Integration

At the moment it supports the following engine versions:

• UE 5.7
• UE 5.6
• UE 5.5
• UE 5.4
• UE 5.3
• UE 5.2
• UE 5.1
• UE 5.0
• UE 4.27
• UE 4.26
• UE 4.25

Integrate DataConfig Plugin

The easiest way to try out DataConfig is to add it as a plugin into your C++ project. In this section we'll walk through these steps.

Download DataConfig Plugin

The quickest way to try out DataConfig is to download the latest release at DataConfig releases page.

1. Download the zip files on the releases page. Note there're UE4 and UE5 plugin respectively.

2. Unzip it into your Unreal Engine project's Plugin folder. The layout should be like this:

<Your project root>
|- <Your project>.uproject
|- Content
|- Source
|- ...
|- Plugins
   |- DataConfig
      |- DataConfig.uplugin

3. Validate DataConfig plugin is integrated correctly.

Generate DataConfig Plugin for UE4/UE5

DataConfig now uses separate uplugin files for UE4 and UE5 so that we can try out new features in UE5 without dropping support for UE4. We bundled scripts to generate clean plugins for UE4 and UE5. This is how the DataConfig releases are built.

git clone https://github.com/slowburn-dev/DataConfig
# requires python 3.6+
python ./DataConfig/Misc/Scripts/make_dataconfig_ue4.py
python ./DataConfig/Misc/Scripts/make_dataconfig_ue54.py
python ./DataConfig/Misc/Scripts/make_dataconfig_ue5.py

DataConfigXX.uplugin

Ultimately we figured that we'll need multiple .uplugin files to support across UE versions:

When packaging for each engine version we rename the one we want and delete the rest.

Manual Steps for UE5 Latest

1. Get a copy of DataConfig repository. Then copy ./DataConfig (where DataConfig.uplugin is located) into your project's Plugins directory.

2. Delete DataConfig4.uplugin, and other DataConfig5X.uplugin.

3. Delete DataConfig/Source/DataConfigHeadless folder. This step is crucial or your project won't build.

Manual Steps for UE4

1. Get a copy of the repository. Then copy ./DataConfig (where DataConfig.uplugin is located) into your project's Plugins directory.

2. Delete DataConfig.uplugin, then rename DataConfig4.uplugin to DataConfig.uplugin.

3. Delete DataConfig/Source/DataConfigHeadless folder. This step is crucial or your project won't build.

4. Additionally delete UE5 specific modules.

   • DataConfig/Source/DataConfigEngineExtra5

Validate integration

Follow these steps to ensure DataConfig is properly integrated into your project.

1. Restart your project. There should be a prompt to compile plugin sources. Confirm and wait until your project launches. Then open Settings -> Plugins you should see Data Config listed under Project Editor category.

   

2. The plugin comes with a set of tests. Open menu Window -> Developer Tools -> Session Frontend. Find and run the DataConfig tests and it should all pass.

   

Integrate DataConfigCore Module

DataConfig is packed into a plugin to bundle automation tests with a few assets. You're encouraged to integrate only the DataConfigCore module. It contains all core features with minimal dependencies.

Most projects should have an editor module already set up. In this section we'll go through the steps of integrating DataConfigCore and build it with the project's FooProjectEditor module.

1. Get a copy of this repository. Then copy DataConfig/Source/DataConfigCore into your project's Source directory.

2. Edit FooProjectEditor.Build.cs and add DataConfigCore as an extra module:

   using UnrealBuildTool;
   
   public class FooProjectEditor : ModuleRules
   {
       public FooProjectEditor(ReadOnlyTargetRules Target) : base(Target)
       {
           PublicDependencyModuleNames.AddRange(new string[] { 
   			//...
               "DataConfigCore",	// <- add this
               });
       }
   }
   

3. DataConfig needs to be explicitly initialized before use. Find FooProjectEditor module's start up and shut down methods and setup DataConfig accordingly.

   #include "DataConfig/DcEnv.h"
   #include "DataConfig/Automation/DcAutomationUtils.h"
   
   void FFooProjectEditorModule::StartupModule()
   {
       // ...
       DcStartUp(EDcInitializeAction::SetAsConsole);
       // dump a FVector to try it out
       FVector Vec(1.0f, 2.0f, 3.0f);
       FDcPropertyDatum VecDatum(TBaseStructure<FVector>::Get(), &Vec);
   
       DcAutomationUtils::DumpToLog(VecDatum);
   }
   
   void FFooProjectEditorModule::ShutdownModule()
   {
       // ...
   	DcShutDown();
   }
   

4. Rebuild the project and restart the editor. Open Output Log and you should be able to find the dump results (to filter use Categories -> None ).

   

You can refer to Module Setup for more detailed integration instructions.