Data.GI.Base.Attributes

Basic attributes interface

Attributes of an object can be get, set and constructed. For types descending from GObject, properties are encoded in attributes, although attributes are slightly more general (every property of a GObject is an attribute, but we can also have attributes for types not descending from GObject).

If you're wondering what the possible attributes of a GObject are, look at the list of properties in the documentation, e.g. the Properties heading of the docs for Button lists properties such as image and relief. Parent classes may also introduce properties, so since a Button is an instance of IsActionable, it inherits properties like actionName from Actionable too.

As an example consider a button widget and a property (of the Button class, or any of its parent classes or implemented interfaces) called "label". The simplest way of getting the value of the button is to do

value <- getButtonLabel button

And for setting:

setButtonLabel button label

This mechanism quickly becomes rather cumbersome, for example for setting the "window" property in a DOMDOMWindow in WebKit:

win <- getDOMDOMWindowWindow dom

and perhaps more importantly, one needs to chase down the type which introduces the property:

setWidgetSensitive button False

There is no setButtonSensitive, since it is the Widget type that introduces the "sensitive" property.

Overloaded attributes

A much more convenient overloaded attribute resolution API is provided by this module. Getting the value of an object's attribute is straightforward:

value <- get button _label

The definition of _label is basically a Proxy encoding the name of the attribute to get:

_label = fromLabelProxy (Proxy :: Proxy "label")

These proxies can be automatically generated by invoking the code generator with the -l option. The leading underscore is simply so the autogenerated identifiers do not pollute the namespace, but if this is not a concern the autogenerated names (in the autogenerated GI/Properties.hs) can be edited as one wishes.

In addition, for ghc >= 8.0, one can directly use the overloaded labels provided by GHC itself. Using the OverloadedLabels extension, the code above can also be written as

value <- get button #label

The syntax for setting or updating an attribute is only slightly more complex. At the simplest level it is just:

set button [ _label := value ]

or for the WebKit example above

set dom [_window := win]

However as the list notation would indicate, you can set or update multiple attributes of the same object in one go:

set button [ _label := value, _sensitive := False ]

You are not limited to setting the value of an attribute, you can also apply an update function to an attribute's value. That is the function receives the current value of the attribute and returns the new value.

set spinButton [ _value :~ (+1) ]

There are other variants of these operators, see AttrOp below. :=> and :~> are like := and :~ but operate in the IO monad rather than being pure.

Attributes can also be set during construction of a GObject using new

button <- new Button [_label := "Can't touch this!", _sensitive := False]

In addition for value being set/get having to have the right type, there can be attributes that are read-only, or that can only be set during construction with new, but cannot be set afterwards. That these invariants hold is also checked during compile time.

Nullable atributes

Whenever the attribute is represented as a pointer in the C side, it is often the case that the underlying C representation admits or returns NULL as a valid value for the property. In these cases the get operation may return a Maybe value, with Nothing representing the NULL pointer value (notable exceptions are GList and GSList, for which NULL is represented simply as he empty list). This can be overriden in the introspection data, since sometimes attributes are non-nullable, even if the type would allow for NULL.

For convenience, in nullable cases the set operation will by default not take a Maybe value, but rather assume that the caller wants to set a non-NULL value. If setting a NULL value is desired, use clear as follows

clear object _propName

Documentation

class AttrInfo (info :: *) where

Info describing an attribute.

Minimal complete definition

Nothing

Associated Types

type AttrAllowedOps info :: [AttrOpTag]

The operations that are allowed on the attribute.

type AttrBaseTypeConstraint info :: * -> Constraint

Constraint on the type for which we are allowed to create/set/get the attribute.

type AttrGetType info

Type returned by attrGet.

type AttrSetTypeConstraint info :: * -> Constraint

Constraint on the value being set.

type AttrSetTypeConstraint info = (~) (AttrGetType info)

type AttrTransferTypeConstraint info :: * -> Constraint

Constraint on the value being set, with allocation allowed (see :&= below).

type AttrTransferTypeConstraint info = (~) (AttrTransferType info)

type AttrTransferType info :: *

Type resulting from the allocation.

type AttrTransferType info = AttrGetType info

type AttrLabel info :: Symbol

Name of the attribute.

type AttrOrigin info

Type which introduces the attribute.

Methods

attrGet :: AttrBaseTypeConstraint info o => o -> IO (AttrGetType info)

Get the value of the given attribute.

default attrGet :: CheckNotElem 'AttrGet (AttrAllowedOps info) (GetNotProvidedError info) => o -> IO (AttrGetType info)

attrSet :: (AttrBaseTypeConstraint info o, AttrSetTypeConstraint info b) => o -> b -> IO ()

Set the value of the given attribute, after the object having the attribute has already been created.

default attrSet :: CheckNotElem 'AttrSet (AttrAllowedOps info) (SetNotProvidedError info) => o -> b -> IO ()

attrClear :: AttrBaseTypeConstraint info o => o -> IO ()

Set the value of the given attribute to NULL (for nullable attributes).

default attrClear :: CheckNotElem 'AttrClear (AttrAllowedOps info) (ClearNotProvidedError info) => o -> IO ()

attrConstruct :: (AttrBaseTypeConstraint info o, AttrSetTypeConstraint info b) => b -> IO (GValueConstruct o)

Build a GValue representing the attribute.

default attrConstruct :: CheckNotElem 'AttrConstruct (AttrAllowedOps info) (ConstructNotProvidedError info) => b -> IO (GValueConstruct o)

attrTransfer :: forall o b. (AttrBaseTypeConstraint info o, AttrTransferTypeConstraint info b) => Proxy o -> b -> IO (AttrTransferType info)

Allocate memory as necessary to generate a settable type from the transfer type. This is useful for types which needs allocations for marshalling from Haskell to C, this makes the allocation explicit.

default attrTransfer :: forall o b. (AttrBaseTypeConstraint info o, AttrTransferTypeConstraint info b, b ~ AttrGetType info, b ~ AttrTransferType info) => Proxy o -> b -> IO (AttrTransferType info)

data AttrOpTag

Possible operations on an attribute.

Constructors

AttrGet

It is possible to read the value of the attribute with get.

AttrSet

It is possible to write the value of the attribute with set.

AttrConstruct

It is possible to set the value of the attribute in new.

AttrClear

It is possible to clear the value of the (nullable) attribute with clear.

Instances

Bounded AttrOpTag

Defined in Data.GI.Base.Attributes

Methods

minBound :: AttrOpTag

maxBound :: AttrOpTag

Enum AttrOpTag

Defined in Data.GI.Base.Attributes

Methods

succ :: AttrOpTag -> AttrOpTag

pred :: AttrOpTag -> AttrOpTag

toEnum :: Int -> AttrOpTag

fromEnum :: AttrOpTag -> Int

enumFrom :: AttrOpTag -> [AttrOpTag]

enumFromThen :: AttrOpTag -> AttrOpTag -> [AttrOpTag]

enumFromTo :: AttrOpTag -> AttrOpTag -> [AttrOpTag]

enumFromThenTo :: AttrOpTag -> AttrOpTag -> AttrOpTag -> [AttrOpTag]

Eq AttrOpTag

Defined in Data.GI.Base.Attributes

Methods

(==) :: AttrOpTag -> AttrOpTag -> Bool

(/=) :: AttrOpTag -> AttrOpTag -> Bool

Ord AttrOpTag

Defined in Data.GI.Base.Attributes

Methods

compare :: AttrOpTag -> AttrOpTag -> Ordering

(<) :: AttrOpTag -> AttrOpTag -> Bool

(<=) :: AttrOpTag -> AttrOpTag -> Bool

(>) :: AttrOpTag -> AttrOpTag -> Bool

(>=) :: AttrOpTag -> AttrOpTag -> Bool

max :: AttrOpTag -> AttrOpTag -> AttrOpTag

min :: AttrOpTag -> AttrOpTag -> AttrOpTag

Show AttrOpTag

Defined in Data.GI.Base.Attributes

Methods

showsPrec :: Int -> AttrOpTag -> ShowS

show :: AttrOpTag -> String

showList :: [AttrOpTag] -> ShowS

data AttrOp obj (tag :: AttrOpTag) where

Constructors for the different operations allowed on an attribute.

Constructors

(:=) :: (HasAttributeList obj, info ~ ResolveAttribute attr obj, AttrInfo info, AttrBaseTypeConstraint info obj, AttrOpAllowed tag info obj, AttrSetTypeConstraint info b) => AttrLabelProxy (attr :: Symbol) -> b -> AttrOp obj tag infixr 0

Assign a value to an attribute

(:=>) :: (HasAttributeList obj, info ~ ResolveAttribute attr obj, AttrInfo info, AttrBaseTypeConstraint info obj, AttrOpAllowed tag info obj, AttrSetTypeConstraint info b) => AttrLabelProxy (attr :: Symbol) -> IO b -> AttrOp obj tag infixr 0

Assign the result of an IO action to an attribute

(:~) :: (HasAttributeList obj, info ~ ResolveAttribute attr obj, AttrInfo info, AttrBaseTypeConstraint info obj, tag ~ 'AttrSet, AttrOpAllowed 'AttrSet info obj, AttrOpAllowed 'AttrGet info obj, AttrSetTypeConstraint info b, a ~ AttrGetType info) => AttrLabelProxy (attr :: Symbol) -> (a -> b) -> AttrOp obj tag infixr 0

Apply an update function to an attribute

(:~>) :: (HasAttributeList obj, info ~ ResolveAttribute attr obj, AttrInfo info, AttrBaseTypeConstraint info obj, tag ~ 'AttrSet, AttrOpAllowed 'AttrSet info obj, AttrOpAllowed 'AttrGet info obj, AttrSetTypeConstraint info b, a ~ AttrGetType info) => AttrLabelProxy (attr :: Symbol) -> (a -> IO b) -> AttrOp obj tag infixr 0

Apply an IO update function to an attribute

(:&=) :: (HasAttributeList obj, info ~ ResolveAttribute attr obj, AttrInfo info, AttrBaseTypeConstraint info obj, AttrOpAllowed tag info obj, AttrTransferTypeConstraint info b, AttrSetTypeConstraint info (AttrTransferType info)) => AttrLabelProxy (attr :: Symbol) -> b -> AttrOp obj tag

Assign a value to an attribute, allocating any necessary memory for representing the Haskell value as a C value. Note that it is the responsibility of the caller to make sure that the memory is freed when no longer used, otherwise there will be a memory leak. In the majority of cases you probably want to use := instead, which has no potential memory leaks (at the cost of sometimes requiring some explicit Haskell -> C marshalling).

type family AttrOpAllowed (tag :: AttrOpTag) (info :: *) (useType :: *) :: Constraint where ...

Whether a given AttrOpTag is allowed on an attribute, given the info type.

Equations

AttrOpAllowed tag info useType = AttrOpIsAllowed tag (AttrAllowedOps info) (AttrLabel info) (AttrOrigin info) useType

type AttrGetC info obj attr result = (HasAttributeList obj, info ~ ResolveAttribute attr obj, AttrInfo info, AttrBaseTypeConstraint info obj, AttrOpAllowed 'AttrGet info obj, result ~ AttrGetType info)

Constraints on a obj/attr pair so get is possible, producing a value of type result.

type AttrSetC info obj attr value = (HasAttributeList obj, info ~ ResolveAttribute attr obj, AttrInfo info, AttrBaseTypeConstraint info obj, AttrOpAllowed 'AttrSet info obj, AttrSetTypeConstraint info value)

Constraint on a obj/attr pair so that set works on values of type value.

type AttrConstructC info obj attr value = (HasAttributeList obj, info ~ ResolveAttribute attr obj, AttrInfo info, AttrBaseTypeConstraint info obj, AttrOpAllowed 'AttrConstruct info obj, AttrSetTypeConstraint info value)

Constraint on a obj/value pair so that new works on values of type value.

type AttrClearC info obj attr = (HasAttributeList obj, info ~ ResolveAttribute attr obj, AttrInfo info, AttrBaseTypeConstraint info obj, AttrOpAllowed 'AttrClear info obj)

Constraint on a obj/attr pair so that clear is allowed.

get :: forall info attr obj result m. (AttrGetC info obj attr result, MonadIO m) => obj -> AttrLabelProxy (attr :: Symbol) -> m result

Get the value of an attribute for an object.

set :: forall o m. MonadIO m => o -> [AttrOp o 'AttrSet] -> m ()

Set a number of properties for some object.

clear :: forall info attr obj m. (AttrClearC info obj attr, MonadIO m) => obj -> AttrLabelProxy (attr :: Symbol) -> m ()

Set a nullable attribute to NULL.

data AttrLabelProxy (a :: Symbol)

A proxy for attribute labels.

Constructors

AttrLabelProxy

Instances

a ~ x => IsLabel x (AttrLabelProxy a)

Defined in Data.GI.Base.Attributes

Methods

fromLabel :: AttrLabelProxy a