Folder views

A folder view replaces a folder’s widget grid with your own tree - a dashboard, a mixer, a monitoring panel.

Example

public sealed class MonitorIntegration : IPluginIntegration, IFolderViewProvider, IUiProvider
{
    private string? _dashboard;

    public string ProviderName => "System monitor";

    public async Task InitializeAsync(IFolderViewProviderContext context, CancellationToken cancellationToken = default)
    {
        var registration = await context.RegisterFolderViewAsync(
            new FolderViewDescriptor(
                "dashboard",
                MyStrings.DashboardName(),
                MyStrings.DashboardDescription(),
                HasConfiguration: true),
            cancellationToken);

        _dashboard = registration.FolderViewId; // "com.example.monitor::dashboard"
    }

    public IReadOnlyList<UiSurfaceDeclaration> Surfaces { get; } =
    [
        new UiSurfaceDeclaration { Kind = UiSurfaceKinds.Folder, SessionMode = UiSessionModes.Shared },
        new UiSurfaceDeclaration { Kind = UiSurfaceKinds.Config, SessionMode = UiSessionModes.Exclusive },
    ];

    public Task<IUiSession?> CreateSessionAsync(UiSessionRequest request, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
    {
        var surface = request.Surface;
        var attributes = surface.Attributes;

        UiElement? root = surface.Kind switch
        {
            UiSurfaceKinds.Folder
                when attributes[UiFolderSurfaceAttributes.ViewId].GetString() == _dashboard
                => Dashboard(attributes[UiFolderSurfaceAttributes.Configuration]),
            UiSurfaceKinds.Config
                when attributes[UiConfigSurfaceAttributes.EntryPoint].GetString() == UiConfigEntryPoints.FolderViewConfig
                && attributes[UiConfigSurfaceAttributes.FolderViewId].GetString() == _dashboard
                => DashboardConfig(attributes[UiConfigSurfaceAttributes.FolderViewConfiguration]),
            _ => null,
        };

        return Task.FromResult<IUiSession?>(root is null ? null : new ViewSession(new UiView(surface, root)));
    }

    private static UiStack Dashboard(JsonElement configuration) => new()
    {
        Key = "dashboard",
        Direction = UiComponentDirections.Horizontal,
        Gap = 0.04,
        Padding = 0.04,
        Children =
        [
            new UiClockDial { Key = "clock", Value = UiValue.Of(UiTimeReference.InZone("Europe/Berlin")), Fill = true },
            Card("cpu", "CPU"),
            Card("gpu", "GPU"),
        ],
    };

    // IPluginIntegration members, Card and DashboardConfig omitted.
}

ViewSession is the adapter from Serving a view. A folder stays an ordinary folder: its view is part of its configuration, picked like its name and changeable later without touching anything else. Macro Deck’s built-in view is the widget grid.

Registering the view

var registration = await context.RegisterFolderViewAsync(descriptor, cancellationToken);
// registration.FolderViewId == "com.example.monitor::dashboard"

The qualified id is what a folder stores. Keep it stable across releases - renaming it strands every folder already using the view.

Registration is a push: register when you are ready, withdraw when you are not. GetFolderViews() only lets Macro Deck recover its catalog after a reconnect, and is optional. There is no ShutdownAsync here: release what InitializeAsync acquired in your integration’s own ShutdownAsync, and Macro Deck withdraws your views itself.

Drawing the folder

var viewId = attributes[UiFolderSurfaceAttributes.ViewId].GetString();
var configuration = attributes[UiFolderSurfaceAttributes.Configuration];

A folder surface carries folderId, folderName, viewId and configuration. The configuration travels with the request because you cannot read Macro Deck’s stored folders. Decline a view you do not serve rather than guessing from the configuration’s shape.

The tree is built from the same components as a deck widget, with two consequences:

• A folder view does not scroll. Everything has to fit the box you are given.
• Lengths are fractions of the box’s smaller side. A folder view is usually far wider than tall, so sizes track its height - see Sizing.
• A different layout per screen - a phone in portrait, a tablet in landscape - comes from UiResponsive, which chooses by the folder view’s own box.

Configuration

UiSurfaceKinds.Config
    when attributes[UiConfigSurfaceAttributes.EntryPoint].GetString() == UiConfigEntryPoints.FolderViewConfig

With HasConfiguration, picking your view opens a config surface with the folder-view-config entry point, inside the folder’s own dialog rather than as a flow of its own. Build it with the configuration view. It carries folderId, folderViewId and folderViewConfiguration; folderViewId is the view being configured, which is not always the one the folder currently stores - the user is choosing. The values are stored with the folder and handed back on every later folder surface.

To let the user choose a folder of files for the view, use a path input.

Navigation is Macro Deck’s

new FolderViewDescriptor("mixer", "Mixer", Navigation: FolderViewNavigation.Hidden);

Macro Deck draws the back button and it always drives Macro Deck’s own navigation stack - you cannot redirect it and need not draw one. Hidden says your view has its own way out; it is a preference, not a guarantee. Macro Deck still shows its button when the view is the only thing on screen and there is somewhere to go back to, so a broken view can never trap anyone. At a root folder it draws no button, whatever you asked for.

When your integration is not running

await context.UnregisterFolderViewAsync("dashboard", cancellationToken);

A folder keeps its view id and configuration whether or not anything provides them. Macro Deck renders a placeholder naming the missing view, with links to the integrations page and the folder’s settings. Nothing is cleared, so re-enabling your integration brings the folder back exactly as it was - including after an archive import on a machine without your plugin. Unregistering only stops the view being offered.

Where a folder view can be chosen

The choice appears - in a folder’s context menu and when creating one - only when more than one view is on offer and the device claiming the profile can render one (LayoutVisualCapabilities.CustomFolderViews, see Layout providers). A profile no device claims keeps the choice. So a registered view may not be an option on some profile; nothing selects it there, so nothing opens a session for it.

Over the plugin protocol

Registration is driven from the plugin side, so the host-to-provider direction of the folder-view-provider capability only has to describe the provider and re-read its catalog after a reconnect:

Operation	Purpose
describe	The provider’s declared name and its current catalog.
folder-views	The provider’s current folder view catalog, re-read after a reconnect.

Registering and withdrawing a view travels the other way as the folder-views host API:

Operation	Purpose
register	Registers a folder view, or replaces one already registered under the same provider-local id.
unregister	Withdraws a folder view. Folders still using it keep their stored id and configuration and show a placeholder until it returns.

The views themselves are served over the ui capability, like every other Macro Deck UI surface.

See also

• Widget types - the same registration shape, one level down.
• Layout providers
• Serving a view
• Components