com.sun.rave.designtime
Interface DesignInfo

All Superinterfaces:

DesignBeanListener, java.util.EventListener

All Known Subinterfaces:

MarkupDesignInfo

All Known Implementing Classes:

BasicDesignInfo

public interface DesignInfo

extends DesignBeanListener

The DesignInfo interface is another type of BeanInfo interface to provide more live design- time functionality for a JavaBean. BeanInfo represents static meta-data about a JavaBean, while DesignInfo provides dynamic design-time behavior.

To provide a DesignInfo for a JavaBean, a component author must provide an implementation of the DesignInfo interface available at design-time that matches the name of the JavaBean class with "DesignInfo" appended to it.

For example, a component author may supply a JavaBean class named 'com.company.Donkey', and may also supply a corresponding 'com.company.DonkeyBeanInfo' (implements BeanInfo) as well as 'com.company.DonkeyDesignInfo' (implements DesignInfo). Note that these cannot be the same class, as there is no gaurantee that the supplied BeanInfo class will be the same instance that is used in the designer - typically, a BeanInfo class is 'deep-copied' into another instance inside of an IDE.

IMPLEMENTED BY THE COMPONENT AUTHOR - This interface is designed to be implemented by the component (bean) author. BasicDesignInfo is supplied for convenience for subclassing.

Version:

1.0

Author:

Joe Nuxoll

See Also:

BasicDesignInfo

Method Summary

Result	beanCreatedSetup(DesignBean designBean) Provides an opportunity for a DesignInfo to setup the initial state of a newly created bean.
Result	beanDeletedCleanup(DesignBean designBean) Provides an opportunity for a DesignInfo to cleanup just before a bean gets deleted.
Result	beanPastedSetup(DesignBean designBean) Provides an opportunity for a DesignInfo to fix-up the state of a pasted bean.
boolean	canLinkBeans(DesignBean targetBean, DesignBean sourceBean, java.lang.Class sourceClass) This method is called when an object from a design surface or palette is being dragged 'over' a JavaBean type handled by this DesignInfo.
java.lang.Class	getBeanClass() Returns the class type of the JavaBean that this DesignInfo was designed to work with
DisplayAction[]	getContextItems(DesignBean designBean) Returns the list (or hierarchy) of items to be included in a right-click context menu for this bean at design-time.
Result	linkBeans(DesignBean targetBean, DesignBean sourceBean) This method is called when an object from a design surface or palette has been dropped 'on' a JavaBean type handled by this DesignInfo (to establish a link).

Methods inherited from interface com.sun.rave.designtime.DesignBeanListener

beanChanged, beanContextActivated, beanContextDeactivated, eventChanged, propertyChanged

Method Detail

beanCreatedSetup

public Result beanCreatedSetup(DesignBean designBean)

Provides an opportunity for a DesignInfo to setup the initial state of a newly created bean. Anything can be done here, including property settings, event hooks, and even the creation of other ancillary beans within the context. Note that this method is only called once after the component has been first created from the palette.

Parameters:

designBean - The bean that was just created

Returns:

A Result object, indicating success or failure and including messages for the user

beanDeletedCleanup

public Result beanDeletedCleanup(DesignBean designBean)

Provides an opportunity for a DesignInfo to cleanup just before a bean gets deleted. Anything can be done here, including property settings, event hooks, and even the creation/deletion of other ancillary beans within the context. Note, however, that this DesignBean will be deleted immediately upon the return of this method. This is intended for cleanup of ancillary items created in 'beanCreated'.

Parameters:

designBean - The bean that is about to be deleted

Returns:

A Result object, indicating success or failure and including messages for the user

beanPastedSetup

public Result beanPastedSetup(DesignBean designBean)

Provides an opportunity for a DesignInfo to fix-up the state of a pasted bean. Anything can be done here, including property settings, event hooks, and even the creation of other ancillary beans within the context.

Parameters:

designBean - The bean that was just pasted from the clipboard

Returns:

A Result object, indicating success or failure and including messages for the user

canLinkBeans

public boolean canLinkBeans(DesignBean targetBean,
                            DesignBean sourceBean,
                            java.lang.Class sourceClass)

This method is called when an object from a design surface or palette is being dragged 'over' a JavaBean type handled by this DesignInfo. If the 'sourceBean' or 'sourceClass' is of interest to the 'targetBean' instance (they can be "linked"), this method should return true. The user will then be presented with visual cues that this is an appropriate place to 'drop' the item and establish a link. If the user decides to drop the item on this targetBean, the 'linkBeans' method will be called. Note that the 'sourceBean' argument may be null if this drag operation is originating from the palette, because an instance of the bean will not have been created yet.

Parameters:

targetBean - The DesignBean instance that the user is 'hovering' the mouse over

sourceBean - The DesignBean instance that the user may potentially 'drop' to link - may be null if this drag operation originated from the palette, because the instance will not have been created yet

sourceClass - The class type of the object that the user may potentially 'drop' to link

Returns:

true if the 'targetBean' cares to have the 'sourceBean' or an instance of type 'sourceClass' linked to it, false if not

See Also:

linkBeans(DesignBean, DesignBean)

getBeanClass

public java.lang.Class getBeanClass()

Returns the class type of the JavaBean that this DesignInfo was designed to work with

Returns:

The JavaBean's class type object

getContextItems

public DisplayAction[] getContextItems(DesignBean designBean)

Returns the list (or hierarchy) of items to be included in a right-click context menu for this bean at design-time.

Parameters:

designBean - The DesignBean that a user has right-clicked on

Returns:

An array of DisplayAction objects representing a context menu to display to the user

linkBeans

public Result linkBeans(DesignBean targetBean,
                        DesignBean sourceBean)

This method is called when an object from a design surface or palette has been dropped 'on' a JavaBean type handled by this DesignInfo (to establish a link). This method will not be called unless the corresponding 'canLinkBeans' method call returned true. Typically, this results in property settings on potentially both of the DesignBean objects.

Parameters:

targetBean - The target DesignBean instance that the user has 'dropped' an object onto to establish a link

sourceBean - The DesignBean instance that has been 'dropped'

Returns:

A Result object, indicating success or failure and including messages for the user

See Also:

canLinkBeans(DesignBean, DesignBean, Class)