eidiot

FreeSignal – Use Signals easier

eidiot — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 08:12:34 +0000

Robert Penner's as3-signals make my life much cleaner and easier. There is only one thing that not perfect: With Events I know what parameters to pass when dispatch it, and what can I get when handle it. But the dispatch method of Signals is not so plain. So I was thinking about it for a long time.
We need ISignal Interface for signals, but maybe not IDispatcher. For any signal we want to know exactly what it is and what it have when dispatch or handle it. So I wrote a base class for "FreeSignal". Every "FreeSignal" which extends this FreeSignalBase should have its own dispatch method, and call the protected "doDispatch" method in that dispatch method.

For example, a signal just like the ProgressEvent:

public class ProgressSignal extends FreeSignalBase
{
	private var _bytesLoaded:uint = 0;
	public function get bytesLoaded():uint
	{
	    return _bytesLoaded;
	}
	private var _bytesTotal:uint = 0;
	public function get bytesTotal():uint
	{
	    return _bytesTotal;
	}
	public function dispatch(bytesLoaded:uint, bytesTotal:uint):void
	{
		_bytesLoaded = bytesLoaded;
		_bytesTotal = bytesTotal;
		doDispatch();
	}
}

Instead of new Signal(int, int), we have dispatch(bytesLoaded:uint, bytesTotal:uint) now.

And for the listener:

private function addListener():void 
{
	someLoader.progressed.add(onProgressed);
}
private function onProgressed(signal:ProgressSignal):void 
{
	var value:Number = signal.bytesLoaded / signal.bytesTotal;
}

Maybe we need target.

public class ProgressSignal extends FreeSignalBase
{
	public function ProgressSignal(target:Object)
	{
		_target = target;
	}
	private var _target:Object;
	public function get target():Object
	{
	    return _target;
	}
	private var _bytesLoaded:uint = 0;
	public function get bytesLoaded():uint
	{
	    return _bytesLoaded;
	}
	private var _bytesTotal:uint = 0;
	public function get bytesTotal():uint
	{
	    return _bytesTotal;
	}
	public function dispatch(bytesLoaded:uint, bytesTotal:uint):void
	{
		_bytesLoaded = bytesLoaded;
		_bytesTotal = bytesTotal;
		doDispatch();
	}
}
public class SomeLoader 
{
	public const progressed:ProgressSignal = new ProgressSignal(this);
}
public class SomeHandler
{
	private function onProgressed(signal:ProgressSignal):void
	{
		var target:Object = signal.target;
		var value:Number = signal.bytesLoaded / signal.bytesTotal;
	}
}

It works fine with SignalCommandMap utility of Robotlegs.

public class ShowLoadedImageCommand implements ICommand 
{
	[Inject]
	public var triggerSignal:ImageSignal;
	public function execute():void 
	{
		var image:DisplayObject = triggerSignal.image;
		// ...
	}
}

Maybe not a good practice, but I feel good with it so far. If you're interested, here are some more information：

FreeSignalBase class
unit-tests for free signals
Source of Joel Hooks's example for Robotlegs, SignalCommandMap utility and as3-signal - Using FreeSignal, of course.

Test suite generator for Flex Unit 4

eidiot — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 10:32:25 +0000

中文：Flex Unit 4 的 Test Suite 生成工具

Wrote a small tool to create AllTests.as file with all test cases for FlexUnit4 in Air. To use it, download the air file and install the small app, run it.

Here is the demo code to run it via ant:

   name="Test Suiter" default="createSuite">
     name="createSuite">
       executable="/Applications/TestSuiter.app/Contents/MacOS/TestSuiter">
         value="/Users/someone/Desktop/SomeProject/tests" />
      >
    >
  >

Async test for as3-signals with FlexUnit4

eidiot — Fri, 21 May 2010 03:46:31 +0000

中文: 使用FlexUnit4对as3-signals进行异步测试

Robert Penner 's as3-signals bring us clearer and less code. Here is a utility lib with some delegate methods to test them with FlexUnit4:

proceedOnSignal
handleSignal
failOnSignal
registerFailureSignal

proceedOnSignal

Use this method to ensure that some signal is dispatched during an asynchronous test.

[Test(async)]
public function test_proceedOnSignal():void 
{
    var model:IModel = new SomeModel();
    proceedOnSignal(this, model.changedSignal);
    model.doSomethingChange();
}

handleSignal

Use this method to ensure that some signal is dispatched and do more assertions in the handler. The handler method must have two arguments. The first one is a SignalAsyncEvent, you can get all arguments passed by the signal's dispatch() method by event.args. The second Object typed argument is the data passed by the passThroughData argument in the handleSignal method.

[Test(async)] 
public function change_user():void 
{
    var model:IModel = new SomeModel();
    handleSignal(this, model.changedSignal, verify_user, 500, {"name":"Tom", "age":20});
    model.changeUser("Tom", 20);
}
private function verify_user(event:SignalAsyncEvent, data:Object):void 
{
    assertEquals(event.args[0], data.name);
    assertEquals(event.args[1], data.age);
}

failOnSignal

Use this method to ensure that some signal is not dispatched during an asynchronous test in a time period.

[Test(async)] 
public function not_changed():void 
{
    var model:IModel = new SomeModel();
    failOnSignal(model.changedSignal);
    model.doSomethingNotChange();
}

registerFailureSignal

Use this method to fail a test when a signal is dispatched. Think you are waiting for a success signal of a service, you will want to fail the test when the service's error signal is dispatched instead of waiting until timeout.

[Test(async)] 
public function call_service():void 
{
    var service:IService = new SomeService();
    registerFailureSignal(this, service.failedSignal);
    proceedOnSignal(this, service.successSignal);
    service.call();
}

Google Tasks Wapper of ig version

eidiot — Sun, 02 May 2010 09:23:12 +0000

It’s a light version of Google Tasks in https://mail.google.com/tasks/ig instead of Christian Cantrell ’s canvas version in https://mail.google.com/tasks/canvas. Choose the one fit you. The code is on GitHub .

xface: A simple ui-unit develop tool

eidiot — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 15:42:52 +0000

中文：xface: 简单的ui-unit辅助开发工具

XFace is a simple AsUnit/FlexUnit 4 style UI-Unit framework, but not for testing. It's a tool to reach and verify UI implementation fast.

Demo: (Source)

It use metadata [Before], [After], [Test], [Suite] like the ones in AsUnit/FlexUnit 4, and [Inject] for Dependency injection support.

[Inject]
pubic var container:DisplayObjectContainer;
[Test]
public function test():void {
    container.addChild(instance);
}

It shows all ui-unit methods in a list. You can select one of them to focus on the smallest ui element and move by smallest steps.

Runner UI uses the List component in @bit101's Minimal Comps.

SignalExecutorMap – Another way to map AS3-Signal to Command in Robotlegs

eidiot — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 17:58:16 +0000

I love both Robotlegs and AS3-Signals so much, and many thanks to Joel Hooks's SignalCommandMap, they work together great now. When I saw [Execute] tag in dawn I thought if I can do its way for SignalCommand. So, Here is my SignalExecutorMap. I used it in a simple slide player for my Robotlegs slides.

To use it, put the same count and type of params in the execute() method of the Command as its trigger Signal.

// The signal in SignalBus:
public const turnToPageRequested:Signal = new Signal(int);

// Execute method in Command:
public function execute(index:int):void

// Dispatch the signal
signalBus.turnToPageRequested.dispatch(0);

It's not a common solution, because it eliminates the possibility of using other Command impls already in existence. So I created it as SignalExecutorMap instead of expanding SignalCommandMap, and just leave it a single class for personal use. I shared it just in case somebody want it like me because:

1, By now (until Robotlegs 1.1) SignalCommandMap will unmap the value passed by Signal.
2, Don't want to inject base type like
[Inject] public var index:int;
3, Don't want to create VO class just for being passed by Signal to avoid 1 and 2.

I'm sure SignalCommandMap will get better with Robotlegs 1.1 and better later. Robotlegs and as3-signals, they were born to work together

My Robotlegs slides

eidiot — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 15:35:18 +0000

I'll give a presentation about Robotlegs the end of this month, here are slides based on Joel Hooks's, Please correct me if I'm doing something wrong, many thanks. The file is on GitHub, and also valid as .key, .ppt, and .pdf format download.

Demo for xrope

eidiot — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:25:19 +0000

中文：Xrope Demo

Built a demo for xrope using Minimal Comps, Robotlegs, and as3-Signals:

xrope v0.2: Added GridLayout

eidiot — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 10:51:38 +0000

中文：xrope v0.2: 增加 GridLayout

Now we have GridLayout in xrope by v0.2.0.

xrope v0.1.0 released

eidiot — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 15:53:40 +0000

中文：xrope v0.1.0 发布

I have just released xrope v0.1.0.