add support for persistent controls

git-svn-id: https://svn.wxwidgets.org/svn/wx/wxWidgets/trunk@58529 c3d73ce0-8a6f-49c7-b76d-6d57e0e08775

docs/doxygen/mainpages/topics.h

@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@ The following is a basic categorization of them:
 @li @subpage overview_stream
 @li @subpage overview_thread
 @li @subpage overview_config
+@li @subpage overview_persistence
 @li @subpage overview_fs
 @li @subpage overview_resyntax
 @li @subpage overview_archive

docs/doxygen/overviews/persistence.h

@@ -0,0 +1,115 @@
+/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+// Name:        docs/doxygen/overviews/persistence.h
+// Purpose:     overview of persistent objects
+// Author:      Vadim Zeitlin
+// Created:     2009-01-23
+// RCS-ID:      $Id$
+// Copyright:   (c) 2009 Vadim Zeitlin <vadim@wxwidgets.org>
+// Licence:     wxWindows license
+/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+
+/**
+
+@page overview_persistence Persistent Objects Overview
+
+Persistent objects are simply the objects which automatically save their state
+when they are destroyed and restore it when they are recreated, even during
+another program invocation.
+
+Most often, persistent objects are, in fact, persistent windows as it is
+especially convenient to automatically restore the UI state when the program is
+restarted but an object of any class can be made persistent. Moreover,
+persistence is implemented in a non-intrusive way so that the original object
+class doesn't need to be modified at all in order to add support for saving and
+restoring its properties.
+
+The persistence framework involves
+ - wxPersistenceManager which all persistent objects register themselves with.
+   This class handles actual saving and restoring of persistent data as well as
+   various global aspects of persistence, e.g. it can be used to disable
+   restoring the saved data.
+ - wxPersistentObject is the base class for all persistent objects or, rather,
+   adaptors for the persistent objects as this class main purpose is to provide
+   the bridge between the original class -- which has no special persistence
+   support -- and wxPersistenceManager,
+ - wxPersistentWindow<> which derives from wxPersistentObject and implements some
+   of its methods using wxWindow-specific functionality. Notably,
+   wxPersistenceManager handles the destruction of persistent windows
+   automatically implicitly while it has to be done explicitly for the
+   arbitrary persistent objects.
+ - wxCreatePersistentObject() function which is used to create the
+   appropriate persistence adapter for the object.
+
+
+@section persistence_using Using Persistent Windows
+
+wxWidgets has built-in support for a (constantly growing) number of controls.
+Currently the following classes are supported:
+    - wxTopLevelWindow (and hence wxFrame and wxDialog)
+    - wxBookCtrlBase, i.e. wxNotebook, wxListbook, wxToolbook and wxChoicebook
+    - wxTreebook
+
+To automatically save and restore the properties of the windows of classes
+listed above you need to
+
+    -# Set a unique name for the window using wxWindow::SetName(): this step is
+    important as the name is used in the configuration file and so must be
+    unique among all windows of the same class.
+
+    -# Call wxPersistenceManager::Register() at any moment after creating the
+    window and then wxPersistenceManager::Restore() when the settings may be
+    restored (which can't be always done immediately, e.g. often the window
+    needs to be populated first). If settings can be restored immediately after
+    the window creation, as is often the case for wxTopLevelWindow, for
+    example, then wxPersistenceManager::RegisterAndRestore() can be used to do
+    both at once.
+
+    -# If you do not want the settings for the window to be saved (for example
+    the changes to the dialog size are usually not saved if the dialog was
+    cancelled), you need to call wxPersistenceManager::Unregister() manually.
+    Otherwise the settings will be automatically saved when the control itself
+    is destroyed.
+
+Example of using a notebook control which automatically remembers the last open
+page:
+@code
+    wxNotebook *book = new wxNotebook(parent, wxID_ANY);
+    book->SetName("MyBook"); // do not use the default name
+    book->AddPage(...);
+    book->AddPage(...);
+    book->AddPage(...);
+    if ( !wxPersistenceManager::RegisterAndRestore(book) )
+    {
+        // nothing was restored, so choose the default page ourselves
+        book->SetSelection(0);
+    }
+@endcode
+
+
+@section persistence_defining Defining Custom Persistent Windows
+
+User-defined classes can be easily integrated with wxPersistenceManager. To add
+support for your custom class @c MyWidget you just need to:
+
+    -# Define a new @c MyPersistentWidget class inheriting from
+    wxPersistentWindow<MyWidget>.
+
+    -# Implement its pure virtual GetKind() method returning a unique string
+    identifying all @c MyWidget objects, typically something like @c "widget"
+
+    -# Implement its pure virtual Save() and Restore() methods to actually save
+    and restore the widget settings using wxPersistentObject::SaveValue() and
+    wxPersistentObject::RestoreValue() methods.
+
+    -# Define wxCreatePersistentObject() overload taking @c MyWidget * and
+    returning a new @c MyPersistentWidget object.
+
+If you want to add persistence support for a class not deriving from wxWindow,
+you need to derive @c MyPersistentWidget directly from wxPersistentObject and
+so implement its pure virtual wxPersistentObject::GetName() method too.
+Additionally, you must ensure that wxPersistenceManager::SaveAndUnregister() is
+called when your object is destroyed as this can be only done automatically for
+windows.
+
+ */
+