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+// Copyright (C) 2021 The Qt Company Ltd.
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: LicenseRef-Qt-Commercial OR GFDL-1.3-no-invariants-only
+
+/*!
+ \example bindableproperties
+ \examplecategory {Data Processing & I/O}
+ \title Bindable Properties
+ \brief Demonstrates how the usage of bindable properties can simplify
+ your C++ code.
+
+ In this example we will demonstrate two approaches for expressing the
+ relationships between different objects depending on each other:
+ signal/slot connection-based and bindable property-based. For this
+ purpose we will consider a subscription service model to calculate the
+ cost of the subscription.
+
+ \image bindable_properties_example.png
+
+ \section1 Modeling Subscription System with Signal/Slot Approach
+
+ Let's first consider the usual pre-Qt 6 implementation.
+ To model the subscription service the \c Subscription class is used:
+
+ \snippet bindableproperties/subscription/subscription.h subscription-class
+
+ It stores the information about the subscription and provides corresponding
+ getters, setters, and notifier signals for informing the listeners about the
+ subscription information changes. It also keeps a pointer to an instance of
+ the \c User class.
+
+ The price of the subscription is calculated based on the duration of the
+ subscription:
+
+ \snippet bindableproperties/subscription/subscription.cpp calculate-discount
+
+ And user's location:
+
+ \snippet bindableproperties/subscription/subscription.cpp calculate-base-price
+
+ When the price changes, the \c priceChanged() signal is emitted, to notify the
+ listeners about the change:
+
+ \snippet bindableproperties/subscription/subscription.cpp calculate-price
+
+ Similarly, when the duration of the subscription changes, the \c durationChanged()
+ signal is emitted.
+
+ \snippet bindableproperties/subscription/subscription.cpp set-duration
+
+ \note Both methods need to check if the data is actually changed and
+ only then emit the signals. \c setDuration() also needs to recalculate
+ the price when the duration has changed.
+
+ The \c Subscription is not valid unless the user has a valid country and
+ age, so the validity is updated in the following way:
+
+ \snippet bindableproperties/subscription/subscription.cpp update-validity
+
+ The \c User class is simple: it stores country and age of the user and
+ provides the corresponding getters, setters, and notifier signals:
+
+ \snippet bindableproperties/subscription/user.h user-class
+
+ \snippet bindableproperties/subscription/user.cpp user-setters
+
+ In the \c main() function we initialize instances of \c User and
+ \c Subscription:
+
+ \snippet bindableproperties/subscription/main.cpp init
+
+ And do the proper signal-slot connections to update the \c user and
+ \c subscription data when UI elements change. That is straightforward,
+ so we will skip this part.
+
+ Next, we connect to \c Subscription::priceChanged() to update the price
+ in the UI when the price changes.
+
+ \snippet bindableproperties/subscription/main.cpp connect-price-changed
+
+ We also connect to \c Subscription::isValidChanged() to disable the price
+ display if the subscription isn't valid.
+
+ \snippet bindableproperties/subscription/main.cpp connect-validity-changed
+
+ Because the subscription price and validity also depend on the user's
+ country and age, we also need to connect to the \c User::countryChanged()
+ and \c User::ageChanged() signals and update \c subscription accordingly.
+
+ \snippet bindableproperties/subscription/main.cpp connect-user
+
+ This works, but there are some problems:
+
+ \list
+ \li There's a lot of boilerplate code for the signal-slot connections
+ in order to properly track changes to both \c user and \c subscription.
+ If any of the dependencies of the price changes, we need to remember to emit the
+ corresponding notifier signals, recalculate the price, and update it in
+ the UI.
+ \li If more dependencies for price calculation are added in the future, we'll
+ need to add more signal-slot connections and make sure all the dependencies
+ are properly updated whenever any of them changes. The overall complexity
+ will grow, and the code will become harder to maintain.
+ \li The \c Subscription and \c User classes depend on the metaobject system
+ to be able to use the signal/slot mechanism.
+ \endlist
+
+ Can we do better?
+
+ \section1 Modeling Subscription System with Bindbable Properties
+
+ Now let's see how the \l {Qt Bindable Properties} can help to solve the
+ same problem. First, let's have a look at the \c BindableSubscription class,
+ which is similar to the \c Subscription class, but is implemented using
+ bindable properties:
+
+ \snippet bindableproperties/bindablesubscription/bindablesubscription.h bindable-subscription-class
+
+ The first difference we can notice, is that the data fields are now wrapped
+ inside \l QProperty classes, and the notifier signals (and as a consequence the
+ dependency from the metaobject system) are gone, and new methods returning a
+ \l QBindable for each \l QProperty are added instead. The \c calculatePrice()
+ and \c updateValidty() methods are also removed. We'll see below why they aren't
+ needed anymore.
+
+ The \c BindableUser class differs from the \c User class in a similar way:
+
+ \snippet bindableproperties/bindablesubscription/bindableuser.h bindable-user-class
+
+ The second difference is in the implementation of these classes. First of
+ all, the dependencies between \c subscription and \c user are now tracked via
+ binding expressions:
+
+ \snippet bindableproperties/bindablesubscription/bindablesubscription.cpp binding-expressions
+
+ Behind the scenes the bindable properties track the dependency changes and
+ update the property's value whenever a change is detected. So if, for example,
+ user's country or age is changed, subscription's price and validity will be
+ updated automatically.
+
+ Another difference is that the setters are now trivial:
+
+ \snippet bindableproperties/bindablesubscription/bindablesubscription.cpp set-duration
+
+ \snippet bindableproperties/bindablesubscription/bindableuser.cpp bindable-user-setters
+
+ There's no need to check inside the setters if the property's value has
+ actually changed, \l QProperty already does that. The dependent properties
+ will be notified about the change only if the value has actually changed.
+
+ The code for updating the information about the price in the UI is also
+ simplified:
+
+ \snippet bindableproperties/bindablesubscription/main.cpp update-ui
+
+ We subscribe to changes via \c bindablePrice() and \c bindableIsValid()
+ and update the price display accordingly when any of these properties
+ changes the value. The subscriptions will stay alive as long as the
+ corresponding handlers are alive.
+
+ Also note that the copy constructors of both \c BindableSubscription and
+ \c BindableUser are disabled, since it's not defined what should happen
+ with their bindings when copying.
+
+ As you can see, the code became much simpler, and the problems mentioned
+ above are solved:
+
+ \list
+ \li The boilerplate code for the signal-slot connections is removed, the
+ dependencies are now tracked automatically.
+ \li The code is easier to maintain. Adding more dependencies in the future
+ will only require adding the corresponding bindable properties and setting
+ the binding expressions that reflect the relationships between each other.
+ \li The \c Subscription and \c User classes don't depend on the metaobject
+ system anymore. Of course, you can still expose them to the metaobject
+ system and add \l {Q_PROPERTY}s if you need, and have the advantages of
+ bindable properties both in \c C++ and \c QML code. You can use the
+ \l QObjectBindableProperty class for that.
+ \endlist
+*/