Instantiating prefabs dynamically in script

Question

I have a canvas object. I right click it and add a Button, which defaults to having a rect transform, image script, button script and text child object. I make it a prefab and delete it from my canvas. I want to have a data driven engine so I have an external list which I want to make into buttons. When I have my list loaded I attempt to create dynamic buttons by:

GameObject prefabButton = new GameObject("StandardButton");

This in the hierarchy but it doesn't have the image or button or text components added, only a transform.

Why doesn't it have the things the prefab has??

I read I might need to instantiate it, so I tried:

GameObject stdButton = (GameObject)Instantiate(prefabButton);

Again this creates another object in my hierarchy with nothing but a basic transform.

What is the difference between this object and the one I created before? Why instantiate at all?

Answer 1

Presuming you've saved the prefab out to your Resources folder in your project, you will need to load and instantiate it and then attach it to the canvas. Your code should be something like this:

Canvas canvasComponent = GameObject.Find("Canvas").GetComponent<Canvas>();
GameObject myButtonPrefab = Resources.Load<GameObject>("whatEverTheButtonPrefabIsCalled");
GameObject actualButton = GameObject.Instantiate(myButtonPrefab) as GameObject;
myButtonPrefab.transform.SetParent(canvasComponent.gameObject.transform, false);

Hope that helps.