BP Node FString variable with auto-complete and/or dropdown, is this possible?

Development Programming & Scripting
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1

I am making a custom plugin for UE5 in C++ and I had this one thing I really wanted to make but couldn’t figure out how to.

In one of my classes, I have a TArray and the user will be able to use these names inside of Blueprint Nodes to be able to modify the data of another array and I want this to be as simple to use as possible.

Now here’s the difficult part, I want to make a Blueprint Node with an FString output (similar to how literal variables work (I believe I got that name correct), where there’s only an output, no Exec pin and just an input that allows the user to set it and then that is sent to the output), however, I want this input part’s input field to have an auto-complete and/or dropdown function, similar how to Blueprint Nodes have an autocomplete and a list below it showing potential options. This would allow the user to easily find what they are looking for all the time and would also make sure that even people without proper naming conventions can easily find what they need to find.

I believe that in order to get functionality like this, I need to make a K2Node and I have tried this numerous times but it always seems to give me either just a regular string input or only an output.

Not sure if this is even possible since I haven’t seen anyone else do it, but if anyone would like to help out, I’d really appreciate it :smiley:

2

In Unreal Engine you can make your own widget for the Details panel.

You can make a widget for the pin:

Example

// Declare a pin factory:
class MyClass : public FGraphPanelPinFactory
{
virtual TSharedPtr CreatePin(class UEdGraphPin* InPin) const override;
};

// Register pin factory
NamedGuidPinFactory = MakeShareable(new FNamedGuidPinFactory());
FEdGraphUtilities::RegisterVisualPinFactory(NamedGuidPinFactory);

//
class MyPin : public SGraphPin
{
public:
SLATE_BEGIN_ARGS(MyPin) {}
SLATE_END_ARGS()

public:
void Construct(const FArguments& InArgs, UEdGraphPin* InGraphPinObj);
virtual TSharedRef < SWidget > GetDefaultValueWidget() override;
};

You can make a node with a completely custom visual:

Example

// Create custom node widget class
class SMyNode : public SGraphNodeK2Base
{
public:
SLATE_BEGIN_ARGS(SGraphNodeOGComboGate) {}
SLATE_END_ARGS()
void Construct(const FArguments& InArgs, UOGNode_ComboGate* InNode);
};

// Use custom node widget
TSharedPtr UMyCustomNode::CreateVisualWidget()
{
return SNew(SMyNode , this);
}

3

Thank you but I know that you can make your own details panel, but I just don’t understand how to make a Blueprint node that allows a user to set the String that also autocompletes the text :smiley:

4

You would have to use ENUMS or GameplayTags for that.

But for the Details Panel you don’t have to customize it. You can use GetOptions meta property to provide a TArray as possible values for the FString

UPROPERTY(meta=(GetOptions="GetAnimalOptions"))
FString Animal;

UFUNCTION()
TArray<FString> GetAnimalOptions() const
{
    return { "Cat", "Dog", "Elephant" };
}

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:warning: Now, unfortunatly this only seems to work with UPROPERTY and not UPARAM, so you won’t be able to use it in Function Inputs.

:warning: The function that returns the array of options must be a UFUNCTION() or it will not work. The editor searches through the hierarchy of owning objects for the UPROPERTY(), using the first UFUNCTION it finds with a matching names.

From:

5

I have indeed seen the GetOptions meta before but as you already stated that did not work for my node which is what I wanted.

I thought that perhaps there was a way to do it that I just couldn’t figure out, but it appears that what I want simply isn’t possible without dedicating a ton of time to making a whole custom editor plugin or something similar or perhaps it just isn’t possible at all in the current version of Unreal.

Appreciate the response however :smiley:

6

could you use a DataTable it should allow you to pick only row names

7

I tried that but couldnt seem to find a way to pre-set the data table, so the user would still have to set the data table every time before getting the dropdown, which is just an extra click that would get rather annoying. I will admit that the idea has potential and I will look further into it if I have the time later :smiley: