Knytt Stories: Ideas for level selection layout

Yes, and now I've already implemented the buttons. The arrows normally aren't shown. They would only show up if there's insane number of levels. Say, if you have more than 20 pages you'll see "1", "2", ..., "19" and right arrow. If you click the right arrow you'll select page 20 and will see left arrow, "20", "21", ... It wasn't an easy thing to do, not too hard either.. I still get surprised by how good MMF2 is at bugs. Here's a nice one: expression Buttons Count( "Page Marker" )*X Step( "Page Marker" )/2 is interpreted as Buttons Count( "Page Marker" )*(X Step( "Page Marker" )/2)
For filtering by date I'm planning to use the latest one among saves dates and world folder date. Have you looked for an MMF2 component that would allow getting files dates?

Wow, that's a terrible bug! I'm not sure if I looked into date finding before. I'm a little rusty after taking the summer off, so I can't even speculate on a date finding solution right now. If I remember correctly, I was discouraged by the thought of rearranging the level list, not finding the dates.

After creating a search box I thought the dynamic page buttons weren't worth the time it would take to implement them. I'm not saying it isn't useful, but it's less useful when you have a search box.

Wow, that's a terrible bug! I'm not sure if I looked into date finding before. I'm a little rusty after taking the summer off, so I can't even speculate on a date finding solution right now. If I remember correctly, I was discouraged by the thought of rearranging the level list, not finding the dates.

I think I'll add it to my extension, it would be easier for me than searching for an extension. For rearranging I think I'll just add date into strings before level path and use the same built-in sorting.

After creating a search box I thought the dynamic page buttons weren't worth the time it would take to implement them. I'm not saying it isn't useful, but it's less useful when you have a search box.

Indeed. I haven't given the search box enough thought. Most of the time sorting by date should be enough and in other cases search would be the best option.

I was thinking about your, GrayFace, layout. I'm guessing you click the "sort by date" button to sort by date. Then, you click it again to go back to normal sorting. This is different from how the filter buttons work. Shouldn't you have a "sort by author"* button to toggle the sort method back to default?

(*When levels are made correctly the sorting by folder name is essentially the same as sorting by author.)

There doesn't seem to be a good place for two vertically aligned buttons. Horizontal alignment doesn't look good either. Single button looks best, although behaves a little unusual.
Here's an update of layout with planned search option.

That looks much better. The "sort by date" looks good in it's new location. How will a user do a search? Do they click on the button and then a box appears?

I don't know if you want any search tips, but for my mod I'm using the "edit object" to handle the user input. I use the "window control object" to handle focus issues that arise from using the "edit object". Then, I use the "string parser object" to do the actual searching. The edit object appears before the rest of the frame, which I don't like, but it works great at least in the updated version of my mod.

That looks much better. The "sort by date" looks good in it's new location. How will a user do a search? Do they click on the button and then a box appears?

Yes, then the list updates as they type and the search box disappears when they press Enter.

I'm using "edit object" too. I check if it has focus and give it focus if it doesn't have it. I use "Find" function to do the searching.
I'll send you the WIP version.

^:Oh! So, you've already implemented searches. It's nice that you would share your source with me, but I'm afraid I can't open it. You're using MMF2 Developer only extensions. My friend's copy is developer, and I could install them to his copy, but if ever I do buy my own copy of MMF2 it will be the basic version, and I don't want to start using extensions that may later be unavailable to me.

I don't know which ones are developer only, I didn't think I use developer-only extensions. You can copy any other extension under the name of a missing one to make the project open up, just to view the code.
I'll never buy a copy of MMF2 myself, so I don't have this problem
One issue with the edit object I have is that I can't remove the beep sound when I press Esc, but I guess I can handle it in my extension.

I didn't even notice the beep on esc. I have it too, but I don't see it as a problem for me. Clicking outside of the edit box or pressing tab takes focus from my search function. It never closes, it just loses focus. That's the reason I use the Window Control object.

Here's how I handle it. Maybe it would be better to close the edit box when it loses focus instead of keeping it focused, I don't know.

I thought you were creating it dynamically, since you said it appears and disappears. My bad.

Now I'm done with sorting by date, made most of it inside the extension. Does my extension work in non-Developer version of MMF2?

Sorry, I'm getting things mixed up. It was Looki's Level Editor Mod that used Developer-only extensions. I was just too lazy to install your extension and the Lua extension. Guess I can take a look at your source.

I've uploaded the newer version to the same link.