Where are the Delphi Attributes Real World Examples?
If you want to declare you own attribute, you can do it like this:
type
TDisplayLabelAttribute = class(TCustomAttribute)
private
FText: string;
public
constructor Create(const aText: string);
property Text: string read FText write FText;
end;
An attribute is a regular class, that has the TCustomAttribute as its ancestor. You implement it as usual:
implementation
constructor TDisplayLabelAttribute.Create(const aText: string);
begin
FText := aText;
end;
Now the attribute is declared and implemented, you can just use it:
[DisplayLabel('My Class')]
TMyClass = class
end;
So now you have an attribute declared and implemented and you have used it to add a display label to some class. The final phase is to use that attribute, since you have a class decorated with it. The code that uses the attribute does not resides in the attribute nor the decorated class, it is implemented in the service layer that will use the decoration.
Let's say we have a class that returns a possible display label for a class:
type
TArtifactInspector = class
public
class function DisplayLabelFor(aClass: TClass): string;
end;
That method will inspect a class and return its display label, given it exists. Otherwise it returns an empty string:
implementation
uses
Rtti;
class function TArtifactInspector.DisplayLabelFor(aClass: TClass): string;
var
rttiContext: TRttiContext;
rttiType: TRttiType;
attribute: TCustomAttribute;
begin
rttiContext := TRttiContext.Create;
try
rttiType := rttiContext.GetType(aClass);
for attribute in rttiType.GetAttributes do
if attribute is TDisplayLabelAttribute then
Exit(TDisplayLabelAttribute(attribute).Text);
Result := '';
finally
rttiContext.Free;
end; // try to recover and return the DisplayLabel
end;
Not sure if the question is asking for real world examples of attribute use or how to serialize db tables into objects using attributes. The example below is a contrived simple one (but an example none the less) showing how to use attributes to log changes to object properties.
Define your custom attribute
//By convention attributes are *not* prefixed with a `T`
//and have the word `Attribute` in their name
LoggableAttribute = class(TCustomAttribute)
private
FDescription : String;
public
constructor Create(Description: String);
property Description: String read FDescription;
end;
The "hello world" of classes TProduct using the attribute
TProduct = Class(TObject)
private
FPrice: Double;
FDescription: String;
..
public
[LoggableAttribute('Product Price')]
property Price : Double read FPrice write SetPrice;
[Loggable('Product Description')] {the `Attribute` part is optional}
property Description : String read FDescription write SetDescription;
property IsDirty : Boolean read FIsDirty;
End;
Any class that has a "loggable attribute" can be passed to this method to iterate through the properties and log them.
procedure LogChanges(LoggableClass: TObject);
var
c : TRttiContext;
t : TRttiType;
p : TRttiProperty;
a : TCustomAttribute;
Value : TValue;
begin
c := TRttiContext.Create;
try
t := c.GetType(LoggableClass.ClassType);
for p in t.getProperties do
for a in p.GetAttributes do
if a is TLoggableProperty then begin
Value := p.GetValue(LoggableClass);
// log to db..
AddLogEntry(p.Name, TLoggableProperty(a).Description, Value.ToString);
end;
finally
c.Free;
end;
end;
Example of use:
var
P : TProduct;
begin
P := TProduct.Create;
P.LoadPropertiesFromDB;
...
... User edits price ...
...
P.Price := 499.99;
...
... Save product to DB
if P.IsDirty then // save and log
LogChanges(P);
I must say it's not much clear to me what kind of example do you need. IMHO in http://docwiki.embarcadero.com/RADStudio/Rio/en/Overview_of_Attributes is everything you should need, perhaps providing that you have some basic knowledge of annotation and/or aspect programming resp.
An example depends on the way/purpose an author of particular SW used attributes for. You mentioned the ORM system: the typical usage here is to annotate member of the class representing DB entity with additional information necessary for DB operation in the backend of such framework. Let assume you have a DB entity having field COMPANY CHAR(32) NOT NULL and you want to represent it in Delphi class:
TSomeDBEntity = class(...)
FCDS: TClientDataset;
...
constructor Create;
...
[TCharColumn('COMPANY', 32, false)]
property CompanyName: string read GetCompanyName write SetCompanyName;
end;
then you will define attribute TCharColumn with constructor
constructor TCharColumn.Create(const AFieldName:string; ALength:integer; ANullable:boolean);
begin
inherited;
FName := AFieldName;
FLength := ALength;
FNullable := ANullable;
end;
And usage of such annotation could look something like this:
FCDS := TClientDataset.Create(nil);
RttiContext := TRttiContext.Create;
try
RttiType := RttiContext.GetType(self.ClassType);
Props := RttiType.GetProperties;
for Prop in Props do
begin
Attrs := Prop.GetAttributes;
case Prop.PropertyType.TypeKind of
tkUString:
begin
for Attr in Attrs do
if Attr is TCharColumn then
begin
ColAttr := TCharColumn(Attr);
FCDS.FieldDefs.Add(ColAttr.FName, ftString, ColAttr.FLength, not ColAttr.FNullable);
end;
end;
else
//... ;
end;
end;
finally
RttiContext.Free;
end;
This piece of the program demonstrates, how to define fields in a dataset in run-time based on annotation in Delphi. We are limited little bit due lack of named parameters, hence working with parameter list is not flexible as should be e.g. like in Java (compare TMS Aurelius annotation set http://www.tmssoftware.com/site/manuals/aurelius_manual.pdf and http://www.techferry.com/articles/hibernate-jpa-annotations.html