Question

Synopsis

1. How do you declare variables in a namespace while using the use statement? (ie., without declaring the namespace with the variable name)
2. How do you reference namespace variables with the “use” statement without a container reference. (ie., trace(foo) rather than trace(a.foo) [seems kinda pointless if I have to state this after already switching to the namespace])

Explanation

Having read Grant Skinner’s “Complete Guide to Using Namespaces”, and other articles, such as Jackson Dustan’s “Better OOP Through Namespaces”, I’m left with the above unanswered questions. I feel as though I’m missing some basic principle, but I can’t seem to get namespaces to work. The following examples are written for use with the Flash IDE, so assume the following…

locus.as

package com.atriace {
    public namespace locus = "atriace.com";
}

testA.as

package com.atriace {
    public class testA {
        import com.atriace.locus;
        locus var foo:String = "Apple";

        public function testA() {}
    }
}

testB.as

package com.atriace {
    public class testB {
        import com.atriace.locus;
        use namespace locus;

        public function testB() {
            trace(foo);
        }
    }
}

Document Class:

import com.atriace.testA;
import com.atriace.testB;

var a:testA = new testA();
trace(a.foo); // results in "Apple"

var b:testB = new testB(); // compile error: variable "foo" not defined.

Issue #1

In my mind, a namespace is little more than an object to hold variables that has scope level access. Ergo, global is a namespace visible to all functions (since it’s the root scope), local is namespace (specific to the current and child scopes), and so on. If true, then switching to a namespace with use should allow you to simply declare variables that happen to exist in both the local and custom namespaces. For example:

use namespace locus
var bar:String = "test"; // this now *should* exist in both local & locus scope/namespace.

Since I’m unaware of a method to iterate over a namespace like a normal object, I don’t know whether this is what happens. Furthermore, I haven’t seen any cases where someone has declared a custom namespace variable this way, so I assume namespace variables must always be explicitly defined.

Issue #2

You might ask, “what’s the goal here?” Quite simply, we want a dynamic pool of variables and methods that any new classes can add to (within the same package). By switching to this namespace prior to calling methods, we can reduce the wordiness of our code. So, class.method() becomes just method().

In testB.as we’d fully expect an error to occur if we never imported the testA.as class and instantiated it; especially because foo isn’t a static member of the class (nor do we want it to be). However, since we’ve instantiated foo at least once, the namespace locus should now have a variable called foo, which means that when testB.as gets instantiated, and the constructor seeks a value for foo, the namespace already has one.

Obviously, there’s a flaw in this thinking since the Flash compiler complains that foo has never been declared, and the only way I can reference foo from the document class is by referencing the container (ie., a.foo rather than just switching to the namespace with use, and tracing foo directly).

For the sake of argument, neither inheritance nor static members are a solution to this dilema. This is both an excercise in learning better code techniques, and an answer to the structure of a large utility class that has complicated dependencies. Given the absence of a variable/method, you could simply code around it.

---

I know it’s not a heavily documented topic, which is why I’m hoping some sage here may see what I’m missing. The help would be much appreciated. 🙂

Answer 1

“use namespace” is for the consumer side. You always have to include the namespace in any declaration:

MyNamespace var foobar : uint;

If you wish to add namespaced package-global variables (you shouldn’t as a general rule), you have to define each one of them in a separate .as file as packages only allow one publicly-visible definition per file at the top-level.

In your example above you are using namespaces incorrectly. A namespace can span multiple classes, but does not achieve the cross-class functionality you are looking for. This is more the domain of aspect-oriented programming.