A Unity package for managing hierarchical menu navigation with history tracking, input system integration, and automatic UI element selection. Perfect for game menus, settings panels, and any UI that requires structured navigation flow.

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https://github.com/Tirtstan/Sentinal.git

1. Add the Core Manager: Place the SentinalManager singleton component in your scene.
2. Setup Menu Views: Add ViewSelector components to your active toggling menu GameObjects.
3. Optional Input Integration: Add InputSystemHandler for re-selection and back tracking actions.
4. Optional Action Map Switching: Add InputActionSwitcher for action map switching.

• Menu/View Tracking: Navigate through multiple menus with automatic history tracking.
• UI Selection: Auto-selection of UI elements with memory of last selected items.
• Root View Support: Persistent root menus that stay in history but don't auto-close.
• Exclusive Views: Views that close all other menus when opened (excluding root views).

• Action Map Switching: Automatic switching between Player/UI (or custom) action maps.
• Configurable Actions: Customisable input actions for canceling and re-selecting.

The central manager that handles all view/menu navigation logic and maintains the view stack.

Public API:

• CloseCurrentView() - Close the topmost view in the stack.
• CloseAllViews() - Close all views except root views.
• TrySelectCurrentView() - Attempt to select the current view's UI element.
• AnyViewsOpen - Check if any views are currently open.
• CurrentView - Get the currently active view selector.

Events:

• OnAdd - Fired when a new view is added to the stack.
• OnRemove - Fired when a view is removed from the stack.
• OnSwitch - Fired when switching between views.

Add this to any GameObject that represents a menu or navigable view. One that will be SetActive(bool).

• firstSelected - The GameObject to auto-select when this view becomes active.
• rootView - Treat as root view (added to history but never closed automatically).
• exclusiveView - Close all other views (except root views) when this view opens.
• hideAllViews - Hides all other views when opened. Unlike exclusive, this only hides them temporarily.
• trackView - Whether to include this view in the navigation history stack.

• preventSelection - Prevent automatic selection (useful for input-only views).
• autoSelectOnEnable - Automatically select the first element when the view is enabled.
• rememberLastSelected - Remember and restore the last selected UI element.

Handles Input System integration for input navigation. Requires SentinalManager component.

Automatically switches between action maps when a view opens/closes. Requires ViewSelector component.

// Your menu GameObject needs:
// 1. ViewSelector component
// 2. Enable/Disable the GameObject to open/close menus

// Open a menu
menuGameObject.SetActive(true); // Automatically tracked by SentinalManager (if ViewSelector is present)

// Close current menu
SentinalManager.Instance.CloseCurrentView();

// Close all menus
SentinalManager.Instance.CloseAllViews();

[RequireComponent(typeof(ViewSelector))]
public class CustomMenu : MonoBehaviour, ICloseableView
{
    [SerializeField] private Animator menuAnimator;

    public void Close()
    {
        // Custom close logic (animations, save data, etc.)
        StartCoroutine(CloseWithAnimation());
    }

    private IEnumerator CloseWithAnimation()
    {
        menuAnimator.SetTrigger("CloseMenu");
        yield return new WaitForSeconds(0.3f);
        gameObject.SetActive(false);
    }
}

private void Start()
{
    SentinalManager.OnAdd += OnMenuOpened;
    SentinalManager.OnRemove += OnMenuClosed;
    SentinalManager.OnSwitch += OnMenuSwitched;
}

private void OnMenuOpened(ViewSelector view)
{
    Debug.Log($"Menu opened: {view.name}");
    // Update UI, play sounds, etc.
}

private void OnMenuSwitched(ViewSelector from, ViewSelector to)
{
    Debug.Log($"Switched from {from?.name} to {to?.name}");
    // Handle transition effects
}

• Unity 2019.4 or later
• Input System package (optional, for input handling features)
• TextMeshPro (for sample scenes)

The custom editor shows real-time debugging information:

• Current view index in the navigation stack.
• Whether the view is currently active.
• View hierarchy visualization.

1. Always use GameObject activation (SetActive(bool)) for menu open/close operations.
2. Use ICloseableView for menus that need custom close animations or specific menu closure.
3. Use Root Views for persistent UI elements like HUDs or a main menu screen.
4. Use Exclusive Views for modal dialogs or full-screen overlays.