Add option to replace "Detach Script" button with "Extend Script" for instances and custom classes

[afterlightgames]

When working with instanced scenes and custom classes that have scripts attached, I often want to extend the attached script to add functionality to a specific instance or create a subclass that extends it. This happens far more often than wanting to detach the script, however, only the "Detach Script" button is displayed at the top of the dock when these nodes are selected, requiring us to right click the node to reveal the "Extend Script" option.

I propose an option to replace the "Detach Script" button with the "Extend Script" button at the top of the scene tree dock when an instanced scene or custom node with an attached script is selected. It's a small change that would likely be simple to implement yet could improve the user experience as I imagine fewer scenarios where a user needs to detach a script from an instance or custom class instead of extending it, and if they did wish to do so the "Detach Script" option still exists in the context menu and the inspector. At the very least, having both buttons side by side would be a welcome improvement.

[tetrapod00]

I don't think that it's very clear that Extend Script is used more than Detach Script (I personally don't ever use Extend, but I do use Detach often enough). So I'm not sure that changing the default here is justified.

Assuming there is some support for Extend being a more common workflow than Detach I do think either of the following could be good options:

• Show both buttons side by side. The (slight) problem with this is that it uses up more of the scarce horizontal space in the editor. Maybe at some point the toolbar at the top of the scene tab becomes two lines tall, and this isn't actually a problem.
• Show only one button, but add an editor setting to change which action is shown. This would be a good compromise if there is a lot of demand for Extend being more common than Detach, but it isn't a universal preference. There is still a cost to adding another editor setting, and for something small like this, users might never think to search for the editor setting, because even if they do prefer Extend to Detach, it's only a small annoyance.

I think we should see how much demand there is for this, and how common it is to prefer one or the other in typical workflows.

[afterlightgames]

Both very good solutions. I especially second the possibility that this could be provided as an editor option in order to cater to different workflows.

[Flynsarmy]

Would prefer both being shown as extending scripts is very common if you're using addons like Godot State Charts or adding custom functionality to inherited scenes.

We don't need editor options for this type of thing - if an option was added for every tiny UI change such as this it'd be so overly cluttered you'd never be able to find anything.

[HanzCEO]

Custom node that does not show "Extend Script" button is something that should not happen.

To show both "Extend" and "Detach" buttons is a separate feature request, not an issue at the moment.

[Flynsarmy]

I did a bit of digging, and 'Extend Script' button is actually already in the dock, just hidden. With a bit of tweaking I made it visible:

I'm not smart enough to understand exactly why it's not showing under normal conditions, but here's the code that determines whether or not it displays:

https://github.com/godotengine/godot/blob/1f47e4c4e3a09a422e96880a7918d986dd575a63/editor/scene_tree_dock.cpp#L2802-L2810

Looks bugged honestly but we'd need someone else to take a look and confirm.

[afterlightgames]

Good find! I can't seem to get the button to show up at all so it does seem like a bug. I'll open an issue on it.

[Flynsarmy]

To keep things nice and linked up, here is the issue mentioned above godotengine/godot#100074