How to show a static List in Unity Inspector

Unity Engine
1

Hey everyone,

I thought this was really cool So I decided to post up what I did.

I wanted to make the List static but readable in the inspector. Here’s how I did it.

Pre Reqs:

The Code below will work for displaying my PanelPositionManager List of PanelContainers:
PanelsPositionManager.cs

using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;

public class PanelsPositionManager : MonoBehaviour
{
    #region Static Vars
    public static PanelsPositionManager instance
    {
        get
        {
            if (_instance == null)
                _instance = GameObject.FindObjectOfType<PanelsPositionManager>();
            return _instance;
        }
    }
    private static PanelsPositionManager _instance;
    #region Panel Container List Management
    public static List<PanelContainer> panelContainers
    {
        get
        {
            if (_panelContainers == null)
                PanelsPositionManager.instance.GetAllChildrenPanelContainers();
            else if (_panelContainers.Count != PanelsPositionManager.instance.transform.GetComponentsInChildren<PanelContainer>().Length)
                PanelsPositionManager.instance.GetAllChildrenPanelContainers();
            return _panelContainers;
        }
    }
    public static List<PanelContainer> _panelContainers;
    public List<PanelContainer> _panelContainersDisplay;
    void GetAllChildrenPanelContainers()
    {
        PanelContainer[] containers = GetComponentsInChildren<PanelContainer>();
        if (_panelContainers == null)
            _panelContainers = new List<PanelContainer>();
        else if (_panelContainers.Count > 0)
            _panelContainers.Clear();
        _panelContainers.AddRange(containers);
        if (_panelContainersDisplay == null)
            _panelContainersDisplay = new List<PanelContainer>();
        else if (_panelContainersDisplay.Count > 0)
            _panelContainersDisplay.Clear();
        _panelContainersDisplay.AddRange(containers);
    }

    internal static void RegisterPanelContainer(PanelContainer panelContainer)
    {
        _panelContainers.Add(panelContainer);
    }

    internal static void UnRegisterPanelContainer(PanelContainer panelContainer)
    {
        _panelContainers.Remove(panelContainer);
    }

    internal static void ClearPanelList()
    {
        _panelContainers.Clear();
    }
    #endregion
    #endregion
}

PanelContainer.cs

using UnityEngine;

public class PanelContainer : MonoBehaviour
{
}

PanelsPositionManagerEditor.cs

using UnityEngine;
using UnityEditorInternal;
using UnityEditor;
using System.Collections.Generic;

[CustomEditor(typeof(PanelsPositionManager))]
public class PanelsPositionManagerEditor : Editor
{
    PanelsPositionManager _target;
    private ReorderableList list;
    bool populateList = false;
    // Use this for initialization
    public override void OnEnable()
    {
        base.OnEnable();
        _target = (PanelsPositionManager)target;
        populateList = (PanelsPositionManager.panelContainers.Count > 0) ? true : false;
        if (populateList)
        {
            list = new ReorderableList(serializedObject,
                   serializedObject.FindProperty("_panelContainersDisplay"),
                   true, true, true, true);
            list.drawHeaderCallback = (Rect rect) =>
            {
                EditorGUI.LabelField(rect, "Panels in Container");
            };
            list.drawElementCallback =
        (Rect rect, int index, bool isActive, bool isFocused) =>
        {
            var element = list.serializedProperty.GetArrayElementAtIndex(index);
            rect.y += 2;
            EditorGUI.PropertyField(
                new Rect(rect.x, rect.y, Screen.width*.8f, EditorGUIUtility.singleLineHeight),
                element, GUIContent.none);
        };

            list.onAddCallback = (ReorderableList l) =>
            {
                var index = l.serializedProperty.arraySize;
                l.serializedProperty.arraySize++;
                l.index = index;
                var element = l.serializedProperty.GetArrayElementAtIndex(index);
            };
        }
    }

    public override void OnInspectorGUI()
    {
        base.OnInspectorGUI();

         EditorGUI.BeginChangeCheck()
        //UI Elements for modifying Serialized Properties
        if(EditorGUI.EndChangeCheck())
       {
        serializedObject.ApplyModifiedProperties();
        //Run Operations to update values in script and associated elements
        }
        //Display List
        if (populateList)
        {
            list.DoLayoutList();
        }
    }
}

Results:

5 Likes
2

Awesome

3

Thanks, this is useful. However, in every script reload (serialization), static list elements disappear. Can you suggest any solution to that?

4

Because static data does actually disappear on domain reloads. Recommendation is to store your data in a ScriptableObject instead of static fields if you want Unity to save it.

1 Like
5

Thanks :slight_smile: