Binding

Object Hierarchy:

Description:

[ CCode ( type_id = "G_TYPE_BINDING" ) ]
[ Version ( since = "2.26" ) ]
public class Binding : Object

Binding is the representation of a binding between a property on a Object instance (or source) and another property on another Object instance (or target) .

Whenever the source property changes, the same value is applied to the target property; for instance, the following binding:

	g_object_bind_property (object1, "property-a",
													object2, "property-b",
													G_BINDING_DEFAULT);

will cause the property named "property-b" of object2 to be updated every time @set or the specific accessor changes the value of the property "property-a" of object1.

It is possible to create a bidirectional binding between two properties of two Object instances, so that if either property changes, the other is updated as well, for instance:

	g_object_bind_property (object1, "property-a",
													object2, "property-b",
													G_BINDING_BIDIRECTIONAL);

will keep the two properties in sync.

It is also possible to set a custom transformation function (in both directions, in case of a bidirectional binding) to apply a custom transformation from the source value to the target value before applying it; for instance, the following binding:

	g_object_bind_property_full (adjustment1, "value",
															 adjustment2, "value",
															 G_BINDING_BIDIRECTIONAL,
															 celsius_to_fahrenheit,
															 fahrenheit_to_celsius,
															 NULL, NULL);

will keep the "value" property of the two adjustments in sync; the celsius_to_fahrenheit function will be called whenever the "value" property of adjustment1 changes and will transform the current value of the property before applying it to the "value" property of adjustment2.

Vice versa, the fahrenheit_to_celsius function will be called whenever the "value" property of adjustment2 changes, and will transform the current value of the property before applying it to the "value" property of adjustment1.

Note that Binding does not resolve cycles by itself; a cycle like

	object1:propertyA -> object2:propertyB
	object2:propertyB -> object3:propertyC
	object3:propertyC -> object1:propertyA

might lead to an infinite loop. The loop, in this particular case, can be avoided if the objects emit the notify signal only if the value has effectively been changed. A binding is implemented using the notify signal, so it is susceptible to all the various ways of blocking a signal emission, like stop_emission or block.

A binding will be severed, and the resources it allocates freed, whenever either one of the Object instances it refers to are finalized, or when the Binding instance loses its last reference.

Bindings for languages with garbage collection can use unbind to explicitly release a binding between the source and target properties, instead of relying on the last reference on the binding, source, and target instances to drop.

Binding is available since GObject 2.26

Example: Property bindings:

public class ObjectA : Object {
	public int property_a { get; set; }
	public int property_b { get; set; }
	public int property_c { get; set; }
	public bool property_d { get; set; }
	public int property_e { get; set; }
}

public class ObjectB : Object {
	public int property_a { get; set; }
	public int property_b { get; set; }
	public int property_c { get; set; }
	public bool property_d { get; set; }
	public int property_e { get; set; }
}

public static int main (string[] args) {
	// Objects:
	ObjectA obja = new ObjectA ();
	ObjectB objb = new ObjectB ();


	//
	// BindingFlags.DEFAULT:
	//

	print ("BindingFlags.DEFAULT:\n");

	obja.property_a = 50;
	objb.property_a = 60;

	obja.bind_property ("property-a", objb, "property-a", BindingFlags.DEFAULT);

	// Output: ``50 - 60``
	print (" %d - %d\n", obja.property_a, objb.property_a);

	// Output: ``10 - 10``
	obja.property_a = 10;
	print (" %d - %d\n", obja.property_a, objb.property_a);

	// Output: ``10 - 15``
	objb.property_a = 15;
	print (" %d - %d\n", obja.property_a, objb.property_a);


	//
	// BindingFlags.BIDIRECTIONAL:
	//

	print ("BindingFlags.BIDIRECTIONAL:\n");

	obja.property_b = 50;
	objb.property_b = 60;

	obja.bind_property ("property-b", objb, "property-b", BindingFlags.BIDIRECTIONAL);

	// Output: ``50 - 60``
	print (" %d - %d\n", obja.property_b, objb.property_b);

	// Output: ``10 - 10``
	obja.property_b = 10;
	print (" %d - %d\n", obja.property_b, objb.property_b);

	// Output: ``15 - 15``
	objb.property_b = 15;
	print (" %d - %d\n", obja.property_b, objb.property_b);


	//
	// BindingFlags.SYNC_CREATE | BindingFlags.BIDIRECTIONAL:
	//

	print ("BindingFlags.SYNC_CREATE | BindingFlags.BIDIRECTIONAL:\n");

	obja.property_c = 50;
	objb.property_c = 60;

	obja.bind_property ("property-c", objb, "property-c", BindingFlags.SYNC_CREATE | BindingFlags.BIDIRECTIONAL);

	// Output: ``50 - 50``
	print (" %d - %d\n", obja.property_c, objb.property_c);

	// Output: ``10 - 10``
	obja.property_c = 10;
	print (" %d - %d\n", obja.property_c, objb.property_c);

	// Output: ``20 - 20``
	objb.property_c = 20;
	print (" %d - %d\n", obja.property_c, objb.property_c);


	//
	// BindingFlags.INVERT_BOOLEAN:
	//

	print ("BindingFlags.INVERT_BOOLEAN:\n");

	obja.property_d = false;
	objb.property_d = true;

	obja.bind_property ("property-d", objb, "property-d", BindingFlags.INVERT_BOOLEAN);

	// Output: ``true - false``
	obja.property_d = true;
	print (" %s - %s\n", obja.property_d.to_string (), objb.property_d.to_string ());

	// Output: ``false - true``
	obja.property_d = false;
	print (" %s - %s\n", obja.property_d.to_string (), objb.property_d.to_string ());


	//
	// Transformer:
	//

	print ("Transformer:\n");

	obja.bind_property ("property-e", objb, "property-e", BindingFlags.SYNC_CREATE | BindingFlags.BIDIRECTIONAL, (binding, srcval, ref targetval) => {
		int src = (int) srcval;
		targetval.set_int (src * 2);
		return true;
	}, (binding, srcval, ref targetval) => {
		int src = (int) srcval;
		targetval.set_int (src / 2);
		return true;
	});


	obja.property_e = 50;
	objb.property_e = 60;

	// Output: ``30 - 60``
	print (" %d - %d\n", obja.property_e, objb.property_e);

	// Output: ``10 - 20``
	obja.property_e = 10;
	print (" %d - %d\n", obja.property_e, objb.property_e);

	// Output: ``20 - 40``
	objb.property_e = 40;
	print (" %d - %d\n", obja.property_e, objb.property_e);

	return 0;
}

valac --pkg gobject-2.0 GLib.Object.bind_property.vala

Namespace: GLib

Package: gobject-2.0

Content:

Properties:

public BindingFlags flags { get; construct; }
Flags to be used to control the Binding
public Object source { get; construct; }
The Object that should be used as the source of the binding
public string source_property { get; construct; }
The name of the property of source that should be used as the source of the binding.
public Object target { get; construct; }
The Object that should be used as the target of the binding
public string target_property { get; construct; }
The name of the property of target that should be used as the target of the binding.

Methods:

public Object? dup_source ()
Retrieves the Object instance used as the source of the binding.
public Object? dup_target ()
Retrieves the Object instance used as the target of the binding.
public BindingFlags get_flags ()
Retrieves the flags passed when constructing the Binding.
public unowned Object get_source ()
Retrieves the Object instance used as the source of the binding.
public unowned string get_source_property ()
Retrieves the name of the property of source used as the source of the binding.
public unowned Object get_target ()
Retrieves the Object instance used as the target of the binding.
public unowned string get_target_property ()
Retrieves the name of the property of target used as the target of the binding.
public void unbind ()
Explicitly releases the binding between the source and the target property expressed by this.

Inherited Members:

All known members inherited from class GLib.Object