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diff --git a/doc/src/statemachine.qdoc b/doc/src/statemachine.qdoc index 18c5307..27bd4f8 100644 --- a/doc/src/statemachine.qdoc +++ b/doc/src/statemachine.qdoc @@ -425,4 +425,186 @@ machine.postEvent(new StringEvent("Hello")); machine.postEvent(new StringEvent("world")); \endcode + + \section1 Using Restore Policy To Automatically Restore Properties + + In some state machines it can be useful to focus the attention on assigning properties in states, + not on restoring them when the state is no longer active. If you know that a property should + always be restored to its initial value when the machine enters a state that does not explicitly + give the property a value, you can set the global restore policy to + QStateMachine::RestoreProperties. + + \code + QStateMachine machine; + machine.setGlobalRestorePolicy(QStateMachine::RestoreProperties); + \endcode + + When this restore policy is set, the machine will automatically restore all properties. If it + enters a state where a given property is not set, it will first search the hierarchy of ancestors + to see if the property is defined there. If it is, the property will be restored to the value + defined by the closest ancestor. If not, it will be restored to its initial value (i.e. the + value of the property before any property assignments in states were executed.) + + Take the following code: + \code + QStateMachine machine; + machine.setGlobalRestorePolicy(QStateMachine::RestoreProperties); + + QState *s1 = new QState(); + s1->assignProperty(object, "fooBar", 1.0); + machine.addState(s1); + machine.setInitialState(s1); + + QState *s2 = new QState(); + machine.addState(s2); + \endcode + + Lets say the property \c fooBar is 0.0 when the machine starts. When the machine is in state + \c s1, the property will be 1.0, since the state explicitly assigns this value to it. When the + machine is in state \c s2, no value is explicitly defined for the property, so it will implicitly + be restored to 0.0. + + If we are using nested states, the parent defines a value for the property which is inherited by + all descendants that do not explicitly assign a value to the property. + \code + QStateMachine machine; + machine.setGlobalRestorePolicy(QStateMachine::RestoreProperties); + + QState *s1 = new QState(); + s1->assignProperty(object, "fooBar", 1.0); + machine.addState(s1); + machine.setInitialState(s1); + + QState *s2 = new QState(s1); + s2->assignProperty(object, "fooBar", 2.0); + s1->setInitialState(s2); + + QState *s3 = new QState(s1); + \endcode + + Here \c s1 has two children: \c s2 and \c s3. When \c s2 is entered, the property \c fooBar + will have the value 2.0, since this is explicitly defined for the state. When the machine is in + state \c s3, no value is defined for the state, but \c s1 defines the property to be 1.0, so this + is the value that will be assigned to \c fooBar. + + \section1 Animating Property Assignments + + The State Machine API connects with the Animation API in Qt to allow automatically animating + properties as they are assigned in states. + + Say we have the following code: + \code + QState *s1 = new QState(); + QState *s2 = new QState(); + + s1->assignProperty(button, "geometry", QRectF(0, 0, 50, 50)); + s2->assignProperty(button, "geometry", QRectF(0, 0, 100, 100)); + + s1->addTransition(button, SIGNAL(clicked()), s2); + \endcode + + Here we define two states of a user interface. In \c s1 the \c button is small, and in \c s2 + it is bigger. If we click the button to transition from \c s1 to \c s2, the geometry of the button + will be set immediately when a given state has been entered. If we want the transition to be + smooth, however, all we need to do is make a QPropertyAnimation and add this to the transition + object. + + \code + QState *s1 = new QState(); + QState *s2 = new QState(); + + s1->assignProperty(button, "geometry", QRectF(0, 0, 50, 50)); + s2->assignProperty(button, "geometry", QRectF(0, 0, 100, 100)); + + QSignalTransition *transition = s1->addTransition(button, SIGNAL(clicked()), s2); + transition->addAnimation(new QPropertyAnimation(button, "geometry")); + \endcode + + Adding an animation for the property in question means that the property assignment will no + longer take immediate effect when the state has been entered. Instead, the animation will start + playing when the state has been entered and smoothly animate the property assignment. Since we + do not set the start value or end value of the animation, these will be set implicitly. The + start value of the animation will be the property's current value when the animation starts, and + the end value will be set based on the property assignments defined for the state. + + If the global restore policy of the state machine is set to QStateMachine::RestoreProperties, + it is possible to also add animations for the property restorations. + + \section1 Detecting That All Properties Have Been Set In A State + + When animations are used to assign properties, a state no longer defines the exact values that a + property will have when the machine is in the given state. While the animation is running, the + property can potentially have any value, depending on the animation. + + In some cases, it can be useful to be able to detect when the property has actually been assigned + the value defined by a state. For this, we can use the state's polished() signal. + \code + QState *s1 = new QState(); + s1->assignProperty(button, "geometry", QRectF(0, 0, 50, 50)); + + QState *s2 = new QState(); + + s1->addTransition(s1, SIGNAL(polished()), s2); + \endcode + + The machine will be in state \c s1 until the \c geometry property has been set. Then it will + immediately transition into \c s2. If the transition into \c s1 has an animation for the \c + geometry property, then the machine will stay in \c s1 until the animation has finished. If there + is no animation, it will simply set the property and immediately enter state \c s2. + + Either way, when the machine is in state \c s2, the property \c geometry has been assigned the + defined value. + + If the global restore policy is set to QStateMachine::RestoreProperties, the state will not emit + the polished() signal until these have been executed as well. + + \section1 What happens if a state is exited before the animation has finished + + If a state has property assignments, and the transition into the state has animations for the + properties, the state can potentially be exited before the properties have been assigned to the + values defines by the state. This is true in particular when there are transitions out from the + state that do not depend on the state being polished, as described in the previous section. + + The State Machine API guarantees that a property assigned by the state machine either: + \list + \o Has a value explicitly assigned to the property. + \o Is currently being animated into a value explicitly assigned to the property. + \endlist + + When a state is exited prior to the animation finishing, the behavior of the state machine depends + on the target state of the transition. If the target state explicitly assigns a value to the + property, no additional action will be taken. The property will be assigned the value defined by + the target state. + + If the target state does not assign any value to the property, there are two + options: By default, the property will be assigned the value defined by the state it is leaving + (the value it would have been assigned if the animation had been permitted to finish playing.) If + a global restore policy is set, however, this will take precedence, and the property will be + restored as usual. + + \section1 Default Animations + + As described earlier, you can add animations to transitions to make sure property assignments + in the target state are animated. If you want a specific animation to be used for a given property + regardless of which transition is taken, you can add it as a default animation to the state + machine. This is in particular useful when the properties assigned (or restored) by specific + states is not known when the machine is constructed. + + \code + QState *s1 = new QState(); + QState *s2 = new QState(); + + s2->assignProperty(object, "fooBar", 2.0); + s1->addTransition(s2); + + QStateMachine machine; + machine.setInitialState(s1); + machine.addDefaultAnimation(new QPropertyAnimation(object, "fooBar")); + \endcode + + When the machine is in state \c s2, the machine will play the default animation for the + property \c fooBar since this property is assigned by \c s2. + + Note that animations explicitly set on transitions will take precedence over any default + animation for the given property. */ |