Show/Hide my own module in combination with MMM-Facial-Recognition

[j.e.f.f]

Hello. I’ve written a module the hides itself when no data is currently available, otherwise it shows itself. I’m using the standard this.hide() / this.show() methods.

However things get messed up when I combine this with MMM-Facial-Recognition. I’ve read about using lockStrings to lock the module’s visibility, but as far as I understand it, I’d need the Facial Recognition module to supply a lock string upon sending the hide command as well as my own module to supply a lockString to itself upon hiding.

Essentially I want the following behaviour:

• My Module has no data, never show, even if called to be displayed by MMM-FR
  • My module supplies a lockString to itself with its hide command
  • module remains hidden regardless of what MMM-FR wants to do
• My module has data, but MMM-FR wants it hidden
  • MMM-FR would need to supply a lock string with its hide command
  • module remains hidden regardless of the fact that there is data
• My module has data AND MMM-FR wants it visible
  • both call the show() method with their respective lockStrings, thereby removing both lockStrings from my module
  • module is visible.

1. Do I understand this correctly?
2. Is there another way to get this behaviour without requiring a modification to MMM-Facial-Recognition? I can see myself running into this problem with some other show/hide modules, and I’d rather not have manage my own modified versions of others’ modules.

[j.e.f.f]

For more context on this, in fact my understanding above is correct. I modified both MMM-Facial-Recognition and my own module to use a lockString option, and the module is showing and hiding as I expect / want now.

However it doesn’t address my second question – could I have accomplished this without modifying MMM-Facial-Recognition?