ResonanceDesign

I started to use static VOs in my framework and having fun doing so.For those who dont know what a VO is, its a ValueObject.As a friend recommended I am using them solely as static classes, meaning I dont create an instance, which should keep memory leakage down and make them available globally.

So far I am using two types as I would describe them:

1) property based: where I defined property get-setters for everything I want to store (mainly strings) some even constants, so a very non-depth storage object

2) list based: where I need a storage for many of the same kind of objects and search functionality and add and delete function basically this is a searchable fancy array which is static and therefore available everywhere. Neat.

I like the simplicity of those classes. They are framework, nearly language independent or sorts. Now if anyone out there knows how secure it is to have global code flying about , please comment.

Among one of the coolest things I came across in Flash’s Actionscript 3 is the class ‘getDefinitionByName’. What it does (in short) is turning a class name in the form of a String into a class you can create an instance from. What this means is, you can create most flexible class creation built on cases.

E.g. instead of building a long switch…case list, you can add string names based on the elements an instance should have and call the specific class.

I use it for example to have a component that can call clips and bitmaps graphics from the library. The clip name can be handed over by XML and the appropriate clip can be added, without re-render or re-coding of the component.

I also build a centralized component-mediator control, that stores all possible pairs, so whenever I call for a component to be used in a mediator, it calls the right class. Which let’s me leave the display engine as is and only the content central changes from application to application.

Here is how I use it in a pureMVC environment:

var tMediatorClass:Class=getDefinitionByName(myMediatorClassName)  as  Class;
facade.registerMediator(new myMediatorClass(myComponent.id,myComponent));

There is though, one tricky issue. As long as you don’t mention a class’ name in the code, the compiler won’t implement it, meaning that your app will throw an error. Therefore, I changed my code to this:

var tMediatorClass:Class=getDefinitionByName(myMediatorClassName)  as  Class;
switch (myMediatorClass.NAME) {
case BasicMediator.NAME :
case EventMediator.NAME :
facade.registerMediator(new myMediatorClass(myComponent.id,myComponent));
}

I think I am still saving quite some lines here, especially given that a project can have a fir mount of mediators and components.

If you want to get a bit more chat on this one, read my conversation with the nice guys at actionscript.org