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/****************************************************************************
**
** Copyright (C) 2009 Nokia Corporation and/or its subsidiary(-ies).
** Contact: Qt Software Information (qt-info@nokia.com)
**
** This file is part of the documentation of the Qt Toolkit.
**
** $QT_BEGIN_LICENSE:LGPL$
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**
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** General Public License version 2.1 as published by the Free Software
** Foundation and appearing in the file LICENSE.LGPL included in the
** packaging of this file.  Please review the following information to
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** additional rights. These rights are described in the Nokia Qt LGPL
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****************************************************************************/

/*!
\page propertybinding.html
\title Property Binding

Property binding is a declarative way of specifying the value of a property.  Binding allows
a property's value to be expressed as an ECMAScript expression that defines the value relative
to other property values or data accessible in the application.  The property value is 
automatically kept up to date if the other properties or data values change.

Property bindings are created implicitly in QML whenever a property is assigned an ECMAScript
expression.  The following QML uses two property bindings to connect the size of the rectangle
to that of \c otherItem.

\code
Rectangle {
    width: otherItem.width
    height: otherItem.height
}
\endcode

QML extends a standards compliant ECMAScript engine, so any valid ECMAScript expression can be 
used as a property binding.  Bindings can access object properties, make function calls and even
use builtin ECMAScript objects like \e {Date} and \e {Math}.  Assigning a constant value to a 
property can even be thought of as a binding - afterall, a constant is a valid ECMAScript 
expression!  Here are some examples of more complex bindings:

\code
Rectangle {
    Script {
        function calculateMyHeight() {
            return Math.max(otherItem.height, thirdItem.height);
        }
    }

    anchors.centerIn: parent
    width: Math.min(otherItem.width, 10)
    height: calculateMyHeight()
    color: { if (width > 10) "blue"; else "red" }
}
\endcode

Being ECMAScript expressions, bindings are evaluated in a scope chain.  The \l {QML Scope} 
documentation covers the specifics of scoping in QML.

\list
\o When does a binding not get updated?
\o Scope
\o Assigning a constant/other binding clears existing binding
\o Loops
\o Using model data
\endlist

\section1 Binding Element

The implicit binding syntax shown previously is easy to use and works perfectly for most uses
of bindings.  In some advanced cases, it is necessary to create bindings explicitly using the 
\l Binding element.

For example, to bind a property exposed from C++ (\c system.brightness) to a value
coming from QML (\c slider.value), you could use the Binding element as follows:
\qml
Binding {
    target: system
    property: "brightness"
    value: slider.value
}
\endqml
*/