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Behavior Definition

Behavior Definition

While SceneComposer can be used to compose the static structure and properties of a scene, with Behaviors it is possible to add dynamics to a static scene structure.

  • A Behavior is defined by behavior attributes: Name, Type, Properties
  • Behavior attributes are expressed in the Behavior Meta Information
  • Behaviors are assembled together in a widget set
  • Behaviors and the widget set can be assembled in several Behavior libraries (lib), to be linked to the application

Behavior Generation

If cgi_studio_cit is within the package, the base classes for Behaviors can be generated. Therefore an .xhcdl-file has to be written. The base class can include properties that can be defined in the .xhcdl-file too. The xhcdl-files can be found for each behavior in the same folder where the source-code lies. The following example shows an .xhcdl-file for a behavior.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<definition
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="../../../../cgi_studio_cit/schema/HmiContract.xsd">
    <include href="Behaviors/Behavior.xhcdl" addIncludeToCode="false" />
    <generator location="Behaviors/Transition/generated">
        <namespace namespace="Candera" />
        <header>
            <include file="Behaviors/ActionBehavior/ActionBehavior.h" />
            <include file="CanderaWidget/WidgetBase/StringDataTypes.h" />
        </header>
    </generator>
    <widgets setPolicy="onChange" notifierPolicy="onUpdate" viewInvalidationPolicy="wakeup">
        <group baseClassRef="ActionBehavior">
            <widget name="SimpleTransitionActionBehavior" readableName="" uid="{889EF594-E702-4846-930D-BA377121BBA0}">
                <property name="ActivatedSceneAssetID" description="The scene to activate." type="FeatStd::UInt32" uid="{7DB722C4-5543-43D8-BEB0-DF38729C8F5C}" />
                <property name="IsActivatedScene3D" description="If the activated scene is 3D or not." type="bool" uid="{ED8607D7-1F37-49FD-B689-CBF444DFF708}" />
                <property name="DeactivatedSceneAssetID" description="The scene to deactivate." type="FeatStd::UInt32" uid="{9A0E2E92-AAF6-4460-A2D9-7F40FED3210E}" />
                <property name="IsDeactivatedScene3D" description="If the deactivated scene is 3D or not." type="bool" uid="{31F35C65-6E87-4EAF-A660-709C8FB67F1A}" />
                <property name="Variant" description="The transition variant." type="FeatStd::String" uid="{E3A46266-73DE-4F1D-BD5F-224E3ABB91E3}" />
            </widget>
        </group>
    </widgets>
</definition>

Some important tags and attributes:

  • Generator location: Defines in which folder the base class should be generated.
  • Group baseClassRef: The base class of the generated base class.
  • Widget name: The name of the generated base class. The suffix "Base" will be added to the class-name.
  • Property: The properties of the Behavior. For the String-type the include file CanderaWidget/WidgetBase/StringDataTypes.h has to be added for instance. If the property can't be generated it can still be added in the source code.

After the .xhcdl-file is written the behavior can be generated by calling GenerateBehaviors.bat which can be found in cgi_studio_controls/src/Behaviors. The files are a base class with a header- and cpp-file. It is meant to derive from that class. All the properties and its getter- and setter-methods are already in the class.

Behavior Meta Information

Behavior Name and Type

To publish a behavior to SceneComposer, it must register for the widget with its name and type:

CdaBehaviorDef Behavior class name and its base class
CdaDescription Behavior description for the SceneComposer tooltip
CdaReadableName Behavior name

Note that the example above explains how to publish a behavior for a 3D-scene. For 2D-scenes the macro CdaBehavior2DDef must be used instead of CdaBehaviorDef.

Behavior Properties

For linking a behavior with scene content in SceneComposer, behavior properties are used. Usually the properties should be defined in the .xhcdl-file of a behavior. Anyway, the properties can be defined directly in the behavior-class by using the appropriate macros in the header-file. The behavior implements a property by providing a getter and a setter method.

CdaProperty Specifies [property_name], [property_type], [property_getter], [property_setter]
CdaDescription Behavior property description for the SceneComposer tooltip
CdaCategory Defines a category for the property. SceneComposer displays all properties of one category in a related Category section in the property grid.

The Behavior property must be initialized correctly, e.g. in the widget constructor!
Take care that the getter and setter methods are safe (prevent null pointer accesses)!

Usage of the introduced macro CGI_BEHAVIOR_FORWARD_AssetLoaderDataTypeDef

This macro is used to be able to set a certain behavior as property of another behavior.

Therefore following code has to be added to the xhcdl file to generate the macro in the base class of the behavior:

<postNamespace text="CGI_BEHAVIOR_FORWARD_AssetLoaderDataTypeDef(::CgiStudioControl::ValueBehavior)" />

This is an example code to be able to use a ValueBehavior as property. The generated code in the base class of your behavior will look like this:

CGI_BEHAVIOR_FORWARD_AssetLoaderDataTypeDef(::CgiStudioControl::ValueBehavior)


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