Godot: It's impossible to use singletons from tool script

[kubecz3k]

Operating system or device:
Ubuntu, Godot 2.01

Issue description (what happened, and what was expected):
When you define a script that have tool keyword on the top, and you use in this script any singleton it wont compile because of an error: (where "Global" is my singleton)
SCRIPT ERROR: GDScript::reload: Compile Error: Identifier not found: Global At: res://Gameplay/Levels/BaseLevel.gd:151. ERROR: reload: Method/Function Failed, returning: ERR_COMPILATION_FAILED At: modules/gdscript/gd_script.cpp:1894.
You won't be able to use singleton script with get_node("/root/Signleton") either.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Define a "Global" singleton scene with a script
2. Create another scene with a script in a tool mode, use "Global" singleton somewhere in the script.
3. Restart Godot (needed for tool scripts to compile )
4. Open scene with tool script
5. Observe error in console, tool mode for your script is not working.

Link to minimal example project (optional but very welcome):

[bojidar-bg]

@kubecz3k ~ is the singleton in tool mode too?

[kubecz3k]

@bojidar-bg the error is the same regardless if the singleton is in tool mode or not (tried both).

[reduz]

i don't think singletons are loaded in editor mode, this is intended since singletons can also be scenes.
maybe you can do what you are intending to do in a different way?

[bojidar-bg]

Plugins would come in handy in this case...

[kubecz3k]

@reduz Well in general I have a lot of 'helper' functions defined in singletons/globals. Those are the functions which I'm using in a daily basics and it's quite an issue for me... It would be ok for me if my singletons should be a tools as well... Maybe I should convert them to plugins as @bojidar-bg suggested but I'm not familiar with plugins api yet so I'm not sure if this is the way. In next week I will have time to explore all those fancy features that 2.1 will provide :)

[vnen]

I'm not sure if plugins can talk to each other. A way to make a set of plugins with common data would be an interesting feature.

I don't think this is a "bug" though, it simply wasn't designed this way.

[kubecz3k]

Well the idea that difference tool keyword from plugins for me, is the possibility for every scene to have some small code that runs in editor, usually linked to getters/setters methods. Currently this is impossible because those scenes simply wont compile. While the plugins are more 'general use' or 'bigger' chunks of code.

[neikeq]

Example project from #5763:

SingletonCompileError.zip
Open this test project, the error appears in the console.

[Zylann]

Workaround: if your helper functions don't access the state of the singleton, you can make your functions static and do this in the script where the singleton is used:

# HOTFIX tool scripts cannot compile if they use singletons
const Groups = preload("groups.gd")

However if the script also uses another game-related singleton, this is becoming a problem, unless you can separate the tool-related part in another node.

[reduz]

Maybe we could add a flag "tool" to singletons (besides global) to get this to work (load them if the flag is present). If anyone wants to do this, please feel free to do it.

[akien-mga]

Not critical for the upcoming 2.1, so moving to the next milestone.

[alexisgea]

I'm having the same issue. Hope someone manages to make the change :)

[chanon]

I was trying to use a utility function in my singleton in tool mode and ran into this issue too.

[bojidar-bg]

I guess we should inject tool-mode singletons when starting editor in main.cpp :smiley:

[kerskuchen]

It would definitely be useful to use singletons in tool mode to avoid cluttering a lot of scripts that are game objects as well as tools with preloads.

[Shadowblitz16]

this doesn't look like it was added in 3.1