NAME

       SoGroup -

       The SoGroup class is a node which managed other node instances.

       The internal scene data structures in Coin are managed as directed graphs. The graphs are
       built by setting up a hierarchy through the use of group nodes (either of this type, or
       from subclasses like SoSeparator) which is then traversed when applying actions (like
       SoGLRenderAction) to it.

SYNOPSIS

       #include <Inventor/nodes/SoGroup.h>

       Inherits SoNode.

       Inherited by SoArray, SoLevelOfDetail, SoLOD, SoMultipleCopy, SoPathSwitch, SoSeparator,
       SoSwitch, SoTransformSeparator, SoVRMLLOD, SoVRMLParent, and SoVRMLSwitch.

   Public Member Functions
       virtual SoType getTypeId (void) const
           Returns the type identification of an object derived from a class inheriting SoBase.
           This is used for run-time type checking and 'downward' casting.
       SoGroup (void)
       SoGroup (int nchildren)
       virtual void addChild (SoNode *node)
       virtual void insertChild (SoNode *child, int newchildindex)
       virtual SoNode * getChild (int index) const
       virtual int findChild (const SoNode *node) const
       virtual int getNumChildren (void) const
       virtual void removeChild (int childindex)
       virtual void removeChild (SoNode *child)
       virtual void removeAllChildren (void)
       virtual void replaceChild (int index, SoNode *newchild)
       virtual void replaceChild (SoNode *oldchild, SoNode *newchild)
       virtual void doAction (SoAction *action)
       virtual void GLRender (SoGLRenderAction *action)
       virtual void callback (SoCallbackAction *action)
       virtual void getBoundingBox (SoGetBoundingBoxAction *action)
       virtual void getMatrix (SoGetMatrixAction *action)
       virtual void handleEvent (SoHandleEventAction *action)
       virtual void pick (SoPickAction *action)
       virtual void search (SoSearchAction *action)
       virtual void write (SoWriteAction *action)
       virtual void getPrimitiveCount (SoGetPrimitiveCountAction *action)
       virtual void audioRender (SoAudioRenderAction *action)
       virtual SoChildList * getChildren (void) const

   Static Public Member Functions
       static SoType getClassTypeId (void)
       static void initClass (void)

   Protected Member Functions
       virtual const SoFieldData * getFieldData (void) const
       virtual ~SoGroup ()
       virtual SbBool readInstance (SoInput *in, unsigned short flags)
       virtual SbBool readChildren (SoInput *in)
       virtual void copyContents (const SoFieldContainer *from, SbBool copyconnections)
       virtual SoNotRec createNotRec (void)
       void setOperation (const SoNotRec::OperationType opType=SoNotRec::UNSPECIFIED, const
           SoNode *cc=NULL, const SoNode *pc=NULL, const int ci=-1)

   Static Protected Member Functions
       static const SoFieldData ** getFieldDataPtr (void)

   Protected Attributes
       SoChildList * children

   Additional Inherited Members

Detailed Description

       The SoGroup class is a node which managed other node instances.

       The internal scene data structures in Coin are managed as directed graphs. The graphs are
       built by setting up a hierarchy through the use of group nodes (either of this type, or
       from subclasses like SoSeparator) which is then traversed when applying actions (like
       SoGLRenderAction) to it.

       SoGroup, SoSeparator, and other classes derived from SoGroup, are the 'tools' the
       application programmer uses when making the layout of the scene graph.

       An often asked question about SoGroup nodes is: 'Why is there no SoGroup::getParent()
       method?' The answer to this is that nodes in the scene graph can have multiple parents, so
       a simple getParent() method wouldn't work. If you have a node pointer (or other node
       identification) of a node that you want to remove from the scene graph, what you need to
       do is to use an SoSearchAction to find all paths down to the node, and then invoke
       SoGroup::removeChild() from all found parents of the node.

       The function would look something like this:

       void getParents(SoNode * node, SoNode * root, SoPathList & parents)
       {
         SoSearchAction sa;
         sa.setNode(node);
         sa.setInterest(SoSearchAction::ALL);
         sa.apply(root);
         parents = sa.getPaths();
       }

       Or if you know that your node of interest has only a single parent:

       SoGroup * getParent(SoNode * node, SoNode * root)
       {
         SoSearchAction sa;
         sa.setNode(node);
         sa.setInterest(SoSearchAction::FIRST);
         sa.apply(root);
         SoPath * p = sa.getPath();
         assert(p && "not found");
         if (p->getLength() < 2) { return NULL; } // no parent
         return (SoGroup *)p->getNodeFromTail(1);
       }

       An important note about a potential problem using SoGroup nodes which it is not common to
       stumble on, but which makes hard to find bugs when one does: you should not change the
       scene graph layout during any action traversal, as that is not allowed by the internal
       Coin code. I.e. do not use addChild(), removeChild(), insertChild() or replaceChild() from
       any callback that is triggered directly or indirectly from an action traversal. The most
       common way of getting hit by this error, would be something like the following
       (simplified) example:

       #include <Inventor/Qt/SoQt.h>
       #include <Inventor/Qt/viewers/SoQtExaminerViewer.h>

       #include <Inventor/nodes/SoEventCallback.h>
       #include <Inventor/nodes/SoSeparator.h>
       #include <Inventor/nodes/SoCone.h>
       #include <Inventor/manips/SoPointLightManip.h>
       #include <Inventor/events/SoMouseButtonEvent.h>

       SoPointLightManip * global_pointlightmanip;
       SoSeparator * global_root;

       // Remove pointlight when clicking right mouse button.
       static void
       mySelectionC(void * ud, SoEventCallback * n)
       {
         const SoMouseButtonEvent * mbe = (SoMouseButtonEvent*) n->getEvent();

         if ((mbe->getButton() == SoMouseButtonEvent::BUTTON2) &&
             (mbe->getState() == SoButtonEvent::DOWN)) {
           if (global_pointlightmanip) {
             global_root->removeChild(global_pointlightmanip);
             global_pointlightmanip = NULL;
           }
         }
       }

       int
       main(int argc, char ** argv)
       {
         QWidget * window = SoQt::init(argv[0]);

         global_root = new SoSeparator;
         global_root->ref();

         SoEventCallback * ecb = new SoEventCallback;
         ecb->addEventCallback(SoMouseButtonEvent::getClassTypeId(), mySelectionC, 0);
         global_root->addChild(ecb);

         global_root->addChild(new SoCone);

         global_pointlightmanip = new SoPointLightManip;
         global_root->addChild(global_pointlightmanip);

         SoQtExaminerViewer * viewer = new SoQtExaminerViewer(window);
         viewer->setSceneGraph(global_root);
         viewer->show();

         SoQt::show(window);
         SoQt::mainLoop();

         global_root->unref();
         delete viewer;

         return 0;
       }

       What happens in the above case is this: when clicking with the right mouse button, the
       SoQtExaminerViewer converts the Qt event to a Coin event, which is sent down the scene
       graph with an SoHandleEventAction. The action traversal reaches the 'global_root'
       SoSeparator node, where it sees that it should further traverse 3 child nodes (first the
       SoEventCallback, then the SoCone, then the SoPointLightManip). When it then traverses the
       SoEventCallback, the mySelectionC() callback will be invoked, which removes the last
       child. But the SoHandleEventAction will still continue it's traversal as if the
       global_root node has 3 children -- and the code will crash.

       (This exact example would perhaps be straight-forward to handle internally in Coin, but
       there are other ways to change the scene graph layout that are very difficult to handle
       properly. So in general, changing layout during action traversal is not allowed.)

       What to do in these cases is to change the code inside the callback to not do any
       operations that immediately changes the layout of the scene graph, but to delay it for
       after the traversal is done. This can e.g. be done by using a Coin sensor.

       FILE FORMAT/DEFAULTS:

       Group {
       }

Constructor & Destructor Documentation

   SoGroup::SoGroup (void)
       Default constructor.

   SoGroup::SoGroup (intnchildren)
       Constructor.

       The argument should be the approximate number of children which is expected to be inserted
       below this node. The number need not be exact, as it is only used as a hint for better
       memory resource allocation.

   SoGroup::~SoGroup () [protected],  [virtual]
       Destructor.

Member Function Documentation

   SoType SoGroup::getTypeId (void) const [virtual]
       Returns the type identification of an object derived from a class inheriting SoBase. This
       is used for run-time type checking and 'downward' casting. Usage example:

       void foo(SoNode * node)
       {
         if (node->getTypeId() == SoFile::getClassTypeId()) {
           SoFile * filenode = (SoFile *)node;  // safe downward cast, knows the type
         }
       }

       For application programmers wanting to extend the library with new nodes, engines,
       nodekits, draggers or others: this method needs to be overridden in all subclasses. This
       is typically done as part of setting up the full type system for extension classes, which
       is usually accomplished by using the pre-defined macros available through for instance
       Inventor/nodes/SoSubNode.h (SO_NODE_INIT_CLASS and SO_NODE_CONSTRUCTOR for node classes),
       Inventor/engines/SoSubEngine.h (for engine classes) and so on.

       For more information on writing Coin extensions, see the class documentation of the
       toplevel superclasses for the various class groups.

       Implements SoBase.

       Reimplemented in SoExtSelection, SoVRMLSwitch, SoSelection, SoWWWAnchor, SoVRMLAnchor,
       SoGeoSeparator, SoSwitch, SoShadowGroup, SoLocateHighlight, SoSeparator, SoVRMLCollision,
       SoVRMLGroup, SoVRMLLOD, SoBlinker, SoLOD, SoVRMLBillboard, SoVRMLParent, SoArray,
       SoLevelOfDetail, SoVRMLTransform, SoMultipleCopy, SoPathSwitch, SoAnnotation, and
       SoTransformSeparator.

   const SoFieldData * SoGroup::getFieldData (void) const [protected],  [virtual]
       Returns a pointer to the class-wide field data storage object for this instance. If no
       fields are present, returns NULL.

       Reimplemented from SoFieldContainer.

       Reimplemented in SoExtSelection, SoVRMLSwitch, SoSelection, SoWWWAnchor, SoVRMLAnchor,
       SoGeoSeparator, SoSwitch, SoShadowGroup, SoLocateHighlight, SoSeparator, SoVRMLCollision,
       SoVRMLGroup, SoVRMLLOD, SoBlinker, SoLOD, SoVRMLBillboard, SoVRMLParent, SoArray,
       SoLevelOfDetail, SoVRMLTransform, SoMultipleCopy, SoPathSwitch, SoAnnotation, and
       SoTransformSeparator.

   void SoGroup::addChild (SoNode *node) [virtual]
       Append a child node to the list of children nodes this group node is managing.

       Please note that this method is not virtual in the original SGI Inventor API.

       Reimplemented in SoVRMLSwitch, SoVRMLLOD, and SoVRMLParent.

   void SoGroup::insertChild (SoNode *child, intnewchildindex) [virtual]
       Insert a child node at position newchildindex.

       newchildindex must be <= this->getNumChildren()

       Please note that this method is not virtual in the original SGI Inventor API.

       Reimplemented in SoVRMLSwitch, SoVRMLLOD, and SoVRMLParent.

   SoNode * SoGroup::getChild (intindex) const [virtual]
       Returns pointer to child node at index.

       Please note that this method is not virtual in the original SGI Inventor API.

       Reimplemented in SoVRMLSwitch, SoVRMLLOD, and SoVRMLParent.

   int SoGroup::findChild (const SoNode *node) const [virtual]
       Returns index in our list of children for child node, or -1 if node is not a child of this
       group node.

       Please note that this method is not virtual in the original SGI Inventor API.

       Reimplemented in SoVRMLSwitch, SoVRMLLOD, and SoVRMLParent.

   int SoGroup::getNumChildren (void) const [virtual]
       Returns number of child nodes managed by this group.

       Please note that this method is not virtual in the original SGI Inventor API.

       Reimplemented in SoVRMLSwitch, SoVRMLLOD, and SoVRMLParent.

   void SoGroup::removeChild (intchildindex) [virtual]
       Remove node at childindex in our list of children.

       Please note that this method is not virtual in the original SGI Inventor API.

       Reimplemented in SoVRMLSwitch, SoVRMLLOD, and SoVRMLParent.

   void SoGroup::removeChild (SoNode *child) [virtual]
       Remove child from the set of children managed by this group node. Will decrease the
       reference count of child by 1.

       This is a convenience method. It will simply call findChild() with child as argument, and
       then call removeChild(int) if the child is found.

       Please note that this method is not virtual in the original SGI Inventor API.

       Reimplemented in SoVRMLSwitch, SoVRMLLOD, and SoVRMLParent.

   void SoGroup::removeAllChildren (void) [virtual]
       Do not manage the children anymore. Will dereference all children by 1 as they are
       removed.

       Please note that this method is not virtual in the original SGI Inventor API.

       Reimplemented in SoVRMLSwitch, SoVRMLLOD, and SoVRMLParent.

   void SoGroup::replaceChild (intindex, SoNode *newchild) [virtual]
       Replace child at index with newChild.

       Dereferences the child previously at index, and increases the reference count of newChild
       by 1.

       index must be < this->getNumChildren()

       Please note that this method is not virtual in the original SGI Inventor API.

       Reimplemented in SoVRMLSwitch, SoVRMLLOD, and SoVRMLParent.

   void SoGroup::replaceChild (SoNode *oldchild, SoNode *newchild) [virtual]
       Replace oldchild with newchild.

       Dereferences oldchild by 1, and increases the reference count of newchild by 1.

       This is a convenience method. It will simply call findChild() with oldchild as argument,
       and call replaceChild(int, SoNode*) if the child is found.

       Please note that this method is not virtual in the original SGI Inventor API.

       Reimplemented in SoVRMLSwitch, SoVRMLLOD, and SoVRMLParent.

   void SoGroup::doAction (SoAction *action) [virtual]
       This function performs the typical operation of a node for any action.

       Reimplemented from SoNode.

       Reimplemented in SoVRMLSwitch, SoVRMLTransform, SoVRMLLOD, SoVRMLGroup, SoVRMLParent,
       SoArray, SoSeparator, SoSwitch, SoLOD, SoVRMLBillboard, SoLevelOfDetail, SoMultipleCopy,
       SoPathSwitch, and SoTransformSeparator.

   void SoGroup::GLRender (SoGLRenderAction *action) [virtual]
       Action method for the SoGLRenderAction.

       This is called during rendering traversals. Nodes influencing the rendering state in any
       way or who wants to throw geometry primitives at OpenGL overrides this method.

       Reimplemented from SoNode.

       Reimplemented in SoVRMLSwitch, SoVRMLLOD, SoVRMLGroup, SoArray, SoSeparator, SoSwitch,
       SoLOD, SoVRMLBillboard, SoVRMLCollision, SoLevelOfDetail, SoMultipleCopy, SoPathSwitch,
       SoTransformSeparator, and SoAnnotation.

   void SoGroup::callback (SoCallbackAction *action) [virtual]
       Action method for SoCallbackAction.

       Simply updates the state according to how the node behaves for the render action, so the
       application programmer can use the SoCallbackAction for extracting information about the
       scene graph.

       Reimplemented from SoNode.

       Reimplemented in SoVRMLSwitch, SoVRMLTransform, SoVRMLLOD, SoVRMLGroup, SoSeparator,
       SoArray, SoSwitch, SoPathSwitch, SoGeoSeparator, SoLOD, SoVRMLBillboard, SoLevelOfDetail,
       SoMultipleCopy, and SoTransformSeparator.

   void SoGroup::getBoundingBox (SoGetBoundingBoxAction *action) [virtual]
       Action method for the SoGetBoundingBoxAction.

       Calculates bounding box and center coordinates for node and modifies the values of the
       action to encompass the bounding box for this node and to shift the center point for the
       scene more towards the one for this node.

       Nodes influencing how geometry nodes calculates their bounding box also overrides this
       method to change the relevant state variables.

       Reimplemented from SoNode.

       Reimplemented in SoVRMLSwitch, SoVRMLLOD, SoVRMLTransform, SoVRMLGroup, SoArray,
       SoSeparator, SoLOD, SoSwitch, SoGeoSeparator, SoVRMLBillboard, SoLevelOfDetail,
       SoMultipleCopy, SoPathSwitch, SoBlinker, and SoTransformSeparator.

   void SoGroup::getMatrix (SoGetMatrixAction *action) [virtual]
       Action method for SoGetMatrixAction.

       Updates action by accumulating with the transformation matrix of this node (if any).

       Reimplemented from SoNode.

       Reimplemented in SoVRMLSwitch, SoVRMLTransform, SoVRMLGroup, SoArray, SoSeparator,
       SoSwitch, SoGeoSeparator, SoVRMLBillboard, SoMultipleCopy, SoPathSwitch, and
       SoTransformSeparator.

   void SoGroup::handleEvent (SoHandleEventAction *action) [virtual]
       Action method for SoHandleEventAction.

       Inspects the event data from action, and processes it if it is something which this node
       should react to.

       Nodes influencing relevant state variables for how event handling is done also overrides
       this method.

       Reimplemented from SoNode.

       Reimplemented in SoExtSelection, SoSelection, SoVRMLSwitch, SoSeparator, SoArray,
       SoWWWAnchor, SoLocateHighlight, SoSwitch, SoVRMLAnchor, SoMultipleCopy, and SoPathSwitch.

   void SoGroup::pick (SoPickAction *action) [virtual]
       Action method for SoPickAction.

       Does common processing for SoPickAction action instances.

       Reimplemented from SoNode.

       Reimplemented in SoVRMLSwitch, SoArray, SoSwitch, SoVRMLBillboard, SoMultipleCopy,
       SoPathSwitch, and SoTransformSeparator.

   void SoGroup::search (SoSearchAction *action) [virtual]
       Action method for SoSearchAction.

       Compares the search criteria from the action to see if this node is a match. Searching is
       done by matching up all criteria set up in the SoSearchAction -- if any of the requested
       criteria is a miss, the search is not deemed successful for the node.

       See Also:
           SoSearchAction

       Reimplemented from SoNode.

       Reimplemented in SoVRMLSwitch, SoVRMLGroup, SoVRMLLOD, SoSeparator, SoArray, SoSwitch,
       SoVRMLParent, SoVRMLBillboard, SoMultipleCopy, and SoPathSwitch.

   void SoGroup::write (SoWriteAction *action) [virtual]
       Action method for SoWriteAction.

       Writes out a node object, and any connected nodes, engines etc, if necessary.

       Reimplemented from SoNode.

       Reimplemented in SoVRMLSwitch, SoVRMLGroup, SoVRMLLOD, SoSwitch, SoVRMLParent, and
       SoBlinker.

   void SoGroup::getPrimitiveCount (SoGetPrimitiveCountAction *action) [virtual]
       Action method for the SoGetPrimitiveCountAction.

       Calculates the number of triangle, line segment and point primitives for the node and adds
       these to the counters of the action.

       Nodes influencing how geometry nodes calculates their primitive count also overrides this
       method to change the relevant state variables.

       Reimplemented from SoNode.

       Reimplemented in SoVRMLGroup, SoVRMLLOD, SoVRMLTransform, SoSeparator, SoArray, SoSwitch,
       SoVRMLParent, SoLOD, SoGeoSeparator, SoMultipleCopy, SoPathSwitch, and
       SoTransformSeparator.

   void SoGroup::audioRender (SoAudioRenderAction *action) [virtual]
       Action method for SoAudioRenderAction.

       Does common processing for SoAudioRenderAction action instances.

       Reimplemented from SoNode.

       Reimplemented in SoVRMLSwitch, SoVRMLGroup, SoVRMLLOD, SoVRMLTransform, SoSeparator,
       SoArray, SoSwitch, SoLOD, SoMultipleCopy, SoPathSwitch, SoLevelOfDetail, and
       SoTransformSeparator.

   SoChildList * SoGroup::getChildren (void) const [virtual]
       Returns list of children.

       Reimplemented from SoNode.

       Reimplemented in SoVRMLSwitch, SoVRMLLOD, and SoVRMLParent.

   SbBool SoGroup::readInstance (SoInput *in, unsigned shortflags) [protected],  [virtual]
       This method is mainly intended for internal use during file import operations.

       It reads a definition of an instance from the input stream in. The input stream state
       points to the start of a serialized / persistant representation of an instance of this
       class type.

       TRUE or FALSE is returned, depending on if the instantiation and configuration of the new
       object of this class type went ok or not. The import process should be robust and handle
       corrupted input streams by returning FALSE.

       flags is used internally during binary import when reading user extension nodes, group
       nodes or engines.

       Reimplemented from SoNode.

       Reimplemented in SoVRMLSwitch, SoVRMLLOD, SoSeparator, and SoVRMLParent.

   SbBool SoGroup::readChildren (SoInput *in) [protected],  [virtual]
       Read all children of this node from in and attach them below this group in left-to-right
       order. Returns FALSE upon read error.

   void SoGroup::copyContents (const SoFieldContainer *from, SbBoolcopyconnections) [protected],
       [virtual]
       Makes a deep copy of all data of from into this instance, except external scenegraph
       references if copyconnections is FALSE.

       This is the method that should be overridden by extension node / engine / dragger /
       whatever subclasses which needs to account for internal data that are not handled
       automatically.

       For copying nodes from application code, you should not invoke this function directly, but
       rather call the SoNode::copy() function:

       SoNode * mynewnode = templatenode->copy();

       The same also goes for engines.

       Make sure that when you override the copyContents() method in your extension class that
       you also make it call upwards to it's parent superclass in the inheritance hierarchy, as
       copyContents() in for instance SoNode and SoFieldContainer does important work. It should
       go something like this:

       void
       MyCoinExtensionNode::copyContents(const SoFieldContainer * from,
                                         SbBool copyconnections)
       {
         // let parent superclasses do their thing (copy fields, copy
         // instance name, etc etc)
         SoNode::copyContents(from, copyconnections);

         // [..then copy internal data..]
       }

       Reimplemented from SoNode.

       Reimplemented in SoVRMLSwitch, SoVRMLLOD, and SoVRMLParent.

   SoNotRec SoGroup::createNotRec (void) [protected],  [virtual]
       Reimplemented from SoBase.

   void SoGroup::setOperation (const SoNotRec::OperationTypeopType = SoNotRec::UNSPECIFIED, const
       SoNode *nc = NULL, const SoNode *pc = NULL, const intci = -1) [protected]

Member Data Documentation

   SoChildList * SoGroup::children [protected]
       List of managed child nodes.

Author

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