revised m*h headers
[wxWidgets.git] / interface / wx / module.h
1 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
2 // Name: module.h
3 // Purpose: interface of wxModule
4 // Author: wxWidgets team
5 // RCS-ID: $Id$
6 // Licence: wxWindows license
7 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
8
9 /**
10 @class wxModule
11
12 The module system is a very simple mechanism to allow applications (and parts
13 of wxWidgets itself) to define initialization and cleanup functions that are
14 automatically called on wxWidgets startup and exit.
15
16 To define a new kind of module, derive a class from wxModule, override the
17 wxModule::OnInit and wxModule::OnExit functions, and add the
18 DECLARE_DYNAMIC_CLASS and IMPLEMENT_DYNAMIC_CLASS to header and implementation
19 files (which can be the same file).
20 On initialization, wxWidgets will find all classes derived from wxModule, create
21 an instance of each, and call each wxModule::OnInit function. On exit, wxWidgets
22 will call the wxModule::OnExit function for each module instance.
23
24 Note that your module class does not have to be in a header file.
25
26 For example:
27
28 @code
29 // A module to allow DDE initialization/cleanup
30 // without calling these functions from app.cpp or from
31 // the user's application.
32 class wxDDEModule: public wxModule
33 {
34 public:
35 wxDDEModule() { }
36 virtual bool OnInit() { wxDDEInitialize(); return true; };
37 virtual void OnExit() { wxDDECleanUp(); };
38
39 private:
40 DECLARE_DYNAMIC_CLASS(wxDDEModule)
41 };
42
43 IMPLEMENT_DYNAMIC_CLASS(wxDDEModule, wxModule)
44
45 // Another module which uses DDE in its OnInit()
46 class MyModule: public wxModule
47 {
48 public:
49 MyModule() { AddDependency(CLASSINFO(wxDDEModule)); }
50 virtual bool OnInit() { ... code using DDE ... }
51 virtual void OnExit() { ... }
52
53 private:
54 DECLARE_DYNAMIC_CLASS(MyModule)
55 };
56
57 IMPLEMENT_DYNAMIC_CLASS(MyModule, wxModule)
58
59 // Another module which uses DDE in its OnInit()
60 // but uses a named dependency
61 class MyModule2: public wxModule
62 {
63 public:
64 MyModule2() { AddDependency("wxDDEModule"); }
65 virtual bool OnInit() { ... code using DDE ... }
66 virtual void OnExit() { ... }
67
68 private:
69 DECLARE_DYNAMIC_CLASS(MyModule2)
70 };
71
72 IMPLEMENT_DYNAMIC_CLASS(MyModule2, wxModule)
73 @endcode
74
75 @library{wxbase}
76 @category{misc}
77 */
78 class wxModule : public wxObject
79 {
80 public:
81 /**
82 Constructs a wxModule object.
83 */
84 wxModule();
85
86 /**
87 Destructor.
88 */
89 virtual ~wxModule();
90
91 /**
92 Call this function from the constructor of the derived class.
93
94 @a dep must be the CLASSINFO() of a wxModule-derived class and the
95 corresponding module will be loaded before and unloaded after this module.
96
97 @param dep
98 The class information object for the dependent module.
99 */
100 void AddDependency(wxClassInfo* dep);
101
102 /**
103 Call this function from the constructor of the derived class.
104
105 This overload allows a dependency to be added by name without access to
106 the class info.
107
108 This is useful when a module is declared entirely in a source file and
109 there is no header for the declaration of the module needed by CLASSINFO(),
110 however errors are not detected until run-time, instead of compile-time, then.
111 Note that circular dependencies are detected and result in a fatal error.
112
113 @param classname
114 The class name of the dependent module.
115 */
116 void AddDependency(const char* classname);
117
118 /**
119 Provide this function with appropriate cleanup for your module.
120 */
121 virtual void OnExit();
122
123 /**
124 Provide this function with appropriate initialization for your module.
125 If the function returns @false, wxWidgets will exit immediately.
126 */
127 virtual bool OnInit();
128 };
129