Accessing Prefab Children in Editor Scripts

I seem to be having some difficulty in accessing children of a prefab (in the Project View) using a menu script. What I would really like to do is access the components of each of the children, however it seems that the GetComponentsInChildren does not work for prefabs (Assets) in the Project view.

Code (csharp):

1.  
2.  
3. using UnityEngine;
4. using UnityEditor;
5. using System;
6.  
7. public class CustomMenu
8. {  
9.  
10.   [MenuItem("Custom/ListTransforms")]
11.   static void ListChildTransforms()
12.   {
13.      GameObject go = Selection.activeGameObject;
14.        
15.      Component [] allTransforms =   go.GetComponentsInChildren(typeof(Transform));
16.      Debug.Log(allTransforms.Length);
17.        
18.        
19.      Transform objTransform = (Transform)go.GetComponent(typeof(Transform));   
20.      Debug.Log(objTransform.position);
21.   }
22. }          
23.  

The first Debug.Log returns 0 as does any GetComponentsInChildren call.

The second Debug.Log using GetComponent returns the correct value (-0.6, 0.2, 0.7) which is the root transform of the prefab (the prefab does have multiple child objects under the root), but I was still surprised that the GetComponentsInChildren did not also return the root transform.

Any help would be appreciated,
Thanks mayekol

 

I'm having the same problem - I can't access child gameobjects or components in a uninitiated prefab (assets). GetComponentsInChildren returns 0 while GetComponents works but only for the root gameobject.

 

I had the same problem but I fixed it.
In stead of doing this:

Code (csharp):

1. foreach (Transform child in go.GetComponentsInChildren<Transform>())
2.    child.gameObject.something = somethingElse;

You can say:

Code (csharp):

1. foreach(Transform child in go.transform)
2.    child.gameObject.something = somethingElse;

This looks strange (to me) but it works

 

Awesome! Thanks a lot hjbaard, I was at a dead end before finding your post

Now, if only Unity was capable of showing nested prefabs below the second level, it would be awesome. Sigh.

 

Here's a little snippet that might be of use, as this still doesn't work in Unity 5.

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2. using System.Collections.Generic;
3.  
4. public static class GameObjectExtensions {
5.  
6.     public static T[] GetComponentsInChildrenOfAsset<T>( this GameObject go ) where T : Component {
7.         List<Transform> tfs = new List<Transform>();
8.         CollectChildren( tfs, go.transform );
9.         List<T> all = new List<T>();
10.         for (int i = 0; i < tfs.Count; i++)
11.             all.AddRange( tfs[i].gameObject.GetComponents<T>() );
12.         return all.ToArray();
13.     }
14.    
15.     static void CollectChildren( List<Transform> transforms, Transform tf){
16.         transforms.Add(tf);
17.         foreach(Transform child in tf){
18.             CollectChildren(transforms, child);
19.         }
20.     }
21.  
22. }
23.  

You can then call it like this:

Code (CSharp):

1. myObject.GetComponentsInChildrenOfAsset<Transform>();

 

Nice and easy. Works on Unity 5.0.2f1.
I could not just use GetComponentInChildren<T> on it, but when I use new Unity this function works fine.