Programming Flex 3

Reflection

ActionScript 3.0 supports class reflection using the following functions in the flash.utils package:

• getQualifiedClassName

• getQualifiedSuperclassName

• getDefinitionByName

• describeType

Getting the Class Name

You can retrieve the name of the class for which an object is an instance using the getQualifiedClassName() function. The function requires that you pass it a reference to an object; it then returns the fully qualified class name.

var loader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
var className:String = getQualifiedClassName(loader);
trace(className); // Displays flash.net::URLLoader

If you want to retrieve the fully qualified superclass name for an object, you can use the getQualifiedSuperclassName() function:

var loader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
var className:String = getQualifiedSuperclassName(loader);
trace(className); // Displays flash.events::EventDispatcher

Getting the Class by Name

If you have a class name, you can retrieve a reference to the class using the getDefinitionByName() function. The function requires a string parameter specifying a fully qualified class name, and it returns an Object type. The function returns an Object type rather than a Class type because it could also theoretically return a reference to a function if you pass it a fully qualified function name (e.g., flash.util.getTimer).

If you’re certain that you’re retrieving a class reference, you can cast the return value to Class, as in the following example:

var classReference:Class = Class(getDefinitionByName("flash.net.URLLoader"));

Once you’ve retrieved a reference to a class, you can create a new instance, as follows:

var instance:Object = new classReference();

Obviously, you can use the return value from getQualifiedClassName() or getQualifiedSuperclassName() in conjunction with getDefinitionByName(), as in the following example:

var loader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
var className:String = getQualifiedClassName(loader);
var classReference:Class = Class(getDefinitionByName(className));
var instance:Object = new classReference();

Class Introspection

You can use describeType() to return a description of all the events, public properties, and public methods of an object. Simply pass the method a reference to the object you want to introspect. The method returns an XML object that details the class name, superclass, various class settings, implemented interfaces, constructor signature, public method signatures, and public properties descriptions.

The following example retrieves the description for a URLLoader object:

var loader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
var description:XML = describeType(loader);
trace(description);

The preceding example outputs the following:

<type name="flash.net::URLLoader" base="flash.events::EventDispatcher"
isDynamic="false" isFinal="false" isStatic="false">
  <metadata name="Event">
    <arg key="name" value="httpStatus"/>
    <arg key="type" value="flash.events.HTTPStatusEvent"/>
  </metadata>
  <metadata name="Event">
    <arg key="name" value="securityError"/>
    <arg key="type" value="flash.events.SecurityErrorEvent"/>
  </metadata>
  <metadata name="Event">
    <arg key="name" value="ioError"/>
    <arg key="type" value="flash.events.IOErrorEvent"/>
  </metadata>
  <metadata name="Event">
    <arg key="name" value="progress"/>
    <arg key="type" value="flash.events.ProgressEvent"/>
  </metadata>
  <metadata name="Event">
    <arg key="name" value="complete"/>
    <arg key="type" value="flash.events.Event"/>
  </metadata>
  <metadata name="Event">
    <arg key="name" value="open"/>
    <arg key="type" value="flash.events.Event"/>
  </metadata>
  <extendsClass type="flash.events::EventDispatcher"/>
  <extendsClass type="Object"/>
  <implementsInterface type="flash.events::IEventDispatcher"/>
  <constructor>
    <parameter index="1" type="flash.net::URLRequest" optional="true"/>
  </constructor>
  <variable name="bytesTotal" type="uint"/>
  <variable name="data" type="*"/>
  <method name="load" declaredBy="flash.net::URLLoader" returnType="void">
    <parameter index="1" type="flash.net::URLRequest" optional="false"/>
  </method>
  <method name="close" declaredBy="flash.net::URLLoader" returnType="void"/>
  <variable name="dataFormat" type="String"/>
  <variable name="bytesLoaded" type="uint"/>
  <method name="dispatchEvent" declaredBy="flash.events::EventDispatcher"
returnType="Boolean">
    <parameter index="1" type="flash.events::Event" optional="false"/>
  </method>
  <method name="toString" declaredBy="flash.events::EventDispatcher"
returnType="String"/>
  <method name="willTrigger" declaredBy="flash.events::EventDispatcher"
returnType="Boolean">
    <parameter index="1" type="String" optional="false"/>
  </method>
  <method name="addEventListener" declaredBy="flash.events::EventDispatcher"
returnType="void">
    <parameter index="1" type="String" optional="false"/>
    <parameter index="2" type="Function" optional="false"/>
    <parameter index="3" type="Boolean" optional="true"/>
    <parameter index="4" type="int" optional="true"/>
    <parameter index="5" type="Boolean" optional="true"/>
  </method>
  <method name="hasEventListener" declaredBy="flash.events::EventDispatcher"
returnType="Boolean">
    <parameter index="1" type="String" optional="false"/>
  </method>
  <method name="removeEventListener" declaredBy="flash.events::EventDispatcher"
returnType="void">
    <parameter index="1" type="String" optional="false"/>
    <parameter index="2" type="Function" optional="false"/>
    <parameter index="3" type="Boolean" optional="true"/>
  </method>
</type>