Description

PowerBuilder 6.0 has several new objects that provide information about an object's class definition and its variables and scripts.

A class definition object is a PowerBuilder object that provides information about the class definition of another PowerBuilder object. You can examine a class definition in a PowerBuilder library or the class definition associated with an instantiated object.

Uses

Class definition information is important for developers of tools and object frameworks. Developers can inspect objects to produce reports or to define objects with similar characteristics. Class information is not important in typical business applications.

Implementation

These new objects provide class definition information:

 

Object	Description
TypeDefinition	Provides information about a data type and is the ancestor of several more specific definition objects: ClassDefinition, SimpleTypeDefinition, and EnumerationDefinition
ClassDefinition	Provides the object's class name, library, ancestor, parent, variables, scripts, and the objects it contains
SimpleTypeDefinition	Provides information about a simple data type, such as integer, string, blob, and Any
EnumerationDefinition	Provides information about an enumerated data type
VariableDefinition	Provides information about a variable or property associated with a class definition, including its access level, scope, and whether it is an array
ScriptDefinition	Provides information about a function or event script associated with a class definition, including its arguments and return type, whether it is external, and whether it is defined locally or in an ancestor object

Other objects and enumerated data types provide values for properties of these objects.

Several new properties and functions give you access to definition information for your objects:

• PowerObject has a new property called ClassDefinition, making a ClassDefinition object available for any instantiated object
• New global functions called FindTypeDefinition and FindClassDefinition get a type or class definition object for an entry in a PowerBuilder library
• New global function FindFunctionDefinition gets script information for a global function

For more information

For information about the objects, see Objects and Controls or online Help.

For function definitions, see the PowerScript Reference.

For usage information, see:

        Getting information about PowerBuilder class definitions

        Who uses PowerBuilder class definitions

For sample code, see:

        Getting a class definition object

        Getting details about a class definition

        Getting information about a class's scripts

        Getting information about a class's variables