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NSClassDescription class reference

Authors

Richard Frith-Macdonald (rfm@gnu.org)

Version: 27578

Date: 2009-01-12 12:48:46 +0000 (Mon, 12 Jan 2009)

Copyright: (C) 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.


Contents -

  1. Software documentation for the NSClassDescription class
  2. Software documentation for the NSObject(NSClassDescriptionPrimitives) category

Software documentation for the NSClassDescription class

NSClassDescription : NSObject

Declared in:
Foundation/NSClassDescription.h
Availability: MacOS-X 10.0.0

Each instance of this class provides descriptive information for an Objective C class. This is used for key-value coding, a framework used in Cocoa for scripting with Objective-C objects. Scripting is available in GNUstep using Guile, however that implementation does not make use of class descriptions. Therefore the primary purpose of this class is to smooth the process of porting between GNUstep and other OpenStep-derived systems.
Method summary

classDescriptionForClass: 

+ (NSClassDescription*) classDescriptionForClass: (Class)aClass;
Availability: MacOS-X 10.0.0

Returns the class description for aClass . If there is no such description available, sends an NSClassDescriptionNeededForClassNotification (with aClass as its object) so that objects providing class descriptions can register one, and tries again to find one.
Returns nil if there is no description found.
Handles locking to ensure thread safety and ensures that the returned object will not be destroyed by other threads.

invalidateClassDescriptionCache 

+ (void) invalidateClassDescriptionCache;
Availability: MacOS-X 10.0.0

Invalidates the cache of class descriptions so the new descriptions will be fetched as required and begin to refill the cache. You need this only if you suspect that a class description should have changed.

registerClassDescription: forClass: 

+ (void) registerClassDescription: (NSClassDescription*)aDescription forClass: (Class)aClass;
Availability: MacOS-X 10.0.0

Registers aDescription for aClass... placing it in the cache and replacing any previous version.

attributeKeys 

- (NSArray*) attributeKeys;
Availability: MacOS-X 10.0.0

Subclasses should override this method.
Returns the attribute keys - default implementation returns nil.

inverseForRelationshipKey: 

- (NSString*) inverseForRelationshipKey: (NSString*)aKey;
Availability: MacOS-X 10.0.0

Subclasses should override this method.
Returns the inverse relationship keys - default implementation returns nil.

toManyRelationshipKeys 

- (NSArray*) toManyRelationshipKeys;
Availability: MacOS-X 10.0.0

Subclasses should override this method.
Returns the to many relationship keys - default implementation returns nil.

toOneRelationshipKeys 

- (NSArray*) toOneRelationshipKeys;
Availability: MacOS-X 10.0.0

Subclasses should override this method.
Returns the to one relationship keys - default implementation returns nil.

Software documentation for the NSObject(NSClassDescriptionPrimitives) category

NSObject(NSClassDescriptionPrimitives)

Declared in:
Foundation/NSClassDescription.h
Availability: MacOS-X 10.0.0

Description forthcoming.
Method summary

attributeKeys 

- (NSArray*) attributeKeys;
Availability: MacOS-X 10.0.0

Returns the attribute keys supplied by the NSClassDescription object for the receivers class.

classDescription 

- (NSClassDescription*) classDescription;
Availability: MacOS-X 10.0.0

Returns the NSClassDescription object for the receivers class.

inverseForRelationshipKey: 

- (NSString*) inverseForRelationshipKey: (NSString*)aKey;
Availability: MacOS-X 10.0.0

Returns the inverse relationship keys supplied by the NSClassDescription object for the receivers class.

toManyRelationshipKeys 

- (NSArray*) toManyRelationshipKeys;
Availability: MacOS-X 10.0.0

Returns the to many relationship keys supplied by the NSClassDescription object for the receivers class.

toOneRelationshipKeys 

- (NSArray*) toOneRelationshipKeys;
Availability: MacOS-X 10.0.0

Returns the to one relationship keys supplied by the NSClassDescription object for the receivers class.


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