Remove "hidden" need data field?

[chrisjsewell]

Currently there is both a "hide" and a "hidden" data field (and related directive option), per need, which seems confusing.

The "hide" directive option/data field has a clear purpose; if set, the need is not rendered in the output build (e.g. HTML page).
It is part of the default options:

sphinx-needs/sphinx_needs/defaults.py

Line 213 in bf359b2

"hide": directives.flag,

The "hidden" field is added to the extra options here:

sphinx-needs/sphinx_needs/needs.py

Line 434 in bf359b2

for option in ["hidden", "duration", "completion", "has_dead_links", "has_forbidden_dead_links", "constraints"]:

It is never used in the code base, tests, or internal documentation.
It is mentioned in https://sphinx-needs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/configuration.html#needs-hide-options, but this option was removed in v0.5.0
It is also mentioned in https://sphinx-needs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/configuration.html#needs-extra-options, but again in relation to the removed needs_hide_options config
There is also this line in the documentation, which I have no idea what it is trying to say 😅

The hidden option is a globally available option always hidden and used to easily execute Dynamic functions.

Is "hidden"simply a legacy field then, which can be removed?

@danwos perhaps you can provide some historical context on this?

[danwos]

Sorry, I have no idea what I have done there.

From your quote, I may understand the use case:
With dynamic functions, we can not set an option from the type flag.
So hidden supports something like:

.. req:: My req
   :hidden: [[shall_we_hide_it()]]

# conf.py

def shall_we_hide_it (...):
     return True if  ... else False

But I'm wondering why hidden is not taken into account when it comes to removing the need-node.

So maybe hide is more the legacy option, as it is a flag and should allow strings and dynamic functions as well.