I have an value object in Flex which looks like:
[Bindable]
public class MyVO
{
public var a:ArrayCollection;
public var b:ArrayCollection;
private var timeSort:Sort;
public function ShiftVO(){
timeSort = new Sort();
timeSort.compareFunction = sortDates;
}
public function get times():ArrayCollection{
var ac:ArrayCollection = new ArrayCollection(a.toArray().concat(b.toArray()));
ac.sort = timeSort;
ac.refresh();
return ac;
}
It's about the getter method. I display the data of the getter in a datagrid and whenever I change some values of a or b I want to update the view as well. How do I achieve this? Currently the view doesn't update itself automatically, I have to open up the view again to see the new values.
When you make a property [Bindable], the Flex will read the getter whenever its setter is called (ie, when the property is updated); you haven't declared any setter and hence there is no way for Flex to know that the value of property has been updated.
You must define both a setter and a getter method to use the [Bindable] tag with the property. If you define just a setter method, you create a write-only property that you cannot use as the source of a data-binding expression. If you define just a getter method, you create a read-only property that you can use as the source of a data-binding expression without inserting the [Bindable] metadata tag. This is similar to the way that you can use a variable, defined by using the const keyword, as the source for a data binding expression.
May be you can define an empty setter and call it whenever you update a or b.
public function set times(ac:ArrayCollection):void { }
//somewhere else in the code:
a = someArrayCol;
/**
* this will invoke the setter which will in turn
* invoke the bindable getter and update the values
* */
times = null;
Just noticed that you're using Bindable on the class instead of the property: when you use the Bindable tag this way, it makes
usable as the source of a binding expression all public properties that you defined as variables, and all public properties that are defined by using both a setter and a getter method.
Thus, unless you define a setter, the property is not bindable even if the whole class is declared as bindable.
Related
I know an ItemRenderer is a ClassFactory and that you can use the newInstance method of ClassFactory to get an instance of the ItemRenderer. My question, however, is is it possible to use methods of the ItemRenderer without using ClassFactory.newInstance()?
In my case I can't use this newInstance method because it doesn't keep the state.
Is there any way I can do this? Thanks!
An ItemRenderer is a component, like any other. The itemRenderer property of a list based class has a value of a ClassFactory. If you have a reference to an instance of the itemRenderer component, you can call methods on it.
You cannot call a method on any component if an instance if that component instance has not been created yet. So to call a method on an itemRenderer without using ClassFactory.newInstance() you must manually create your own instance using the new keyword.
You might want to implement the ItemRenderer as smart as it is needed to recreate the state depending in the data being set. On the other hand, make sure that the data contains everything needed. You barely want to interact with the renderers in a different scope then the renderer itself.
If it should necessary, a DataGroup dispatches a RendererExistence event when a renderer is added.
private function newList():List {
const list:List = new List();
list.addEventListener(FlexEvent.INITIALIZE, list_initializeHandler);
return list;
}
private function list_initializeHandler(event:FlexEvent):void {
const listBase:ListBase = ListBase(event.target),
dataGroup:DataGroup = listBase.dataGroup;
dataGroup.addEventListener(RendererExistenceEvent.RENDERER_ADD, dataGroup_rendererAddHandler);
dataGroup.addEventListener(RendererExistenceEvent.RENDERER_REMOVE, dataGroup_rendererRemoveHandler);
}
private function dataGroup_rendererAddHandler(event:RendererExistenceEvent):void {
// renderer added
}
private function dataGroup_rendererRemoveHandler(event:RendererExistenceEvent):void {
// renderer removed
}
This is the way to go if you need to reference single item renderer instances.
Do you mean static functions and variables?
If you define a function (or variable, or const) as static, it is accessible via the class name, so you could define
class MyClass {
public static const className:String="MyClass.className (const)";
public static function getClassName():String {
return "MyClass.getClassName (function)";
}
}
trace(MyClass.className); //prints "MyClass.className (const)"
trace(MyClass.getClassName()); //prints MyClass.getClassName (function)
Since I found the webpages explaning the bindable propety quite confusing,so I would like to post my question here,which is quite simple,if I declare a variable to be bindable,does that mean whenever I changed the value of this variable in another class,all appearence of this variable will be synchronized to be the same value at the same time?
Say,if boolean variable "select" is declared to be bindable in Class A and default to be false,and we have an if statement in class A like if(select).
Then in another class,we changed the value of "select" to be true,will that if(select) statement pass the test ?
Also,how about the following setter method that is defined to be bindable:
[Bindable]
public function set isShowingAvg(b:Boolean):void
{
_isShowingAvg = b;
hasChanged();
}
Does this code imply that changing the value of _isShowingAvg is also going to be broadcasted?
Thanks in advance.
Thanks for your idea.
Declaring a property as Bindable means that when you change the value, an event will get broadcasted. This event enables data binding, but it's not necessarily automatic.
If the consuming class is MXML and you use brackets, like this:
<mx:Button enabled="{selected}" />
Then the MXML compiler will generate the appropriate binding code and anytime selected changes, enabled will also get changed.
If you're using it outside MXML then you'll either subscribe to the event to detect changes or use BindingUtils.
In your example I think you need to mark the getter [Bindable] and not the setter.
example:
public static const SHOWING_AVG_CHANGED:String = "showingAvgChangedEvent";
[Bindable(event="showingAvgChangedEvent")]
public function get isShowingAvg():Boolean
{
return _isShowingAvg;
}
public function set isShowingAvg(isShowing:Boolean):void
{
_isShowingAvg = isShowing;
dispatchEvent(new Event(SHOWING_AVG_CHANGED));
}
I have a dynamic class that I have created
public dynamic class SiteZoneFileUploadVO
{
public var destination:String = "sitezone";
public var siteZoneId:uint;
public var fileType:String;
public var fileContents:String;
public function SiteZoneFileUploadVO()
{
}
}
when I try to iterate over this object's property names it only iterates the dynamically added properties.
parameters.dynVar= "value";
for(var name:String in parameters)
{
trace(name);
}
Even though the object has all the properties equal to a value (ive checked this in the debugger) the only property name that will be traced is dynVar.
How can I iterate over all the property names and not just the dynamically added ones?
You can use describeType() to get an XML with all methods and variables of your class and then filter out the properties you want to iterate over (e.g. all variables) and store them in an XMLList.
As the next step you would then iterate over the XMLList and use square bracket notation on your object to access the filtered properties by their names. However, you can only access public properties this way because describeType() won't look at private properties.
If you're running flex:
Looked at a few posts, ObjectUtil.toString was the most promising, then looked at the flex source code for it, it uses another method ObjectUtil.getClassInfo which is exactly what you need. If you just want property names:
ObjectUtil.getClassInfo(myClass).properties
returns an Array of QName objects, each has a localName property which will give you a string for each property name
Just use trace(ObjectUtil.toString(parameters)); That should give you your entire object.
Consider the following code:
[Bindable(event="ReportHeaderVO_effectiveFromDateJulian_updated")]
public function set effectiveFromDateJulian ( value:Number ) : void
{
_effectiveFromDateJulian = value;
dispatchEvent( new FlexEvent("ReportHeaderVO_effectiveFromDateJulian_updated") );
}
public function get effectiveFromDateJulian () : Number
{
return _effectiveFromDateJulian;
}
public function get effectiveFromDate () : Date
{
return DateUtil.convertJDEJulianToDate(_effectiveFromDateJulian);
}
There is a setter and a getter for the effectiveFromDateJulian which is a number representation of the date. I have provided a seperate getter which retrieves the same value, only converted to a proper date. It is a getter only though and relies on the setter for the numeric property to get its data from; so the effectiveFromDate property is effectively read-only.
Data binding works on the effectiveFromDateJulian property; any updates work fine and notify everything properly. But when binding to the effectiveFromDate (getter only) property, I get a warning from the compiler:
warning: unable to bind to property 'effectiveToDate' on class 'com.vo::ReportHeaderVO'
Is there a way to make it possible to bind to this read-only property? I would assume I would have to dispatch an event on the setter that effects the read-only property, but I don't know what that would look like.
This is a simple example, you could imagine a read-only property that depends on several setters to function and when any of those setters are updated the read-only property would need to fire a propertyChanged event as well. Any ideas? Please let me know if I need to clarify anything.
Update:
From the Adobe documentation here:
http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/html/help.html?content=databinding_8.html
Using read-only properties as the
source for data binding
You can automatically use a read-only
property defined by a getter method,
which means no setter method, as the
source for a data-binding expression.
Flex performs the data binding once
when the application starts.
Because the data binding from a
read-only property occurs only once at
application start up, you omit the
[Bindable] metadata tag for the
read-only property.
And this makes sense for constant values, but in this case the value does change, it just doesn't get set directly.
Make the readonly getter Bindable and dispatch the corresponding event from the original setter method.
[Bindable(event="ReportHeaderVO_effectiveFromDateJulian_updated")]
public function set effectiveFromDateJulian ( value:Number ) : void
{
_effectiveFromDateJulian = value;
dispatchEvent( new FlexEvent("ReportHeaderVO_effectiveFromDateJulian_updated") );
dispatchEvent( new FlexEvent("ReportHeaderVO_effectiveFromDate_updated") );
}
[Bindable(event="ReportHeaderVO_effectiveFromDate_updated")]
public function get effectiveFromDate (date:Date) : Date
{
return DateUtil.convertJDEJulianToDate(_effectiveFromDateJulian);
}
I have an actionscript class called Dimension, which allows a client to specify a dimension using a value and a unit such as "CM" or "Inches". I want to use an instance of this class as a property in MXML, so a user can write
<DimensionView value="2cm"/>
How do I make "2cm" an accepted string value for Dimension? I assume I need to write a parser method on my Dimension class, but I can't work out which interface I should be implementing to provide this functionality.
Can anyone help?
One option is to just type the value property as a String, write a getter and a setter for it and do the parsing there:
/**
* docs here
*/
[Bindable(event="valueChanged")]
public function get value():String
{
return _valueInt.toString();
}
/**
* #private
*/
public function set value(aVal:String):void
{
// parse the aVal String to an int (or whatever) here
_valueInt = parsed_aVal;
dispatchEvent(new Event("valueChanged"));
}
On a related note, the framework components implement the feature of allowing for the usage of percentage signs in some sizing properties, when assigned in MXML, by using an undocumented metadata field called PercentProxy. The below example is the width property getter and setter from mx.core.UIComponent:
[Bindable("widthChanged")]
[Inspectable(category="General")]
[PercentProxy("percentWidth")]
override public function get width():Number
{
// --snip snip--
}
override public function set width(value:Number):void
{
// --snip snip--
}