What does 'disabled' mean exactly (in Scratch blocks)?

[Matthew Bishop]

When a block is 'disabled', what can I expect to be different about it? I am trying to disable the following actions on a block in the workspace:

1. Cannot drag it into a new position

2. Cannot add / remove child blocks

3. Cannot edit fields

4. Blocks and their fields change appearance to 'look' ineditable

However, I see none of these things on workspace blocks that have been disabled. Here is how I am setting the disabled flag:

designWorkspace.getAllBlocks()
  .forEach(b => b.setDisabled(isDisabled))

[Sam El-Husseini]

Hey Matthew, 

A disabled block is a block that

• If in the Flyout, it can not be dragged out of the Flyout.
• Looks disabled, we render a disabled pattern on it
• If it somehow ends up on the workspace (through XML / JS), it can still be interacted with.
• If a parent block is disabled, so are the child blocks be. 

If what you're after is a read only workspace. A workspace where none of the blocks in it can be moved, or edited. There is a workspace option for that.

{readonly: true}

If you want to allow editing of some blocks but not others, then you can set a block's movable property to false

block.setMovable(false);

That might be a little limiting, you can achieve some of what you're after above. For example, you can set all blocks in a stack to setMovable(false) and you won't be able to remove blocks from the stack. However a user can still add blocks to the stack. 

Additionally, for fields, there isn't a property that will get you that from the xml / JS.

Cheers, 

Sam

[Sam El-Husseini]

You will have to reload the workspace in order to change that setting. It also means there won't be a toolbox in that mode. 

You might also try the overlay method discussed here if you're just trying to momentarily disable user interaction: 

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/blockly/NvS6W5AiBhc

On Friday, August 9, 2019 at 3:28:02 PM UTC-7, Matthew Bishop wrote:

This might work. I want to make the workspace read-only when a WebSocket connection is down, and re-enable editing when the connection is reestablished.

[Matthew Bishop]

I want to make the workspace read-only when a WebSocket connection is down, and re-enable editing when the connection is reestablished.

The toolbox can be disabled easily, I guess I am running into a gap in scratch-blocks? setting workspace blocks to disabled (also non-editable) appears to have no effect.

[Matthew Bishop]

In answer to my own question, Scratch does not support disabled blocks: 

https://github.com/LLK/scratch-blocks/blob/develop/core/block_svg.js#L869

However I can simulate "disabled" close enough for my purposes with this:

designWorkspace.getAllBlocks()
  .forEach(b => {
    b.setMovable(!isDisabled)
    b.setEditable(!isDisabled)

  })