Gum Delete Logic Reference

Two Delete Patterns

There are two distinct delete flows depending on the object type being deleted.

Pattern 1 — AskTo* (states and categories)

Used for states and state categories. These types have blocking conditions that must be checked before any dialog is shown, so they have their own typed methods on IEditCommands.

Flow: IEditCommands.AskTo* → validate (behavior deps, plugin hooks, default-state check) → simple Yes/No dialog → undo lock → IDeleteLogic.Remove*

Entry points:

• IEditCommands.AskToDeleteState(stateSave, stateContainer)
• IEditCommands.AskToDeleteStateCategory(category, container)

Why not DeleteOptionsWindow: States and categories are in-memory only — no XML files, no child hierarchy — so plugins have nothing to contribute to the delete dialog.

Pattern 2 — DeleteSelection (elements, behaviors, instances)

Used for screens, components, behaviors, and instances. All go through one shared entry point that dispatches based on what is currently selected.

Flow: IEditCommands.DeleteSelection → undo lock → IDeleteLogic.HandleDeleteCommand → DoDeletingLogic → ShowDeleteDialog (creates DeleteOptionsWindow) → IDeleteLogic.Remove*

Entry point: IEditCommands.DeleteSelection()

Why DeleteOptionsWindow: Plugins contribute runtime UI to this dialog (e.g. DeleteObjectPlugin adds "Delete XML file?" and "Delete children?" options via the DeleteOptionsWindowShow plugin event).

Responsibility Split

Class	Responsibility
IEditCommands / EditCommands	All user-triggered deletes. Shows dialogs, acquires undo locks, then delegates to IDeleteLogic. Only entry point callers should use.
IDeleteLogic / DeleteLogic	Pure data mutation after confirmation. Remove* methods do not show dialogs. HandleDeleteCommand is the exception — it orchestrates the DeleteOptionsWindow flow and is only called from EditCommands.DeleteSelection.

Contributing an option to DeleteOptionsWindow

DeleteOptionsWindowShow and DeleteConfirmed are declared on WpfPluginBase, not PluginBase — a plugin contributing a delete option must derive from it.

Both fire once per batch with the full objectsToDelete array, while ElementDelete fires once per element. Their relative order is not stable either: NotifyConfirmed runs before removal in PerformConfirmedMixedTypeDelete and after it in DoDeletingLogic's elements-only branch. Keep both handlers pure functions of the element rather than relying on ordering across them.

A checkbox cached in a plugin field leaks state across deletes: a cancelled delete never fires DeleteConfirmed, and DeleteOptionsWindow.CloseWithResultFalse clears MainStackPanel.Children without touching the plugin's field, so the next delete reads a stale checked value. Reset the field at the top of DeleteOptionsWindowShow.

Post-delete selection

After removing instances, selection must fall back to a surviving sibling → parent instance → owning element, or the editor goes blank. Both the single-instance (PerformConfirmedSingleInstanceDelete) and multi-instance (PerformConfirmedMixedTypeDelete) paths funnel through one helper, SelectAfterInstanceRemoval.

Callers

All delete actions funnel through IEditCommands:

• Delete key → HotkeyManager → IEditCommands.DeleteSelection
• Element tree right-click Delete → ElementTreeViewManager → IEditCommands.DeleteSelection
• State tree right-click Delete state → StateTreeViewRightClickService → IEditCommands.AskToDeleteState
• State tree right-click Delete category → StateTreeViewRightClickService → IEditCommands.AskToDeleteStateCategory
• Menu strip Remove > Element → MenuStripManager → IEditCommands.DeleteSelection
• Menu strip Remove > State/Category → MenuStripManager → IEditCommands.AskToDeleteState / AskToDeleteStateCategory

Do not call IDeleteLogic methods directly from UI code — always go through IEditCommands.

Testability

DeleteLogic (headless, Tools/Gum.Presentation/Managers/DeleteLogic.cs) delegates dialog display to the WPF-shell IDeleteDialogService, whose implementation DeleteDialogService (Gum/Services/Dialogs/DeleteDialogService.cs) creates the DeleteOptionsWindow and calls ShowDialog() — that class cannot be unit-tested directly. The internal BuildDeleteDialogMessage(Array, List<InstanceSave>?) method on DeleteLogic is the testable seam for asserting dialog message content (InternalsVisibleTo("GumToolUnitTests") is already configured).

Key Files

File	Purpose
Gum/Commands/IEditCommands.cs	Interface with architecture overview comment
Gum/Commands/EditCommands.cs	Implementation; AskTo* dialog logic lives here
Tools/Gum.Presentation/Managers/IDeleteLogic.cs	Interface for pure data-mutation operations
Tools/Gum.Presentation/Managers/DeleteLogic.cs	Data mutation + delete-dialog orchestration via IDeleteDialogService
Gum/Services/Dialogs/DeleteDialogService.cs	WPF shell: creates/shows DeleteOptionsWindow, calls the concrete PluginManager
Tools/Gum.Presentation/Logic/ReferenceTypes.cs	ElementReferences class; GetDeleteImpactDetails() and ExcludeContainersBeingDeleted() used to build impact warnings in the delete dialog
Tools/Gum.Presentation/Logic/ReferenceFinder.cs	GetReferencesToVariable() — enumerates every instance-level assignment of a variable project-wide, including through the inheritance chain; used by DeleteVariableService.GetIfCanDeleteVariable to block variable deletes today
Gum/Plugins/InternalPlugins/Delete/DeleteObjectPlugin.cs	Contributes "Delete XML?" and "Delete children?" to DeleteOptionsWindow
Gum/Plugins/InternalPlugins/StatePlugin/StateTreeViewRightClickService.cs	State/category right-click menu; calls AskTo* methods
Gum/Plugins/InternalPlugins/TreeView/ElementTreeViewManager.RightClick.cs	Element tree right-click; calls DeleteSelection
Gum/Managers/HotkeyManager.cs	Delete key handler; calls DeleteSelection