gWidgets (version 0.0-25)

gWidgets-handlers: Methods to add event handlers to objects

Description

In the gWidgets API handlers are called in reponse to certain events such as keystrokes or clicks. This set of methods makes a consistent interface to some typical events. Not all handlers are defined for each widget.

Usage

addhandlerchanged(obj, handler = NULL, action = NULL, ...) 
addhandlerkeystroke(obj, handler = NULL, action = NULL, ...) 
addhandlerclicked(obj, handler = NULL, action = NULL, ...) 
addhandlerdoubleclick(obj, handler = NULL, action = NULL, ...) 
addhandlerrightclick(obj, handler = NULL, action = NULL, ...) 
addhandlerexpose(obj, handler = NULL, action = NULL, ...) 
addhandlerunrealize(obj, handler = NULL, action = NULL, ...) 
addhandlerdestroy(obj, handler = NULL, action = NULL, ...) 
addhandleridle (obj, handler = NULL, action = NULL, interval = 1000,   ...) 
addpopupmenu(obj, menulist, action=NULL, ...)
add3rdmousepopupmenu(obj, menulist, action=NULL, ...)
removehandler(obj, ID, ...)

Details

At first these handlers were all lowercase. These functions are still availabe, although the mixed case usage is encouraged In GTK, and other toolkits, an event causes a signal to be triggered and these handlers are called in response to that signal.

These signals have various names known to the GTK programmer. say. These functions attempt to shield the gWidgets user from needing to learn these signals. For gWidgetsRGtk, if these handlers prove insufficient then the non-exported addhandler function has an additional signal argument: (obj,signal,handler, action,...) for specifying a GTK signal. By avoiding this, we can make the gWidgets API non-toolkit specific.

The signals are defined to match the event described by the method name, e.g., "doubleclick."

The handlers all have signature (h,...) where the first argument is a list with components obj containing the widget the handler is added to and action containing the values passed along to the action argument. This can be used to pass in other widget's names, when they can not be found from a function closure, say.

The handlers do not have lazy evaluation. The value of action is the one at the time of creation of the widget. (See the example). In GTK, a means to cheat this is to pass in a gWidget instance, as the underlying GTK objects are stored as pointers, not copies, so that when queried, their current state is used.

addhandlerchanged:{ This handler is called when a widget is "changed." This is interpreted differently by the various widgets. For gedit change refers to a changed value, not a keystroke change (when ENTER is pressed). For notebooks, this is called when a page is changed. }

addhandlerkeystroke:{ This handler is called when keys are pressed in the text widgets. }

addhandlerclicked:{This handler is called when a widget, such as a button or label, is clicked. }

addhandlerdoubleclick:{This handler is called when a widget is doubleclicked, like in the tree widget. Not all widgets receive a double click signal. Only when a single mouse click is needed for selection is this implemented.}

addhandlerexpose:{ handler is called when a widget is exposed. For instance when a page in a notebook is exposed.}

addhandlerunrealize:{ handler is called when a widget is being unrealized.}

addhandlerdestroy:{ handler is called when a widget is being destroyed. A slight difference between the previous. }

addhandleridle:{ handler is called every so often, and can be used to update a widget's content. This method has an extra argument interval specifying the interval in milliseconds with a default of 1000 or 1 second. }

Although not handlers, the addpopupmenu method adds a popup menu to a mouse click. The popup menu is specified using a list that is passed to gmenu.

A refinement of this is the add3rdmousepopupmenu method which puts the popupmenu on the right mouse click.

See Also

gWidgets-methods

Examples

## a default handler, useful for when action is enough to
	## specify desired results

	handler.default = function(h,...) do.call(h$action,list(svalue(h$obj)))
	group = ggroup(horizontal=FALSE, container=gwindow("Click
		button"))
        button = gbutton("Click me", container=group)
	addhandlerclicked(button, handler=handler.default, action="print")


	## use two widgets, one to update the other
	group = ggroup(horizontal=FALSE, container=gwindow("two widgets"))
	button = gbutton("click me", container=group)
	label = glabel("Button has not been clicked", container=group)
	addhandlerclicked(button, handler = function(h,...) {
	svalue(h$obj) <-"click me again"
	svalue(h$action) <- "Button has been clicked"
	}, action = label)


	## lazy evaluation is not used here
	obj = 4
	gbutton("click",cont=TRUE, handler=function(h,...)
	print(h$action), action=obj)
	obj = 2
	## now click button and value of 4 will be printed, not 2

	## Whereas, if one uses a gWidget we get the same as lazy
       ## loading
       obj = gedit("4")		 
	gbutton("click",cont=TRUE, handler=function(h,...)
		print(svalue(h$action)), action=obj)
	svalue(obj) <- "2"
	## Now click and "2" is printed.