# Why would ValueTree become invalid/missing by PluginEditor construction? \[Solved\]

**URL:** <https://forum.juce.com/t/why-would-valuetree-become-invalid-missing-by-plugineditor-construction-solved/18599>\
**Category:** Audio Plugins\
**Created:** [July 31, 2016, 7:16am UTC](https://forum.juce.com/t/why-would-valuetree-become-invalid-missing-by-plugineditor-construction-solved/18599 "2016-07-31T07:16:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tsenkov](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.juce.com/tsenkov/32/3150_2.png) [@tsenkov](https://forum.juce.com/u/tsenkov)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2016, 7:16am UTC](https://forum.juce.com/t/why-would-valuetree-become-invalid-missing-by-plugineditor-construction-solved/18599/1 "2016-07-31T07:16:10Z")

</div>

Hello JUCErs,

I am trying to build the mechanics for storing & retrieving of automatable and non-automatable parameters of my plugin.

The basic structure is:

```
AudioProcessorValueTreeState
    -> ValueTree ("automatable params")
        -> ValueTree ("non-automatable params")

```

This state is created in the constructor of PluginProcessor.

**Problem:**

- the child ValueTree (the ‘non-auto’ one) gets invalid by the time the PluginEditor needs to use it.

So, for the auto-params - I don’t touch APVTS’s tree directly. I add them through the interface of the APVTS:

```
void StateManager::createAutomatableFloatParameter (
    const String& parameterId,
    ...
)
{
    audioProcessorValueTreeState->createAndAddParameter(
        parameterId,
        ...
    );

    audioProcessorValueTreeState->addParameterListener (parameterId, this);
}

```

And for these which I don’t want visible by the DAW/automatable, I’m directly setting properties on the child tree of the APVTS-\>state (the ‘non-auto’ one):

```
void StateManager::createFloatParameter (
    const String& parameterId,
    const float defaultValue
)
{
    nonAutomatableParamsValueTree.setProperty (
        parameterId,
        defaultValue,
        nullptr
    );
}

```

Here is how I initialize the nonAutomatableParamsValueTree:

```
void StateManager::initNonAutomatableParamsValueTree ()
{
    // shouldn't be executed twice
    jassert (
        nonAutomatableParamsValueTree.getType ().toString ()
        != PARAMS::PLUGIN_STATE_IDENTIFIER_NON_AUTOMATABLE_BRANCH
    );

    nonAutomatableParamsValueTree = audioProcessorValueTreeState->state.getOrCreateChildWithName (
        PARAMS::PLUGIN_STATE_IDENTIFIER_NON_AUTOMATABLE_BRANCH,
        nullptr
    );

    nonAutomatableParamsValueTree.addListener (this);
}

```

Finally, this is the order all of this happens in the processor:

```
MyPluginProcessor::MyPluginProcessor ()
{
    undoManager = new UndoManager();
    pluginState = new AudioProcessorValueTreeState (*this, undoManager);

    // create automatable params
    stateManager->createAutomatableFloatParameter (...);
    stateManager->createAutomatableFloatParameter (...);
    ...

    pluginState->state = ValueTree (PARAMS::PLUGIN_STATE_IDENTIFIER);
    stateManager->initNonAutomatableParamsValueTree ();

    // create non-automatable params
    stateManager->createFloatParameter (...);
    stateManager->createFloatParameter (...);
    ...

    DBG (pluginState->state.getChildWithName (
        PARAMS::PLUGIN_STATE_IDENTIFIER_NON_AUTOMATABLE_BRANCH
    ).isValid ()); // this prints '1'
}

```

This same check (the DBG print at the bottom) prints ‘0’ in the constructor of PluginEditor.

I am guessing that I don’t understand something very basic about the ValueTree or/and the AudioProcessorValueTreeState…

Any help is much appreciated.

@daniel Any chance you have an idea why would this happen?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tsenkov](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.juce.com/tsenkov/32/3150_2.png) [@tsenkov](https://forum.juce.com/u/tsenkov)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2016, 5:40pm UTC](https://forum.juce.com/t/why-would-valuetree-become-invalid-missing-by-plugineditor-construction-solved/18599/2 "2016-07-31T17:40:28Z")

</div>

I feel so dumb… The loading of an older version of plugin’s state through PluginProcessor::setStateInformation(…) (which doesn’t have the inner ValueTree) was overriding the tree with the old format one.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![daniel](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.juce.com/daniel/32/790_2.png) [@daniel](https://forum.juce.com/u/daniel)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2016, 7:27pm UTC](https://forum.juce.com/t/why-would-valuetree-become-invalid-missing-by-plugineditor-construction-solved/18599/3 "2016-07-31T19:27:26Z")

</div>

Glad you found it 🙂 For completeness the answer to your question is: a tree that is created with the default constructor, see [ValueTree()](https://www.juce.com/doc/classValueTree#ad5671081941b3db9db42bf7fcbd2629c):

> Creates an empty, invalid ValueTree.  
> A ValueTree that is created with this constructor can’t actually be used for anything, it’s just a default ‘null’ ValueTree that can be returned to indicate some sort of failure. To create a real one, use the constructor that takes a string.

To be valid it needs to have an Identifier (which is the requirement in XML and JSON, which are the formats the ValueTree can be transformed in.