Adding Property Aliases for Cleaner Usability

[egirlmilkers]

Summary

I propose introducing property aliases to Godot, similar to how they are implemented in QML. Property aliases ideally would provide a way to link exported (maybe even non-exported) variables directly to existing properties of nodes, making it much easier to manage and expose specific properties for a clean and efficient user experience.

This feature would streamline workflows, especially for complex scenes or prefabs, by enabling developers to interact with specific properties of child nodes without delving into their hierarchy.

I KNOW that you can make getter/setters that change these properties but that would explicitly only work during runtime and wont update itself live in the viewer which can make certain workflows complex.

What Do I Mean By Property Aliases?

A property alias allows you to create an exported variable that directly references an existing property, essentially acting as a shortcut or mirror. This is particularly useful when you want to expose specific child node properties to the inspector without manually navigating through the node tree.

Example in QML

In QML, property aliases are used like this:

property alias okEnabled: okAction.enabled
property alias okVisible: okButton.visible
property alias cancelEnabled: cancelAction.enabled
property alias cancelVisible: cancelButton.visible

This example links okEnabled to okAction.enabled, and so on. This way, you can easily control these properties from a single place, simplifying your workflow.

Proposed Godot Implementation

Here’s how this could look:

@export var ok_enabled: bool = !$OkButton.disabled
@export var ok_visible: bool = $OkButton.visible
@export var cancel_enabled: bool = !%CancelButton.disabled
@export var cancel_visible: bool = %CancelButton.visible

Or maybe something simpler like this:

@export_alias ok_enabled: !$OkButton.disabled
@export_alias ok_visible: $OkButton.visible

In both cases, these properties would be more directly available in the inspector/editor, the idea is that they would be directly reflecting and updating the corresponding child node properties.

Why This Feature Matters

1. Cleaner User Experience

Property aliases allow developers to surface only the most relevant properties to the inspector, improving usability for designers and developers. For example, a scene prefab for a new Control element can essentially "pin" properties to the top of the inspector for live-view in the editor.

2. Streamlined Workflow

By enabling developers to interact with child node properties without manually traversing the hierarchy, property aliases significantly reduce boilerplate code and the risk of errors.

Without this feature, the alternative involves either:

• Writing verbose getter and setter methods for each child property.
• Manually navigating the scene tree to update properties, which is error-prone and time-consuming.

3. Enhanced Inspector Customization

Exposing only the necessary properties through aliases keeps the inspector clean and focused, especially for prefabs or reusable scenes.

I believe this feature could greatly enhance the Godot experience for many users. I'd love to hear your thoughts, feedback, or suggestions! I know my example may not be the best but if you ever worked with QML before you would know how efficient the implementation of something as simple as property aliases are and can be.

Qt is open-source so you can see how they do the alias properties. Perhaps my idea of an alias being able to invert an existing bool property is not ideal.

[theraot]

Related:

• Allow user to expose nodes within an instantiated scene #8266
• Make child nodes export variables be editable in the scene root inspector #7803
• "Exposed" properties and signals in GDScript #7351
• Automate or reduce the boilerplate when forwarding script properties in GDScript #6750
• Add a way to export children's properties to editor through "linked" variables #3133
• Add synchronized variables / pointers without functions #2817

[dalexeev]

Not an exact copy, but may be related:

• Add a shorthand for getter-only properties in GDScript #10360
• GDScript: Add C#-style property setter/getter shorthand godot#99199

[egirlmilkers]

@theraot @dalexeev
Thank you for pointing out similar discussions. I swear
i looked, I searched things like "alias" as that's the term they use in QML and didn't find anything so I appreciate you two taking your time to help me out!