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872 lines
36 KiB
C++
872 lines
36 KiB
C++
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
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// Name: eventhandling.h
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// Purpose: topic overview
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// Author: wxWidgets team
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// Licence: wxWindows licence
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/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
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/**
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@page overview_events Events and Event Handling
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@tableofcontents
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Like with all the other GUI frameworks, the control of flow in wxWidgets
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applications is event-based: the program normally performs most of its actions
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in response to the events generated by the user. These events can be triggered
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by using the input devices (such as keyboard, mouse, joystick) directly or,
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more commonly, by a standard control which synthesizes such input events into
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higher level events: for example, a wxButton can generate a click event when
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the user presses the left mouse button on it and then releases it without
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pressing @c Esc in the meanwhile. There are also events which don't directly
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correspond to the user actions, such as wxTimerEvent or wxSocketEvent.
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But in all cases wxWidgets represents these events in a uniform way and allows
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you to handle them in the same way wherever they originate from. And while the
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events are normally generated by wxWidgets itself, you can also do this, which
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is especially useful when using custom events (see @ref overview_events_custom).
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To be more precise, each event is described by:
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- <em>Event type</em>: this is simply a value of type wxEventType which
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uniquely identifies the type of the event. For example, clicking on a button,
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selecting an item from a list box and pressing a key on the keyboard all
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generate events with different event types.
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- <em>Event class</em> carried by the event: each event has some information
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associated with it and this data is represented by an object of a class
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derived from wxEvent. Events of different types can use the same event class,
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for example both button click and listbox selection events use wxCommandEvent
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class (as do all the other simple control events), but the key press event
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uses wxKeyEvent as the information associated with it is different.
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- <em>Event source</em>: wxEvent stores the object which generated the event
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and, for windows, its identifier (see @ref overview_events_winid). As it is
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common to have more than one object generating events of the same type (e.g. a
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typical window contains several buttons, all generating the same button click
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event), checking the event source object or its id allows to distinguish
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between them.
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@see wxEvtHandler, wxWindow, wxEvent
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@section overview_events_eventhandling Event Handling
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There are two principal ways to handle events in wxWidgets. One of them uses
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<em>event table</em> macros and allows you to define the binding between events
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and their handlers only statically, i.e., during program compilation. The other
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one uses wxEvtHandler::Bind<>() call and can be used to bind and
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unbind, the handlers dynamically, i.e. during run-time depending on some
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conditions. It also allows the direct binding of events to:
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@li A handler method in another object.
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@li An ordinary function like a static method or a global function.
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@li An arbitrary functor like boost::function<>.
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The static event tables can only handle events in the object where they are
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defined so using Bind<>() is more flexible than using the event tables. On the
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other hand, event tables are more succinct and centralize all event handler
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bindings in one place. You can either choose a single approach that you find
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preferable or freely combine both methods in your program in different classes
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or even in one and the same class, although this is probably sufficiently
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confusing to be a bad idea.
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Also notice that most of the existing wxWidgets tutorials and discussions use
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the event tables because they historically preceded the apparition of dynamic
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event handling in wxWidgets. But this absolutely doesn't mean that using the
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event tables is the preferred way: handling events dynamically is better in
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several aspects and you should strongly consider doing it if you are just
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starting with wxWidgets. On the other hand, you still need to know about the
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event tables if only because you are going to see them in many samples and
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examples.
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So before you make the choice between static event tables and dynamically
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connecting the event handlers, let us discuss these two ways in more detail. In
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the next section we provide a short introduction to handling the events using
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the event tables. Please see @ref overview_events_bind for the discussion of
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Bind<>().
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@subsection overview_events_eventtables Event Handling with Event Tables
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To use an <em>event table</em> you must first decide in which class you wish to
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handle the events. The only requirement imposed by wxWidgets is that this class
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must derive from wxEvtHandler and so, considering that wxWindow derives from
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it, any classes representing windows can handle events. Simple events such as
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menu commands are usually processed at the level of a top-level window
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containing the menu, so let's suppose that you need to handle some events in @c
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MyFrame class deriving from wxFrame.
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First define one or more <em>event handlers</em>. They
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are just simple methods of the class that take as a parameter a
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reference to an object of a wxEvent-derived class and have no return value (any
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return information is passed via the argument, which is why it is non-const).
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You also need to insert a macro
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@code
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wxDECLARE_EVENT_TABLE()
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@endcode
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somewhere in the class declaration. It doesn't matter where it appears but
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it's customary to put it at the end because the macro changes the access
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type internally so it's safest if nothing follows it. The
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full class declaration might look like this:
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@code
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class MyFrame : public wxFrame
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{
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public:
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MyFrame(...) : wxFrame(...) { }
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...
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protected:
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int m_whatever;
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private:
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// Notice that as the event handlers normally are not called from outside
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// the class, they normally are private. In particular they don't need
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// to be public.
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void OnExit(wxCommandEvent& event);
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void OnButton1(wxCommandEvent& event);
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void OnSize(wxSizeEvent& event);
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// it's common to call the event handlers OnSomething() but there is no
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// obligation to do that; this one is an event handler too:
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void DoTest(wxCommandEvent& event);
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wxDECLARE_EVENT_TABLE()
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};
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@endcode
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Next the event table must be defined and, as with any definition, it must be
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placed in an implementation file. The event table tells wxWidgets how to map
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events to member functions and in our example it could look like this:
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@code
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wxBEGIN_EVENT_TABLE(MyFrame, wxFrame)
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EVT_MENU(wxID_EXIT, MyFrame::OnExit)
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EVT_MENU(DO_TEST, MyFrame::DoTest)
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EVT_SIZE(MyFrame::OnSize)
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EVT_BUTTON(BUTTON1, MyFrame::OnButton1)
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wxEND_EVENT_TABLE()
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@endcode
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Notice that you must mention a method you want to use for the event handling in
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the event table definition; just defining it in MyFrame class is @e not enough.
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Let us now look at the details of this definition: the first line means that we
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are defining the event table for MyFrame class and that its base class is
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wxFrame, so events not processed by MyFrame will, by default, be handled by
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wxFrame. The next four lines define bindings of individual events to their
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handlers: the first two of them map menu commands from the items with the
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identifiers specified as the first macro parameter to two different member
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functions. In the next one, @c EVT_SIZE means that any changes in the size of
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the frame will result in calling OnSize() method. Note that this macro doesn't
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need a window identifier, since normally you are only interested in the current
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window's size events.
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The @c EVT_BUTTON macro demonstrates that the originating event does not have to
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come from the window class implementing the event table -- if the event source
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is a button within a panel within a frame, this will still work, because event
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tables are searched up through the hierarchy of windows for the command events.
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(But only command events, so you can't catch mouse move events in a child
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control in the parent window in the same way because wxMouseEvent doesn't
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derive from wxCommandEvent. See below for how you can do it.) In this case, the
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button's event table will be searched, then the parent panel's, then the
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frame's.
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Finally, you need to implement the event handlers. As mentioned before, all
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event handlers take a wxEvent-derived argument whose exact class differs
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according to the type of event and the class of the originating window. For
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size events, wxSizeEvent is used. For menu commands and most control commands
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(such as button presses), wxCommandEvent is used. When controls get more
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complicated, more specific wxCommandEvent-derived event classes providing
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additional control-specific information can be used, such as wxTreeEvent for
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events from wxTreeCtrl windows.
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In the simplest possible case an event handler may not use the @c event
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parameter at all. For example,
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@code
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void MyFrame::OnExit(wxCommandEvent& WXUNUSED(event))
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{
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// when the user selects "Exit" from the menu we should close
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Close(true);
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}
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@endcode
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In other cases you may need some information carried by the @c event argument,
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as in:
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@code
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void MyFrame::OnSize(wxSizeEvent& event)
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{
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wxSize size = event.GetSize();
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... update the frame using the new size ...
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}
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@endcode
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You will find the details about the event table macros and the corresponding
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wxEvent-derived classes in the discussion of each control generating these
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events.
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@subsection overview_events_bind Dynamic Event Handling
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@see @ref overview_cpp_rtti_disabled
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The possibilities of handling events in this way are rather different.
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Let us start by looking at the syntax: the first obvious difference is that you
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need not use wxDECLARE_EVENT_TABLE() nor wxBEGIN_EVENT_TABLE() and the
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associated macros. Instead, in any place in your code, but usually in
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the code of the class defining the handler itself (and definitely not in the
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global scope as with the event tables), call its Bind<>() method like this:
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@code
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MyFrame::MyFrame(...)
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{
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Bind(wxEVT_COMMAND_MENU_SELECTED, &MyFrame::OnExit, this, wxID_EXIT);
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}
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@endcode
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Note that @c this pointer must be specified here.
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Now let us describe the semantic differences:
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<ul>
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<li>
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Event handlers can be bound at any moment. For example, it's possible
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to do some initialization first and only bind the handlers if and when
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it succeeds. This can avoid the need to test that the object was properly
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initialized in the event handlers themselves. With Bind<>() they
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simply won't be called if it wasn't correctly initialized.
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</li>
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<li>
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As a slight extension of the above, the handlers can also be unbound at
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any time with Unbind<>() (and maybe rebound later). Of course,
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it's also possible to emulate this behaviour with the classic
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static (i.e., bound via event tables) handlers by using an internal
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flag indicating whether the handler is currently enabled and returning
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from it if it isn't, but using dynamically bind handlers requires
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less code and is also usually more clear.
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</li>
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<li>
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Almost last but very, very far from least is the increased flexibility
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which allows to bind an event to:
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@li A method in another object.
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@li An ordinary function like a static method or a global function.
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@li An arbitrary functor like boost::function<>.
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This is impossible to do with the event tables because it is not
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possible to specify these handlers to dispatch the event to, so it
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necessarily needs to be sent to the same object which generated the
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event. Not so with Bind<>() which can be used to specify these handlers
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which will handle the event. To give a quick example, a common question
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is how to receive the mouse movement events happening when the mouse is
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in one of the frame children in the frame itself. Doing it in a naive
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way doesn't work:
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<ul>
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<li>
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A @c EVT_LEAVE_WINDOW(MyFrame::OnMouseLeave) line in the frame
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event table has no effect as mouse move (including entering and
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leaving) events are not propagated up to the parent window
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(at least not by default).
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</li>
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<li>
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Putting the same line in a child event table will crash during
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run-time because the MyFrame method will be called on a wrong
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object -- it's easy to convince oneself that the only object
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that can be used here is the pointer to the child, as
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wxWidgets has nothing else. But calling a frame method with the
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child window pointer instead of the pointer to the frame is, of
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course, disastrous.
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</li>
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</ul>
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However writing
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@code
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MyFrame::MyFrame(...)
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{
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m_child->Bind(wxEVT_LEAVE_WINDOW, &MyFrame::OnMouseLeave, this);
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}
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@endcode
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will work exactly as expected. Note that you can get the object that
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generated the event -- and that is not the same as the frame -- via
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wxEvent::GetEventObject() method of @c event argument passed to the
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event handler.
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</li>
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<li>
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Really last point is the consequence of the previous one: because of
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increased flexibility of Bind(), it is also safer as it is impossible
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to accidentally use a method of another class. Instead of run-time
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crashes you will get compilation errors in this case when using Bind().
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</li>
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</ul>
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Let us now look at more examples of how to use different event handlers using
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the two overloads of Bind() function: first one for the object methods and the
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other one for arbitrary functors (callable objects, including simple functions):
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In addition to using a method of the object generating the event itself, you
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can use a method from a completely different object as an event handler:
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@code
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void MyFrameHandler::OnFrameExit( wxCommandEvent & )
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{
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// Do something useful.
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}
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MyFrameHandler myFrameHandler;
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MyFrame::MyFrame()
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{
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Bind( wxEVT_COMMAND_MENU_SELECTED, &MyFrameHandler::OnFrameExit,
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&myFrameHandler, wxID_EXIT );
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}
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@endcode
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Note that @c MyFrameHandler doesn't need to derive from wxEvtHandler. But
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keep in mind that then the lifetime of @c myFrameHandler must be greater than
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that of @c MyFrame object -- or at least it needs to be unbound before being
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destroyed.
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To use an ordinary function or a static method as an event handler you would
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write something like this:
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@code
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void HandleExit( wxCommandEvent & )
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{
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// Do something useful
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}
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MyFrame::MyFrame()
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{
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Bind( wxEVT_COMMAND_MENU_SELECTED, &HandleExit, wxID_EXIT );
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}
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@endcode
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And finally you can bind to an arbitrary functor and use it as an event
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handler:
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@code
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struct MyFunctor
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{
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void operator()( wxCommandEvent & )
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{
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// Do something useful
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}
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};
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MyFunctor myFunctor;
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MyFrame::MyFrame()
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{
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Bind( wxEVT_COMMAND_MENU_SELECTED, myFunctor, wxID_EXIT );
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}
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@endcode
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A common example of a functor is boost::function<>:
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@code
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using namespace boost;
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void MyHandler::OnExit( wxCommandEvent & )
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{
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// Do something useful
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}
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MyHandler myHandler;
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MyFrame::MyFrame()
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{
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function< void ( wxCommandEvent & ) > exitHandler( bind( &MyHandler::OnExit, &myHandler, _1 ));
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Bind( wxEVT_COMMAND_MENU_SELECTED, exitHandler, wxID_EXIT );
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}
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@endcode
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With the aid of boost::bind<>() you can even use methods or functions which
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don't quite have the correct signature:
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@code
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void MyHandler::OnExit( int exitCode, wxCommandEvent &, wxString goodByeMessage )
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{
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// Do something useful
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}
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MyHandler myHandler;
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MyFrame::MyFrame()
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{
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function< void ( wxCommandEvent & ) > exitHandler(
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bind( &MyHandler::OnExit, &myHandler, EXIT_FAILURE, _1, "Bye" ));
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Bind( wxEVT_COMMAND_MENU_SELECTED, exitHandler, wxID_EXIT );
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}
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@endcode
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To summarize, using Bind<>() requires slightly more typing but is much more
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flexible than using static event tables so don't hesitate to use it when you
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need this extra power. On the other hand, event tables are still perfectly fine
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in simple situations where this extra flexibility is not needed.
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@section overview_events_processing How Events are Processed
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The previous sections explain how to define event handlers but don't address
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the question of how exactly wxWidgets finds the handler to call for the
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given event. This section describes the algorithm used in detail. Notice that
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you may want to run the @ref page_samples_event while reading this section and
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look at its code and the output when the button which can be used to test the
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event handlers execution order is clicked to understand it better.
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When an event is received from the windowing system, wxWidgets calls
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wxEvtHandler::ProcessEvent() on the first event handler object belonging to the
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window generating the event. The normal order of event table searching by
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ProcessEvent() is as follows, with the event processing stopping as soon as a
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handler is found (unless the handler calls wxEvent::Skip() in which case it
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doesn't count as having handled the event and the search continues):
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<ol>
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<li value="0">
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Before anything else happens, wxApp::FilterEvent() is called. If it returns
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anything but -1 (default), the event handling stops immediately.
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</li>
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<li value="1">
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If this event handler is disabled via a call to
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wxEvtHandler::SetEvtHandlerEnabled() the next three steps are skipped and
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the event handler resumes at step (5).
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</li>
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<li value="2">
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If the object is a wxWindow and has an associated validator, wxValidator
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gets a chance to process the event.
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</li>
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<li value="3">
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The list of dynamically bound event handlers, i.e., those for which
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Bind<>() was called, is consulted. Notice that this is done before
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checking the static event table entries, so if both a dynamic and a static
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event handler match the same event, the static one is never going to be
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used unless wxEvent::Skip() is called in the dynamic one.
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</li>
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<li value="4">
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The event table containing all the handlers defined using the event table
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macros in this class and its base classes is examined. Notice that this
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means that any event handler defined in a base class will be executed at
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this step.
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</li>
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<li value="5">
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The event is passed to the next event handler, if any, in the event handler
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chain, i.e., the steps (1) to (4) are done for it. Usually there is no next
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event handler so the control passes to the next step but see @ref
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overview_events_nexthandler for how the next handler may be defined.
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</li>
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<li value="6">
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If the object is a wxWindow and the event is set to propagate (by default
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only wxCommandEvent-derived events are set to propagate), then the
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processing restarts from the step (1) (and excluding the step (7)) for the
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parent window. If this object is not a window but the next handler exists,
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the event is passed to its parent if it is a window. This ensures that in a
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common case of (possibly several) non-window event handlers pushed on top
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of a window, the event eventually reaches the window parent.
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</li>
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<li value="7">
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Finally, i.e., if the event is still not processed, the wxApp object itself
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(which derives from wxEvtHandler) gets a last chance to process it.
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</li>
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</ol>
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<em>Please pay close attention to step 6!</em> People often overlook or get
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|
confused by this powerful feature of the wxWidgets event processing system. The
|
|
details of event propagation up the window hierarchy are described in the
|
|
next section.
|
|
|
|
Also please notice that there are additional steps in the event handling for
|
|
the windows-making part of wxWidgets document-view framework, i.e.,
|
|
wxDocParentFrame, wxDocChildFrame and their MDI equivalents wxDocMDIParentFrame
|
|
and wxDocMDIChildFrame. The parent frame classes modify step (2) above to
|
|
send the events received by them to wxDocManager object first. This object, in
|
|
turn, sends the event to the current view and the view itself lets its
|
|
associated document process the event first. The child frame classes send
|
|
the event directly to the associated view which still forwards it to its
|
|
document object. Notice that to avoid remembering the exact order in which the
|
|
events are processed in the document-view frame, the simplest, and recommended,
|
|
solution is to only handle the events at the view classes level, and not in the
|
|
document or document manager classes
|
|
|
|
|
|
@subsection overview_events_propagation How Events Propagate Upwards
|
|
|
|
As mentioned above, the events of the classes deriving from wxCommandEvent are
|
|
propagated by default to the parent window if they are not processed in this
|
|
window itself. But although by default only the command events are propagated
|
|
like this, other events can be propagated as well because the event handling
|
|
code uses wxEvent::ShouldPropagate() to check whether an event should be
|
|
propagated. It is also possible to propagate the event only a limited number of
|
|
times and not until it is processed (or a top level parent window is reached).
|
|
|
|
Finally, there is another additional complication (which, in fact, simplifies
|
|
life of wxWidgets programmers significantly): when propagating the command
|
|
events up to the parent window, the event propagation stops when it
|
|
reaches the parent dialog, if any. This means that you don't risk getting
|
|
unexpected events from the dialog controls (which might be left unprocessed by
|
|
the dialog itself because it doesn't care about them) when a modal dialog is
|
|
popped up. The events do propagate beyond the frames, however. The rationale
|
|
for this choice is that there are only a few frames in a typical application
|
|
and their parent-child relation are well understood by the programmer while it
|
|
may be difficult, if not impossible, to track down all the dialogs that
|
|
may be popped up in a complex program (remember that some are created
|
|
automatically by wxWidgets). If you need to specify a different behaviour for
|
|
some reason, you can use <tt>wxWindow::SetExtraStyle(wxWS_EX_BLOCK_EVENTS)</tt>
|
|
explicitly to prevent the events from being propagated beyond the given window
|
|
or unset this flag for the dialogs that have it on by default.
|
|
|
|
Typically events that deal with a window as a window (size, motion,
|
|
paint, mouse, keyboard, etc.) are sent only to the window. Events
|
|
that have a higher level of meaning or are generated by the window
|
|
itself (button click, menu select, tree expand, etc.) are command
|
|
events and are sent up to the parent to see if it is interested in the event.
|
|
More precisely, as said above, all event classes @b not deriving from wxCommandEvent
|
|
(see the wxEvent inheritance map) do @b not propagate upward.
|
|
|
|
In some cases, it might be desired by the programmer to get a certain number
|
|
of system events in a parent window, for example all key events sent to, but not
|
|
used by, the native controls in a dialog. In this case, a special event handler
|
|
will have to be written that will override ProcessEvent() in order to pass
|
|
all events (or any selection of them) to the parent window.
|
|
|
|
|
|
@subsection overview_events_nexthandler Event Handlers Chain
|
|
|
|
The step 4 of the event propagation algorithm checks for the next handler in
|
|
the event handler chain. This chain can be formed using
|
|
wxEvtHandler::SetNextHandler():
|
|
@image html overview_events_chain.png
|
|
(referring to the image, if @c A->ProcessEvent is called and it doesn't handle
|
|
the event, @c B->ProcessEvent will be called and so on...).
|
|
|
|
Additionally, in the case of wxWindow you can build a stack (implemented using
|
|
wxEvtHandler double-linked list) using wxWindow::PushEventHandler():
|
|
@image html overview_events_winstack.png
|
|
(referring to the image, if @c W->ProcessEvent is called, it immediately calls
|
|
@c A->ProcessEvent; if nor @c A nor @c B handle the event, then the wxWindow
|
|
itself is used -- i.e. the dynamically bind event handlers and static event
|
|
table entries of wxWindow are looked as the last possibility, after all pushed
|
|
event handlers were tested).
|
|
|
|
By default the chain is empty, i.e. there is no next handler.
|
|
|
|
|
|
@section overview_events_custom Custom Event Summary
|
|
|
|
@subsection overview_events_custom_general General approach
|
|
|
|
As each event is uniquely defined by its event type, defining a custom event
|
|
starts with defining a new event type for it. This is done using
|
|
wxDEFINE_EVENT() macro. As an event type is a variable, it can also be
|
|
declared using wxDECLARE_EVENT() if necessary.
|
|
|
|
The next thing to do is to decide whether you need to define a custom event
|
|
class for events of this type or if you can reuse an existing class, typically
|
|
either wxEvent (which doesn't provide any extra information) or wxCommandEvent
|
|
(which contains several extra fields and also propagates upwards by default).
|
|
Both strategies are described in details below. See also the @ref
|
|
page_samples_event for a complete example of code defining and working with the
|
|
custom event types.
|
|
|
|
Finally, you will need to generate and post your custom events.
|
|
Generation is as simple as instancing your custom event class and initializing
|
|
its internal fields.
|
|
For posting events to a certain event handler there are two possibilities:
|
|
using wxEvtHandler::AddPendingEvent or using wxEvtHandler::QueueEvent.
|
|
Basically you will need to use the latter when doing inter-thread communication;
|
|
when you use only the main thread you can also safely use the former.
|
|
Last, note that there are also two simple global wrapper functions associated
|
|
to the two wxEvtHandler mentioned functions: wxPostEvent() and wxQueueEvent().
|
|
|
|
|
|
@subsection overview_events_custom_existing Using Existing Event Classes
|
|
|
|
If you just want to use a wxCommandEvent with a new event type, use one of the
|
|
generic event table macros listed below, without having to define a new event
|
|
class yourself.
|
|
|
|
Example:
|
|
|
|
@code
|
|
// this is typically in a header: it just declares MY_EVENT event type
|
|
wxDECLARE_EVENT(MY_EVENT, wxCommandEvent);
|
|
|
|
// this is a definition so can't be in a header
|
|
wxDEFINE_EVENT(MY_EVENT, wxCommandEvent);
|
|
|
|
// example of code handling the event with event tables
|
|
wxBEGIN_EVENT_TABLE(MyFrame, wxFrame)
|
|
EVT_MENU (wxID_EXIT, MyFrame::OnExit)
|
|
...
|
|
EVT_COMMAND (ID_MY_WINDOW, MY_EVENT, MyFrame::OnMyEvent)
|
|
wxEND_EVENT_TABLE()
|
|
|
|
void MyFrame::OnMyEvent(wxCommandEvent& event)
|
|
{
|
|
// do something
|
|
wxString text = event.GetString();
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
// example of code handling the event with Bind<>():
|
|
MyFrame::MyFrame()
|
|
{
|
|
Bind(MY_EVENT, &MyFrame::OnMyEvent, this, ID_MY_WINDOW);
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
// example of code generating the event
|
|
void MyWindow::SendEvent()
|
|
{
|
|
wxCommandEvent event(MY_EVENT, GetId());
|
|
event.SetEventObject(this);
|
|
|
|
// Give it some contents
|
|
event.SetString("Hello");
|
|
|
|
// Do send it
|
|
ProcessWindowEvent(event);
|
|
}
|
|
@endcode
|
|
|
|
|
|
@subsection overview_events_custom_ownclass Defining Your Own Event Class
|
|
|
|
Under certain circumstances, you must define your own event class e.g., for
|
|
sending more complex data from one place to another. Apart from defining your
|
|
event class, you also need to define your own event table macro if you want to
|
|
use event tables for handling events of this type.
|
|
|
|
Here is an example:
|
|
|
|
@code
|
|
// define a new event class
|
|
class MyPlotEvent: public wxEvent
|
|
{
|
|
public:
|
|
MyPlotEvent(wxEventType eventType, int winid, const wxPoint& pos)
|
|
: wxEvent(winid, eventType),
|
|
m_pos(pos)
|
|
{
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
// accessors
|
|
wxPoint GetPoint() const { return m_pos; }
|
|
|
|
// implement the base class pure virtual
|
|
virtual wxEvent *Clone() const { return new MyPlotEvent(*this); }
|
|
|
|
private:
|
|
const wxPoint m_pos;
|
|
};
|
|
|
|
// we define a single MY_PLOT_CLICKED event type associated with the class
|
|
// above but typically you are going to have more than one event type, e.g. you
|
|
// could also have MY_PLOT_ZOOMED or MY_PLOT_PANNED &c -- in which case you
|
|
// would just add more similar lines here
|
|
wxDEFINE_EVENT(MY_PLOT_CLICKED, MyPlotEvent);
|
|
|
|
|
|
// if you want to support old compilers you need to use some ugly macros:
|
|
typedef void (wxEvtHandler::*MyPlotEventFunction)(MyPlotEvent&);
|
|
#define MyPlotEventHandler(func) wxEVENT_HANDLER_CAST(MyPlotEventFunction, func)
|
|
|
|
// if your code is only built using reasonably modern compilers, you could just
|
|
// do this instead:
|
|
#define MyPlotEventHandler(func) (&func)
|
|
|
|
// finally define a macro for creating the event table entries for the new
|
|
// event type
|
|
//
|
|
// remember that you don't need this at all if you only use Bind<>() and that
|
|
// you can replace MyPlotEventHandler(func) with just &func unless you use a
|
|
// really old compiler
|
|
#define MY_EVT_PLOT_CLICK(id, func) \
|
|
wx__DECLARE_EVT1(MY_PLOT_CLICKED, id, MyPlotEventHandler(func))
|
|
|
|
|
|
// example of code handling the event (you will use one of these methods, not
|
|
// both, of course):
|
|
wxBEGIN_EVENT_TABLE(MyFrame, wxFrame)
|
|
EVT_PLOT(ID_MY_WINDOW, MyFrame::OnPlot)
|
|
wxEND_EVENT_TABLE()
|
|
|
|
MyFrame::MyFrame()
|
|
{
|
|
Bind(MY_PLOT_CLICKED, &MyFrame::OnPlot, this, ID_MY_WINDOW);
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
void MyFrame::OnPlot(MyPlotEvent& event)
|
|
{
|
|
... do something with event.GetPoint() ...
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
|
// example of code generating the event:
|
|
void MyWindow::SendEvent()
|
|
{
|
|
MyPlotEvent event(MY_PLOT_CLICKED, GetId(), wxPoint(...));
|
|
event.SetEventObject(this);
|
|
ProcessWindowEvent(event);
|
|
}
|
|
@endcode
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@section overview_events_misc Miscellaneous Notes
|
|
|
|
@subsection overview_events_virtual Event Handlers vs Virtual Methods
|
|
|
|
It may be noted that wxWidgets' event processing system implements something
|
|
close to virtual methods in normal C++ in spirit: both of these mechanisms
|
|
allow you to alter the behaviour of the base class by defining the event handling
|
|
functions in the derived classes.
|
|
|
|
There is however an important difference between the two mechanisms when you
|
|
want to invoke the default behaviour, as implemented by the base class, from a
|
|
derived class handler. With the virtual functions, you need to call the base
|
|
class function directly and you can do it either in the beginning of the
|
|
derived class handler function (to post-process the event) or at its end (to
|
|
pre-process the event). With the event handlers, you only have the option of
|
|
pre-processing the events and in order to still let the default behaviour
|
|
happen you must call wxEvent::Skip() and @em not call the base class event
|
|
handler directly. In fact, the event handler probably doesn't even exist in the
|
|
base class as the default behaviour is often implemented in platform-specific
|
|
code by the underlying toolkit or OS itself. But even if it does exist at
|
|
wxWidgets level, it should never be called directly as the event handlers are
|
|
not part of wxWidgets API and should never be called directly.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@subsection overview_events_prog User Generated Events vs Programmatically Generated Events
|
|
|
|
While generically wxEvents can be generated both by user
|
|
actions (e.g., resize of a wxWindow) and by calls to functions
|
|
(e.g., wxWindow::SetSize), wxWidgets controls normally send wxCommandEvent-derived
|
|
events only for the user-generated events. The only @b exceptions to this rule are:
|
|
|
|
@li wxNotebook::AddPage: No event-free alternatives
|
|
@li wxNotebook::AdvanceSelection: No event-free alternatives
|
|
@li wxNotebook::DeletePage: No event-free alternatives
|
|
@li wxNotebook::SetSelection: Use wxNotebook::ChangeSelection instead, as
|
|
wxNotebook::SetSelection is deprecated
|
|
@li wxTreeCtrl::Delete: No event-free alternatives
|
|
@li wxTreeCtrl::DeleteAllItems: No event-free alternatives
|
|
@li wxTreeCtrl::EditLabel: No event-free alternatives
|
|
@li All wxTextCtrl methods
|
|
|
|
wxTextCtrl::ChangeValue can be used instead of wxTextCtrl::SetValue but the other
|
|
functions, such as wxTextCtrl::Replace or wxTextCtrl::WriteText don't have event-free
|
|
equivalents.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@subsection overview_events_pluggable Pluggable Event Handlers
|
|
|
|
<em>TODO: Probably deprecated, Bind() provides a better way to do this</em>
|
|
|
|
In fact, you don't have to derive a new class from a window class
|
|
if you don't want to. You can derive a new class from wxEvtHandler instead,
|
|
defining the appropriate event table, and then call wxWindow::SetEventHandler
|
|
(or, preferably, wxWindow::PushEventHandler) to make this
|
|
event handler the object that responds to events. This way, you can avoid
|
|
a lot of class derivation, and use instances of the same event handler class (but different
|
|
objects as the same event handler object shouldn't be used more than once) to
|
|
handle events from instances of different widget classes.
|
|
|
|
If you ever have to call a window's event handler
|
|
manually, use the GetEventHandler function to retrieve the window's event handler and use that
|
|
to call the member function. By default, GetEventHandler returns a pointer to the window itself
|
|
unless an application has redirected event handling using SetEventHandler or PushEventHandler.
|
|
|
|
One use of PushEventHandler is to temporarily or permanently change the
|
|
behaviour of the GUI. For example, you might want to invoke a dialog editor
|
|
in your application that changes aspects of dialog boxes. You can
|
|
grab all the input for an existing dialog box, and edit it 'in situ',
|
|
before restoring its behaviour to normal. So even if the application
|
|
has derived new classes to customize behaviour, your utility can indulge
|
|
in a spot of body-snatching. It could be a useful technique for on-line
|
|
tutorials, too, where you take a user through a serious of steps and
|
|
don't want them to diverge from the lesson. Here, you can examine the events
|
|
coming from buttons and windows, and if acceptable, pass them through to
|
|
the original event handler. Use PushEventHandler/PopEventHandler
|
|
to form a chain of event handlers, where each handler processes a different
|
|
range of events independently from the other handlers.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@subsection overview_events_winid Window Identifiers
|
|
|
|
Window identifiers are integers, and are used to
|
|
uniquely determine window identity in the event system (though you can use it
|
|
for other purposes). In fact, identifiers do not need to be unique
|
|
across your entire application as long they are unique within the
|
|
particular context you're interested in, such as a frame and its children. You
|
|
may use the @c wxID_OK identifier, for example, on any number of dialogs
|
|
as long as you don't have several within the same dialog.
|
|
|
|
If you pass @c wxID_ANY to a window constructor, an identifier will be
|
|
generated for you automatically by wxWidgets. This is useful when you don't
|
|
care about the exact identifier either because you're not going to process the
|
|
events from the control being created or because you process the events
|
|
from all controls in one place (in which case you should specify @c wxID_ANY
|
|
in the event table or wxEvtHandler::Bind call
|
|
as well). The automatically generated identifiers are always negative and so
|
|
will never conflict with the user-specified identifiers which must be always
|
|
positive.
|
|
|
|
See @ref page_stdevtid for the list of standard identifiers available.
|
|
You can use wxID_HIGHEST to determine the number above which it is safe to
|
|
define your own identifiers. Or, you can use identifiers below wxID_LOWEST.
|
|
Finally, you can allocate identifiers dynamically using wxNewId() function too.
|
|
If you use wxNewId() consistently in your application, you can be sure that
|
|
your identifiers don't conflict accidentally.
|
|
|
|
|
|
@subsection overview_events_custom_generic Generic Event Table Macros
|
|
|
|
@beginTable
|
|
@row2col{EVT_CUSTOM(event\, id\, func),
|
|
Allows you to add a custom event table
|
|
entry by specifying the event identifier (such as wxEVT_SIZE),
|
|
the window identifier, and a member function to call.}
|
|
@row2col{EVT_CUSTOM_RANGE(event\, id1\, id2\, func),
|
|
The same as EVT_CUSTOM, but responds to a range of window identifiers.}
|
|
@row2col{EVT_COMMAND(id\, event\, func),
|
|
The same as EVT_CUSTOM, but expects a member function with a
|
|
wxCommandEvent argument.}
|
|
@row2col{EVT_COMMAND_RANGE(id1\, id2\, event\, func),
|
|
The same as EVT_CUSTOM_RANGE, but
|
|
expects a member function with a wxCommandEvent argument.}
|
|
@row2col{EVT_NOTIFY(event\, id\, func),
|
|
The same as EVT_CUSTOM, but
|
|
expects a member function with a wxNotifyEvent argument.}
|
|
@row2col{EVT_NOTIFY_RANGE(event\, id1\, id2\, func),
|
|
The same as EVT_CUSTOM_RANGE, but
|
|
expects a member function with a wxNotifyEvent argument.}
|
|
@endTable
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@subsection overview_events_list List of wxWidgets Events
|
|
|
|
For the full list of event classes, please see the
|
|
@ref group_class_events "event classes group page".
|
|
|
|
|
|
*/
|