Can't reference my custom editor script from a non-editor script even when using its namespace

Question

I know that certain namespaces are necessary to include to specify under what scope certain methods are found, and this also saves typing. Otherwise the error CS0246 is thrown if referencing an unknown type.

The problem is, that I am using a namespace in a script in:

 Assets / Scripts

And that namespace is defined in a script in:

 Editors / Data / AnotherFile

So I am getting an error CS0246.

How could I solve this without moving that script into the Assets / Scripts location?

SCRIPT LOCATED IN EDITOR / DATA / ANOTHERFILE:

using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;
using UnityEditor;

namespace NodeEditorWindow
{

[CreateAssetMenu]
public class LevelFlowData : BaseNodeEditorData<BaseLevelNode, LevelFlowEditorAttributes>
{
    private const string MENU_ITEM_PATH = "Create / ScriptableObjects / LevelFlowData";
    private const string NEW_ASSET_PATH = "ScriptableObjects / Level Flow Data";

    [SerializeField] private string _name;

    /// <summary>Gets and Sets name property.</summary>
    public string name
    {
        get { return _name; }
        set { _name = value; }
    }

    [MenuItem(MENU_ITEM_PATH)]
    public static void CreateAsset()
    {
        LevelFlowData scriptableObject = ScriptableObject.CreateInstance<LevelFlowData>() as LevelFlowData;
        AssetDatabase.CreateAsset(scriptableObject, AssetDatabase.GenerateUniqueAssetPath(NEW_ASSET_PATH));
    }
}

}

SCRIPT LOCATED ON ASSETS / SCRIPTS / ...:

using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.UI;
using GameData;
using NodeEditorWindow; //HERE I AM USINGTHE OTHER CLASS'S NAMESPACE

public class LevelController : Singleton<LevelController>
{
    [Header("Level Data:")]
    [SerializeField] private LevelFlowData levelFlowData;
}

These are the errors I get in console (both CS0246):

Assets/Scripts/Scene Controllers/LevelController.cs(6,7): error CS0246: The type or namespace name `NodeEditorWindow' could not be found. Are you missing an assembly reference?

Assets/Scripts/Scene Controllers/LevelController.cs(11,27): error CS0246: The type or namespace name `LevelFlowData' could not be found. Are you missing an assembly reference?

Sorry if this seems to be a repeated question, but I haven't found any solution to this error due to having scripts on different paths (but using the namespaces). Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

The problem is that you're including editor code into the "runtime" code. Unity places the editor scripts in a different assembly, so basically your editor code is not accessible from the actual game code. You need to move your editor script and its parent classes) from the Editor folder and you can do something like

#if UNITY_EDITOR
using UnityEditor;
/*
  Editor code
*/
#endif

which should give you access to Unity's Editor API. In this way you're "simulating" the build-time stripping of editor code and still be able to use runtime scripts alongside editor scripts. It's a bit of a headache, especially if you're using a fair amount of custom editor scripts, which all need to be flipped to the runtime assembly.