I have a flex application, and I am using a cairngorm structure -
src/com/mysite/editor/model/ contains the following two things
EditorModelLocator.as (Singleton Enforced Application Globals),
EditorGlobalConstants.as (Contains All constants), like the following
public static const SUPPORT_PHONE:String = '800-865-7496';
public static const SUPPORT_EMAIL:String = 'support#mysite.com';
I was wondering where the best place to put helper methods is. I need these to be methods I can use outside of the singleton enforced class. Would it make sense to put it in Global Constants? The only thing against that, is I always use EditorGlobalConstants the same way:
EditorGlobalConstants.SUPPORT_PHONE
An example of a 'helper function' is the following:
public var blank(value:String):Boolean {
if( value == '' || value == null ) return true;
return false;
}
I can store all of this information in EditorGlobalConstants, but I was wondering if maybe EditorHelpers.as would be better, and how I would instantiate/use that solution?
Thanks!
Andrew Thorp
Not familiar with how cairngorm tends to do things, but in AS3 functions don't have to be part of a class.
For instance, you could have a file called helperFunction.as with the contents:
package my.package {
public function helperFunction(arg1:Object, arg2:String):void {
// Do stuff
}
}
Then just import that method like you would anything else:
import my.package.helperFunction
and you can use it in your code.
Just pick a package that would make sense for the method to live in (probably in the same package that the objects it's meant to help with are defined).
If you're going to use your helper methods not only in your singleton class, it would be better to place them somewhere upper in hierarchy. You can easily find that place by yourself. Let's try:
Break up your application (in imagination/paper/whatever) into a boxes. Each class is a separate box.
Put them into structure. You just need to see, which boxes are placed inside which ones.
Mark the boxes-classes, where are you going to use these methods.
Find the top level, where are you going to use them and place your class there.
Let's see an example .. suppose you have this structure:
ToplevelApplication
|-BoxAtLevel_1
| |-BoxAtLevel_2
...
if I want my helpers used only in BoxAtLevel_2, I'd put them there:
|-BoxAtLevel_1
| |-BoxAtLevel_2
| |-Helpers
And so on .. if you have any troubles - put your structure here, and I'll help.
Also, about EditorHelpers.as .. is this an instance-level things or rather class-level ones? That's what going to set the way you'll use them.
Related
In Selenium, it's possible to extend elements. This makes it possible to have a set of reusable custom elements for testing.
For example, we can have a getText method added.
public static string GetText(this IWebDriver driver)
{
return driver.FindElement(By.TagName("body")).Text;
}
And re-use it as follows:
myElement.getText();
This example is detailed here: http://www.vcskicks.com/selenium-extensions.php
Is there a way to replicate this behavior in Cypress.io? Or do we need to query and call the same methods to get the data?
You can accomplish this using simple functions. For example, you could move several functions into a utils.js.
export const getByText = (text) => cy.contains(text)
And then import those methods into your spec file.
import { getByText } from './utils'
it('finds the element', () => {
getByText('Jane Lane')
})
You could alternatively create a custom command, but that's sometimes not necessary as noted in the best practices.
I think that Custom Commands is what you're looking for. However, note the Cypress Best Practices. The basic commands are very powerful and you can accomplish a lot with them.
I've been following GUI extensions and notice examples use either _isEnabled or isEnabled, without the underscore. Both seem to work to extend or possibly replace existing functionality.
isEnabled
For example, the PowerTools base class (which doesn't seem to "extend" existing functionality) has:
PowerTools.BaseCommand.prototype.isEnabled = function(selection, pipeline)
{
var p = this.properties;
if (!p.initialized)
{
this.initialize();
}
if (!this.isToolConfigured())
{
return false;
}
if (this.isValidSelection)
{
return this.isValidSelection(selection, pipeline);
}
return true;
};
A tool can use this base class and declare .isValidSelection, for example:
PowerTools.Commands.CountItems.prototype.isValidSelection =
function (selection) { ... }
_isEnabled
I see Anguilla uses ._isEnabled for existing functionality (in Chrome's console in numerous places in the code). For example, WhereUsed has:
Tridion.Cme.Commands.WhereUsed.prototype._isAvailable =
function WhereUsed$_isAvailable(selection) ...
Private functions?
I'm familiar with a preceding underscore being a naming convention for private variables. Are the _isEnabled and other functions that start with an underscore "private?" If so, then
How should we extend (add additional functionality to existing code) these functions?
How should we replace (not have existing code run, but have ours run instead as in an "override") these?
I'm assuming the same approach applies to other functions that start with an underscore such as _isAvailable, and _invoke.
The following methods are called for a command:
isAvailable
isEnabled
invoke
The base class for all commands - Tridion.Core.Command - has a standard implementation of these methods. For the most part, this default implementation allows for extensions to Commands. They also call the underscore methods (_isAvailable, _isEnabled, and _execute).
I don't know why the CME commands only overwrite the underscore methods. Maybe someone thought it was just easier that way. They should be consider private (or the equivalent of "protected" in C#), so it actually seems like a bad practice to me.
It would be cleaner to implement the proper methods (isAvailable, isEnabled, and invoke) and then call the base implementation using this.callBase. However, you might need to stop the pipeline in this case, or also overwrite the underscore methods, in order to avoid your return value getting overwritten by the default underscore methods. It depends on the command you are implementing or extending.
In short: using the underscore methods is probably bad practice, but the Core implementation does seem to make it harder for you to do it "right". So I'd aim to avoid the underscore methods, but not sweat it if it turns out to be too hard to do so.
P.S. isValidSelection is a PowerTools-only method which separates the common logic that they all need from the logic specific to each command.
I want to handle multiple operations on a UI Component (button ,textfield, swfs,custom objects etc)
in like scaling,skewing ,color,rotations etc etc and save them too. Earlier the actions were done
using a single tool and single mxml file but now the tool is separated into different tools.
Was wondering how i can design / use something like Toolmanager class to handle actions etc?
Also the tricky part is that some objects can have more operations defined for them .
Like 'object1' has 3 operations that can be performed on it and 'object2' has 5 operations defined on it.
We are using MVC design pattern but no frameworks as such.
What are the different design patterns that can be used to do this?
Edit:
To be more precise i want implement this in AS3 OO way.
The application is similar to drawing application which supports addition of various images,text,audio,swfs etc. One added user can perform various operations of the objects..like
adding color,scaling skewing,rotation etc etc and custom effects and after that export the drawing as PNG.Likewise some effects that are applicable to text are not applicable to images
and vice versa. and some effects can be common.
Any ideas?
Probably you could have a toolbar, tools(inheriting from a common base), and some kind of property panel, these objects are accessible from a manager class which wrappes them together and makes some variables accessible for all classes.
Probably you want a selection array or vector in the manager class and a select tool to manipulate this collection
like (in the manager)
protected var _selection:Vector.<EditableBase> = new Vector.<EditableBase>();
public function get selection() { return _selection;}
and a collection about the editbase extensions and the tools avaiable for them.
every time the selection tool updates the selection collection (probably calling a method on manager from the select tool's onMouseUp method) you can update the toolbar to display the apropriate tools for the current selection
(in manager)
protected var _ToolsByType:Object (or Dictionary) = {"EditableAudio": ["toolA", "toolB", etc]};
protected var _defaultSet:Array = ["toolA", "toolB"];
and after the selection has benn manipulated (in manager also)
public function onSelectionChangedCallback():void
{
var toolsToDisplay:Array = _defaultSet;
if(_selection.length == 1)
{
//not actual syntax
var type:String = getQualifiedClassName(_selection[0]);
if(type in _ToolsByType) toolsToDisplay = _ToolsByType[type];
}
myToolBar.showSet(toolsToDisplay);
}
the ancestor for the tools should look something like this:
public class ToolBase
{
protected var _manager:ToolManager;
function ToolBase(manager:ToolManager)//and probably a bunch of other params as well
{
_manager = manager;
}
function onSelect()
{
//you can manipulate the properties panel here
}
function onDeSelect()...
function onMouseDown(mouseData:event/whateverWrapperYouHaveCreated)...
function onMouseMove...
function onMouseUp...
}
and so and so on :)
kinda straight forward.
check photoshop plugin tutorials, or google around "extending {any adobe stuff here, like flash or something}
thats javascript but the concept can be applied here as well
maybe you could use the Strategy Design Pattern by creating some extra classes in your MVC implementation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategy_pattern
algo, check this tool for images:
http://www.senocular.com/demo/TransformToolAS3/TransformTool.html
bye! :)
I'm in my module file. I want to define some complex variables for use throughout the module. For simple things, I'm doing this:
function mymodule_init() {
define('SOME_CONSTANT', 'foo bar');
}
But that won't work for more complex structures. Here are some ideas that I've thought of:
global:
function mymodule_init() {
$GLOBALS['mymodule_var'] = array('foo' => 'bar');
}
variable_set:
function mymodule_init() {
variable_set('mymodule_var', array('foo' => 'bar'));
}
property of a module class:
class MyModule {
static $var = array('foo' => 'bar');
}
Variable_set/_get seems like the most "drupal" way, but I'm drawn toward the class setup. Are there any drawbacks to that? Any other approaches out there?
I haven't seen any one storing static values that are array objects.
For simple values the drupal way is to put a define in the begining of a modules .module file. This file is loaded when the module is activated so that is enough. No point in putting it in the hook_init function.
variable_set stores the value in the database so don't run it over and over. Instead you could put it in your hook_install to define them once. variable_set is good to use if the value can be changed in an admin section but it's not the best choice to store a static variable since you will need a query to fetch it.
I think all of those methods would work. I have never used it in this fashion, but I believe the context module (http://drupal.org/project/context) also has its own API for storing variables in a static cache. You may want to check out the documentation for the module.
It's always a good practice to avoid globals. So that makes your choice a bit easier.
If you err towards a class, you'll be writing code that is not consistent with the D6 standards. There are a lot of modules that do it but I personally like to keep close to the Drupal core so I can understand it better. And code that's written in different styles through the same application can have an adverse effect on productivity and maintenance.
variable_set() and define() are quite different. Use the former when you can expect that information to change (a variable). Use the latter for constants. Your requirements should be clear as which one to use.
Don't worry too much about hitting the database for variable_set/get. If your software is written well, it should not effect performance hardly at all. Performance work arounds like that should only be implemented if your applications has serious performance issues and you've tried everything else.
I am trying to duplicate a flex component at run time.
For example if i have this
mx:Button label="btn" id="btn" click="handleClick(event)"/>
i should be able to call a function called DuplicateComponent() and it should return me a UI component thts exactly same as above button including the event listeners with it.
Can some one help me please??
Thanks in advance
Do a Byte Array Copy. This code segment should do it for you:
// ActionScript file
import flash.utils.ByteArray;
private function clone(source:Object):*
{
var myBA:ByteArray = new ByteArray();
myBA.writeObject(source);
myBA.position = 0;
return(myBA.readObject());
}
One note, I did not write this code myself, I'm pretty sure I got it from a post on the Flex Coder's list.
To solve that problem you should use actionscript and create the buttons dynamically.
Lets say you want the button(s) to go in a VBox called 'someVbox'
for (var i:uint = 0; i< 10; i++){
var but:Button = new Button();
but.label = 'some_id_'+i;
but.id = 'some_id_'+i;
but.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, 'handleClick');
someVbox.addChild(but);
}
I haven't tested it, but that should add 10 buttons to a vbox with a bit of luck.
You can't take a deep copy of UIComponents natively. You're best bet would be to create a new one and analyse the one you have to add a duplicate setup. To be honest this does sound like a bit of a code smell. I wonder if there may be a better solution to the problem with a bit of a rethink..
Same question as: http://www.flexforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1421
Showing up in a google search for the same thing. So you've cut&pasted the same question a month later. No luck eh?
There is no easy way to do this that I know of. Many of a component's settings are dependent on the container/context/etc... and get instantiated during the creation process, so there's no reason to clone from that perspective.
You can clone key settings in actionscript and use those when creating new elements.
For instance, assuming you only care about properties, you might have an array ["styleName","width","height",...], and you can maybe use the array like this:
var newUI:UIComponent = new UIComponent();
for each(var s:String in propArray) {
newUI[s] = clonedUI[s];
}
If you want more bites on your question (rather than waiting a month), tell us what you are trying to achieve.
mx.utils.ObjectUtil often comes in handy, however for complex object types, it's typically good practice to implement an interface that requires a .clone() method, similar to how Events are cloned.
For example:
class MyClass implements ICanvasObject
{
...
public function clone():ICanvasObject
{
var obj:MyClass = new MyClass(parameters...);
return obj;
}
}
This gives your code more clarity and properly encapsulates concerns in the context of how the object is being used / cloned.
You are right but as per my understanding UI Components are not cloned by mx.utils.ObjectUtil.
from : http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/201/langref/mx/utils/ObjectUtil.html#copy()
copy () method
public static function copy(value:Object):Object
Copies the specified Object and returns a reference to the copy. The copy is made using a native serialization technique. This means that custom serialization will be respected during the copy.
This method is designed for copying data objects, such as elements of a collection. It is not intended for copying a UIComponent object, such as a TextInput control. If you want to create copies of specific UIComponent objects, you can create a subclass of the component and implement a clone() method, or other method to perform the copy.
Parameters value:Object — Object that should be copied.
Returns Object — Copy of the specified Object