Question

Using org.as3commons.reflect I can look-up the class name, and instantiate a class at runtime. I also have (non-working) code which invokes a method. However, I really want to set a property value. I’m not sure if properties are realized as methods internally in Flex.

I have a Metadata class which stores 3 pieces of information: name, value, and type (all are strings). I want to be able to loop through an Array of Metadata objects and set the corresponding properties on the instantiated class.

package com.acme.reporting.builders
{
 import com.acme.reporting.model.Metadata;

 import mx.core.UIComponent;

 import org.as3commons.reflect.ClassUtils;
 import org.as3commons.reflect.MethodInvoker;

 public class UIComponentBuilder implements IUIComponentBuilder
 {
  public function build(metadata:Array):UIComponent
  {
   var typeClass:Class = ClassUtils.forName(getTypeName(metadata));
   var result:* = ClassUtils.newInstance(typeClass);

   for each (var m:Metadata in metadata)
   {
    if (m.name == "type")
     continue;

    // Attempting to invoke as method,
                // would really like the property though

    var methodInvoker:MethodInvoker = new MethodInvoker();

    methodInvoker.target = result;
    methodInvoker.method = m.name;
    methodInvoker.arguments = [m.value];

    var returnValue:* = methodInvoker.invoke(); // Fails!
   }

   return result;
  }

  private static function getTypeName(metadata:Array):String
  {
   if (metadata == null || metadata.length == 0)
    throw new ArgumentError("metadata is null or empty");

   var typeName:String;

   // Type is usually the first entry
   if (metadata.length > 1 && metadata[0] != null && metadata[0].name == "type")
   {
    typeName = metadata[0].value;
   }
   else
   {
    var typeMetadata:Array = metadata.filter(
     function(element:*, index:int, arr:Array):Boolean
     {
      return element.name == "type";
     }
    );

    if (typeMetadata == null || typeMetadata.length != 1)
     throw new ArgumentError("type entry not found in metadata");

    typeName = typeMetadata[0].value;
   }

   if (typeName == null || typeName.length == 0)
    throw new Error("typeName is null or blank");

   return typeName;
  }
 }
}

Here’s some usage code:

var metadata:Array = new Array();

metadata[0] = new Metadata("type", "mx.controls.Text", null);
metadata[1] = new Metadata("text", "Hello World!", null);
metadata[2] = new Metadata("x", "77", null);
metadata[3] = new Metadata("y", "593", null);

this.addChild(new UIComponentBuilder().build(metadata));

I realize that I have to declare a dummy variable of the type I was to instantiate, or use the -inculde compiler directive. An unfortunate drawback of Flex.

Also, right now there’s code to account for typecasting the value to it’s specified type.

Answer 1

Dynamic execution in AS3 is much simpler than in other languages. This code:

var methodInvoker:MethodInvoker = new MethodInvoker();

methodInvoker.target = result;
methodInvoker.method = m.name;
methodInvoker.arguments = [m.value];

var returnValue:* = methodInvoker.invoke(); // Fails!

can be simplified to this:

var returnValue:* = result[method](m.value);

EDIT:

Since it’s a property, it would be done like this:

result[method] = m.value;

and there is no return value (well, you can call the getter again but it should just return m.value unless the setter/getter do something funky.