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aec2018
Employee
Employee

How can I make the clicking of an icon change the icon itself?

I would like to make an icon's onSelect() value be something like:

onSelect(
  If(
    Self.Icon = ChevronUp,
     Set(Self.Icon, ChevronDown)
  )
)

 

...and vice versa. I basically want the clicking of the icon toggle between ChervronUp/ChevronDown. What's the best way to go about this? It seems trying this gives an error that Set() can't contain any conflicting logic. 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions
RusselThomas
Community Champion
Community Champion

Hi @aec2018 ,

It helps to know you're building it inside a component as components have different rules (and a different baseline scope) than screens, so it might be worth exploring this a little before suggesting a correction.

 

Inserted components are instances of a source component object - an object whose parent is the App, but contains it's own scope - meaning it can access App properties because the App is it's parent, but it has no inheritance from or relationship to anything else that the App is parented to - like screens or collections or other objects or controls outside of the component.  This is why we have to spoon-feed component instances information using input properties.

   

This is also why you can't insert components inside Galleries or other controls that impose parent/child hierarchy - the source component is already anchored to the App as its parent, and the nature of components is to be an instance of the source component which retains that hierarchy.

   

It also means you cannot have a component inside a component, so it's not possible to "nest" components or have parent/child components - a component is a child of the App, and that's it - it cannot be a child of anything else.

 

What you have here is a container inside a component - Containers are just logical groupings of objects similar to forms with cards - but their properties are very simple.  Like any other control, you can place containers inside components, or screens, or galleries or even other containers, and they will become part of that hierarchy - so while they can be children of components, they are not components themselves.  

 

This brings us to why UpdateContext() doesn't work inside a component.

  • Placing an instance of a component inside a screen doesn't change the original components heritage - which is related to the App, not the screen.  
  • Local variables are set using UpdateContext({name: value}) and they are local to a screen context.
  • As there is no screen context to a component, this means you cannot create or anchor local/screen variables inside them, which is why UpdateContext() has no relevance inside a component.

Collections and global variables are accessible across the app, but are not accessible from inside a component.

Because of this, information must be passed in as property values.  Collections and global variables can be created inside components - but they are not accessible from the outside - these can only be passed out as output property values.  In effect, components are like mini-black-box-apps inside your app, with input and output properties being the only things you can use to pass information between them. 

 

Note: Because of this hierarchy, you cannot set an input property of a component from inside a component - it's almost like trying to pass your app a URI parameter from inside your app. 

You can however pass a value from inside the component to the App via an output property of the component, and then feed it back into the component from the App through an input property - which funnily enough sounds like a circular reference, but because components are like black boxes nothing passes through them and this actually works - although I can't say whether this is by design or by accident - either way it can make for very confusing component logic.  

 

So - how do we do this:

While collections and global variables created outside a component are not directly accessible from inside a component, you can create them inside a component.  This just means they become contained within the component - so not directly referable from the outside, but you can reference them from anywhere inside a component.

Global variables are set using Set(name, value).

While you can Set() a "global" variable inside a component, note that they are "global" only to the component context, so not truly global in the App sense - but they work inside components so....

 

Try this - set the variable on your icon OnSelect: property;

 

Set(cvarChevronToggle, !cvarChevronToggle)

 

Keep the Icon: property of the icon the same as the example I gave above.  This should toggle the icon as you click it.

You can then use the same variable cvarChevronToggle to drive other behaviour inside the component - what to do when cvarChevronToggle is true, and what to do when it's false (eg: expand/collapse)

While you could possibly pass this value out of the component as an output property and back in as an input property, I'm not sure what this would achieve at this point - I'd suggest just seeing if you can get this logic working inside the component for now, then think about how best to utilise input/output properties.  

 

Hope this helps,

RT

View solution in original post

6 REPLIES 6
RusselThomas
Community Champion
Community Champion

Hi @aec2018 ,

So as you've probably figured out already, you can't directly "set" a property on an object.  The only way to dynamically set properties is to set the property to a variable, then dynamically change the variable.

In your example, there are a few ways to do it - I'd do this;

OnSelect: property;

UpdateContext({chevronToggle: !chevronToggle})

This will set the variable chevronToggle to true when it's false and false when it's true, effectively acting as a toggle.

You can then set the Icon: property of the icon to;

If(chevronToggle, icon.ChevronUp, icon.ChevronDown)

Hope this helps,

RT

 

Hey @RusselThomas ,

 

I appreciate the help. Where would I be setting the variable? I had kind of attempted something like that on the parent component. I'm trying to build this as a reusable custom component and I set a variable on the main component itself. So in this case, cmp_Filter_DatePicker(1) has a custom boolean variable and ico_DatePicker_Filter_Expand(2) would toggle that variable in its onSelect() property. But it seems that the child component can't set anything on a parent component. Also, when I try using UpdateContext(), it doesn't seem to recognize it as a function.

 

aec2018_0-1657906421157.png

Thanks!

-Alex

RusselThomas
Community Champion
Community Champion

Hi @aec2018 ,

It helps to know you're building it inside a component as components have different rules (and a different baseline scope) than screens, so it might be worth exploring this a little before suggesting a correction.

 

Inserted components are instances of a source component object - an object whose parent is the App, but contains it's own scope - meaning it can access App properties because the App is it's parent, but it has no inheritance from or relationship to anything else that the App is parented to - like screens or collections or other objects or controls outside of the component.  This is why we have to spoon-feed component instances information using input properties.

   

This is also why you can't insert components inside Galleries or other controls that impose parent/child hierarchy - the source component is already anchored to the App as its parent, and the nature of components is to be an instance of the source component which retains that hierarchy.

   

It also means you cannot have a component inside a component, so it's not possible to "nest" components or have parent/child components - a component is a child of the App, and that's it - it cannot be a child of anything else.

 

What you have here is a container inside a component - Containers are just logical groupings of objects similar to forms with cards - but their properties are very simple.  Like any other control, you can place containers inside components, or screens, or galleries or even other containers, and they will become part of that hierarchy - so while they can be children of components, they are not components themselves.  

 

This brings us to why UpdateContext() doesn't work inside a component.

  • Placing an instance of a component inside a screen doesn't change the original components heritage - which is related to the App, not the screen.  
  • Local variables are set using UpdateContext({name: value}) and they are local to a screen context.
  • As there is no screen context to a component, this means you cannot create or anchor local/screen variables inside them, which is why UpdateContext() has no relevance inside a component.

Collections and global variables are accessible across the app, but are not accessible from inside a component.

Because of this, information must be passed in as property values.  Collections and global variables can be created inside components - but they are not accessible from the outside - these can only be passed out as output property values.  In effect, components are like mini-black-box-apps inside your app, with input and output properties being the only things you can use to pass information between them. 

 

Note: Because of this hierarchy, you cannot set an input property of a component from inside a component - it's almost like trying to pass your app a URI parameter from inside your app. 

You can however pass a value from inside the component to the App via an output property of the component, and then feed it back into the component from the App through an input property - which funnily enough sounds like a circular reference, but because components are like black boxes nothing passes through them and this actually works - although I can't say whether this is by design or by accident - either way it can make for very confusing component logic.  

 

So - how do we do this:

While collections and global variables created outside a component are not directly accessible from inside a component, you can create them inside a component.  This just means they become contained within the component - so not directly referable from the outside, but you can reference them from anywhere inside a component.

Global variables are set using Set(name, value).

While you can Set() a "global" variable inside a component, note that they are "global" only to the component context, so not truly global in the App sense - but they work inside components so....

 

Try this - set the variable on your icon OnSelect: property;

 

Set(cvarChevronToggle, !cvarChevronToggle)

 

Keep the Icon: property of the icon the same as the example I gave above.  This should toggle the icon as you click it.

You can then use the same variable cvarChevronToggle to drive other behaviour inside the component - what to do when cvarChevronToggle is true, and what to do when it's false (eg: expand/collapse)

While you could possibly pass this value out of the component as an output property and back in as an input property, I'm not sure what this would achieve at this point - I'd suggest just seeing if you can get this logic working inside the component for now, then think about how best to utilise input/output properties.  

 

Hope this helps,

RT

Hey @RusselThomas ,

 

Ah, thanks for the great in-depth explanation. That really explains a lot of the scope headaches I was dealing with when making these custom components. I went ahead with your suggestion and then set the visibility of the cntr_Datepicker_Filter to the value of the Icon with an If() statement and it worked!

 

 

Icon changing on clickIcon changing on click

 

I'm curious how this worked, though. One of my problems has always been wondering where I have to establish a variable. For instance, cvarChevronToggle in this scenario. Where you're suggesting that I declare it in the onSelect() property, does using Set(var, !var) automatically 1)instantiate that variable and 2)as a Boolean automatically? I was thinking I had to set it somewhere first which is why I was setting it as a custom variable on the custom component itself. 

 

This really helps, by the way. It was a real headache since I felt it was possible but the circular logic was really blocking me. This is exactly what I was looking to do.

 

-Alex

RusselThomas
Community Champion
Community Champion

Hi @aec2018 ,

Glad to hear it 😊

Variables (and fields in tables, collections or records) become typed the first time they are assigned a value - so whatever you assign them the first time is what they become typed as.  So yes, assigning it a value of !variable does two things;

Firstly the ! operator is the equivalent of Not() which results in a boolean, thereby typing it as boolean.  On first load, all boolean variables evaluate to false by default - so the first click would make it Not(false) which is equal to true - thereby typing it as boolean by assigning it a true value.

Secondly, every time you click, you're setting it to Not(itself) so each click will make it the opposite of what it currently is - i.e. true/false.

Hope this helps,

RT

 

Hi,

 

I have created one component, when i click on chevron icon, it will expand and show gallery and when i clicked it again it will collapse and hide the gallery. but my requirement is when i expand the icon it needs to show gallery and if i click anywhere in screen, the gallery needs to be hide and chevron need to be collapsed instead of clicking that icon again for closing the gallery. Any idea on this??

 

Thanks in Advance

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