issue: setting a property in the desiger

[eyal]

I am creating a composite that is made up of 4 labels. I added a method to the composite that takes in a data object that and then sets the labels according to the values of that object.

by default, the designer creates all objects as final and private to the constructor of the composite, so I changed that and made the labels global variables.

Code: Select all

public class ItemViewer extends Composite {
   
   final Label subjectLabel;
   final Label summaryLabel;
   final Label dateLabel;
   final Label contentLabel;

   public ItemViewer() {

      final Grid grid = new Grid(4, 1);
      initWidget(grid);

      subjectLabel = new Label();
      grid.setWidget(0, 0, subjectLabel);
      grid.getCellFormatter().setHeight(0, 0, "40");
      grid.getCellFormatter().setVerticalAlignment(0, 0, HasVerticalAlignment.ALIGN_TOP);

      summaryLabel = new Label();
      grid.setWidget(2, 0, summaryLabel);
      grid.getCellFormatter().setHeight(2, 0, "40");
      summaryLabel.setStyleName("shark-SummaryLabel");

      dateLabel = new Label();
      grid.setWidget(1, 0, dateLabel);
      grid.getCellFormatter().setHeight(1, 0, "40");

      contentLabel = new Label();
      grid.setWidget(3, 0, contentLabel);
      grid.getCellFormatter().setVerticalAlignment(3, 0, HasVerticalAlignment.ALIGN_TOP);
   }
   
   
   public void setItem(NewsItem item) {
      
      subjectLabel.setText(item.getSummary());
      summaryLabel.setText(item.getSummary());
      dateLabel.setText(item.getNewsDate().toLocaleString());
      contentLabel.setText(item.getText());
      
   }

}


now, if I go back to the designer and change the text property of subjectLabel, the app will actually overwrite my setText call in setItem().

let me know if more information is needed. A good solution for this might be to add your own init method that should not be touched by users (similar to what MS is doing in Visual Studio, and Borland does in JBuilder).

[Eric Clayberg]

by default, the designer creates all objects as final and private to the constructor of the composite, so I changed that and made the labels global variables.

You can have widgets generated as local variables or fields depending on your code generation preferences.

You can either have every widget generated as a field by turning on the Create every component as a field by default preference, or you can control it on a type-by-type basis using the Type Specific preferences.



You can also convert local variables to fields and back again using the Local to Field button.

if I go back to the designer and change the text property of subjectLabel, the app will actually overwrite my setText call in setItem().

You can hide any code from the Designer parser by using code hiding tags like this...

Code: Select all

   public void setItem(NewsItem item) {
      //$hide>>$
      subjectLabel.setText(item.getSummary());
      summaryLabel.setText(item.getSummary());
      dateLabel.setText(item.getNewsDate().toLocaleString());
      contentLabel.setText(item.getText());
      //$hide<<$
   }



See the Designer > Code Generation > Code Parsing preferences...

A good solution for this might be to add your own init method that should not be touched by users (similar to what MS is doing in Visual Studio, and Borland does in JBuilder).

That would be far too restrictive for msot users. Designer is a true bi-directional code generation tool which allows the user to work equally well in the design view or source view.

One of its primary features is that is doesn't have any restricted code blocks that you can't touch.