Panel events

A panel represents a visible instance of a UI(User Interface) Allows a user to interact with your application. More info
See in Glossary hierarchy. It handles element behavior event dispatching within the hierarchy of the visual tree. It holds a reference to the root visual element of the hierarchy. For runtime UI, it’s comparable to the Canvas in UGUI.

You must attach an instance of a visual element to a panel for it to render or receive events.

Panel events fire on a visual element when its relationship with a panel changes. For example, when you add the visual element to a panel (AttachToPanelEvent) or remove it from a panel (DetachFromPanelEvent).

Panel events are only sent to visual elements and their descendants within a hierarchy that are directly affected when panel changes occur. Parent elements don’t receive events when descendant visual elements attach or detach from the panel.

For example, in the UXML code below, when you add the parent visual element to a hierarchy that’s already attached to a panel, parent, child, and grandchild all receive the same event. If you remove parent from the same UXML hierarchy, all visual elements would receive DetachFromPanel events.

<ui:UXML xmlns:ui="UnityEngine.UIElements" xmlns:uie="UnityEditor.UIElements">
   <ui:VisualElement name="parent">
       <ui:VisualElement name="child">
           <ui:VisualElement name="grandchild" />
       </ui:VisualElement>
   </ui:VisualElement>
</ui:UXML>

The base class for all panel events is PanelChangedEventBase.

Unique properties

originPanel: The originPanel contains data specific to the DetachFromPanelEvent. It contains the source panel that the visual element detaches from during a panel change.

destinationPanel: The destinationPanel contains data specific to the AttachFromPanelEvent. It provides the panel where the visual element is now attached.

Event list

The following list provides the name, description, and target of each event in the event family. For more information on the event, see the UI Toolkit API.

AttachToPanelEvent

The AttachToPanelEvent fires after a visual element attaches to a panel. It also occurs when you add a visual element to a hierarchy that’s attached to a panel.

target: The visual element that’s attached to a panel.

DetachFromPanelEvent

The DetachFromPanelEvent triggers before you remove a visual element from a panel. It also occurs when you remove a visual element from a hierarchy that’s attached to a panel.

target:The visual element that’s detaching from a panel.

Examples

The following example creates an Editor window with a button that will add additional labels to the window. Clicking the labels will remove them again.

This example implements a custom label class that prints a message to the console whenever the instance of the VisualElement is attached or detached from a panel. It highlights the behavior of the AttachToPanelEvent and DetachFromPanelEvent events and how to use the originPanel and destinationPanel properties.

To see the example in action, do the following:

1. Under Assets > Scripts > Editor, create a C# script called PanelEventsTestWindow.
2. Copy the example code into the C# script.
3. From the Editor Toolbar, select Window > UI Toolkit > Panel Events Test Window.

using UnityEditor;
using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.UIElements;

public class PanelEventsTestWindow : EditorWindow
{
    [MenuItem("Window/UI Toolkit/Panel Events Test Window")]
    public static void ShowExample()
    {
        PanelEventsTestWindow wnd = GetWindow<PanelEventsTestWindow>();
        wnd.titleContent = new GUIContent("Panel Events Test Window");
    }

    public void CreateGUI()
    {
        // Set a name for the panel
        rootVisualElement.panel.visualTree.name = "Our Window Root Visual Element";

        // Add a button which will add new instances of our custom labels to the window
        rootVisualElement.Add(new Button(() => rootVisualElement.Add(new CustomLabel())) { text = "Add New Label" });
    }
}

/// <summary>
/// Custom label class which prints out a console message when it is attached or detached.
/// </summary>
public class CustomLabel : Label
{
    private static int m_InstanceCounter = 0;
    private int m_LabelNumber;

    public CustomLabel() : base()
    {
        m_LabelNumber = ++m_InstanceCounter;
        text = $"Label #{m_LabelNumber} - click me to detach";
        RegisterCallback<AttachToPanelEvent>(evt =>
        {
            Debug.Log($"I am label {m_LabelNumber} and I " +
                $"just got attached to panel '{evt.destinationPanel.visualTree.name}'");
        });
        RegisterCallback<DetachFromPanelEvent>(evt =>
        {
            Debug.Log($"I am label {m_LabelNumber} and I " +
                $"just got detached from panel '{evt.originPanel.visualTree.name}'");
        });
        // Register a pointer down callback that removes this element from the hierarchy
        RegisterCallback<PointerDownEvent>(evt => this.RemoveFromHierarchy());
    }
}