Advanced Panel Controls - e.g. Resizing Side Panels (LHS, RHS, BHS) using your mouse

[Mr.Red]

@athan

Library Manager Confusion

From the Library Manager, I installed DocumentExplorer.
I noticed that AdvancedPanelControl was also installed automatically.

• Library/Mr-xRed/AdvancedPanelControl
• Library/Mr-xRed/DocumentExplorer (Update / Remove)

However, this resulted in some confusion, as there appears to be another similarly named entry:

• Advanced Panel Control and Window Management (Mr-xRed)

It is not immediately clear how these entries relate to each other or which one should be configured.

As you mentioned above, “AdvancedPanelControl” is the short name of the library that gets installed automatically as a dependency of Document Explorer.
The full name in my repository is, as you also noticed, “Advanced Panel Control and Window Management” (yes, it’s a mouthful). Apologies for the confusing naming.

Functionally, they are the same thing: same .md file, same .js file. The separation exists purely so users can install Advanced Panel Control on its own, without also having to install Document Explorer, if that’s all they need.

@athan

Configuration

In my CONFIG, I added the following:

"AdvancedPanelControl", {
  mode = "auto",       -- "auto" | "overlay" | "dock"
  gestures = true,     -- true (enabled), false (disabled)
  minWidth = "300",    -- Minimum width for LHS and RHS
  maxWidth = "1000",   -- Maximum width for LHS and RHS
  minHeight = "100",   -- Minimum height for BHS
  maxHeight = "500",   -- Maximum height for BHS
}

Regarding the configuration: you are correct.
These parameters control the behaviour of the panels (LHS, RHS, and BHS), such as sizing, docking mode, and gesture support.

@athan

Reload Commands

I ran the following reload commands:

• CLIENT RELOAD
• PLUG RELOAD
• SYSTEM RELOAD

I am not entirely sure when each of these should be used or what their exact scope is. A brief explanation would be very helpful.

Those three reload options are all core SilverBullet system commands and are not related to AdvancedPanelControl or Document Explorer specifically.

For clarity, here is when each one is typically used and what it affects in MY understanding:

CLIENT: RELOAD UI

• Use when the browser UI is misbehaving or needs a hard refresh
• Performs a full browser reload
• Unsaved work is lost
• Effectively the same as pressing F5

PLUGS: RELOAD

• Use after installing or updating plugins, or when plugin code changes
• Reloads all plugins
• Preserves current work
• Not related to libraries installed via the Library Manager

SYSTEM: RELOAD

• Use after modifying CONFIG, Space Lua scripts, or when a broader refresh is needed
• Saves work and reloads config, commands, and widgets
• Usually sufficient to apply config.set changes
  But If a library also includes a .js file, it is recommended to additionally run CLIENT: RELOAD UI so the updated JavaScript is applied on the client side as well.

@athan

Panel Visibility & Population

Panel Visibility & Population
I realized that LHS, RHS, and BHS panels are not visible unless populated with a widget, so I tried the following:

LHS (Left-Hand Side)

• Ran the command Navigate: Toggle Document Explorer
• The documented shortcut (Ctrl + Alt + E) does not seem to work

RHS (Right-Hand Side)

• Right-clicked on a file
• Selected Pop out
• In the pop-up window, clicked Dock Right to fill the RHS pane

From a UX perspective, it would be very helpful to have a direct option such as “Open to Right Panel” when right-clicking a file. This mirrors Obsidian’s Open to the right / Split right behavior and reduces the interaction to a single click, which is likely what most users want.

Similarly, when the cursor focus is inside a note that is already open in the RHS panel, clicking a file in the Document Explorer should open that file in the RHS by default, rather than always opening it in the LHS, which is the current behavior.

I understand where you’re coming from, and the comparison with Obsidian makes sense from a UX perspective. The key difference is that in Obsidian, side panels are a first-class feature deeply integrated into the core application.

In SilverBullet, side panels were never designed to render pages directly. There isn’t even a native command to render a markdown page independently of the main editor view. The only workaround I found was to simulate this behaviour by running a second SilverBullet instance inside an iframe, then stripping away the title bar and other UI elements to approximate a clean panel view.

This approach comes with significant limitations. For example, once a page is opened inside that iframe, any further navigation remains confined to that panel. There is no clean way to choose whether a page opens in the main window or the panel, as the iframe runs SilverBullet in a sandboxed, isolated state.

Additionally, panels can only host one element at a time. If the Document Explorer is assigned to the LHS, it occupies that panel entirely, even when running in window mode. Nothing else can be docked there unless the Document Explorer is closed first.

@athan

BHS (Bottom-Hand Side)

• I could not find a way to populate the BHS panel

Ideally, this area could host widgets such as:

• Document outline
• Backlinks (Linked Mentions — apologies, but that term is quite unintuitive)
• Network graph visualization
• Calendar

The BHS was never a major focus for me, largely because there are very few (if any) existing plugins or libraries that make use of it. For that reason, it also received less attention in the Advanced Panel Control library.

@athan

General Feedback

Overall, this is an impressive and valuable contribution, and I am very grateful that you have shared it openly with the community.

One idea inspired by Obsidian is to keep the left and right panels always occupied by default, with the ability to collapse them when needed. Combined with simple actions like Split Right or Open to Right, this creates a very fluid and powerful workflow.

I fully appreciate that managing flexible panel layouts programmatically is extremely complex, so keeping things simple for now makes sense.

Thank you very much for your time and your work on this.

Thank you for the kind words and the thoughtful feedback. A lot of effort went into getting this to its current state, so it genuinely means something to receive both appreciation and constructive criticism.

That said, side panels in SilverBullet are a fairly rigid system. The fact that they can be resized, undocked, and used as floating windows at all is already pushing the boundaries of what they were originally intended to do. Especially considering that I don’t have a formal programming or software development background, and that a large portion of this work involved iterative experimentation, heavy debugging, and extensive use of LLMs.

Reaching the level of seamless UX you describe would require changes beyond what an extension library can realistically provide. I’ve tried to simplify the experience as much as possible within those constraints, but at this point the limitations are more structural than cosmetic.