Editor Factories

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Editor factories are delegate functions, which create new instances of editors of a certain type. Currently used in the NDesigner are the following editor factory method signatures:

DNFunctionResult<NNodeEditor> - factory for an editor derived from the NNodeEditor editor.
DNFunctionResult<NCategoryEditor> - factory for an editor derived from the NCategoryEditor editor.
DNFunctionResult<NMemberEditor> - factory for an editor derived from the NMemberEditor editor (for properties and child-slots).

You may need to specify a custom editor factory, when you want to modify the default editor created by the designer for a specific property, child-slot, category, or modify the default standalone and embedded node editors.

For example, suppose you have a double property and you want the user to be able to enter values only n the [0-100] range, with a step of 0.1 and a precision of 2 digits. You can achieve this by specifying an editor factory for the property with modified properties, as shown in the following example:

Setting an custom editor template for a property	Copy Code
public class MyNode : NNode { ... public static readonly NProperty MyDoubleProperty; public class MyNodeDesigner : NDesigner { public MyNodeDesigner() { DNFunctionResult<NMemberEditor> myFactory = delegate() { NDoublePropertyEditor editor = new NDoublePropertyEditor(); editor.Minimum = -100.00; editor.Maximum = 100.00; editor.Step = 0.1; editor.DecimalPlaces = 2; return editor; }; SetMemberEditorTemplate(MyDoubleProperty, myFactory); } } }

Setting an custom editor template for a property

Copy Code

public class MyNode : NNode
{
    ...
    public static readonly NProperty MyDoubleProperty;
    public class MyNodeDesigner : NDesigner
    {
        public MyNodeDesigner()
        {
                DNFunctionResult<NMemberEditor> myFactory = delegate()
                {
                    NDoublePropertyEditor editor = new NDoublePropertyEditor();
                    editor.Minimum = -100.00;
                    editor.Maximum = 100.00;
                    editor.Step = 0.1;
                    editor.DecimalPlaces = 2;
                    return editor;
                };
                SetMemberEditorTemplate(MyDoubleProperty, myFactory);
        }
    }
}

The NEditorFactory static class contains helper methods for creating editor factories for the three major categories - node, member and category as described in the following table:

Method	Description
DNFunctionResult<NNodeEditor> CreateNodeEditorFactory<TNNodeEditor>(DNFunction<TNNodeEditor> initFunction = null)	Creates a new NNodeEditor of type TNNodeEditor and optionally calls the specified initFunction to additionally tune it.
DNFunctionResult<NCategoryEditor> CreateCategoryEditorFactory<TNCategoryEditor>(DNFunction<TNCategoryEditor> initFunction = null)	Creates a new NCategoryEditor of type TNCategoryEditor and optionally calls the specified initFunction to additionally tune it.
DNFunctionResult<NMemberEditor> CreateMemberEditorFactory<TNMemberEditor>(DNFunction<TNMemberEditor> initFunction = null)	Creates a new NMemberEditor of type TNMemberEditor and optionally calls the specified initFunction to additionally tune it.

The following example creates the same editor factory as the one shown in the previous example, but with the help of the NEditorFactory class:

Using the NEditorFactory to create new editor factories	Copy Code
DNFunctionResult<NMemberEditor> myFactory = NEditorFactory.CreateMemberEditorFactory<NDoublePropertyEditor>((editor)=> { editor.Minimum = -100.00; editor.Maximum = 100.00; editor.Step = 0.1; editor.DecimalPlaces = 2; });

Using the NEditorFactory to create new editor factories

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DNFunctionResult<NMemberEditor> myFactory = NEditorFactory.CreateMemberEditorFactory<NDoublePropertyEditor>((editor)=>
{
    editor.Minimum = -100.00;
    editor.Maximum = 100.00;
    editor.Step = 0.1;
    editor.DecimalPlaces = 2;
});