how to create a reference to a widget blueprint instance that other blueprints can use to access variables of the widget blueprint instance

Development Programming & Scripting
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1

Hi
How do you create a reference (as global or visible variable) to a widget or widget blueprint that other blueprints can use to access variables of an instance of such a widget / blueprint class?
When I create and set a variable that is a reference to an actor / blueprint class, other blueprints can read / get that variable / reference and use it to reference the variables of the blueprint pointed to
when i try the same for / with a widget blueprint, i end up with target issues when i compile, when other blueprints try to reference global variables of that widget blueprint via the instance reference provided
for an actor or instance of a blueprint class, other blueprints can read the reference variable set by the former without it requiring a target
when i do this for a widget blueprint it requires a target and it becomes circular as the reference i provide is seemingly not enough
for blueprint classes i generally set a global variable after an actor spawn. for the widget blueprint i attempt the same by setting a global variable by means of a reference to self
thanks

2

If I create widget and store it in a variable, I can then access it’s variables without a problem.

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Maybe make sure your widget is stored as your actual Widget Class, not a generic User Widget or something
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3

As above; and regarding making it global - there is not such thing in UE, not for this kind of behaviour. What people generally do is to keep a reference in a singleton framework class - game mode, pawn, controller. The HUD class is not choice for a widget manager ← it’s accessible from anywhere via the Player Controller.

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thanks. i have indeed checked that i referenced the variable type / class correctly
i still need to check whether what you have done fully corresponds to what i have done and whether it points to a possible error my side and thus a solution
one thing i can say that i have done that you have not done is that i reference from a different blueprint and you reference from within the same blueprint it seems
target is more of an issue when you reference from another blueprint

5

thanks
by global i mean visible to other blueprints etc. i still need to adapt to ue language
the workaround at this point is to use a “get all widgets of class” node, seeing that there is only 1 instance of that particular widget blueprint active
perhaps referencing it in this way is a step closer to what you suggest

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They’re always visible, by default, you just need to know where to look for references, which you must create yourself.

This is not even a workaround. Dereferenced widgets will be Garbage Collected. And you must handle comms somehow anyway since 90% of your code base is moving data from A → B.

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There’s usually no need to use Interface communication here. You will need a Game Mode & HUD. This also assumes what @lordlolek shows in his post. There are many ways to handle it, ofc.

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thanks will look into it