Question What am I missing?

I have a canvas, a button and then textmeshpro text on that button. The button and text are children of the canvas. The script is attached to the canvas.

I am also reading the text in from a .txt file. In this way I can update button text by just editing the .txt file. The button text is defined in the .txt file like so

<O1,1,2,3>Button text here</O1,1,2,3>

And that indicates
O1 - button 1
1 - chapter 1
2 - branch 2
3 - phase 3

All of this works great. I can just edit the text file and the appropriate button shows the correct text and it handles as many buttons as I like.

What isn't working, and what I need help with please, is finding a way to set the button and text to inactive when there is specific text present in the .txt file. In this case I have the script set up to inactivate the button and text (so hide/remove them both from the scene entirely) when the text is like

<O1,1,2,3>NADA</O1,1,2,3>

Sadly, that isn't working. I am getting back the text from the .txt file but the button and text still display. Can anyone have a quick look and tell me what I am doing wrong?

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2. using UnityEngine.UI;
3. using TMPro;
4.  
5. public class CanvasController1 : MonoBehaviour
6. {
7.     public string fileName = "example";
8.     public StoryTextDisplay storyTextDisplay;
9.     public TextMeshProUGUI textMesh;
10.     public Button button;
11.     public Canvas canvas;
12.  
13.     void Start()
14.     {
15.  
16.         LoadAndDisplayText();
17.  
18.     }
19.  
20.     void LoadAndDisplayText()
21.     {
22.         if (storyTextDisplay != null)
23.         {
24.             int chapter = storyTextDisplay.chapter;
25.             int branch = storyTextDisplay.branch;
26.             int phase = storyTextDisplay.phase;
27.  
28.             TextAsset textAsset = Resources.Load<TextAsset>(fileName);
29.  
30.             if (textAsset != null)
31.             {
32.                 string[] lines = textAsset.text.Split('\n');
33.  
34.                 foreach (string line in lines)
35.                 {
36.                     if (line.StartsWith($"<O1,{chapter},{branch},{phase}>"))
37.                     {
38.                         string text = line.Replace($"<O1,{chapter},{branch},{phase}>", "").Replace($"</O1,{chapter},{branch},{phase}>", "");
39.                         textMesh.text = text;
40.                         Debug.Log($"Reading text: {text}");
41.                         break;
42.                     }
43.                 }
44.             }
45.             else
46.             {
47.                 Debug.LogError($"Text file not found: {fileName}");
48.             }
49.         }
50.         else
51.         {
52.             Debug.LogError("StoryTextDisplay script reference not set!");
53.         }
54.  
55.         // I think this is the problem
56.         if (textMesh.text == "NADA")
57.         {
58.             button.gameObject.SetActive(false);
59.             textMesh.gameObject.SetActive(false);
60.         }
61.         else
62.         {
63.             button.gameObject.SetActive(true);
64.             textMesh.gameObject.SetActive(true);
65.         }
66.     }
67. }

 

Well we know what that means... Time to start debugging! Here is how you can begin your exciting new debugging adventures:

You must find a way to get the information you need in order to reason about what the problem is.

Once you understand what the problem is, you may begin to reason about a solution to the problem.

What is often happening in these cases is one of the following:

- the code you think is executing is not actually executing at all
- the code is executing far EARLIER or LATER than you think
- the code is executing far LESS OFTEN than you think
- the code is executing far MORE OFTEN than you think
- the code is executing on another GameObject than you think it is
- you're getting an error or warning and you haven't noticed it in the console window

To help gain more insight into your problem, I recommend liberally sprinkling

Debug.Log()

statements through your code to display information in realtime.

Doing this should help you answer these types of questions:

- is this code even running? which parts are running? how often does it run? what order does it run in?
- what are the names of the GameObjects or Components involved?
- what are the values of the variables involved? Are they initialized? Are the values reasonable?
- are you meeting ALL the requirements to receive callbacks such as triggers / colliders (review the documentation)

Knowing this information will help you reason about the behavior you are seeing.

You can also supply a second argument to Debug.Log() and when you click the message, it will highlight the object in scene, such as

Debug.Log("Problem!",this);

If your problem would benefit from in-scene or in-game visualization, Debug.DrawRay() or Debug.DrawLine() can help you visualize things like rays (used in raycasting) or distances.

You can also call Debug.Break() to pause the Editor when certain interesting pieces of code run, and then study the scene manually, looking for all the parts, where they are, what scripts are on them, etc.

You can also call GameObject.CreatePrimitive() to emplace debug-marker-ish objects in the scene at runtime.

You could also just display various important quantities in UI Text elements to watch them change as you play the game.

Visit Google for how to see console output from builds. If you are running a mobile device you can also view the console output. Google for how on your particular mobile target, such as this answer or iOS: https://forum.unity.com/threads/how-to-capturing-device-logs-on-ios.529920/ or this answer for Android: https://forum.unity.com/threads/how-to-capturing-device-logs-on-android.528680/

If you are working in VR, it might be useful to make your on onscreen log output, or integrate one from the asset store, so you can see what is happening as you operate your software.

Another useful approach is to temporarily strip out everything besides what is necessary to prove your issue. This can simplify and isolate compounding effects of other items in your scene or prefab.

Here's an example of putting in a laser-focused Debug.Log() and how that can save you a TON of time wallowing around speculating what might be going wrong:

https://forum.unity.com/threads/coroutine-missing-hint-and-error.1103197/#post-7100494

"When in doubt, print it out!(tm)" - Kurt Dekker (and many others)

Note: the

print()

function is an alias for Debug.Log() provided by the MonoBehaviour class.

 

Sorry everyone, in my fugue state I guess I didn't realize this does work just fine and there is no issue at all. Thanks for the moral support.

 

Certainly a proper forum post title ^^.