Define prop without exporting it

[bojjenclon]

Currently, all variables defined in a class are exported to the editor. There doesn't seem to be a value one can set to keep them from being exported.

[gilzoide]

Hi there! I'm sorry for the current lack of documentation =/

There is a way to mark properties to not show in editor, based on the PropertyUsage enum taken from GDNative's godot_property_usage_flags:

MyClass.some_property = property {
  "This String property is not exported to editor!",
  usage = PropertyUsage.NOEDITOR,
}

This will register some_property in ClassDB and it will be available from GDScript or other languages via instance.some_property or instance.get("some_property") or the like, it will just not show in the inspector.

Now, depending on your use case, if you only need a "private" (hidden from ClassDB or other languages) instance variable, you can also just set it on _init, which is called whenever an instance is created, right after initializing other registered properties from class:

MyClass.some_public_property = 42

function MyClass:_init()
  assert(self.some_public_property == 42)
  self.some_private_property = Array()
end

Also, if you want a class-wide (called static in C/C++/C#/...) private constant/variable, using Lua's locals should be enough:

local class_wide_variable = Dictionary()

function MyClass:get_from_class_cache(key)
  return class_wide_variable[key]
end

[gilzoide]

As a side note, properties are exported by default just because GODOT_PROPERTY_USAGE_DEFAULT exports properties to the editor.

In a first moment, I thought of making properties not exported by default, and have an alias of the property function called export that exports properties by default. I don't recall now why exactly I didn't go with this idea, but it can surely be revisited!

Something like:

-- by default, `property` has `usage = PropertyUsage.NOEDITOR`
-- although setting it explicitly would override this default
MyClass.noeditor_property = property { "not shown in inspector" }
MyClass.another_noeditor_property = "also not shown in inspector"
-- export would be an alias to `property { usage = PropertyUsage.DEFAULT }`
MyClass.exported_property = export { "shown in inspector" }

[bojjenclon]

Thank you for the detailed explanation! And no worries on the documentation, we all know that's the hardest part of being a dev.

Personally, I'd prefer the property vs export syntax. I think it'd make for a cleaner style. Just my two cents though.

[gilzoide]

we all know that's the hardest part of being a dev.

I think it competes with naming things =P

I think it'd make for a cleaner style.

I think so too, will probably implement it in a near future.
Thanks for the feedback!