I don’t always work with the Flex Framework, so over and over I’ve written the following:

package my.project.package.utils
{
    public class Type
    {
        private static const cache:Dictionary = new Dictionary(false);
        public static function describe(value:Object):XML{};
    }
}

The describe function caches the results of a call to describeType() based on the type of Class passed in as the Value. But it’s super ugly! All over the place I’ve had to reference a static class: “Type.describe(myObject);” lame.

Why can’t the results of describeType() just be cached in the player? Maybe it is now and I just don’t know it? If so, please tell me!

So here’s the solution if you’d rather have a global function than a static method call:

package org.tinytlf.utils
{
	import flash.utils.*;
 
	public function reflect(type:Object, refreshCache:Boolean = false):XML
	{
		const typeCache:Dictionary = ReflectionCache.cache;
 
		if(!(type is Class))
		{
			if(type is Proxy)
				type = getDefinitionByName(getQualifiedClassName(type)) as Class;
			else if(type is Number)
				type = Number;
			else
				type = type.constructor as Class;
		}
 
		if(refreshCache || typeCache[type] == null)
			typeCache[type] = flash.utils.describeType(type);
 
		return typeCache[type];
	}
}
 
import flash.utils.Dictionary;
 
internal class ReflectionCache
{
	public static const cache:Dictionary = new Dictionary(false);
}

An internal class! Yipee! Static, but internalized. Until now I didn’t think you could store a static stateful reference for global functions to use.

Now you can go around all over the place calling “reflect(myObject);”, enjoying the convenience of describeType() and the benefits of using a static method.

Tags: describeType, reflection

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 8th, 2011 at 7:01 pm and is filed under actionscript, community. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.