Observers WhishList

Dan Rathbun · 21 Dec 2009, 10:17

Before, Styles where called Rendering Options. So look at the RenderingOptions class. You have a RenderingOptionsObserver class: http://code.google.com/intl/nb/apis/sketchup/docs/ourdoc/renderingoptionsobserver.html

OK looked at that... seems like the RenderingOptionsObserver class needs an overhaul:

Need to alias (rename) as: StyleOptionsObserver* Need to deprecate the old name.
@unknownuser said:

The type is an internal number that indicates what was changed. You will need to watch the observer for numbers you are interested in.

That is clumsy! (or lazy programming.) Ruby is a high-level language, lets have the same identifier keys as used in the RenderingOptions collection class.* RenderingOptions also needs to be aliased or renamed StyleOptions.* Need to deprecate the old name.
This only covers the onStyleEdit method I proposed in the previous post, which is actually named onRenderingOptionsChanged, however, it fails to send any detail, it only tells (by ordinal,) what options WAS changed. I think it should pass oldValue and newValue as well.

So reproposing the method as:
onStyleOptionsEdit(styleOptionsCollection, optionKeyname, oldValue, newValue)
Could still have old method that sends ordinal number, as:
onStyleOptionsChange(styleOptionsCollection, optionNum)

Need to deprecate the old name.

STILL, need as in previous post, a 'higher' level StylesObserver for triggering events when Styles are manipulated as a whole set (saved to, or loaded from files.) We can call these a StyleSet.

It is possible that those methods could go in the AppObserver rather than create a new observer class.

TIG · 21 Dec 2009, 11:07

I think you are missing a practical point - you can change a "Rendering Option" without changing the current Scene's "Style" - e.g. switching Xray-mode on won't affect the "Style" BUT it will affect what is displayed on screen [i.e. "Rendered"]. Therefore shouldn't there be two sorts of Observer - one to watch for changes to the "Rendering Options Settings" and another to watch for "Style Changes"

thomthom · 21 Dec 2009, 11:26

@tig said:

I think you are missing a practical point - you can change a "Rendering Option" without changing the current Scene's "Style" - e.g. switching Xray-mode on won't affect the "Style" BUT it will affect what is displayed on screen [i.e. "Rendered"]. Therefore shouldn't there be two sorts of Observer - one to watch for changes to the "Rendering Options Settings" and another to watch for "Style Changes"

If you enable X-Ray mode you change the current Style.

thomthom · 21 Dec 2009, 12:01

Ah. Gotcha!

TIG · 21 Dec 2009, 12:03

@thomthom said:

@tig said:

I think you are missing a practical point - you can change a "Rendering Option" without changing the current Scene's "Style" - e.g. switching Xray-mode on won't affect the "Style" BUT it will affect what is displayed on screen [i.e. "Rendered"]. Therefore shouldn't there be two sorts of Observer - one to watch for changes to the "Rendering Options Settings" and another to watch for "Style Changes"

If you enable X-Ray mode you change the current Style.

That way you don't change an existing Scene's Style per se - the current Render Settings are temporary changes in that View not the Scene's defined Style - if you change back to that Scene tab the Style should be refreshed back as it was until you save its changes - I know that Xray mode is perhaps a bad example in that it transcends Style settings.

My point is that what is being Rendered in a View and a Scene's Style are different things. One is transient, one is fixed. Changing the Style changes the Render Setting it uses, but you can change the Render Settings without changing a 'named' Style - the confusion is that changing the Render Settings makes a 'temporary' Style that is used in that View from then on until you change settings again or go back to another saved Style - you can the save this temp-style as a new Style or use it to update another already defined Style...

My point was that Styles and Render Settings are linked but different as any Style's settings are not necessarily equal to the current Render Options ?

Dan Rathbun · 21 Dec 2009, 12:12

@tig said:

Therefore shouldn't there be two sorts of Observer - one to watch for changes to the "Rendering Options Settings" and another to watch for "Style Changes"

Yes possibly. The API is WAY out of date on this subject and not very clear.

Likely that Rendering Options came first (before Scene Styles were 'invented'?)

@unknownuser said:

(in regard to Rendering Options) The majority of the rendering information returned exists in the Model Info > Display section of SketchUp
But that is no longer true!
There is no 'Display' section in the Model Info dialog in 7.x!

thomthom · 21 Dec 2009, 12:15

Don't think I've ever seen a Display section. But I've only used SU since v6.x.

Dan Rathbun · 21 Dec 2009, 12:33

@tig said:

the current Render Settings are temporary changes in that View not the Scene's defined Style - if you change back to that Scene tab the Style should be refreshed back as it was until you save its changes - I know that Xray mode is perhaps a bad example in that it transcends Style settings.

My point is that what is being Rendered in a View and a Scene's Style are different things. One is transient, one is fixed.

I don't see any difference in practice.
I have 4 scenes tabs defined and have the Style dialog open in the edit pane.

Whatever I change in the Style dialog changes on the App toolbars or menus.

Whatever I change on the menus (ie Hidden Geometery,) or toolbars (shaded, xray, wireframe etc.,) is immediately echoed in the Style dialog Edit pane.

After making changes, switching between Scenes makes no changes, however I suppose all scenes are set to the same Style.

If I purposely try to set one scene to a different style, it changes, then I switch to another scene it switches back; returning to the previous scene (which I had changed does not change the Style.) It seems there is a default Model Style.

This is confusing.

Dan Rathbun · 21 Dec 2009, 12:44

@dan rathbun said:

there is NO **Sketchup::StylesObserver**

Made a few edits to proposed methods.
see original post: StylesObserver

Dan Rathbun · 21 Dec 2009, 12:51

@thomthom said:

@whaat said:

... For example, OnEntityChanged, what constitutes a 'change'?

Yea - I spent some time on this because I was setting attributes - which seems to be a change. Not sure if I want that to trigger. At least not most of the times. attributes are like meta data.
maybe onChange for geometric changes, and onAttribChange(dict, key, oldVal, newVal) for the attribute meta data?

Do changes to an Attribute currently fire onEntityChanged events?
What about adding or deleting an attribute from a Dictionary?
What about adding or deleting a Dictionary from an Entity?

Dan Rathbun · 21 Dec 2009, 13:01

there is NO **Sketchup::StylesObserver**

But the Styles class has a few 'observer-like' methods:
Styles.update_selected_style
This method is a boolean method (which should have a '?' at the end of it's name.) The use of this method is confusing (partly as the example does not show the style being selected.)
Styles.active_style_changed
(again, should have a '?' at the end of it's name.)
This is a session boolean, changes anytime after saving; but no way to trigger an event.

Would it be better to create a StylesObserver class?
That had methods such as:
--- (edit) names changed
onStyleSetAdd(styles, newStyle)
onStyleSetCreate(styles, newStyle, fromStyle)
onStyleSetChosen(styles, oldStyle, newStyle)
--- (edit) name added
onStyleSetRename(styles, style, oldName, newName)
onStyleSetRedescribe(styles, style, oldText, newText)
onStyleSetEdited(styles, style, styleOptions, optionsChangedHash)
(for Bulk handling instead of single option handling.)

Purge methods
(as in previous post (Suggested) onBeforePurge & onAfterPurge)
onBeforePurge(styles, stylesUnusedObjectArray)
onAfterPurge(styles, removedStylesArray, purgeResult)

--- (edit) the following withdrawn
onStyleEdit(styles, style, option, oldValue, newValue)*****

probably will need to implement a "StylesOptions" OptionsProvider
-- in favor of updates to
RenderingOptionsObserver as in post:
Re: StyleOptions / StyleOptionsObserver

Dan Rathbun · 2 Jan 2010, 02:16

@dan rathbun said:

@thomthom said:

@whaat said:

... For example, OnEntityChanged, what constitutes a 'change'?

Yea - I spent some time on this because I was setting attributes - which seems to be a change. Not sure if I want that to trigger. At least not most of the times. attributes are like meta data.
maybe onChange for geometric changes, and onAttribChange(dict, key, oldVal, newVal) for the attribute meta data?

Do changes to an Attribute currently fire onEntityChanged events?
What about adding or deleting an attribute from a Dictionary?
What about adding or deleting a Dictionary from an Entity?

EDIT
I asked this because, it would lead to whether we need EntityObserver methods:
%(#BF0000)[onBeforeAttributeAdd(entity, dict, key, value)
onAfterAttributeAdd(entity, dict, key, value,]result%(#BF0000)[)
onBeforeAttributeDelete(entity, dict, key, value)
onAfterAttributeDelete(entity, dict, oldKey, oldVal,]result)
Also, ThomThom's example needs the entity handle passed.
onAttribChange(entity, dict, key, oldVal, newVal)%(#004000)[*

would assume change result was 'true' (successful)]%(#BF0000)[onBeforeDictionaryAdd(entity, newDict)
onAfterDictionaryAdd(entity, dict,]result%(#BF0000)[)
onBeforeDictionaryDelete(entity, dict)
onAfterDictionaryDelete(entity, oldDict,]result)

Also would a DictionaryObserver be necessary?
(I'd think not as most Attribute and Dictionary functions are available thru the Entity object.)

thomthom · 4 Jan 2010, 10:40

So what's the latest gossip from the Google camp on this topic?

Dan Rathbun · 6 Jan 2010, 10:52

need AppObserver.onCloseModel

@unknownuser said:

It is often used to attach other observers to each model as it is opened or started. This ensures that your observers are watching all open models.
http://code.google.com/apis/sketchup/docs/ourdoc/appobserver.html

In an MDI application (as the Mac is now, and hopefully the PC will be in upcoming versions,) there needs to be a way to detect that an MDI child window has been closed, so scripts can do cleanup, such as unattaching observers that may have been attached using onNewModel or onOpenModel.

Of course on the PC, at the current time, Sketchup is not yet an MDI application; and to close the active model, a user would either open a new model (firing the onNewModel event,) open another model from a file (firing the onOpenModel event,) OR shut down Sketchup (firing the onQuit event.)
_

Dan Rathbun · 6 Jan 2010, 14:51

_
I've noticed there does not seem to be Observers for classes:

Importer* Exporter* TextureWriter
Anyone think there's any need here?
_

thomthom · 6 Jan 2010, 15:00

Can't see any reason.
It's the changes in the model that we need to be aware of. Importer, Exporter, and TextureWriter doesn't affect the model.
..well, the importer imports geometry, but the EntitiesObserver and DefinitionObserver and InstanceObserver should take care of that.

Dan Rathbun · 12 Jan 2010, 16:56

_
Sketchup::SelectionObserver

This observer needs fixing! I would put this in the high priority group.

Per ThomThom's Observer Review "State of Observers"
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=20676&start=0#p173630

Sketchup::SelectionObserver

.onSelectionAddednever triggers
.onSelectionRemovednever triggers.

Instead,
.onSelectionBulkChangeand .onSelectionClearedalways triggers.
_

thomthom · 21 Jan 2010, 14:37

Why doesn't this observer have its own class documented as the other observers? http://code.google.com/intl/nb/apis/sketchup/docs/ourdoc/pages.html#add_frame_change_observer

Dan Rathbun · 21 Jan 2010, 19:15

FrameChangeObserver

@thomthom said:

Why doesn't this observer have its own class documented as the other observers? http://code.google.com/intl/nb/apis/sketchup/docs/ourdoc/pages.html#add_frame_change_observer

I would guess that this was a pre-version 6 observer implementation, added before they 'set a standard' in version 6 for true observer prototypes defined under the Sketchup module. And that when they did add those formally defined Observer classes in version 6, this one fell through the cracks.

I checked the Object list... and there is no observer prototype named 'FrameChangeObserver' defined.
I checked the Sketchup::Pages class for it's methods:

pages.public_methods(false).sort
["[]", "add", "add_matchphoto_page", "add_observer", "count", "each", "erase", "parent", "remove_observer", "selected_page", "selected_page=", "show_frame_at", "size", "slideshow_time"]

There are NO methods:

add_frame_change_observer* remove_frame_change_observer
This information is OBSOLETE in the API, and should be removed.

A coder (currently) would have to use the Sketchup::ViewObserver, onViewChanged method to detect when the change of view finished.

IF there is a need (for the functionality of a FrameChangeObserver,) you might propose a Sketchup::AnimationObserver class that has this callback function and perhaps others?

Jim might want to weigh in on this, as he has been working on Animation lately.

@Jim : Questions:

Would an attached AnimationObserver be expected to slow the framerates?* Would an AnimationObserver even be necessary? (As really the Animation interface, is somewhat like an observer itself. The pause, resume and stop methods act like observer callbacks.)
_

ptitjes · 29 Jan 2010, 11:25

@dan rathbun said:

_
Sketchup::SelectionObserver

This observer needs fixing! I would put this in the high priority group.

I highly second that request! SelectionObserver is broken.

@dan rathbun said:

Per ThomThom's Observer Review "State of Observers"
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=20676&start=0#p173630

Sketchup::SelectionObserver

.onSelectionAddednever triggers
.onSelectionRemovednever triggers.

Instead,
.onSelectionBulkChangeand .onSelectionClearedalways triggers.
_

Here even onSelectionCleared is not even triggered. (SU 7.1 (7.1.5803) on MacOS SnowLeaopard) This makes working on selections quite impossible and you can't do that in a right way.

Also, plugins should be loaded before any new model is created in SU. Because AppObservers are not triggered for the initial new model open when lauching sketchup.

Both those issues could be easily fixed. I don't know whether sketchup dev team is reading this forum, but please fix that!

Didier.