HasProps¶

class props.HasProps¶

Class with dynamically created, declarative Props

PROPS.HASPROPS is designed to aid creation of classes by providing a declarative interface for creating type-checked, validated and cross-validated properties.

DECLARING DYNAMIC PROPS:

The props of a PROPS.HASPROPS subclass are declared in an immutable property that is a cell array of structs. It is recommended but not required to set this property to ‘Hidden’ since it is unused after class instantiated.

The required fields of each struct in this immutable cell array are ‘Name’ (the name by which the prop value will be accessed), ‘Type’ (a handle to the type of prop), and ‘Doc’ (a description of the prop). Optional fields include ‘Required’ and ‘DefaultValue’, and specific types of props may have additional fields.

ADDING VALIDATION:

Individual Props are validated, type-checked, and possibly coerced to new values when set. This validation logic is defined in the specific Prop class.

PROPS.HASPROPS classes also have a framework for cross-validating properties. To utilize this, define a “validator()” method that checks prop combinations and errors if they are invalid. Then, when you call “validate()” on the PROPS.HASPROPS instance, all the validation methods will be called recursively.

INSTANTIATING THE CLASS:

Upon instantiation, each struct declared in the immutable cell array will be converted into two properties: and accessible property, Name, that is used to get and set the prop value, and a hidden property, PR_Name, the underlying instance of props.Prop where the value is actually validated and stored.

PROPS.HASPROPS allows you to assign prop values on instantiation by passing in Parameter/Value pairs. However, this requires defining a constructor method that passes varargin to the PROPS.HASPROPS constructor. If this constructor is not defined, the default constructor takes no arguments, and passing Parameter/Value pairs will result in an error.

For a substantial practical example, look at the Steno3D MATLAB client on github.