Is it possible to change the edge preview routing style?

[jmenzies12]

Hey there,

Currently we are using the ManhattanEdgeRouter, however when the user goes to create a new edge, the edge preview uses polyline (or it maybe it is not using routing at all and is just showing a straight-line). This can be a little confusing for users when the edge routing then changes as soon as they click to confirm the edge creation.

Is there a way to change this? Or if it's not actually using routing for this, could you point me to where this happens so I can have a look?

Cheers
Jonathan

[tortmayr]

Hi @jmenzies12,

Both "real" edges and the feedback/preview edges use the default routing mechanism.
Unfortunately if you set the routerKind for edges on the server-side (GModelFactory) it won't be picked up correctly by the tools.
If you want to use manhattan routing consistently you have to configure it on the client side.

For instance, the code to consistenly use manhattan routing for elements of type "edge" , would look like this:

export class MyEdge extends GEdge {
    override routerKind = 'manhattan';
}

export const myDiagramModule = new ContainerModule(
    (bind, unbind, isBound, rebind) => {
        const context = { bind, unbind, isBound, rebind };
        
        ...
        
        configureModelElement(context, 'edge', MyEdge, GEdgeView);    
});

Defining the "routerKind" directly in the model element class, ensures that it is set correctly
even if the element is created on the client side (e.g. by the edge creation tool)

[rsoika]

Ah, that sounds interesting. I didn't know that either. I will give it a try too...

[jmenzies12]

Thanks @tortmayr,

That worked, for the most part, though it seems that the preview is still quite different from the end result, bend points are in different locations and anchors are not quite right. Is it possible that it doesn't use the correct anchors in the preview?

I'll investigate and see if maybe this is due to our customizations to the router and anchors.