VPS 115/make z axis more intuitive

[hazikchaudhry]

Describe the issue

The authoring tool's component properties sidebar featured form fields to manage Z-position. This meant users could not reliably manage component stacking order (e.g., incremental moves, send to front/back), hindering efficient scene layout.

Describe the solution

A standardised Z-axis control module was implemented across relevant component property sidebars (Button, Image, Text, SpeechText, FirebaseAudio). This module provides:

• Display of the current zPosition.
• Buttons for incremental ("Move Backward"/"Forward") and absolute ("Send to Back"/"Bring to Front") layering.
• Logic to prevent redundant updates if already at min/max Z-depth.
• All controls are now grouped under a single "Z Axis Position" heading with consistent styling, replacing previous Z-axis inputs. Component files were refactored to support this.

Risk

Performance: In scenes with a very large number of components, the "Send to Back" / "Bring to Front" actions (which scan all components to determine min/max Z-values) might introduce a minor UI delay. Should not be that much of a delay.

Image Bug: Beforehand images did not respond to Z-position changes, currently this system has the same issue. It may have something to do with their state management within the scene/slide. Due to selection errors being present when an image is selected.

Definition of Done

• Code peer-reviewed
• Wiki Documentation is written and up to date
• Unit tests written and passing
• Integration tests written and passing
• Continuous Integration build passing
• Acceptance criteria met
• Deployed to production environment

Reviewed By

Who reviewed your PR - for commit history once merged

[becky-n]

LGTM

[becky-n]

LGTM

[becky-n]

nice

[harbassan]

try and extract the reused code out into its own component