141641e7-e25f-4994-a2b9-a676db8c7003> — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#219 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABBLMA6BIIANR42NIPAGGFDZ55LTXAVCNFSM6AAAAABQWQOT5WVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTCMBYGUYTQOI> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.*** com>

[JorgeR81]

After playing around with it for a while, adding / removing controllers, the option to add a controller doesn't show up in the right click menu, anymore. This is NOT fixed, even after restarting Comfy UI

I had this error in the browser:

---

Before it stoped working I noticed a more minor issue:

• The slider edit pop up is now covered by the controller.

[JorgeR81]

OK, I know what makes the right click options disappear. It's not necessary to restart Comfy to fix it.

Steps to replicate:

• Open an workflow with a controller ( it works )
• Open an workflow without a controller ( it will show a controller with the panels from the previous workflow )
• Refresh the browser to update

The expected behavior would be to show an empty controller.
But the controller is gone and the right click menu is gone.

---

How to "fix" :

• Load an workflow with a controller ( the issue remains )
• Refresh the browser ( the issue is "fixed" : now I see the Controller, and I have the option to add a new Controller )

[chrisgoringe]

Leave 1.2 branch for now, there’s something broken in the settings for different workflows getting munged. I’ll look tomorrow.

…

On Tue, 29 Oct 2024 at 11:11 PM, JorgeR81 ***@***.***> wrote: OK, I know what makes the right click options disappear. It's not necessary to restart Comfy to fix it. Steps to replicate: - Open an workflow with a controller ( it works ) - Open an workflow without a controller ( it will show a controller with the panels from the previous workflow ) - Refresh the browser to update The expected behavior would be to show an empty controller. But the controller is gone and the right click menu is gone. ------------------------------ How to "fix" : - Load an workflow with a controller ( the issue remains ) - Refresh the browser ( the issue is "fixed" : now I see the Controller, and I have the option to add a new Controller ) — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#219 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABBLMA2BEWLYFC2YNMU4GY3Z553QBAVCNFSM6AAAAABQWQOT5WVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTCMBYGY2TCNY> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.*** com>

[JorgeR81]

OK, I will go back to 1.1

In case it helps, I was able to replicate the issue in my last reply ( I deleted the previous ones, because they were confusing ).

[LukeG89]

@chrisgoringe @JorgeR81 Posted the Discussion on ComfyUI:

• Comfy Controller - The extension to build custom GUIs on each workflow comfyanonymous/ComfyUI#5408

[JorgeR81]

The window sizes are not working well in 1.1

When we open a new workflow, the Controller uses the dimensions from the previous workflow.

Should we have an issue for this, or will it be fixed in 1.2 with multiple instances ?

[LukeG89]

Maybe we should wait how it goes.

Off-topic: I see that huchenlei opened himself a feature request about a "Focus Mode"... More screen for controllers?? 😆

[LukeG89]

@JorgeR81 Focus Mode has already been implemented in the next version!