NAME
UI::Various::container - abstract container class for UI elements
SYNOPSIS
# This module should never be used directly!
# It is used indirectly via the following:
use UI::Various::...;
ABSTRACT
This module is the common abstract container class for all kinds UI elements that may contain other UI elements (e.g. UI::Various::Window
, UI::Various::Dialog
or UI::Various::Box
).
DESCRIPTION
The documentation of this module is mainly intended for developers of the package itself.
All container classes share the following common attributes (inherited from UI::Various::container
):
Attributes
- children [private]
-
a list with the children of the container UI element, which must not be directly accessed (use
child
for access and iteration, usechildren
to get their quantity and useadd
andremove
for manipulation)
METHODS
Besides the common methods inherited from UI::Various::widget
the following additional ones are available in all UI::Various::[A-Z]*
container classes (UI elements containing other UI elements):
new - constructor
see UI::Various::core::construct
add - add new children
$ui_container->add($other_ui_element, ...);
example:
$self->add($that);
$self->add($foo, $bar);
parameters:
$other_ui_element one ore more UI elements to be added to container
description:
This method adds new children to a container element. Note that children already having a parent are removed from their old parent first.
returns:
number of elements added
remove - remove children
$ui_container->remove($other_ui_element, ...);
example:
$self->remove($that);
$self->remove($foo, $bar);
parameters:
$other_ui_element one ore more UI elements to be removed from container
description:
This method removes children from a container element.
returns:
the last node that has been removed or undef
if nothing could be removed
children - return number of children
$_ = $ui_container->children;
description:
This method returns the number of children a container element has.
returns:
number of children
child - access children or iterate through them
$ui_element = $ui_container->child($index);
$ui_element = $ui_container->child();
$ui_container->child(undef);
example:
$ui_element = $self->child(0);
while ($_ = $self->child())
{
...
if ($abort)
{
$self->child(undef);
last;
}
...
}
parameters:
$index optional index for direct access,
C<undef> for reset of iterator
description:
When called with a (positive or negative) numeric index this method returns the container's element at that index. When called without parameter this method iterates over all elements until the end, when it returns undef
and automatically resets the iterator. Calling the method with an explicit undef
resets the iterator before it reaches the end. An empty string instead of undef
is also possible to allow avoiding Perl bugs #7508 and #109726 in Perl versions prior to 5.20.
Note that removing takes care of keeping the index valid, so it's perfectly possible to use a loop to remove some or all children of a container.
Note that each container object can only have one active iterator at any time.
returns:
element at index or iterator, or undef
if not existing or at end of iteration
SEE ALSO
LICENSE
Copyright (C) Thomas Dorner.
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. See LICENSE file for more details.
AUTHOR
Thomas Dorner <dorner@cpan.org>