The ViewData API solves the problem of having a UI-specific state, not part of
the data, survive domain reload and Editor restarts. The idea is to have a
persistent data store on each EditorWindow
. Each VisualElement
has a
viewDataKey
that must be set in order to enable ViewData
persistence.
To enable view data persistence for an element that supports it, set the viewDataKey
to a unique key within your EditorWindow
.
Persistence of view data is enabled as long as an element has a valid viewDataKey
. The only exception is when an element is in the shadow tree of its parent and not a physical child of its logical parent’s contentContainer
. In this case, the parent must have its own viewDataKey
set for the children in its shadow tree to be persisted.
For example, in ScrollView
, each scroll bar has its own viewDataKey
that is unique within the ScrollView
element. When the ScrollView
has no key set,
the scroll bars are not persisted. Otherwise, the scroll bars will combine their viewDataKey
with the parent viewDataKey
to create a globally unique key.