NAME

       SoSearchAction -

       The SoSearchAction class provides methods for searching through scene graphs.

       Nodes can be searched for by pointer, type, and name, or a combination of those criteria.
       Types can be interpreted as exact types, or the type can match nodes derived from it.
       Every single node can be searched, or normal traversal rules can be followed when
       searching (this is especially important to note with regard to switch nodes).

SYNOPSIS

       #include <Inventor/actions/SoSearchAction.h>

       Inherits SoAction.

   Public Types
       enum LookFor { NODE = 1, TYPE = 2, NAME = 4 }
       enum Interest { FIRST, LAST, ALL }

   Public Member Functions
       virtual SoType getTypeId (void) const
       SoSearchAction (void)
       virtual ~SoSearchAction (void)
       void setNode (SoNode *const node)
       SoNode * getNode (void) const
       void setType (const SoType type, const SbBool chkderived=TRUE)
       SoType getType (SbBool &chkderived) const
       void setName (const SbName name)
       SbName getName (void) const
       void setFind (const int what)
       int getFind (void) const
       void setInterest (const Interest interest)
       Interest getInterest (void) const
       void setSearchingAll (const SbBool searchall)
       SbBool isSearchingAll (void) const
       SoPath * getPath (void) const
       SoPathList & getPaths (void)
       void reset (void)
       void setFound (void)
       SbBool isFound (void) const
       void addPath (SoPath *const path)

   Static Public Member Functions
       static SoType getClassTypeId (void)
       static void addMethod (const SoType type, SoActionMethod method)
       static void enableElement (const SoType type, const int stackindex)
       static void initClass (void)

   Static Public Attributes
       static SbBool duringSearchAll = FALSE

   Protected Member Functions
       virtual const
           SoEnabledElementsList & getEnabledElements (void) const "
       virtual void beginTraversal (SoNode *node)

   Static Protected Member Functions
       static SoEnabledElementsList * getClassEnabledElements (void)
       static SoActionMethodList * getClassActionMethods (void)

   Additional Inherited Members

Detailed Description

       The SoSearchAction class provides methods for searching through scene graphs.

       Nodes can be searched for by pointer, type, and name, or a combination of those criteria.
       Types can be interpreted as exact types, or the type can match nodes derived from it.
       Every single node can be searched, or normal traversal rules can be followed when
       searching (this is especially important to note with regard to switch nodes).

       When using more than one of the setNode(), setType() and setName() calls, note that the
       action will search for node(s) with an 'AND' combination of the given search criteria.

       One of the most common pitfalls when using the SoSearchAction class is to call the
       function isFound() after doing a search. It does not return what you would expect it to
       return if you haven't read the documentation for that function.

       Be aware that if you do search operations on an SoSearchAction created on the stack, you
       can get some unfortunate side effects if you're not careful. Since SoSearchAction keeps a
       list of the path(s) found in the latest search, the nodes in these paths will be unref'ed
       when the SoSearchAction stack instance is destructed at the end of your function. If the
       root of your scene-graph then has ref-count zero (it is often useful to do a
       unrefNoDelete() before returning a node from a function to leave the referencing to the
       caller), the root node will be destructed! It might be better to create a heap instance of
       the search action in those cases, since you'll then be able to destruct the search action
       before calling unrefNoDelete(). Another solution would be to call reset() before calling
       unrefNoDelete() on your object, since reset() truncates the path list.

       See the documentation of SoTexture2 for a full usage example of SoSearchAction.

Member Enumeration Documentation

   enum SoSearchAction::LookFor
       Specify the search criterion. This can be a bitwise combination of the available values.

   enum SoSearchAction::Interest
       Values used when specifiying what node(s) we are interested in: the first one found, the
       last one or all of them.

Constructor & Destructor Documentation

   SoSearchAction::SoSearchAction (void)
       Initializes internal settings with default values. With the default settings, the
       SoSearchAction will ignore all nodes.

   SoSearchAction::~SoSearchAction (void) [virtual]
       Destructor.

Member Function Documentation

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

       Usage example:

       void bar(SoAction * action)
       {
         if (action->getTypeId() == SoGLRenderAction::getClassTypeId()) {
           // safe downward cast, know the type
           SoGLRenderAction * glrender = (SoGLRenderAction *)action;
         }
         return; // ignore if not renderaction
       }

       For application programmers wanting to extend the library with new actions: 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 Inventor/nodes/SoSubAction.h: SO_ACTION_SOURCE,
       SO_ACTION_INIT_CLASS and SO_ACTION_CONSTRUCTOR.

       For more information on writing Coin extensions, see the SoAction class documentation.

       Returns the actual type id of an object derived from a class inheriting SoAction. Needs to
       be overridden in all subclasses.

       Implements SoAction.

   void SoSearchAction::addMethod (const SoTypetype, SoActionMethodmethod) [static]
       This API member is considered internal to the library, as it is not likely to be of
       interest to the application programmer.

   void SoSearchAction::enableElement (const SoTypetype, const intstackindex) [static]
       This API member is considered internal to the library, as it is not likely to be of
       interest to the application programmer.

   const SoEnabledElementsList & SoSearchAction::getEnabledElements (void) const [protected],
       [virtual]
       Returns a list of the elements used by action instances of this class upon traversal
       operations.

       Reimplemented from SoAction.

   void SoSearchAction::setNode (SoNode *constnodeptr)
       Sets the node pointer to search for.

       The action will be configured to set the search 'interest' to LookFor NODE, so there is no
       need to call SoSearchAction::setFind().

   SoNode * SoSearchAction::getNode (void) const
       Returns the node the SoSearchAction instance is configured to search for.

       Note that this method does not return what was found when you applied the action - it only
       returns what was specifically set by the user with setNode(). What the action found is
       returned by getPath() and getPaths().

   void SoSearchAction::setType (const SoTypetypearg, const SbBoolchkderivedarg = TRUE)
       Configures the SoSearchAction instance to search for nodes of the given type, and nodes of
       classes derived from the given type if chkderived is TRUE.

       The action will be configured to set the search 'interest' to LookFor TYPE, so there is no
       need to call SoSearchAction::setFind().

   SoType SoSearchAction::getType (SbBool &chkderivedref) const
       Returns the node type which is searched for, and whether derived classes of that type also
       returns a match.

   void SoSearchAction::setName (const SbNamenamearg)
       Configures the SoSearchAction instance to search for nodes with the given name.

       The action will be configured to set the search 'interest' to LookFor NAME, so there is no
       need to call SoSearchAction::setFind().

       See Also:
           SoNode::getByName()

   SbName SoSearchAction::getName (void) const
       Returns the name the SoSearchAction instance is configured to search for.

   void SoSearchAction::setFind (const intwhat)
       Configures what to search for in the scene graph. what is a bitmask of LookFor flags.

       Default find configuration is to ignore all nodes, but the setFind() configuration is
       updated automatically when any one of SoSearchAction::setNode(), SoSearchAction::setType()
       or SoSearchAction::setName() is called.

   int SoSearchAction::getFind (void) const
       Returns the search configuration of the action instance.

   void SoSearchAction::setInterest (const Interestinterestarg)
       Configures whether only the first, the last, or all the searching matches are of interest.
       Default configuration is FIRST.

   SoSearchAction::Interest SoSearchAction::getInterest (void) const
       Returns whether only the first, the last, or all the searching matches will be saved.

   void SoSearchAction::setSearchingAll (const SbBoolsearchallarg)
       Specifies whether normal graph traversal should be done (searchall is FALSE, which is the
       default setting), or if every single node should be searched (searchall is TRUE).

       If the searchall flag is TRUE, even nodes considered 'hidden' by other actions are
       searched (like for instance the disabled children of SoSwitch nodes).

       SoBaseKit::setSearchingChildren() must be used to search for nodes under node kits.

   SbBool SoSearchAction::isSearchingAll (void) const
       Returns the traversal method configuration of the action.

   SoPath * SoSearchAction::getPath (void) const
       Returns the path to the node of interest that matched the search criterions. If no match
       was found, NULL is returned.

       Note that if ALL matches are of interest, the result of a search action must be fetched
       through SoSearchAction::getPaths().

       There is one frequently asked question about the paths that are returned from either this
       method or the getPaths() method below: 'why am I not getting the complete path as
       expected?'

       Well, then you probably have to cast the path to a SoFullPath, since certain nodes
       (nodekits, many VRML97 nodes) have hidden children. SoPath::getTail() will return the
       first node that has hidden children, or the tail if none of the nodes have hidden
       children. SoFullPath::getTail() will always return the actual tail. Just do like this:

       SoFullPath * path = (SoFullPath *) searchaction->getPath();
       SoVRMLCoordinate * vrmlcord = (SoVRMLCoordinate *) path->getTail();

   SoPathList & SoSearchAction::getPaths (void)
       Returns a pathlist of all nodes that matched the search criterions.

       Note that if interest were only FIRST or LAST, SoSearchAction::getPath() should be used
       instead of this method.

       See Also:
           getPath()

   void SoSearchAction::reset (void)
       Resets all the SoSearchAction internals back to their default values.

   void SoSearchAction::setFound (void)
       This API member is considered internal to the library, as it is not likely to be of
       interest to the application programmer.

       Marks the SoSearchAction instance as terminated.

   SbBool SoSearchAction::isFound (void) const
       This API member is considered internal to the library, as it is not likely to be of
       interest to the application programmer.

       Returns whether the search action was terminated.

       Note that this value does not reflect whether the node(s) that was searched for was found
       or not. Use the result of getPath() / getPaths() if that is what you really are looking
       for.

   void SoSearchAction::addPath (SoPath *constpathptr)
       This API member is considered internal to the library, as it is not likely to be of
       interest to the application programmer.

       Sets the path, or adds the path to the path list, depending on the interest configuration.
       The path is not copied, so it can not be modified after being added without side effects.

   void SoSearchAction::beginTraversal (SoNode *node) [protected],  [virtual]
       This virtual method is called from SoAction::apply(), and is the entry point for the
       actual scenegraph traversal.

       It can be overridden to initialize the action at traversal start, for specific
       initializations in the action subclasses inheriting SoAction.

       Default method just calls traverse(), which any overridden implementation of the method
       must do too (or call SoAction::beginTraversal()) to trigger the scenegraph traversal.

       Reimplemented from SoAction.

Member Data Documentation

   SbBool SoSearchAction::duringSearchAll = FALSE [static]
       Obsoleted global flag, only present for compatibility reasons with old SGI / TGS Inventor
       application code.

       It's set to TRUE when an SoSearchAction traversal with SoSearchAction::isSearchingAll()
       equal to TRUE is started, and is reset to FALSE again after traversal has finished.

       (The flag is used by SGI / TGS Inventor in SoSwitch::affectsState() to know when
       SoSwitch::whichChild should behave as SoSwitch::SO_SWITCH_ALL. We have a better solution
       for this problem in Coin.)

Author

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