Switch context to Outliner

Question

I'm working on an add-on that performs some operations on items in Outliner (actually it enables me to batch rename collections, a feature missing from Blender). The addon works fine if I assign a keyboard shortcut to it, click Outliner and hit the key. However it does not work if I launch it from another window, or from the Edit menu. In these cases I receive the 'Context' object has no attribute 'selected_ids' error.

I tried a few things found on the net, which were usually trying to get the outliner window and override the context. One is this:

   for area in bpy.context.screen.areas:
        if area.type == 'OUTLINER':
            override = bpy.context.copy()
            override['area'] = area

I thought I can just call override.selected_ids instead of bpy.context.selected_ids, but I cannot for an 'dict' object has no attribute 'selected_ids' error.

Have any of you managed to find a way to switch context to Outliner?

I need a solution for Blender 2.92+

Answer 1

After some more digging, I figured out a better way, that is probably the way intended by the devs:

using bpy.context.temp_override(area=override_area) (documentaiton page)

Here is the same example as above with the new solution:

#Initialize the override_area in case it does not need to be overriden
areaOverride=bpy.context.area    
if bpy.context.area.type!='OUTLINER':
    #If needed find the outliner area
    for area in bpy.context.screen.areas:
        if area.type == 'OUTLINER':
            areaOverride=area

with bpy.context.temp_override(area=areaOverride):
    #Any code you want...
    for obj in bpy.context.selected_ids:
        print(f"Selected: {obj.name} - {type(obj)}") #Notice you also get selected collections, normally impossible outside of Outliner context

With that, no more issues.

Answer 2

I was in the same situation I wanted to reach selected_ids from another context than the Outliner, and it looks like you can use this solution: how to set context to run operations

It is a hack, this solution consists in:

• Put the outliner in full screen (Forcing the active context to the Outliner)
• You execute your code in OUTLINER context
• You revert the action of putting the Outliner in fullscreen. Since it all happens in one frame, the user does not see that the outliner was in full screen.

Noticeable issues:

• The header of the originally active window context blinks for 1 frame.
• The collection scrolls vertical scroll gets to its lower position. If anyone figure out a way to prevent that, or reset the scrolls, I would love to hear. (Impossible to use the outliner operators after the view is reverted.)

Here is an example of how to use it:

def setOutlinerContext():
    for area in bpy.context.screen.areas:
        if area.type == 'OUTLINER':
            override = bpy.context.copy()
            override['area'] = area
            bpy.ops.screen.screen_full_area(override, use_hide_panels=False)

def MyFunctionExecutedOutsideOutlinerContext:
    setOutlinerContext() 
    #At this point the Outliner is in full screen and is the active context

    #Execute your code... For example:
    for obj in bpy.context.selected_ids:
        print(f"Selected: {obj.name} - {type(obj)}") #Notice you also get selected collections, normally impossible outside of Outliner context

    #Important: now revert the UI to its original state
    bpy.ops.screen.back_to_previous() 
```

Answer 3

Since Blender 4.0 JulienH's method stopped working - now Blender is also requiring to override the region, not just the area.

import bpy

def get_outliner_area():
    if bpy.context.area.type!='OUTLINER':
        for area in bpy.context.screen.areas:
            if area.type == 'OUTLINER':
                return area

area = get_outliner_area()
region = next(region for region in area.regions if region.type == "WINDOW")

with bpy.context.temp_override(area=area, reigon=region):
    for obj in bpy.context.selected_ids:
        print(f"Selected: {obj.name} - {type(obj)}")