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/****************************************************************************
**
** Copyright (C) 2021 The Qt Company Ltd.
** Contact: https://www.qt.io/licensing/
**
** This file is part of the documentation of the Qt Toolkit.
**
** $QT_BEGIN_LICENSE:FDL$
** Commercial License Usage
** Licensees holding valid commercial Qt licenses may use this file in
** accordance with the commercial license agreement provided with the
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** information use the contact form at https://www.qt.io/contact-us.
**
** GNU Free Documentation License Usage
** Alternatively, this file may be used under the terms of the GNU Free
** Documentation License version 1.3 as published by the Free Software
** Foundation and appearing in the file included in the packaging of
** this file. Please review the following information to ensure
** the GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 requirements
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****************************************************************************/

/*!
    \page bindableproperties.html
    \title Qt Bindable Properties
    \brief Qt's bindable properties.

    \ingroup qt-basic-concepts
    \keyword Qt's Bindable Properties

    Qt provides bindable properties. Bindable properties are properties
    which either have a value or are specified using any C++ function,
    typically a C++ lambda expression.
    In case they are specified using a C++ function, they are
    updated automatically whenever their dependencies change.

    Bindable properties are implemented in the class QProperty, which
    consists of the data object and a pointer to a management data structure, and
    in class QObjectBindableProperty, which consists only of the data object and
    uses the encapsulating QObject to store the pointer to the
    management data structure.

    \section1 Introductory Example

    The binding expression computes the value by reading other QProperty values.
    Behind the scenes this dependency is tracked. Whenever a change in any property's
    dependency is detected, the binding expression is re-evaluated and the new
    result is applied to the property. This happens lazily, by marking the binding
    as dirty and evaluating it only when the property's value is requested. For example:

    \code
    QProperty<QString> firstname("John");
    QProperty<QString> lastname("Smith");
    QProperty<int> age(41);

    QProperty<QString> fullname;
    fullname.setBinding([&]() { return firstname.value() + " " + lastname.value() + " age: " + QString::number(age.value()); });

    qDebug() << fullname.value(); // Prints "John Smith age: 41"

    firstname = "Emma"; // Marks binding expression as dirty

    qDebug() << fullname.value(); // Re-evaluates the binding expression and prints "Emma Smith age: 41"

    // Birthday is coming up
    age.setValue(age.value() + 1);

    qDebug() << fullname.value(); // Re-evaluates the binding expression and prints "Emma Smith age: 42"
    \endcode

    When a new value is assigned to the \c firstname property, the binding
    expression for \c fullname is marked as dirty. So when the last \c qDebug() statement
    tries to read the name value of the \c fullname property, the expression is
    evaluated again, \c firstname() will be called again and return the new value.

    Since bindings are C++ functions, they may do anything that's possible
    in C++. This includes calling other functions. If those functions access values
    held by QProperty, they automatically become dependencies to the binding.

    Binding expressions may use properties of any type, so in the above example the age
    is an integer and folded into the string value using conversion to integer, but
    the dependency is fully tracked.

    \section1 Tracking Bindable Properties

    Sometimes the relationships between properties cannot be expressed using
    bindings. Instead you may need to run custom code whenever the value of a property
    changes and instead of assigning the value to another property, pass it to
    other parts of your application. For example writing data into a network socket
    or printing debug output. QProperty provides two mechanisms for tracking.

    You can register for a callback function to be called whenever the value of
    a property changes, by using onValueChanged(). If you want the callback to also
    be called for the current value of the property, register your callback using
    subscribe() instead.

*/