UniConsole

Version Details

• Recommended Unity Version: 2022.3.41f1

What?

UniConsole is a basic debugging console for unity inspired by QuantumConsole. It is designed to be a free alternative with less features.

Why?

I needed an Admin Console for the Unity Scene View.

Planned features

• Optional parameter support
• Fix collection parameters
• Add better parsing support
• Customization

Installation

Are you already familiar with Unity (and Github) and are looking for a quick way to install this project? Check out the Advanced installation guide.

Are you new to Unity and/or Github and are looking for a detailed, beginner friendly guide? Try the Beginner installation guide.

Version History

Click here to view the Version History and the Patch Notes of UniConsole.

Commands

Important

Only static methods can be used as commands

The default commands for UniConsole are:

• help: Logs every available command (default and custom)
• help otherCmd: Logs a help text for the command otherCmd if provided. You can provide a help text for your custom commands like so:

  [Command("This is the help text for my command")]
  public static void MyCommand() {
      // Do something
  }

• clear: Clear the console
• exit: Exits the application using Application.Quit()

Examples

There aren't a lot of examples, that are useful for learning to use UniConsole. Here is a very simple script to showcase the most basic of UniConsole commands.

// Some very simple math commands
public class MathCommands {
    [Command("Adds two decimal numbers")]
    public static decimal Add(decimal a, decimal b) {
        return a + b;
    }

    [Command("Squares a decimal number")]
    public static decimal Square(decimal d) {
        return d * d;
    }

    [Command("Takes the square root of a decimal number")]
    public static decimal Sqrt(decimal d) {
        return Mathf.Pow(d, 0.5);
    }
}

// Small class that does something
public class Something {
    [Command("Greets someone")]
    public static string Greet(string name) {
        return $"Hello, {name}!";
    }
}

In-Depth Explanation of Classes

UniConsole

UniConsole represents and manages an Instance of the Console in the Scene. The class provides event callbacks for important events such as

• OnCommandSubmitAttempted: When the user tries to submit a command through the input field
• OnCommandSubmitted: When the submitted command was valid and has been correctly executed
• OnTerminalCleared: When the terminal was cleared using the clear command.

The class uses private utility methods to

• Handle submission to the input field
• Execute and validate commands
• Parse parameters to the target types
• Handle autocompletion of commands
• Keep track of a command history and cycle through

Reflector

The Reflector is a utility class that is used to fetch the commands from the assembly. The commands can be accessed using the Commands Property. The Commands Property returns an array of TerminalCommands. The Classes Property returns an array of Types. It contains every class that has a Command Attribute inside.

// Access the commands
// If the commands are not initialized, the cache will update automatically
TerminalCommand[] commands = Reflector.Commands;

// Access the classes that have commands
// If the commands are not initialized, the cache will update automatically
Type[] classes = Reflector.Classes;

// Manually update the command cache
Reflector.UpdateCommandCache();

TerminalCommand

The TerminalCommand class holds all the data of a command. The class allows you to access:

• The MethodInfo of the command
• The Class the command is in (represented as a Type)
• If the command is ambiguous with any other command (same method name)
• The Name of the command
• The Full Name of the command (ClassName + MethodName)
• The Command Name (automatic unambiguous name). It decides if it should include the class name based on ambiguity
• Autocomplete options for classes and methods

CommandAttribute

The Command Attribute is used to mark a method as a command.

Important

Only static methods can be used as commands

The Command Attribute is also used to give your commands a description that will be shown as a help text.

[Command("This is a description")] // Mark your method as a command
public static void MyCommand() // Declare your method
{ 
    // do something
}

Tip

You can use any number of parameters and any return type for your command. Just make sure you can convert your return value to a string.

[Command("This is a description")]
public static decimal Pow(decimal b, decimal exp, bool multiplyByTen) {
    decimal result = Mathf.Pow(b exp);
    if (multiplyByTen) {
        result *= 10M;
    }

    return result;
}

LogType

LogType is an enum that represents the different Types of messages that can be logged to the console.

It looks like this:

public enum LogType {
    Message, Warning, Error
}

The Message type is the default for any message. It prints in the normal white color. The Warning type is used to log warnings. It prints in a yellow color. The Error type is used to log errors. It prints in a red color.