Bind Rerouting

Available from version 2.1.0

Sometimes objects have their serialized fields used only to serialize their initial states or are there to store the internal state, and changing those the fields don't have any effect on the logic. In most of those cases, there are properties for those fields, and in their setters the logic change is usually triggered. In these cases, it makes more sense to bind the properties instead of the fields.

For example you have the following object:

public class MyMonoBehaviour : MonoBehaviour
{
    [SerializeField]
    private Text _textComponent;
    
    [SerializeField]
    private float _points;
    
    public float Points {
        get => _points;
        set
        {
            _points = Mathf.Clamp(value, 0, 100);
            _textComponent.text = _points.ToString();
        }
    }
    
    public Text TextComponent {
        get => _textComponent;
        set
        {
            _textComponent = value;
            if(_textComponent != null) 
            {
                _textComponent.text = _points.ToString();
            }
        }
    }
}

Now if you bind the _points field, when updating its value, the text with points won't be updated, because the text assignment logic happens in the setter of its property. Here it makes sense to change the binding from its field _points to its property Points and trigger correctly the update logic when changing its value.

Reroute fields through UI

When opening a bound field's Bind Menu and if there are options to reroute it, the Reroute Bind option will appear.

Reroute Bind option in Bind Menu

When selecting the option, a list of possible candidates to reroute to will be shown. The system will show the best candidate first (in bold). Every item will have its member type on the right hand side. In this specific example, another pair of field and property has been added, for the sake of having more candidates.

Reroute Bind candidates

Once the reroute has been added, a route symbol will appear near field's label to indicate that this field is rerouted. When hovering with the mouse cursor over the icon, more info is revealed in the tooltip.

Route Icon

Route Icon Tooltip

When Rerouting a Field, the reroute is registered per type instead of per object. This means it is sufficient only one reroute for all objects having that specific field. In the example above, all objects of type MyMonoBehaviour will have their fields _points rerouted.

To remove the rerouting on the field, simply open Bind Menu and navigate again to Reroute Bind, there should be the option to remove the rerouting.

Remove Rerouting Option

Reroute fields with coding

To reroute a field in code, you need to add the following line in one of the scripts that starts in editor:

BindSystem.RerouteBoundFieldOf<MyMonoBehaviour>("_points", "Points");

This line registers a new rerouting record into the system and will make sure to replace the binding of the field to its property when enabling its binding.

Make sure to execute the line above before enabling any bind field of that object, to ensure it works correctly.