=encoding ISO8859-1

=head1 NAME

Alien::GvaScript::Event - application-specific events

=head1 SYNOPSIS

  MyConstructor = function (...) {...};
  
  MyContructor.prototype = {
   
    fireEvent = GvaScript.fireEvent, // copy into the target object
  
    someMethod: function(...) {
      ...
      this.fireEvent(eventName, target1, target2, ...);
      // OR ...
      this.fireEvent({type: eventName,
                      prop1: value1,
                      ...            }, target1, target2, ...);
    }
  };


=head1 DESCRIPTION

Extension of the HTML event model with specific events. 
Various C<GvaScript> controllers use this to manage interactions
between the DOM elements and the controller. Client code
can register a an event handler either within the 
HTML code, or through Javascript.


Events have names specific to the controller
(for example C<choiceList> uses events C<Highlight> and C<Ping>;
C<treeNavigator> uses events C<Close>, C<Open>, C<BeforeLoadContent>, etc.).


=head1 METHODS

=head2 fireEvent (first syntax)

If a class needs to fire specific events, it must 
I<copy> the C<GvaScript.fireEvent> method into its own
methods (so that "this" is properly bound to an instance
of that class).

The first argument to C<fireEvent> is usually an event name. This 
can be any string, without the C<on> prefix :

  this.fireEvent("Ping", this.htmlElement, otherElement1, ...);

The method will inspect all HTML elements supplied in 
the argument list, trying to find an C<onPing> handler.
If none is found, the method also tries to find 
an C<onPing> property within the calling object (C<this>).

If an event handler is found, that handler is called
with an C<event> argument as described below; 
the return value of the handler becomes the 
return value of C<fireEvent>. If not handler is found,
C<fireEvent> returns C<null>.

=head2 fireEvent (second syntax)

For more sophisticated needs, the first argument
to C<fireEvent> can be an object with several 
properties. In that case, all properties will be copied
into the generated event structure. The C<type> property
should contain the event name, in order to be compatible
with the first syntax. So for example 

  this.fireEvent({type  : "Ping",
                  prop1 : "value1",
                  prop2 : "value2"}, this.htmlElement, otherElement1, ...);

will generate "Ping" events with all default properties described
below, plus the properties C<prop1> and C<prop2>.



=head1 REGISTERING AN EVENT HANDLER

  <div onEventName="doSomethingWith(this)">
    <span onEventName="doSomethingMoreSpecificWith(this, controller)">
    <span onEventName="doYetAnotherThing">
  </div>

  myController.onEventName = function(event){...};

There are three ways to register a handler:

=over

=item javascript statement in an HTML attribute

This works as for ordinary HTML DOM events. The javascript statement 
will be evaluated in a context where the following variables are
defined:

=over

=item this

The object that registered the event handler.

=item target

The HTML element that first received the event.

=item currentTarget

The object that registered the event handler (equivalent to C<this>).

=item controller

The GvaScript controller object that generated the event.

=item event

A structure containing various information about the generated event,
described below.

=back

=item name of a javascript function inside an HTML attribute

The given function will be called with a single C<event> argument.

=item property assigned from Javascript

This works exactly like the previous case : the event handling
function receives a single C<event> argument.

=back



=head2 Event structure

The C<event> object passed to event handlers contains the
following properties :


=over

=item type

name of the triggered event (i.e. "Ping", "Highlight", etc.)

=item target

The HTML element that first received the event.

=item srcElement

Synonym for C<target>.

=item currentTarget

The object that registered the event handler.

=item controller

The GvaScript controller object that generated the event.

=back