Retrieve Variable's [Tooltip()] Property From a Custom Inspector (C#)

Unity Engine
1

Hello all!

I have been searching for a solution to this question for quite a while, unfortunately, to no avail:

How does one retrieve a script’s [[Tooltip()] property from within a Custom Inspector?

I wish to retrieve the value of a tooltip defined within a script using Unity 4.6+'s [Tooltip()] attribute. In its place, I am writing what you see below, which seems redundant:

The script (C#):

using UnityEngine;
public class Example : MonoBehaviour
{
   [Tooltip("Here is a tooltip")]
   public float testFloat;
}

The inspector (C#):

using UnityEditor;
[CustomEditor(typeof(Example))]
public class ExampleEditor : Editor
{
   private void OnEnable()
   {
      Target = (Example) target;
   }

   public override void OnInspectorGUI()
   {
      Target.testFloat = EditorGUILayout.FloatField(newGUIContent("Test Float","Here is a tooltip"),Target.testFloat);
   }
}

Replacing “Here is a tooltip” in the custom inspector with a call to the field’s [Tooltip()] property will not only save time and code, but will make the script far more maintainable.

Thank you greatly in advance!

2

Hey there,

What you are looking for has nothing to do with Unity directly but is a C# feature. If you would like to capture Attributes you use the class type.

    [Tooltip("This is a tool tip")]
    public bool myAwesomeBool = false;

    public void DoStuff()
    {
      TooltipAttribute toolTip = GetTooltip(this.GetType().GetField("myAwesomeBool"), true);
    }


    private TooltipAttribute GetTooltip(FieldInfo field, bool inherit)
    {
      TooltipAttribute[] attributes = field.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(TooltipAttribute), inherit) as TooltipAttribute[];

      return attributes.Length > 0 ? attributes[0] : null;
    }

Just as a heads up are you just trying to keep the tool tip if the user writes one? If so there is a much much easier way to do that and it requires a heck of a lot less of code.

1 Like
3

@BMayne :

Thank you so much for that code!

Yes. I’m creating my own editor functions where I hope to retain the tooltips defined within scripts themselves. I would absolutely be interested in the “heck of a lot less code” way!

1 Like
4

Okay, have you ever heard of Serialized Properties?

These are what Unity uses behind the scenes for most of their editor stuff. Here is your class redone with Serialized Properties

[CustomEditor(typeof(Example))]
public class ExampleEditor : Editor
{
  //We create our property
  SerializedProperty testFloat = null;

  private void OnEnable()
  {
    //Assign it on enable
    testFloat = serializedObject.FindProperty("testFloat");
  }

  public override void OnInspectorGUI()
  {
    // The really cool this about this is the fact that you don't have to say what type it is.
    // It will draw the correct editor. If you have any property drawers (or attributes which drawers target)
    // this will draw them instead. This includes the ToolTipAttribute.
    EditorGUILayout.PropertyField(testFloat);

    /* Other Notes
     *  You can now multi edit objects ( you can't do this when you use Target )
     *  You can now Undo ( you can't do this as well as you can with serialized properties )
     */
  }
}
2 Likes
5

@BMayne :

Wow! That’s incredibly helpful. Thank you so much!

Indeed, I had actually looked into SerializedProperty quite a bit, but I had watched an in-depth editor tutorial that I had (mistakenly) understood to be stating that serializedObject and SerializedProperty could only apply to ScriptableObject’s.

The realization that this is incorrect, and that SerializedProperty automatically applies attributes (which I never knew) will greatly shorten my custom inspector scripts and save me a vast amount of effort, to say the least.

Thank you so much, my friend!

1 Like
6

Stumbled across this looking for the same thing, and I believe you need to add:

public override void OnInspectorGUI() {
    serializedObject.Update();

    ...

    serializedObject.ApplyModifiedProperties();
}

To OnInspectorGUI, as my fields weren’t actually saving.

1 Like