Flex app to load data before anything else - apache-flex

I have a flex app that takes data from a back end database then displays the content in one of 3 views.
These views are all in a viewstack which is instantiated in main.mxml
The method to get the data (remote object)is also in main.mxml.
The views rely on the data so how can I go about making sure that the data is loaded first before any of the views in viewstack are created / initialised to stop me having null reference errors?

When you get the data, you should have a callback function defined to receive that data (callback function is the function you put into addEventListener). You just need to call the function to create your viewstack after all your callbacks have been called.
The way I would do it is create an class field called numCallbacks. Increment this variable everytime one of your callbacks is called. Right after you increment it, check if numCallbacks == the number of callbacks you have. If true, create your view stack.

Related

Why does Firebase observeEventType return a snapshot everytime in viewWillAppear?

I have a query that is observed on viewWillAppear on View Controller A
let query = FIRDatabase.database().reference().child("tags").
queryOrdered(byChild: "users/uid").queryEqual(toValue: userId)
In the same view controller, in viewDidDisappear I remove this observer.
So let's say I push into another view controller from View Controller A.
When I come back to View Controller A, the observer returns a snapshot, even though my data on the backend hasn't changed.
I only want a snapshot returning if there's been some actual change to my database. How do I solve this problem? Thanks.
One answer is to simply let the observer do it's job and update your data in the background.
So if the user is on controllerA the observer updates a datasource (an array) so then the UI is updated from that array.
When the user switches to controllerB, the observer can still update the array, but don't update the UI in controllerA since there's no need to.
When the user switches back to A you'll have current data available so just reload the tableView (assuming iOS here) from the array.
This solution reduces the 'polling' nature and let's Firebase do the heavy lifting to notify your app when it needs to. You're just reloading the tableViews from an array when that controller becomes active.
Edit
The idea here is to add the observer once - perhaps when the view loads the first time only (viewDidLoad) or maybe in your app delegate. Once you add the observer it will update your dataSource arrays when data changes so when you move from view to view the only action needed will be to reload the tableView from the updated array.
There are times when you may want to remove an observer but it doesn't sound like you need to do that from your question. So - attach the observers once and let them update the dataSource arrays as the data changes. Reload your tableViews when switching views.
You have put the query in viewWillAppear, which means every time you come to viewController A, this query will be executed irrespective of you have removed the observer or not.
Try putting the same query in viewDidLoad which means, the query will be called once and don't remove the observer anywhere. Now the query would be called only when data gets changed in firebase.

Qt: make view to update visible data

In my program I use QTableView and QAbstractTableModel that are connected. Model doesn't contain data. When view needs data to show it calls QAbstractTableModel::data and model uses another object to get data and return. At some point data in that object is going changed. Model doesn't know what has changed so dataChanged is not called.
I need that only visible part of data (that is shown in view) goes updated. It should get new data from model. I am trying to achieve that by calling update() or repaint() functions of view but it doesn't help. I am thinking that it should call paintEvent of tableview but it is not called.
How is it possible to make view update visible part of data? I don't want to update whole data that is huge.
Your wishes brokes Qt MVC logic. But if you need workaround - you may do next call to update visible area: emit dataChanged( QModelIndex(), QModelIndex() );

flex how to refresh already created view

How can I refresh view after a certain event?
I have a view which contains multiple groups. I want to show or hide some groups.
onCreationComplete() or initialize() method works only at the beginning of the view creation.
Try invalidateDisplayList() on the view
Let me know if that doesn't do the trick and we'll try some other tricks.
I personally don't like the answer that says to call invalidateDisplayList (sorry no offense Nate nothing personal). I feel it's too vague and doesn't explain what this does under the hood and furthermore you shouldn't have to call it directly in cases such as the one explained in the OPs question. You can simply create booleans that are bindable for each of the groups you'd like to show/hide then in the event handler set those booleans to the appropriate value and if they are bound to the visible and include in layout properties of the containers those containers will internally call invalidateDisplayList after calling set visible and consequently commitProperties.
This is basically what happens under the hood as I understand it: The way this works is values aren't committed or used to update the display until the next frame this way it doesn't get bogged down doing unnecessary layout calculations. So you update the bindable property which fires an event which triggers a notification in the listener (in this case a function that sets the property on your control), that in turn passes along the value to the control which sets an internal flag to update the property and calls invalidateProperties. When it hits the next frame redraw it sees that the properties flag is dirty (true) and then calls commitProperties, this computes/sets the appropriate values (possibly also invalidating then "fixing" the size using invalidateSize() and measure()) and calls invalidateDisplayList, then during the same frame it sees that the display list flag is dirty so it calls updateDisplayList, here it uses the values of the properties to draw appropriately.
You should also be able to achieve this using states, which add or remove children from the display list based on an array of "actions" for each state.

Setting variables during component initialization in Flex

I am loading a component which makes a HTTPService call to get data that will then be used to set certain variables in the component. I make the HTTPService call in an init() function (for the initialization event) and then set the variables according to the data received in the HTTPService result handler. However, the variables are still null at both the initialize stage and at the creationComplete stage. If I try and read the variables in a creationComp() function (for the creationComplete event), those variables are still null. Is this correct?
I guess I don't understand the flex initialization cycle very well. When are those variables actually set and available to be used? I need to manipulate those variables automatically after the component loads. Is there an event that comes after creationComplete that is appropriate or some other way to approach this? I am using Flex 3.
Your understanding of the Flex component lifecycle is correct; initialize event fires before creationComplete.
However, an HTTPService call is a separate asynchronous operation. The result handler is not guaranteed to be called by the time the creationComplete event fires. You should do the manipulation of the variables in the result handler instead.
You should think about preventing the creationComplete event being dispatched from your component until the HTTPService has returned, then manually dispatch the event yourself.
That would sort out your timing issues.

Flex - Why is my custom event not being registered with the following event listener?

printableInvoice.addEventListener(batchGenerated, printableInvoice_batchGeneratedHandler);
Results in this error:
1120: Access of undefined property batchGenerated. I have tried it as FlexEvent.batchGenerated and FlashEvent.batchGenerated.
The MetaData and function that dispatches the even in the component printableInvoice is all right. It I instantiate printableInvoice as an mxml component instead of via action-script it well let put a tag into the mxml line: batchGenerated="someFunction()"
Thanks.
batchGenerated should be a string.
It looks like your application dispatches an event whenever the batch is generated.
I'm assuming inside your code you have something along the lines of either:
dispatchEvent( new BatchEvent("batchGenerated") );
or
dispatchEvent( new BatchEvent(BatchEvent.BATCH_GENERATED) );
The second way is usually preferred as using variables instead of magic strings gives you an extra level of compile time checking.
The first required parameter of events is typically the type of the event - Event.CHANGE (aka "change"), FlexEvent.VALUE_COMMIT (aka "valueCommit") etc.
This is what the event listener is actually comparing against.
So in your event listener code above, you would want to change the line to be either:
printableInvoice.addEventListener("batchGenerated", printableInvoice_batchGeneratedHandler);
or hopefully
printableInvoice.addEventListener(BatchEvent.BATCH_GENERATED, printableInvoice_batchGeneratedHandler);
If you want to go further, the Flex documentation goes into some detail as to how the event system works, and how the events are effectively targeted and handled through the use of the Capture, Target, and Bubble phases.

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