NAME

       SoFieldContainer — abstract base class for objects that contain fields

INHERITS FROM

       SoBase > SoFieldContainer

SYNOPSIS

       #include <Inventor/fields/SoFieldContainer.h>

          Methods from class SoFieldContainer:

     static SoType       getClassTypeId()
     void                setToDefaults()
     SbBool              hasDefaultValues() const
     SbBool              fieldsAreEqual(const SoFieldContainer *fc) const
     void                copyFieldValues(const  SoFieldContainer  *fc,  SbBool  copyConnections =
                              FALSE)
     SbBool              set(const char *fieldDataString)
     void                get(SbString &fieldDataString)
     virtual int         getFields(SoFieldList &resultList) const
     virtual SoField *   getField(const SbName &fieldName) const
     SbBool              getFieldName(const SoField *field, SbName &fieldName) const
     SbBool              isNotifyEnabled() const
     SbBool              enableNotify(SbBool flag)

          Methods from class SoBase:

     void                ref()
     void                unref() const
     void                unrefNoDelete() const
     void                touch()
     virtual SoType      getTypeId() const
     SbBool              isOfType(SoType type) const
     virtual void        setName(const SbName &name)
     virtual SbName      getName() const

DESCRIPTION

       SoFieldContainer is the abstract base class for engines and nodes. It contains methods for
       finding  out what fields an object has, controlling notification, and for dealing with all
       of the fields of an object at once.

       The fields of an engine  are  its  inputs.  Note  that  even  though  an  engine's  output
       corresponds to a specific type of field, an engine output is not a field.

METHODS

     static SoType       getClassTypeId()
          Returns the type of this class.

     void                setToDefaults()
          Sets all fields in this object to their default values.

     SbBool              hasDefaultValues() const
          Returns  TRUE if all of the object's fields have their default values. This will return
          TRUE even if a field's isDefault() method returns FALSE — for  example,  if  a  field's
          default  value is 0.0 and you setValue(0.0) that field, the default flag will be set to
          FALSE (because it would be too slow to compare the  field  against  its  default  value
          every  time  setValue is called). However, hasDefaultValues() would return TRUE in this
          case.

     SbBool              fieldsAreEqual(const SoFieldContainer *fc) const
          Returns TRUE if this object's fields are exactly equal to fc's fields.  If  fc  is  not
          exactly same type as this object, FALSE is returned.

     void                copyFieldValues(const  SoFieldContainer  *fc,  SbBool  copyConnections =
                              FALSE)
          Copies the contents of fc's fields into this object's fields. fc must be the same  type
          as  this  object.  If copyConnections is TRUE, then if any of fc's fields are connected
          then this object's fields will also be connected to the same source.

     SbBool              set(const char *fieldDataString)
          Sets one or more fields in this object to the values specified  in  the  given  string,
          which  should  be  a string in the Inventor file format. TRUE is returned if the string
          was valid Inventor file format. For example, you could set the fields of an  SoCube  by
          doing:

               SoCube *cube = ....
               cube->set("width 1.0 height 2.0 depth 3.2");

     void                get(SbString &fieldDataString)
          Returns  the  values  of the fields of this object in the Inventor ASCII file format in
          the given string. Fields whose isDefault() bit is set will not be part of  the  string.
          You  can use the field->get() method to get a field's value as a string even if has its
          default value.

     virtual int         getFields(SoFieldList &resultList) const
          Appends pointers to all of this object's fields to resultList, and returns  the  number
          of  fields  appended. The types of the fields can be determined using field->isOfType()
          and field->getTypeId(), and their names can be determined by passing the field pointers
          to the getFieldName() method (see below).

     virtual SoField *   getField(const SbName &fieldName) const
          Returns  a pointer to the field of this object whose name is fieldName. Returns NULL if
          there is no field with the given name.

     SbBool              getFieldName(const SoField *field, SbName &fieldName) const
          Returns the name of the given field in the fieldName argument. Returns FALSE  if  field
          is not a member of this object.

     SbBool              isNotifyEnabled() const
          Notification is the process of telling interested objects that this object has changed.
          Notification is needed to make engines and sensors function, is used to keep SoPaths up
          to  date  when  the  scene  graph's  topology  changes,  and is also used to invalidate
          rendering or bounding box caches.

          Notification is normally enabled, but can be disabled on a node by node (or  engine  by
          engine)  basis.  If you are making extensive changes to a large part of the scene graph
          then disabling notification can increase  performance,  at  the  expense  of  increased
          responsibility  for  making sure that any interested engines, sensors or paths are kept
          up to date.

          For example, if you will be making a lot of changes to a small part of your scene graph
          and you know that there are no engines or sensors attached to nodes in that part of the
          scene graph, you might disable notification on the nodes you are changing, modify them,
          re-enable notification, and then touch() one of the nodes to cause a redraw.

          However,  you should profile your application and make sure that notification is taking
          a significant amount of time before  going  to  the  trouble  of  manually  controlling
          notification.

     SbBool              enableNotify(SbBool flag)
          Notification  at this Field Container is enabled (if flag == TRUE) or disabled (if flag
          == FALSE). The returned  boolean  value  indicates  whether  notification  was  enabled
          immediately prior to applying this method.

SEE ALSO

       SoSField, SoMField, SoNode, SoDB

                                                                          SoFieldContainer(3IV)()