Automatically change reference file paths in your code

Container

Wouldn't it be cool if godot automatically changes reference file paths in your code when you move files around (or at least asks you to do it)?
I am thinking about trying to make some sort of addon for that.

xyz

Container What would happen if a file is deleted?

Container

xyz
Hmm...
Maybe it could put out a warning that you are referencing the file you just deleted.

What I am actually up about with this discussion is if that addon would be a good idea to make.

Manually changing hardcoded filepaths is really bugging me. I guess I could make an autoload but then I still have to change the paths manually. Another solution would be exported packed scenes, but larger scenes could eat up your ram pretty quickly.

DaveTheCoder

xyz What would happen if a file is deleted?

Android Studio handles this nicely:

However, it only checks for references to the file name, not for references to items inside the file.

xyz

Container but larger scenes could eat up your ram pretty quickly

How? Exported resource property just references the resource file.

Tomcat

Container What I am actually up about with this discussion is if that addon would be a good idea to make.

Absolutely yeah.

trizZzle

Container What I am actually up about with this discussion is if that addon would be a good idea to make.

I always appreciate things that make life easier and give me more time to actual do stuff. But I avoid using file paths in code if possible.
This might be a tricky task.

Container

Especially in larger projects you have to refactor the game file structure quite a lot.

Container

xyz I got every solution from this reddit thread
Someone said using exported PackedScenes would load up everything into memory.

It seems like every solution listed there comes with a problem. Also, I thought of two additional things:

What if you aren't referencing scenes, but some other kind of dependency?
What if the addon also extends to automatically change hardcoded node paths when the node path structure changes?

xyz

Container Someone said using exported PackedScenes would load up everything into memory.

Possibly. Easy to test if that's indeed the case or packed scenes are lazily loaded.

Container What if you aren't referencing scenes, but some other kind of dependency?

Scenes are just resources. You can have exported references to any external resource file.

In general, such an addon is relatively trivial to make as it boils down to a search/replace operation. Why not just make it and see how it operates and is it useful.

Container

Well, looks like this is unnecessary now with the 4.4 changes