YUI autocomplete plugin is undefined - autocomplete

My vary simple code: var ac = Y.Plugin.AutoComplete("searchInput", "results");
ERROR: Uncaught TypeError: Object # has no method 'AutoComplete'
do I need to include some specific js file or...?

This probably means you're not calling it the right way. Although I didn't use it before, the documentation says it only takes one parameter, not two strings. See AutoComplete API :
init ( config ) Base
Inherited from BaseCore but overwritten in base/js/Base.js:191
Init lifecycle method, invoked during construction. Fires the init
event prior to setting up attributes and invoking initializers for the
class hierarchy. Parameters:
config Object
Object with configuration property name/value pairs
Returns: Base: A reference to this object
So you should try to create a config object and pass it as parameter.
Alexis

Related

Unable to resolve error "target of assigner call has no associated assigner command" in Eiffel

In Eiffel Studio, I have been trying to access the fields of an object of a class I have defined from another class. However, it keeps giving errors that I am not able to understand and solve. The following is a snippet of example code:
Class where object is being created:
class
TEST1
feature
object: TEST2
-- object of type TEST2
function(val: INTEGER)
-- Assign
do
object.value:=val
end
end
Class whose object is being created:
class
TEST2
feature
value: INTEGER
end
The error messages are as follows:
Error code: VBAC(2)
Error: target of assigner call has no associated assigner command.
What to do: add an assigner mark to the declaration of the target feature or use a dot form of a call.
Class: TEST1
Feature: function
Line: 10
do
-> object.value:=val
end
and
Error code: VEVI
Error: variable is not properly set.
What to do: ensure the variable is properly set by the correspondig setter instruction.
Class: TEST1
Source class: ANY
Feature: default_create
Attribute(s): object
Line: 331
do
-> end
It seems that there is some problem with the assignment statement. However, I haven't been able to understand what is wrong.
The classes have been defined in different files under the same cluster of the same project. I am new to Eiffel, so I don't know if this could be the problem.
Thank you.
In Eiffel, every attributes are considerate as Read-Only. This remove the need to create getters like you do in other languages like Java. To assign a value to an attribute using the ":=" syntaxe, you will need an assigner. Here an example:
class
TEST2
feature
value:INTEGER assign set_value
set_value(a_value:INTEGER)
do
value := a_value
end
end
Then, you will be able to use the line:
object.value:=val
For the second error, by default, EiffelStudio is what we call Void Safe. This is a mecanism that ensure that an attribute that is not considerated as "detachable" will never be Void (similar to NULL in other languages). By default, every class have the default constructor called "default_create" and this constructor does not do anything. What you have to do, is creating you own constructor in the {TEST1} class that instanciate every attribute inside it. Here is an example:
class
TEST1
create
make
feature
make
do
create object
end
object: TEST2
-- object of type TEST2
function(val: INTEGER)
-- Assign
do
object.value:=val
end
end
In the preceding example, I created a method call make, specify that the method is the constructor and in this method, I make sure that the object attribute is correctly instanciate.

Should it be possible to call an instance method of a class without creating a new object of that class?

I can do this and I don't have any issues:
class MyClass:
def introduce(self):
print("Hello, I am %s, and my name is " %(self))
MyClass.introduce(0)
MyClass().introduce()
I'm using Visual Studio and Python 3.4.1. I don't understand why this doesn't throw an error since I'm basically setting the value of this. Is this a feature and I just shouldn't be doing this? Should I be checking if self is actually an instance of MyClass?
In Python 3 when you do MyClass.introduce() introduce is not linked to any object. It's considered as a (standalone) function like any other function you would declare by itself. The fact that it is declared within a class is not relevant here. introduce is therefore called like any function: a function with one parameter.
When you do MyClass().introduce() (notice the first set of parentheses) introduce is considered as a method belonging to an object which is an instance of class MyClass hence the regular OO behavior of adding automatically the self parameter.
Note that this is different for python 2. In python 2 there is a check to verify that when called, the effective argument passed for the self parameter is indeed an object of the correct type, i.e. an instance of MyClass. If you try MyClass.introduce(0) in Python 2 you'll get: unbound method introduce() must be called with MyClass instance as first argument (got int instance instead). This check doesn't exist in Python 3 anymore because the notion of unbound method no longer exist.

Why is 'init' not assignable?

I just read that the init method can't be used as a value. Meaning:
var x = SomeClass.someClassFunction // ok
var y = SomeClass.init // error
Example found on Language reference
Why should it be like that? Is it a way to enforce language level that too dirty tricks come into place, because of some cohertion or maybe because it interferes with another feature?
Unlike Obj-C, where the init function can be called multiple times without problems, in Swift there actually is no method called init.
init is just a keyword meaning "the following is a constructor". The constructor is called always via MyClass() during the creation of a new instance. It's never called separately as a method myInstance.init(). You can't get a reference to the underlying function because it would be impossible to call it.
This is also connected with the fact that constructors cannot be inherited. Code
var y = SomeClass.init
would also break subtyping because the subtypes are not required to have the same initializers.
Why should it be like that?
init is a special member, not a regular method.
Beyond that, there's no reason that you'd ever need to store init in a variable. The only objects that could use that function in a valid way are instances of the class where that particular init is defined, and any such object will have already been initialized before you could possibly make the assignment.
Initializers don't have a return value. In order to assign it to something, it should be able to return something - and it doesn't.

how to get NPObject from NPObject JS wrapper class

Function in NP API plugin creates NPObject and returns into javascript. Then javascript variable with returned NPObject is used as parameter for some other function of plugin. e.g.
var obj = plugin.GetObject()
plugin.UseObject( obj )
But in second function (UseObject) value of parameter is not original NPObject but NPObject JS wrapper class.
Is there way to get original NPObject from instance of NPObject JS wrapper class?
Short answer: you can't.
More involved answer: Some browsers will give you the originating object, but most these days won't, and there is no way to dereference past their opaque NPObject interface to get back to the underlying object.
Alternate solution: Instead of trying to get it that way, add a unique id to your NPObject and a global map to the pointer. Then when you get an NPObject that you think might be the object, call a method (or get a property) to get the unique ID and then you can look up the pointer.
this is the only method that I've found that works consistently across all browsers.

Can instances get their own copy of class level mutable defaults without using __init__?

I'm writing a metaclass to do some cool stuff, and part of its processing is to check that certain attributes exist when the class is created. Some of these are mutable, and would normally be set in __init__, but since __init__ isn't run until the instance is created the metaclass won't know that the attribute will be created, and raises an error. I could do something like:
class Test(meta=Meta):
mutable = None
def __init__(self):
self.mutable = list()
But this approach has several problems:
it forces the creation of a class attribute that is not the same type as the instance attribute
__init__ still has to shadow the class attribute, and Meta is not checking that
if __init__ doesn't shadow the class attribute I'll still get errors down the line (such as AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'append'), and trying to avoid such errors is part of the function of Meta
and last but not least, it violates DRY.
What I need is a way to have something like:
class Test(metaclass=Meta):
mutable = list()
But each instance will end up with its own copy of mutable.
The design goals are:
the attribute must exist in the class (type doesn't matter -- it is not checked)
at some point before the attribute is first used a copy of the attribute is placed in the instance
A desired sample run:
t1 = Test()
t2 = Test()
t1.mutable.append('one')
t2.mutable.append('two')
t1.mutable # prints ['one']
t2.mutable # prints ['two']
Any ideas on how this can be accomplished?
There are at least three ways to do this:
Have the metaclass check all the attributes, and if they are one of the mutables (list, dict, set, etc.) replace the attribute with a descriptor that will activate on first access and update the instance with a fresh copy of the mutable.
Provide the descriptor from (1) as a decorator to be used when writing the class.
Have the metaclass add its own __init__ method to the class which when run:
calls the original __init__
then checks that the required attributes are present
Downsides (by method):
Extra effort is required if the class has a mutable attribute that should be shared across all instances.
The attribute in the class becomes a function in the class (possible mind-warp ;)
Move the point of error to class instantiation instead of class definition.
I prefer (2) is it gives complete control to the class author, simplifies those cases where the class-level mutable attribute should be shared amongst all the instances, and keeps the error at class definition.
Here's the decorator-descriptor:
class ReplaceMutable:
def __init__(self, func):
self.func = func
def __call__(self):
return self
def __get__(self, instance, owner):
if instance is None:
return self
result = self.func()
setattr(instance, self.func.__name__, result)
return result
and the test class:
class Test:
#ReplaceMutable
def mutable():
return list()
How it works:
Just like property, ReplaceMutable is a descriptor object with the same name as the attribute it is replacing. Unlike property, it does not define __set__ nor __delete__, so when code tries to rebind the name (mutable in the test above) in the instance Python will allow it to do so. This is the same idea behind caching descriptors.
ReplaceMutable is decorating a function (with the name of the desired attribute) that simply returns whatever the instance level attribute should be initialized with (an empty list in the example above). So the first time the attribute is looked up on an instance it will not be found in the instance dictionary and Python will activate the descriptor; the descriptor then calls the function to retrieve the initial object/data/whatever, stores it in the instance, and then returns it. The next time that attribute is accessed on that instance it will be in the instance dictionary, and that is what will be used.
Sample code:
t1 = Test()
t2 = Test()
t1.mutable.append('one')
t2.mutable.append('two')
print(t1.mutable)
print(t2.mutable)