[Laszlo-dev] Fwd: interesting introspection API for AS3

[Donald Anderson]

I'd hate to change the visibility in the source, someday our js2doc
will want to take full advantage of it, and it's just the right thing  
to do.

One alternative is to have the script compiler strip private, and add  
public,
for all vars when compiling in debug mode.  That would be at a risk of  
getting
a different behavior (seems unlikely, would require some bad coding
in the LFC).

Maybe there's some way to leverage namespaces to solve this?


On Feb 11, 2008, at 2:50 AM, Henry Minsky wrote:

> I found out the describeType() function has this restriction:
>
> Note: describeType() only shows public properties and methods, and
> will not show properties and methods that are private, package
> internal or in custom namespaces.
>
>
> So if we want our debugger to really work nicely, I guess we have to
> declare all variables as public on the LFC obejcts...
>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Henry Minsky <henry.minsky at gmail.com>
> Date: Tue, Nov 15, 2005 at 2:16 PM
> Subject: interesting introspection API for AS3
> To: Platform Team <platform-team at laszlosystems.com>
>
>
>
> So they have an API for inspecting a sealed class. Haven't seen if
> there is any API for modifying it at runtime though (I am guessing
> not)
>
>
> Using the introspection API
>
> If you want to list all the public properties and methods of a
> non-dynamic (or sealed) class or class instance, use the
> describeType() method and parse the results using the E4X API. The
> describeType() method is in the flash.util package. The method's only
> parameter is the object that you want to introspect. You can pass it
> any ActionScript value, including all available ActionScript types
> such as object instances, primitive types such as uint, and class
> objects. The return value of the describeType() method is an E4X XML
> object containing an XML description of the object's type.
>
> The following example instrospects the Button control and prints the
> details to TextArea controls:
> <?xml version="1.0"?>
> <mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.macromedia.com/2005/mxml"
> creationComplete="getDetails()">
>
>
> <mx:Script>
> <![CDATA[
> import flash.util.*;
>
> public function getDetails():Void {
> // Get the Button control's E4X XML object description:
>
> var classInfo:XML = describeType(button1);
>
> // Dump the entire E4X XML object into ta2:
> ta2.text = classInfo.toString();
>
> // List the class name:
>
> ta1.text = "Class " + classInfo. at name.toString() + "\n";
>
> // List the object's variables, their values, and their types:
> for each (var v:XML in classInfo..variable) {
>
> ta1.text += "Variable " + v. at name + "=" + button1[v. at name] +
>
> " (" + v. at type + ")\n";
> }
>
> // List accessors as properties:
>
> for each (var a:XML in classInfo..accessor) {
> ta1.text += "Property " + a. at name + "=" + button1[a. at name] +
>
> " (" + a. at type +")\n";
>
> }
>
> // List the object's methods:
> for each (var m:XML in classInfo..method) {
> ta1.text += "Method " + m. at name + "():" + m. at returnType + "\n";
>
> }
> }
> ]]>
> </mx:Script>
>
> <mx:Button label="Submit" id="button1"/>
> <mx:TextArea id="ta1" width="400" height="200" />
>
> <mx:TextArea id="ta2" width="400" height="200" />
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Henry Minsky
> Software Architect
> hminsky at laszlosystems.com
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Henry Minsky
> Software Architect
> hminsky at laszlosystems.com


--

Don Anderson
Java/C/C++, Berkeley DB, systems consultant

voice: 617-547-7881
email: dda at ddanderson.com
www: http://www.ddanderson.com