Why doesn't Selection.activeObject return a TextAsset?

I'm just writing a simple XML well-formed utility and Selection.activeObject isn't passing back TextAsset that I can grab the text content from. Why is this the case? It would seem fairly intuitive for it to function in this way.

Am I missing something? Are TextAssets only for runtime?

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2. using UnityEditor;
3. using System;
4. using System.Collections;
5. using System.Xml;
6. using System.IO;
7.  
8. public class XMLUtility : Editor {
9.  
10.     [MenuItem("Assets/xml/Check XML File")]
11.     private static void CheckXMLFile()
12.     {
13.         //Selection.activeObject
14.        
15.         string filepath = AssetDatabase.GetAssetPath(Selection.activeObject);
16.         //hdrpath = Path.ChangeExtension(filepath,".xml");
17.         //string extension  = Path.GetExtension(filepath);
18.         Debug.Log("XMLUtility:" + filepath);
19.         Debug.Log("XMLUtility:" + Selection.activeObject.GetType());
20.        
21.         //TextAsset ta = Selection.activeObject as TextAsset;
22.         TextAsset ta = AssetDatabase.LoadMainAssetAtPath(filepath) as TextAsset;
23.        
24.        
25.         if (ta != default(TextAsset))
26.         {
27.             Test(ta.text);
28.         }
29.         else
30.         {
31.             Debug.LogWarning("XMLUtility: No TextAsset selected");
32.         }
33.        
34.     }
35.    
36.     static void Test(string xml) {
37.         using (XmlReader xr = XmlReader.Create(
38.             new StringReader(xml))) {
39.             try {
40.                 while (xr.Read()) { }
41.                 Debug.Log("XMLUtility: XML Is Valid");
42.             } catch (Exception ex) {
43.                 Debug.LogError("XMLUtility: XML is not Valid: " + ex.Message);
44.             }
45.         }
46.     }
47.    
48.     // Note that we pass the same path, and also pass "true" to the second argument.
49.     [MenuItem("Assets/xml/Check XML File", true)]
50.     private static bool CheckXMLFileValidation()
51.     {
52.         // This returns true when the selected object is a Texture2D (the menu item will be disabled otherwise).
53.         if ( Selection.activeObject.GetType() == typeof(DefaultAsset))
54.         {
55.             string filepath = AssetDatabase.GetAssetPath(Selection.activeObject);
56.             string extension  = Path.GetExtension(filepath);
57.             //Debug.Log("XMLUtility: CheckXMLFileValidation" + extension);
58.             if (extension == ".xml") {
59.                 return true;
60.             }  
61.         }
62.         return false;
63.     }
64.  
65. }

 

This is a real problem that nobody has really resolved, as far as I know. I've searched for days on the correct way to get the text of an InputField, and even saw others complaining of this, but I guess this is not a priority at the moment.

 

What exactly isn't working for you? i just tried your code, and except for the wrong validating method, it works fine. Selection.activeObject does hold a reference to the selected TextAsset and you can use it. Also, activeObject already holds the actual loaded object, there's no need to load that again:

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2. using UnityEditor;
3. using System;
4. using System.Collections;
5. using System.Xml;
6. using System.IO;
7.  
8. public class XMLUtility : Editor {
9.  
10.     [MenuItem("Assets/xml/Check XML File")]
11.     private static void CheckXMLFile()
12.     {
13.         string filepath = AssetDatabase.GetAssetPath(Selection.activeObject);
14.  
15.         Debug.Log("XMLUtility:" + filepath);
16.         Debug.Log("XMLUtility:" + Selection.activeObject.GetType());
17.  
18.         TextAsset ta = Selection.activeObject as TextAsset;
19.  
20.         if (ta != null)
21.         {
22.             Test(ta.text);
23.         }
24.         else
25.         {
26.             Debug.LogWarning("XMLUtility: No TextAsset selected");
27.         }
28.     }
29.  
30.     static void Test(string xml) {
31.         using (XmlReader xr = XmlReader.Create(
32.             new StringReader(xml))) {
33.             try {
34.                 while (xr.Read()) { }
35.                 Debug.Log("XMLUtility: XML Is Valid");
36.             } catch (Exception ex) {
37.                 Debug.LogError("XMLUtility: XML is not Valid: " + ex.Message);
38.             }
39.         }
40.     }
41.  
42.     // Note that we pass the same path, and also pass "true" to the second argument.
43.     [MenuItem("Assets/xml/Check XML File", true)]
44.     private static bool CheckXMLFileValidation()
45.     {
46.             string filepath = AssetDatabase.GetAssetPath(Selection.activeObject);
47.             string extension  = Path.GetExtension(filepath);
48.            
49.         if (extension == ".xml") {
50.                 return true;
51.         }
52.  
53.         return false;
54.     }
55. }