So I created a branch to start working on adding variables and modes to our design library file. I have run into a couple of problems that are as follows;
When I go to create a new variable the keyboard “Shift+Enter” does not work to duplicate variables or create new. This appears to be because I have more than one mode. If I have one mode/value column Shift+Enter works, but not with two or more.
The branch I am working in asks me to update from the main, but if I do that it removes the entire collection of my color variables. The variables do not appear in the review panel so I cannot exclude them from the update process.
Oddly enough there is a collection of Number variables and that is not removed or changed.
When adding a color variable, I first name the variable and then tab to the first mode. This selects the color box/swatch itself, but that has no action attached. It does not open the color selector by hitting enter, space, or return. I then have to tab to the hex value which I can change by typing or pasting from the clip board. However, some of our colors have a transparency and that field is not tabbable or even selectable unless I open the color selector by clicking back on the color box/swatch.
Lastly, since the branch updating is not working correctly, I was trying the sample plugin for exporting and importing variables from the github repository. I felt it would be safer to export the variables from the branch and then import them into the main. I’d still have to assign the variables to the colors, but that would be ok vs not knowing what got reverted by merging back from an un-updatedable branch.
Unfortunately the import part of the plugin does not work with variables that have more than one mode. I’ll be submitting this issue directly to the giuthub repository and if I could figure out the script would fix it my self. Just mentioning it here as it would be better if the Branch updating handled variables better.
One final thing, we do use a number of Effect styles and have some gradients it we really need variables to be selectable for the base colors in those to be able to take full advantage of the modes. As it is for now we will have to create a variant of the component for those components that use Effect styles or gradients.
If anyone else has these problems and has a work around I’d love to hear.