Multiple containers for same TextFlow

Question

I have a pretty complex scenario but I should be able to see
what's going wrong here... the question is on the very last line.

I'm building an application where inside an editor users can
lay out and edit text, (using things like resize handles and the
EditManager for position and selection/typing). The app has a
strict MVC implementation and I'm utilising a global undo system
via commands so every edit to the text runs through a central
mechanism instead of using the UndoManager directly. I'm also
generating thumbnail images of this "container" after a certain
time period after user activity, in effect producing 2 views of the
same data.

The problem this causes is that each TextFlow object is now
being used by two Containers (I'm using a "TextElementRenderer" as
a container class, which takes a TextFlow object and using the TLF
draws the text). So it only actually renders in the last one
assigned (in my case the thumbnail which lives inside a TileList
that lets you switch between editors).

So to avoid this I could just perform a clone/deep copy of
the TextFlow, but due to aforementioned approach I need a single
TextFlow to exist so that one change update's all, and I'm also
editing this via a properties panel (bold/italic etc), which lives
elsewhere in the visual hierarchy (I have quite a few types of
element apart from text that can be placed on stage and many
property panels in this system to cater for them).

So is there a way to allow 2 containers to be used for one
TextFlow?

richardleggettmk · Accepted Answer

Thanks for your response, I'm glad I'm not just missing something. I have ended up with a fairly clean solution in that only 1 container needs to be actively editing the model at any one time (depending on focus), so if I have 2 containers both using the model the one that is not actively editing (the thumbnail in this case) can re-create clones whenever the active container updates the text as it is merely displaying the TextFlows and not actually allowing direct user editing via an EditManager/mouse/keyboard.

It's not as efficient as detecting changes to a single TextFlow instance but it works fast enough for most scenarios.

The properties panel is not really affected as it can still grab a reference to the TextFlow's EditManager and work on it from there.

Speaking of which, I think also the docs could promote better the Selection(/Edit)Manager.getCommonCharacterFormat() method as it took a while to find this and it's needed as soon as you start to implement things like Bold/Italic/etc buttons (where the TextFlow's container loses focus) and the pointFormat is nullified as soon as you click the button (due to the focus change/loss of carat).

rdermer · Answer

There is no easy way to do this. The model is polluted withthe TextLines for the view.Richard

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