Class edu.cornell.lassp.mck10.ConfigurePack.ConfigurableCollection

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Class edu.cornell.lassp.mck10.ConfigurePack.ConfigurableCollection

java.lang.Object
   |
   +----java.util.Observable
           |
           +----edu.cornell.lassp.mck10.ConfigurePack.Configurable
                   |
                   +----edu.cornell.lassp.mck10.ConfigurePack.ConfigurableCollection

public class ConfigurableCollection
extends Configurable

ConfigurableCollection is a subclass of Configurable used to create trees of configurable variables. A ConfigurableCollection must be passed to each new Configurable variable in its constructor, in order to give the new variable a place in a tree. If no ConfigurableCollection is passed, the new variable will stand on its own, and will lack much of the functionality of a Configurable in a tree. Trees created with ConfigurableCollections do a number of things:

Give each element in the tree a unique dot-separated name.
Allow elements to set their default values from environment variables, files, command-line parameters, and PARAM tags, using the unique names they recieve from the tree. Information for this purpose must be given in the form "unique.name = value".
Allow tree elements to be set using their unique names. Set calls will be of the form root.set("unique.name=value") or subTree.set("child.name=value").
Allow variables to be set using standard configure menus provided by the ConfigurableCollection class. The menu structure will be identical to the tree structure.

If a ConfigurableCollection is created without a parent, it will be the root of its tree. If the root is passed an Applet (for PARAM tags), or an argv[] array (for command-line parameters), or a configuration file, it will try to provide default values for the variables in its tree. Otherwise, it will be a "dead" root, and it will not try to provide these services for its children.

ConfigurableCollection provides several non-public methods which are called by a collection's children:

addConfigurable(Configurable child) - A child calls this when it is constructed to add itself to its parent's list of children. It is not public, because a variable can only be added to a tree while it is being created.
getMyValue(String name) - A child will use this method to get its default value. The call is passed up the tree to the root, which looks up the variable's name in its hash table of default vlaues.
getFullName(String childName) - A chld will use this method to find out its full, unique name. Source code is available.

Version:
0.1
Author:
Matt Kuntz (E-mail: mck10@cornell.edu)
See Also:
Configurable

ConfigurableCollection(ConfigurableCollection, String, String, int)
Since ConfigurableCollection's don't need default values, a constructor is needed without a default value parameter.
ConfigurableCollection(Applet, String, String, int)
This version of the constructor takes an Applet as its first parameter instead of a parent.

addConfigurable(Configurable)

get(String)

The get(String) command is used to get the value of a variable in the ConfigurableCollections subtree.
hideFrames()
For ConfigurableCollections, we may want to hide the frames of all children, along with the frames of the Collection.
newFrame()

outputParams()

The outputParams() method returns a string containing Param tags to set an entire subTree.
removeConfigurable(Configurable)

set(String)
In ConfigurableCollection, the set(String) method is implemented with logic for setting the values of the collection's children.
set(String, String)

toString()
The toString() method of ConfigurableCollection will return a string, which, if passed to the set(String) method will set all of the variables in the ConfigurableCollection's sub-tree.
toString(String)

ConfigurableCollection
```
  public ConfigurableCollection(ConfigurableCollection parent,
                                String shortName,
                                String longName,
                                int att)
```
Since ConfigurableCollection's don't need default values, a constructor is needed without a default value parameter. This constructor just calls the default Configurable constructor with null for its default value.

Parameters:
parent - The ConfigurableCollection above the varaible in the tree
shortName - The short name of the variable. This is used to give the variable its unique name.
longName - The long name of the variable. This is the name which is displayed to the user in the menus.
att - An integer bitmask containing various attributes of the variable.
See Also:
Configurable

ConfigurableCollection
```
  public ConfigurableCollection(Applet params,
                                String shortName,
                                String longName,
                                int att)
```
This version of the constructor takes an Applet as its first parameter instead of a parent. This is used to pass parameter information to the root. A root is also created if the normal constructor is passed a null value, but PARAM information will not be available.

Parameters:
params - The ConfigurableCollection above the varaible in the tree
shortName - The short name of the variable. This is used to give the variable its unique name.
longName - The long name of the variable. This is the name which is displayed to the user in the menus.
att - An integer bitmask containing various attributes of the variable.
See Also:
Configurable

set
```
  public boolean set(String val)
```
In ConfigurableCollection, the set(String) method is implemented with logic for setting the values of the collection's children. The syntax is set("childName = value").

Parameters:
val - Contains a string of the form "childName = value" which instructs the collection to set the value of its child to value.
Overrides:
set in class Configurable

set
```
  protected boolean set(String name,
                        String value)
```
get
```
  public String get(String name)
```
The get(String) command is used to get the value of a variable in the ConfigurableCollections subtree. The syntax is get("unique.name");

Parameters:
name - The name of the variable who's value we want to get.

toString
```
  public String toString()
```
The toString() method of ConfigurableCollection will return a string, which, if passed to the set(String) method will set all of the variables in the ConfigurableCollection's sub-tree. It makes use of the protected method toString(String), which takes as its parameter the name of the parent tree, so that the names can be coded properly.

Returns:
A string which can be used to set all of the variables in the sub-tree.
Overrides:
toString in class Configurable

toString
```
  protected String toString(String parentName)
```
addConfigurable
```
  public void addConfigurable(Configurable child)
```
removeConfigurable
```
  public void removeConfigurable(Configurable child)
```
outputParams
```
  public String outputParams()
```
The outputParams() method returns a string containing Param tags to set an entire subTree.
newFrame
```
  protected Frame newFrame()
```
Overrides:
newFrame in class Configurable

hideFrames
```
  public void hideFrames()
```
For ConfigurableCollections, we may want to hide the frames of all children, along with the frames of the Collection. For this, we use the hideFrames() method.
```
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```