Highlightable/Selectable text?

[degracode]

I'm currently writing some logging facilities, and it'd be useful to make regular text highlightable so that the user can copy it.

So far I've been doing this using InputText/InputTextMultiLine with ImGuiInputTextFlags_ReadOnly, but it's quite awkward as you have to make a buffer, and pass it in with the length - it can't easily be used with printf formatting.

Is there already a simpler way to do this?

[ocornut]

There's no way currently but I agree it is desirable.

Right now a workaround is to use a context menu (right-click on the text item opening a menu that would have a "Copy" option), so you could create yourself a helper that does Text + that menu.

Linking to #949 (coincidentally filled on the same time as you): @Megaton: was your intent just to copy text to clipboard and not edit it ?

[hb3p8]

@ocornut Yes, that's correct :) Actually I have implemented solution with context menu a while ago, but possibility to copy only part of the text would be nice. I was extending console example a bit and felt that such a feature will look good.

[nico-abram]

Are there any examples of implementing the context menu with Copy?

[hb3p8]

@nico-abram It is right in ImGui demo window. Look at if (ImGui::TreeNode("Context menus")) section. Just replace logic inside menu to something like this: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1264137/how-to-copy-string-to-clipboard-in-c or other platform-dependent implementation.

[ocornut]

You can use ImGui::SetClipboardText() to call in imgui’s own backend.

[Dysotron]

A workaround for this I've found is to use InputText with the readonly flag, like this:

                std::string inputId = "m_messages";
		inputId.append(std::to_string(i));
		char input[256];
		strcpy(input, m_messages[i].c_str());
		ImGui::PushID(inputId.c_str());
		ImGui::PushItemWidth(ImGui::GetWindowSize().x);
		ImGui::InputText("", input, 256, ImGuiInputTextFlags_ReadOnly);
		ImGui::PopItemWidth();
		ImGui::PopID();

That lets you highlight and copy the text

[andrewmcdonald-oxb]

Yes we've been using the InputText widget with ImGuiInputTextFlags_ReadOnly too, but it's awkward having to pass non-const char* in. Is there any interest in having a different signature with a const pointer, which could assert if the flag wasn't supplied?

[ocornut]

For now I'd prefer not adding extra signatures (as down the line that feature can be provided by a different widget or system), but you can add this signature + wrapper func in your source code.

[geocine]

Is there way to remove the background of the InputText so that it looks like a label at the same time want to use the Selectable() behavior for it? Has anyone done anything the same?