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/****************************************************************************
**
** Copyright (C) 2010 Nokia Corporation and/or its subsidiary(-ies).
** All rights reserved.
** Contact: Nokia Corporation (qt-info@nokia.com)
**
** This file is part of the documentation of the Qt Toolkit.
**
** $QT_BEGIN_LICENSE:FDL$
** Commercial Usage
** Licensees holding valid Qt Commercial licenses may use this file in
** accordance with the Qt Commercial License Agreement provided with the
** Software or, alternatively, in accordance with the terms contained in a
** written agreement between you and Nokia.
**
** GNU Free Documentation License
** Alternatively, this file may be used under the terms of the GNU Free
** Documentation License version 1.3 as published by the Free Software
** Foundation and appearing in the file included in the packaging of this
** file.
**
** If you have questions regarding the use of this file, please contact
** Nokia at qt-info@nokia.com.
** $QT_END_LICENSE$
**
****************************************************************************/

/*!
\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 JavaScript 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 JavaScript
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 JavaScript engine, so any valid JavaScript expression can be 
used as a property binding.  Bindings can access object properties, make function calls and even
use builtin JavaScript 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 JavaScript 
expression!  Here are some examples of more complex bindings:

\code
Rectangle {
    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

While syntactically bindings can be of arbitrary complexity, if a binding starts to become
overly complex - such as involving multiple lines, or imperative loops - it may be better
to refactor the component entirely, or at least factor the binding out into a separate
function.

\section1 Changing Bindings

The \l PropertyChanges element can be used within a state change to modify the bindings on 
properties.  

This example modifies the \l Rectangle's width property binding to be \c {otherItem.height} 
when in the "square" state.  When it returns to its default state, width's original property
binding will have been restored.

\code
Rectangle {
    id: rectangle
    width: otherItem.width
    height: otherItem.height

    states: State {
        name: "square"
        PropertyChanges {
            target: rectangle
            width: otherItem.height
        }
    }
}
\endcode

Imperatively assigning a value directly to a property will also implicitly remove a binding
on a property.  A property can only have one value at a time, and if code explicitly sets
this value the binding must be removed.  The \l Rectangle in the example below will have
a width of 13, regardless of the otherItem's width.

\code
Rectangle {
    width: otherItem.width

    Component.onCompleted: {
        width = 13;
    }
}
\endcode

There is no way to create a property binding directly from imperative JavaScript code.

\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
*/