Can I exclude C# files when compiling for export?

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Can I exclude C# files when compiling for export?

kitfox

In my project, I've created a few custom resources to handle my game data and recently I started making EditorPlugins to make editing these files easier. I put my new plugin code in the subdirectory /addons of my project. Unfortunately, this is causing problems when I try to export my project because the exporter cannot find the EditorPlugin class.

Build FAILED.

       "D:\dev\starling2\game\2021\cozy\Cozy.sln" (Build target) (1:2) ->
       "D:\dev\starling2\game\2021\cozy\Cozy.csproj" (default target) (2:6) ->
       (CoreCompile target) -> 
         D:\dev\starling2\game\2021\cozy\addons\dialogEditor\DialogEditorPlugin.cs(5,35): error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'EditorPlugin' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?) [D:\dev\starling2\game\2021\cozy\Cozy.csproj]
         D:\dev\starling2\game\2021\cozy\addons\dialogEditor\DialogEditorPlugin.cs(10,26): error CS0115: 'DialogEditorPlugin._EnterTree()': no suitable method found to override [D:\dev\starling2\game\2021\cozy\Cozy.csproj]
         D:\dev\starling2\game\2021\cozy\addons\dialogEditor\DialogEditorPlugin.cs(27,26): error CS0115: 'DialogEditorPlugin._ExitTree()': no suitable method found to override [D:\dev\starling2\game\2021\cozy\Cozy.csproj]

While it makes sense that support for EditorPlugin would not be included in the exported game, it is preventing me from exporting. Is there any way to tell Godot not to include anything in my /addons directory when I do an export?

cybereality

Yes, go to the second tab in the export settings and enter the names of the files you want to exclude. You can also put wildcards like:

*.cs, *.sln

kitfox

I added addons/* to the export exclude filters, but it's still including those files during the build. I think the export filters are for exporting resources, not code.

cybereality

Right, that is for resources that are packed into the game. Unfortunately, I just started with EditorPlugins today and mine isn't even working yet, so I don't know. But it should compile, maybe figure out why it's not compiling and see if that works.

kitfox

It compiles without error when I'm build and run within Godot. My guess is that it is failing when I export because the exporter is linking against a library that does not contain EditorPlugin, since that class is only relevant to the Godot editor.

kitfox

Looks like I can use #if GODOT_DEBUG to comment out the EditorPlugin when I'm compiling for release.

kitfox

Actually, it looks like I can't use #if GODOT_DEBUG after all. While I can now export, I now no longer have my plugin as part of my project. I've also tried adding tags to the Features tab of the export settings, but these also seem to be ignored.

cybereality

When you test in the editor, it is in debug mode so that makes sense.

kitfox

Well, I need to find a way to make the code compile differently depending on the target. The docs say this should be possible, but I'm not finding any way to do so.

cybereality

Not sure about compilation, but you can try:

if Engine.editor_hint:
    # editor only code

https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/plugins/running_code_in_the_editor.html

kitfox

That doesn't help with compiling - that only works at runtime.

NullsByteBack

I just ran into the same issue on Godot v4-rc1 .NET 7 SDK. I can't exclude any .cs files regardless of what filters I set.
However a work around is to edit the project's .csproj file and enter a item group that excludes the addons directory and sub-directories.

<ItemGroup>
    <Content Remove="addons\**" />
    <Compile Remove="addons\**" />
    <EmbeddedResource Remove="addons\**" />
    <None Remove="addons\**" />
</ItemGroup>

More info here:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/43173811/how-do-i-exclude-files-folders-from-a-net-core-standard-project.

NullsByteBack

Upon further investigation, Godot contains a preprocessor directive constant called TOOLS.
All cs files that shouldn't be included in the build need be wrapped by a directive statement.
Works like a charm. 🙂

#if TOOLS
using Godot;

public class SomeEditorPlugin : EditorPlugin
{
	// Code here...
}
#endif

Discussion here:
https://github.com/godotengine/godot/issues/41196

Preprocessor directives:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/preprocessor-directives