libcosmic/crates/component-system/README.md
2022-01-25 16:31:16 +01:00

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# COSMIC Component System
This library is a GTK4 GUI framework inspired by [Relm](https://github.com/antoyo/relm), which is inspired by [Elm](https://guide.elm-lang.org/architecture/). The philosophy for this framework is to isolate custom widgets into reusable components. You start with a custom `Model` type that implements `Component`, which is used to register a component with an optional argument. On registration, the model is used to construct the view and its widgets in the `init_view()` function. An event-handler is also spawned to handle events from both the component and any component emitting events to it. Those events are received and handled in the `update()` function. Both the `init_view()` and `update()` methods also have access to an outbound sender, which the caller can forward and consume however desired. See the examples directory for a demonstration of how to create a component.
## Defining a Component
The simplest way to define a component is to use the `component!()` macro.
```rs
pub enum MyCustomInputMessage {
Variant1,
Variant2,
}
component! {
// The `()` is the args parameter accepted by `init_view()`
// and `Component::register()`.
pub struct MyCustomModel(()) {
pub state: String,
}
// The `gtk::Box` is the root widget returned in `init_view()`.
pub struct MyCustomWidgets(gtk::Box) {
description: gtk::Label,
}
// The type of the input sender
type Input = MyCustomInputMessage;
// The type of the output sender
type Output = ();
// `self` is `MyCustomModel`, and must return `(MyCustomWidget, RootWidget)`
fn init_view(self, args, input, output) {
ccs::view! {
root = gtk::Box {
set_orientation: gtk::Orientation::Vertical,
append: description = &gtk::Label {
}
}
}
(MyCustomWidgets { description }, root)
}
// Where events are received, with `self` also being `MyCustomModel`, and
// `widgets` is `MyCustomInputMessage`. `event` is `MyCustonInputMessage`.
fn update(self, widgets, event, input, output) {
match event {
MyCustomInputMessage::Variant1 => {
}
MyCustomInputMessage::Variant2 => {
}
}
}
}
```
Components can be created and have their output events forwarded:
```rs
let counter = InfoButton::default()
.register("Clicked 0 times".into(), "Click".into())
.forward(input.clone(), |event| match event {
InfoButtonOutput::Clicked => AppEvent::Increment
});
```
The handle returned can be used to emit inputs to it, and to get the root widget.
```rs
counter.emit(InfoButtonInput::SetDescription(format!("Clicked {} times", count)));
box.append(counter.widget());
```
## See Also
[Relm4](https://github.com/AaronErhardt/relm4) uses a similar approach, but closely follows the Elm model. This library was created as an alternative approach that makes developing reusable components with forwardable events simpler.
## License
Licensed under the [Mozilla Public License 2.0](https://choosealicense.com/licenses/mpl-2.0/).
### Contribution
Any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the work by you shall be licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0 (MPL-2.0).