ChatTabs

Tab bar component that creates, manages, and switches between ChatTab instances — one per chat channel. Provides sequential tab cycling for next/previous navigation.

Definition

Namespace: Paragon.Townskeep Assembly: Townskeep.dll

public class ChatTabs : ParagonUIBehaviour

Inheritance: SerializedMonoBehaviour → ParagonBehaviour → ParagonUIBehaviour → ChatTabs

Remarks

ChatTabs is the controller for the tab bar in the chat UI. On Initialize(), it creates one ChatTab per registered ChatChannel (queried via Chat.GetChannels()), then auto-selects the first tab.

Tab Creation

CreateTabs() follows a reuse-then-create pattern:

1. Collects any pre-existing ChatTab children in the hierarchy

2. Iterates over Chat.GetChannels() — reusing existing tabs by index, creating new ones from tabPrefab as needed

3. Destroys any surplus tabs beyond the channel count

4. Subscribes each tab's OnClicked to SelectTab()

Tab Selection

When a tab is selected (via click or programmatic call):

1. The previous tab is visually deselected (Unselect())

2. The new tab is visually selected (Select())

3. The ChatWindow is switched to the new tab's channel via chatHUD.Window.SetChannel()

4. The OnTabSelected event fires

Cycling

SwitchNextTab() and SwitchPreviousTab() wrap around — cycling past the last tab returns to the first, and vice versa.

Quick Lookup

Goal	How
Initialize	tabs.Initialize(chatHUD)
Select a specific tab	tabs.SelectTab(tab)
Next tab (wraps)	tabs.SwitchNextTab()
Previous tab (wraps)	tabs.SwitchPreviousTab()
Listen for tab changes	tabs.OnTabSelected += handler

Fields

Field	Type	Access	Description
tabPrefab	GameObject	[SerializeField]	Prefab instantiated when more tabs are needed than exist in the hierarchy

Events

OnTabSelected

Fired when a tab is selected (by click or programmatic call). Passes the newly selected ChatTab.

public event Action<ChatTab> OnTabSelected;

Methods

Initialize

Creates tabs for all registered channels and selects the first one.

public void Initialize(ChatHUD chatHUD)

Parameter	Type	Description
chatHUD	ChatHUD	Parent chat HUD, used to access Window for channel switching

SelectTab

Selects a tab: deselects the previous, applies visual selection, switches the window channel, and fires OnTabSelected.

public void SelectTab(ChatTab tab)

Parameter	Type	Description
tab	ChatTab	The tab to select

SwitchNextTab

Selects the next tab in the list. Wraps to the first tab when at the end.

public void SwitchNextTab()

SwitchPreviousTab

Selects the previous tab in the list. Wraps to the last tab when at the beginning.

public void SwitchPreviousTab()

Common Pitfalls

Tab creation depends on Chat.GetChannels() CreateTabs() queries Chat.GetChannels() which returns all channels registered on the Chat singleton. If the Chat singleton has not initialized yet (e.g., script execution order issue), no tabs will be created.

Surplus pre-existing tabs are destroyed If the hierarchy has more ChatTab children than there are channels, the excess tabs are destroyed. This can cause issues if tabs are manually placed in the hierarchy for layout purposes.

SelectTab does not null-check the tab parameter Passing null to SelectTab() (e.g., if tabs.FirstOrDefault() returns null because there are no channels) will throw a NullReferenceException when calling currentTab.Select().

Examples

Programmatic Tab Switching

// Cycle through tabs
chatHUD.Tabs.SwitchNextTab();

// Listen for tab changes
chatHUD.Tabs.OnTabSelected += tab =>
{
    Debug.Log($"Switched to channel: {tab.Channel.Name}");
};

See Also

• ChatTab — individual tab button

• ChatWindow — displays messages for the selected channel

• ChatHUD — root chat coordinator

• Chat Overview — system architecture