[netmindz]

Summary

Several effects use the segment name as a hidden string parameter. This PR gives segments a separate effect text parameter ("txt" in the JSON API). Effects declare it in their metadata, and the UI shows a text box for it only for effects that use it. Old presets and API calls keep working: they are migrated as they are loaded, so presets.json is never rewritten.

Why

These all use seg.name as effect input today:

User	What the name is used for
Image	GIF filename
Scrolling Text	Text to scroll, including #TIME-style tokens
Morse (user_fx)	Text to encode
pov_display usermod	.bmp filename

Because the name means two things, a user label and effect data:

• A segment playing fire.gif can't also be called "Hallway".
• Switching effects reinterprets the field. Scroll text becomes a filename that fails to load, and "fire.gif" scrolls across the matrix.
• Nothing in the UI says the name field is where the file or text goes. The effect metadata doesn't mention it either.
• Presets rename segments. Every preset saves and restores "n", which is how GIF presets work today, but it also means a "Solid red" preset resets your segment labels.
• Syncing segment names (being discussed in (POC) Sync protocol v2 prototype (soft-state replication) #5954) would implicitly also sync filenames and scroll text.

What changed

Segment (FX.h, FX_fcn.cpp)

• New char *fxText. Like name, it is heap-allocated only when set, and limited to WLED_MAX_FXTEXT_LEN (defaults to WLED_MAX_SEGNAME_LEN, so 32 bytes on ESP8266 and 64 on ESP32).
• It is handled in the copy/move constructors, the copy/move assignments, the destructor and getSize().
• setFxText() does nothing when the text is unchanged. It starts the Scrolling Text transition, which setName() used to do.
• The transition blend checks in WS2812FX::service() and blendSegment() now compare fxText instead of name.

Effect metadata

• Entry 9 of the slider group (after the 5 sliders and 3 checkboxes) is the text field's label, for example "Image@!,Blur,,,,,,,File;;;12;...".
• effectHasFxText(mode) in util.cpp checks for it.
• The current UI parser already ignores extra entries, so older UIs and clients just don't show the field.

JSON / presets (json.cpp)

• "txt" is serialised next to "n". Presets always contain it ("" when unset), so loading a preset never keeps a stale text.
• Migration: if "txt" is absent, "n" is present, the effect declares a text parameter, and the call is a preset or also sets "fx", the name is copied into the text.
  • Old presets, playlists and old scripts that send {"fx":53,"n":"fire.gif"} keep working.
  • A plain rename from the UI ({"n":"Hallway"} without "fx") only changes the label.
• rpt already keeps every key except "n", so repeated segments now get the text as well.
• A text change sets stateChanged.

Effects and usermods

• Image, Scrolling Text, Morse (user_fx) and pov_display read fxText and declare the field ("File" or "Text").
• Their buffers are sized with WLED_MAX_FXTEXT_LEN.
• The pov_display README is updated.
• udp_name_sync is unchanged: it still syncs the main segment's name.

UI (index.htm, index.js, index.css)

• A text box below the effect checkboxes, labelled from the metadata. It sends {"seg":{"txt":...}} to the selected segments.
• It is not overwritten by state updates while it has focus.
• The checkbox row is now hidden when an effect declares none of the 3 checkboxes, even if its metadata has more than 5 entries.

User-visible changes

• Image, Scrolling Text, Morse and POV now show a File or Text box under the effect sliders. The segment name is just a label again.
• Typing a filename or text into the segment name no longer changes the effect. Users need the new box. Existing presets migrate automatically, and on a running device the first preset load (or any API call that sets fx) copies the name across.
• External tools that set the GIF or scroll text through "n" without "fx" must send "txt" instead.
• Presets get one more key per segment ("txt":"", about 9 bytes).

Not in this PR (follow-ups to discuss)

• Name as a layout setting: saving "n" only with "save segment bounds" (sb), so effect presets stop renaming segments. This is a separate user-visible decision.
• A file picker with an extension filter for "File" fields.
• Sync: legacy UDP sync sends neither names nor this text. In sync v2 ((POC) Sync protocol v2 prototype (soft-state replication) #5954) this would be its own optional block.
• Documentation of the metadata entry in WLED-Docs.

Also fixed

• Copy assignment Segment::operator=(const Segment&) left name and pixels pointing at the source's buffers when it returned early for an inactive source (!stop), which could cause a double free. It now clears those pointers right after the memcpy, as the copy constructor already does.

Testing

• npm run build, then npm test: 16/16 pass.
• Builds pass for nodemcuv2, esp32dev and esp32s3dev_8MB_opi, plus esp32dev with custom_usermods = user_fx pov_display and nodemcuv2 with user_fx (local override, not committed).
• Not yet tested on hardware. To check: GIF playback from a new and an old preset, Scrolling Text with tokens, the text transition, the rename-only API call, and rpt.

---

This PR is AI-assisted (Claude Code). The new code is marked with // AI: comments; the remaining one-line pointer handling changes in FX_fcn.cpp follow the existing name handling. Everything was reviewed against the source and build-tested as above.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

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