FIX: ISXB-1584, ISXB-1688, ISXB-1692, ISXB-1693, ISXB-1694, ISXB-1701 InputActionReference bug fixes and improved test coverage. #2248

ekcoh · 2025-09-29T20:03:23Z

Description

Fixes the following issues:

https://issuetracker.unity3d.com/product/unity/issues/guid/ISXB-1584, where InputActionReference.action would return an incorrect (cached) action if set programmatically after the cached instance had been resolved.
ISXB-1688 - InputActionSetupExtensions.RemoveAction(action) throws exception if attempting to remove an action that doesn't have any bindings.
ISXB-1692 - Assigning an InputActionReference field stored in an .inputactions asset via InputActionReference.Set in playmode corrupts the referenced asset.
ISXB-1693 - InputActionReference.Create(null) returns null instead "of a reference object to the given action".
ISXB-1694 - InputActionReference.Set(null) does not update the cached input action reference nor the ScriptableObject.name leading to incorrect action being returned and reference showing up as the path to the previously assigned action in Inspector.
~~ISXB-1699 - InputActionAsset.RemoveActionMap doesn't remove actions within the map, leaving them with stale references back to the map.~~ This was a misinterpretation and have been reverted. Ticket marked "As Designed".
ISXB-1701 - Inspector field of type InputActionReference isn't reflecting broken reference in case action is deleted from asset, action map is deleted from asset or the asset itself is deleted.

Revisiting/altering fixes of the previous tickets:

ISX-1968 "Investigate InputActionReferences problem with FEPM/CoreCLR"
https://issuetracker.unity3d.com/product/unity/issues/guid/ISXB-900 "Action Map Must Be Contained in State" and other errors are thrown when re-entering Play mode without a domain reload, while using temporarily created InputBindings. FIX: InputActionReference when using FEPM (ISX-1968) #1949

The above revisited tickets reference the problem of InputActionReference run-time objects not being reset when exiting play-mode with domain reloads disabled. To get this scenario covered, this scenario is now included in the added editor tests. Tested both with and without domain reloads enabled.

Additional changes made:

Simplified code in InputSystemProvider.cs (UITK integration) since there is no reason to use InputActionReference in that class as long as there is no UI to edit it implemented. If such a UI is added later it can easily be converted back to InputActionReference.
Renamed function arguments in non-public functions of InputActionReference to eliminate name-shadowing warnings. Didn't touch public ones since a parameter rename would be unexpected after API publishing.
Simplified loading code of InputActionReference instances from assets within InputActionImporter.
Adds EditorPrefsTestUtils.cs which is a test utility to simplify editor tests.
Adds CoreTests_Actions_References.cs which extracts previous and new InputActionReference play-mode tests into their own (partial) file.
Adds DumpInputActionReferences.cs which extends "QA Tools" with ability to dump a list of all input action references (loaded + assets) into the console via QA Tools Unity menu.

Open issues/questions to reviewers:

Property drawer for input action references is currently conditionally compiled depending on project-wide input actions. This makes little sense now, but if the check is removed we get a dependency on search context that isn't available in that version, so we might want to land this post 2021.3 EoL or add a similar fix for 2021.3? (Currently missing on PR)

Testing status & QA

Added a bunch of functional tests that replicates the problematic scenarios mentioned above. Both play-mode functional tests as well as edit-mode as well as transitional editor-mode to play-mode and play-mode to edit-mode editor tests were added.

Removed some code related to project-wide-actions in property drawer I believe @jfreire-unity added. I do not think it is needed as a special case anymore and I also think it was incorrect to change the users objects.

Altered a previous play-mode fix by @timkeo but it is essentially intact to previous behavior. I think there is opportunity to change this later to only use Object.FindObjectsByType(true) instead of Resources.FindObjectsByType() as an optimisation after this has landed?

Haven''t tested on 2021.3 which might be behaving differently but I do not know if we should bother since it is soon EoL.

Overall Product Risks

Complexity: Medium
Halo Effect: Large

InputActionReferences are used all over the place so this is a serious bug that can have impact, especially on more complex projects.

Comments to reviewers

Recommend double checking the repro project with this fix.

Checklist

Before review:

Changelog entry added.
- Explains the change in Changed, Fixed, Added sections.
- For API change contains an example snippet and/or migration example.
- JIRA ticket linked, example (case %%). If it is a private issue, just add the case ID without a link.
- Jira port for the next release set as "Resolved".
Tests added/changed, if applicable.
- Functional tests added: Actions_CanResolveActionReferenceAndThenSetItToAnotherAction
- Performance tests. - None
- Integration tests. - None
Docs for new/changed API's.
- Xmldoc cross references are set correctly.
- Added explanation how the API works.
- Usage code examples added.
- The manual is updated, if needed.

During merge:

Commit message for squash-merge is prefixed with one of the list:
- NEW: ___.
- FIX: ___.
- DOCS: ___.
- CHANGE: ___.
- RELEASE: 1.1.0-preview.3.

After merge:

Create forward/backward port if needed. If you are blocked from creating a forward port now please add a task to ISX-1444.

…been called and cached, then Set and then calling action again.

codecov-github-com · 2025-09-29T20:17:28Z

Codecov Report

Attention: Patch coverage is 88.95966% with 52 lines in your changes missing coverage. Please review.

Files with missing lines	Patch %	Lines
Assets/Tests/InputSystem.Editor/TestUtils.cs	17.07%	34 Missing ⚠️
...System/Editor/AssetImporter/InputActionImporter.cs	81.48%	5 Missing ⚠️
...system/InputSystem/Actions/InputActionReference.cs	91.83%	4 Missing ⚠️
...pertyDrawers/InputActionReferencePropertyDrawer.cs	73.33%	4 Missing ⚠️
...s/Tests/InputSystem.Editor/EditorPrefsTestUtils.cs	85.71%	3 Missing ⚠️
...utSystem.Editor/InputActionReferenceEditorTests.cs	97.61%	2 Missing ⚠️

@@             Coverage Diff             @@
##           develop    #2248      +/-   ##
===========================================
+ Coverage    76.70%   76.84%   +0.13%     
===========================================
  Files          465      469       +4     
  Lines        87919    88257     +338     
===========================================
+ Hits         67442    67823     +381     
+ Misses       20477    20434      -43

Files with missing lines	Coverage Δ
...r/InputActionReferencePropertyDrawerEditorTests.cs	`100.00% <100.00%> (ø)`
Assets/Tests/InputSystem/CoreTests_Actions.cs	`97.77% <100.00%> (-0.01%)`	⬇️
...s/Tests/InputSystem/CoreTests_Actions_Reference.cs	`100.00% <100.00%> (ø)`
.../InputSystem/Actions/InputActionSetupExtensions.cs	`79.09% <100.00%> (ø)`
...s/com.unity.inputsystem/InputSystem/InputSystem.cs	`83.44% <100.00%> (+0.39%)`	⬆️
...utSystem/Plugins/InputForUI/InputSystemProvider.cs	`86.60% <100.00%> (-0.37%)`	⬇️
...utSystem.Editor/InputActionReferenceEditorTests.cs	`97.61% <97.61%> (ø)`
...s/Tests/InputSystem.Editor/EditorPrefsTestUtils.cs	`85.71% <85.71%> (ø)`
...system/InputSystem/Actions/InputActionReference.cs	`89.47% <91.83%> (+30.21%)`	⬆️
...pertyDrawers/InputActionReferencePropertyDrawer.cs	`65.00% <73.33%> (+65.00%)`	⬆️
... and 2 more

... and 9 files with indirect coverage changes

🚀 New features to boost your workflow:

❄️ Test Analytics: Detect flaky tests, report on failures, and find test suite problems.

ekcoh · 2025-09-29T20:23:08Z

This solves the incorrect return value, but it seems it is not enough to solve the reported problem so moving this back to draft mode for more work.

…onReference, simplification of InputActionImporter.

…g fixing of InputActionReference, added more tests.

…to support serialization within editor test. Added test utilities.

…echnologies/InputSystem into isxb-1584-input-action-reference

…ork since referencing editor types.

…emoved.

… InputActionReference unless there is a UI to configure it

…s Designed

…ained actions intact.

timkeo

Reviewed the change to my bug fix and skimmed though some of the other changes.

K-Tone · 2025-10-07T11:26:58Z

Assets/Editor/DumpInputActionReferences.cs

+    {
+        DumpReferences();
+    }
+}


Should this be part of our Input Debugger interface instead?

ekcoh added 2 commits September 29, 2025 21:54

FIX: InputActionReference returning incorrect action when action has …

10f19c9

…been called and cached, then Set and then calling action again.

Updated change log.

f38dd04

ekcoh requested review from K-Tone and Pauliusd01 September 29, 2025 20:03

ekcoh removed request for K-Tone and Pauliusd01 September 29, 2025 20:23

ekcoh changed the title ~~FIX: ISXB-1584 InputActionReference.action returns the incorrect action if set programmatically.~~ FIX: ISXB-1584, ISXB-1690 InputActionReference bug fixes and improved test coverage. Sep 30, 2025

ekcoh added 10 commits September 30, 2025 15:28

Improvements to testing, refactoring of tests, bug fixes to InputActi…

79c430d

…onReference, simplification of InputActionImporter.

Updated changelog

27b0311

FIX: RemoveActionMap does not remove contained actions. Additional bu…

7c5305a

…g fixing of InputActionReference, added more tests.

More bug fixes and test cases for input action reference

b02a52e

Additional simplification, fixes and test cases. Added test assembly …

0dbc8f5

…to support serialization within editor test. Added test utilities.

Added more tests, code cleanup, refactored QA script to QA asset folder.

651526e

Merge branch 'develop' into isxb-1584-input-action-reference

b50c8c5

Updated CHANGELOG

769d73c

Removed development comments from source file.

58f9c28

Undo changes to AssetDatabaseUtils that were not needed in the end.

5497481

ekcoh requested review from Pauliusd01, timkeo and jfreire-unity October 3, 2025 13:05

ekcoh changed the title ~~FIX: ISXB-1584, ISXB-1690 InputActionReference bug fixes and improved test coverage.~~ FIX: ISXB-1584, ISXB-1688, ISXB-1692, ISXB-1693, ISXB-1694, ISXB-1699, ISXB-1701 InputActionReference bug fixes and improved test coverage. Oct 3, 2025

ekcoh added 4 commits October 3, 2025 15:29

Merge branch 'develop' into isxb-1584-input-action-reference

de71adb

xmldoc fixes

7611d03

Merge branch 'isxb-1584-input-action-reference' of github.com:Unity-T…

8f826ca

…echnologies/InputSystem into isxb-1584-input-action-reference

Replaced Conditional by preprocessor check since Conditional cannot w…

6dd0f88

…ork since referencing editor types.

ekcoh added 7 commits October 6, 2025 09:47

Strengthened existing test by adding verification that reference is r…

22be817

…emoved.

Corrected and updated inline doc for InputActionReference invalidation

007412e

Simplified InputSystemProvider since there is no reason at all to use…

a146ecd

… InputActionReference unless there is a UI to configure it

Undo bug fix of RemoveActionMap which was correct and filed bug was A…

3af6d81

…s Designed

Improved inline comment

a499b40

Added missing guard to mimic inclusion of test based on PWA.

4dfc4f4

Clarified in xmldoc that removing an action map still leaves all cont…

8c008bc

…ained actions intact.

timkeo approved these changes Oct 6, 2025

View reviewed changes

Merge branch 'develop' into isxb-1584-input-action-reference

b68353d

K-Tone reviewed Oct 7, 2025

View reviewed changes

Assets/Editor/DumpInputActionReferences.cs

{

DumpReferences();

}

}

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K-Tone Oct 7, 2025

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Should this be part of our Input Debugger interface instead?

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FIX: ISXB-1584, ISXB-1688, ISXB-1692, ISXB-1693, ISXB-1694, ISXB-1701 InputActionReference bug fixes and improved test coverage. #2248

FIX: ISXB-1584, ISXB-1688, ISXB-1692, ISXB-1693, ISXB-1694, ISXB-1701 InputActionReference bug fixes and improved test coverage. #2248

ekcoh commented Sep 29, 2025 •

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FIX: ISXB-1584, ISXB-1688, ISXB-1692, ISXB-1693, ISXB-1694, ISXB-1701 InputActionReference bug fixes and improved test coverage. #2248

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FIX: ISXB-1584, ISXB-1688, ISXB-1692, ISXB-1693, ISXB-1694, ISXB-1701 InputActionReference bug fixes and improved test coverage. #2248

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Description

Testing status & QA

Overall Product Risks

Comments to reviewers

Checklist

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ekcoh commented Sep 29, 2025 •

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