State of Observers ?

[oajfh]

Hi all.

A feature I've been thinking about in a project is synchronising an item in SU with another item in another program.

Sending information to and from isn't a problem. What I'm curious about is the Observers I should use.

Since no Observer (as far as I've seen) keeps directly track of entity positions or orientations, one way I could think of that'd enable me to do so would be by combining a Tool Observer (OnButtonUp and OnButtonDown) and an EntityObserver (OnEntityChange), and making sure the right tool is selected. That way I could send a transformation information whenever the user completes a move, scale or rotate action.

Does this seem like the most natural way to you ? Are there any latent bugs (seems like Observers have had problems in past versions, I can't seem to find more recent information) or potential problems to this approach (I've read up on a few common pitfalls but don't know much more) ?

[Dan Rathbun]

@oajfh said:

...Tool Observer (OnButtonUp and OnButtonDown) ...

There is not a ToolObserver class in the API.

The onButton.. callbacks are part of the abstract Tool class, not an observer class.

@oajfh said:

... and an EntityObserver (OnEntityChange), ...

Write a quick test observer and see if it fires when you move an object.

@oajfh said:

Does this seem like the most natural way to you ? Are there any latent bugs (seems like Observers have had problems in past versions, I can't seem to find more recent information) or potential problems to this approach (I've read up on a few common pitfalls but don't know much more) ?

Welcome the foggy world of SketchUp API Dcoumentation. Where nothing is really certain, and all are kept in limbo.