Expose protected variable in inspector

Question

Hello !

I have two classes :

  public class Slide : MonoBehaviour 
  { protected bool _auto = false; }
  public class VideoSlide : Slide
  {}

The question is : How could I expose the variable "_auto" in the inspector only for VideoSlide objects in the scene ?

I tried to do a Custom Editor, like that :

  [CustomEditor(typeof(VideoSlide))]
  public class VideoSlideEditor : Editor
  {
      public override void OnInspectorGUI()
      {
          base.OnInspectorGUI();
          var script = (VideoSlide)target;
          script.Auto = EditorGUILayout.Toggle("Auto",script.Auto);
          
      }
  }

That works for exposing the variable in the editor, but when I press Play in the editor, the variable always go back to false even if i check the box !

Does someone know why ? :) Thanks for your help!

EDIT : I want to expose the _auto variable ONLY on VideoSlide objects, and not on both Slide & VideoSlides objects, or I would just have [SerializeField] the varible..

Answer 1

Answer by xxmariofer · Jun 13, 2019 at 01:20 PM

there is no need of creatinbg an editor script, the variable is not being shown because "from the point of view of the c$$anonymous$$ld behaves like a private value" just mark the variable in the parent class as serializefield

 public class Slide : MonoBehaviour 
 { [SerializeField] protected bool _auto = false; }

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MisterYeti · Jun 13, 2019 at 01:26 PM 0

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@xxmariofer The thing is that I don't want to expose the variable in the inspector for Slide objects.

I want to expose _auto ONLY on VideoSlide objects :/

And I feel really sorry because I just saw that I didn't precised that on my question...

Bunny83 MisterYeti · Jun 13, 2019 at 02:08 PM 1

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That's not possible. The variable is declared inside your Slide class. You can not change or alter the declaration in a derived class. Without the SerializeField attribute the field is not serialized at all. If you don't want the variable be serialized / visible in the Slide class, why do you actually declare it inside that class? There's not enough information to recommend a workaround. Maybe declare just a virtual property inside your Slide class and implement the actual field inside the derived class? However this seems to make no sense at all. If the variable should be part of the Slide class and should be serialized it has to be declarerd that way.

xxmariofer Bunny83 · Jun 13, 2019 at 02:55 PM 0

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is there a way of referencing an editor script from inside a regular monobehaviour? since his value is not serialized, at the start of the program the value is setto the default value so, the only solution i can think of is somehow reference the editor script so in the awake you give the var the current state of the toggle(i doubt thats posible), or from inside the editor script create scriptableobjects that work as data serialization for the childs, but thats some extra work

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Expose protected variable in inspector

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