I’m currently planning a new feature that would allow you to make Canvases available across multiple projects. There are two approaches that both have their pros and cons and I’d love to get your feedback on what you think would be better.
Approach 1: Global Canvases Folder
With this approach, AbleSet would offer a “Global Canvases” folder and make each Canvas in this folder available independently of which project you’re working with. Any changes you make to this global Canvas would instantly be available in other projects as they access the same file.
To make a Canvas global, you could press a button which moves this Canvas from your project’s Canvases folder into the global Canvases folder.
You’d be able to duplicate a global canvas into your project if you want to make changes to the Canvas without affecting other projects.
Pros:
Global Canvases are always up-to-date when you make changes
Might be easier to understand
Cons:
When you move one of your projects to another computer, you’ll have to remember to also copy the global Canvases folder, otherwise they won’t be available on that computer
Approach 2: Canvas Templates folder
With this approach, AbleSet would offer a “Templates” folder that contains Canvases that will automatically be copied into every project you open. If a Canvas with the same name already exists in the project, the existing Canvas won’t be overwritten.
When you make changes to a Canvas, they’ll be saved in the project first and you can manually turn the new version into a template from the Canvas editor.
Pros:
Canvases are always available as part of the project, even if you move it to another computer
Depending on your workflow, you might prefer being able to make edits to these copied templates without these changes being automatically transferred to all other projects
Cons:
If you prefer having all global Canvases always being in sync across projects, this approach would be more complex
Syncing
Generally, I could imagine offering a feature that automatically synchronizes this Global Canvas folder between all connected AbleSet clients. This would at least alleviate the issue with the first approach as long as those computers are on the same network.
Poll
Which of these approaches do you prefer? Feel free to reply with your own thoughts on this thread!
I like the idea of both, but the global would be more helpful for me more often!
The templates would only really be helpful for me when doing a Christmas show or something where I want to edit my normal Canvas slightly for the show, but besides that not super helpful.
Now, the global canvas would be a game changer for me! I do setup at home and then sync to a Mac Mini at church, so being able to just update a “global canvas” on the Mac Mini would save me copy-pasting my canvases every time I make a set for a service
I have multiple bands that I use Ableset for. In the canvas each have their own logo. I feel like the templates are more suitable for me so that stuff like that are separate on each project. Nonetheless both of them are nice to have. I think I would use the templates more than the globals, since it would take a minute or two to update them if I would change the templates.
I second this completely! I think if i had to choose, the global canvases would suit me more, but both would be ideal. @leolabs would both be an option or is there some reason why you asked for one or the other?
What a great time-saver - I was copying across some canvases the other day.
Instinctively I’d like the template ones. Global sounds cool until you have to do a specific change and accidentally mess up your other projects. And for lyric tracks, for instance, I can see connecting them up being a pain if the name of said track changes per project.
If we go down the global route, I’d recommend there being some sort of indicator to show it’s a global canvas, to mitigate any accidental changes
Hey, I have been using Ableset for a few years now! I was so excited to have canvases since I have volunteers at church operating Ableset. Canvases are an awesome way to make Ableset show what you need specifically. I was bummed when I found out that you had to manually copy and past the Canvases over. I am excited for a solution to this. I know this stuff takes time, but is there any update on this yet?
Hey @Zacharyapittman, this will probably be released with AbleSet 3.2 as I’m currently preparing the release of 3.1, but I’ll post here as soon as it’s available to test
indicator to show it’s a global canvas, to mitigate any accidental changes