Access serialized field in custom editor

Question

I am quite new to writing custom editors and I've been struggling with it ever since. I am not a fan of making every field public for the sake of being able to access it from the inspector, so I'm mainly using [SerializeField] on protected/private variables.

However, when I can't seem to find the way to access these serialized properties within a custom editor.

Here's an example to demonstrate my situation:

 [System.Serializable]
 public class Settings {
     public string myName = "My Name";
 }
 
 public class MyClass : MonoBehaviour {
     [SerializeField] protected Settings mySettings;
 }

I want to be able to affect mySettings.myName through a custom editor, but I can't seem to find the way. I could use reflection to get the field, but it seems a little overkill for this...

Can anyone help me on this?

Answer 1

Best Answer

Answer by frarees · Apr 09, 2014 at 08:22 AM

You should use SerializedObject.

Example:

 void OnInspectorGUI () {
     EditorGUILayout.LabelField (serializedObject.FindProperty ("mySettings.myName").stringValue);
 }

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Answer 2

MyProjectNamespace.cs

 using UnityEngine;
 using UnityEditor;
 
 namespace MyProjectNamespace
 {
     [ CustomEditor( typeof( MyMonoBehaviour ) ) ]
 
     [ CanEditMultipleObjects ]
     
     public class MyMonoBehaviourInspector : Editor
     {
         #region Variables
         
         SerializedProperty _myBoolSP;
 
         MyMonoBehaviour _myMonoBehaviour;
         
         #endregion Variables
         
         #region Functions
         
         void OnEnable()
         {
             
             _myMonoBehaviour = serializedObject.targetObject as MyMonoBehaviour;
             
             _myBoolSP = serializedObject.FindProperty( "_myClass._myBool" );
             
             Debug.Log( "_myBoolSP = " + _myBoolSP.boolValue );
             
         }
         
         
         
         public override void OnInspectorGUI()
         {
             serializedObject.Update();
             
             _myBoolSP.boolValue = EditorGUILayout.Toggle( "A Boolean", _myBoolSP.boolValue );
 
             GUILayout.Label( _myMonoBehaviour.MyBoolValue() );
 
             serializedObject.ApplyModifiedProperties();
         }
         
         #endregion Functions
         
     }
     
 }

MyMonoBehaviour.cs

 using UnityEngine;
 
 namespace MyProjectNamespace
 {
     public class MyMonoBehaviour : MonoBehaviour
     {
         #region Variables
         
         [ SerializeField ] private MyClass _myClass;
         
         #endregion Variables
         
         #region Functions
         
         public string MyBoolValue()
         {
             return "The value of _myBool is " + _myClass.MyBool;
         }
         
         #endregion Functions
         
     }
     
 }

MyClass.cs

 using UnityEngine;
 
 namespace MyProjectNamespace
 {
     [ System.Serializable ]
     
     public class MyClass
     {
         #region Variables
         
         [ SerializeField ] private bool _myBool;
         
         #endregion Variables
         
         #region Functions
         
         public bool MyBool
         {
             get{ return _myBool; }
         }
         
         #endregion Functions
         
     }
     
 }

For future reference. Note that you can have private variables, you just need to use [ SerializeField ], (and [ System.Serializable ] for classes that don't extend MonoBehaviour). You probably won't need using UnityEngine.UI for editor classes.

Access serialized field in custom editor

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