eventpp/doc/eventdispatcher.md

Class EventDispatcher reference

Table Of Contents

• API reference
• Event filter
• Nested listener safety
• Time complexities
• Internal data structure

API reference

Header

eventpp/eventdispatcher.h

Template parameters

template <
	typename Event,
	typename Prototype,
	typename Policies = DefaultPolicies
>
class EventDispatcher;

Event: the event type. The type used to identify the event. Events with same type are the same event. The event type must be able to be used as the key in std::map or std::unordered_map, so it must be either comparable with operator < or has specialization of std::hash.
Prototype: the listener prototype. It's C++ function type such as void(int, std::string, const MyClass *).
Policies: the policies to configure and extend the dispatcher. The default value is DefaultPolicies. See document of policies for details.

Public types

Handle: the handle type returned by appendListener, prependListener and insertListener. A handle can be used to insert a listener or remove a listener. To check if a Handle is empty, convert it to boolean, false is empty. Handle is copyable.
Callback: the callback storage type.
Event: the event type.
FilterHandle: the handle type returned by appendFilter. A filter handle can be used to remove a filter. To check if a FilterHandle is empty, convert it to boolean, false is empty. FilterHandle is copyable.

Functions

EventDispatcher() = default;
EventDispatcher(EventDispatcher &&) = delete;
EventDispatcher(const EventDispatcher &) = delete;
EventDispatcher & operator = (const EventDispatcher &) = delete;

EventDispatcher can not be copied, moved, or assigned.

Handle appendListener(const Event & event, const Callback & callback);

Add the callback to the dispatcher to listen to event.
The listener is added to the end of the listener list.
Return a handle which represents the listener. The handle can be used to remove this listener or insert other listener before this listener.
If appendListener is called in another listener during a dispatching, the new listener is guaranteed not triggered during the same dispatching.
If the same callback is added twice, it results duplicated listeners.
The time complexity is O(1).

Handle prependListener(const Event & event, const Callback & callback);

Add the callback to the dispatcher to listen to event.
The listener is added to the beginning of the listener list.
Return a handle which represents the listener. The handle can be used to remove this listener or insert other listener before this listener.
If prependListener is called in another listener during a dispatching, the new listener is guaranteed not triggered during the same dispatching.
The time complexity is O(1).

Handle insertListener(const Event & event, const Callback & callback, const Handle before);

Insert the callback to the dispatcher to listen to event before the listener handle before. If before is not found, callback is added at the end of the listener list.
Return a handle which represents the listener. The handle can be used to remove this listener or insert other listener before this listener.
If insertListener is called in another listener during a dispatching, the new listener is guaranteed not triggered during the same dispatching.
The time complexity is O(1).

bool removeListener(const Event & event, const Handle handle);

Remove the listener handle which listens to event from the dispatcher.
Return true if the listener is removed successfully, false if the listener is not found.
The time complexity is O(1).

void dispatch(Args ...args);  

template <typename T>  
void dispatch(T && first, Args ...args);

Dispatch an event. The event type is deducted from the arguments of dispatch.
In both overloads, the listeners are called with arguments args.
The function is synchronous. The listeners are called in the thread same as the caller of dispatch.

template <typename Func>  
void forEach(const Event & event, Func && func);

Apply func to all listeners of event.
The func can be one of the three prototypes:

AnyReturnType func(const EventDispatcher::Handle &, const EventDispatcher::Callback &);
AnyReturnType func(const EventDispatcher::Handle &);
AnyReturnType func(const EventDispatcher::Callback &);

Note: the func can remove any listeners, or add other listeners, safely.

template <typename Func>  
bool forEachIf(const Event & event, Func && func);

Apply func to all listeners of event. func must return a boolean value, and if the return value is false, forEachIf stops the looping immediately.
Return true if all listeners are invoked, or event is not found, false if func returns false.

FilterHandle appendFilter(const Filter & filter);

Add the filter to the dispatcher.
Return a handle which can be used in removeFilter.

bool removeFilter(const FilterHandle & filterHandle);

Remove a filter from the dispatcher.
Return true if the filter is removed successfully.

Event filter

EventDispatcher<>::appendFilter(filter) adds an event filter to the dispatcher. The filter receives the arguments which types are the callback prototype with lvalue reference, and must return a boolean value. Return true to allow the dispatcher continues the dispatching, false to prevent the dispatcher from invoking any subsequence listeners and filters.

The event filters are invoked for all events, and invoked before any listeners are invoked.
The event filters can modify the arguments since the arguments are passed as lvalue reference, no matter whether they are reference in the callback prototype (of course we can't modify a reference to const).

Below table shows the cases of how event filters receive the arguments.

Argument type in callback prototype	Argument type received by filter	Can filter modify the argument?	Comment
int, const int	int &, int &	Yes	The constness of the value is discarded
int &, std::string &	int &, std::string &	Yes
const int &, const int *	const int &, const int * &	No	The constness of the reference/pointer must be respected

Event filter is a powerful and useful technology, below is some sample use cases, though the real world use cases are unlimited.

1, Capture and block all interested events. For example, in a GUI window system, all windows can receive mouse events. However, when a window is under mouse dragging, only the window under dragging should receive the mouse events even when the mouse is moving on other window. So when the dragging starts, the window can add a filter. The filter redirects all mouse events to the window and prevent other listeners from the mouse events, and bypass all other events.

2, Setup catch-all event listener. For example, in a phone book system, the system sends events based on the actions, such as adding a phone number, remove a phone number, look up a phone number, etc. A module may be only interested in special area code of a phone number, not the actions. One approach is the module can listen to all possible events (add, remove, look up), but this is very fragile -- how about a new action event is added and the module forgets to listen on it? The better approach is the module add a filter and check the area code in the filter.

Nested listener safety

1. If a listener adds another listener of the same event to the dispatcher during a dispatching, the new listener is guaranteed not to be triggered within the same dispatching. This is guaranteed by an unsigned 64 bits integer counter. This rule will be broken is the counter is overflowed to zero in a dispatching, but this rule will continue working on the subsequence dispatching.
2. Any listeners that are removed during a dispatching are guaranteed not triggered.
3. All above points are not true in multiple threading. That's to say, if one thread is invoking a callback list, the other thread add or remove a callback, the added or removed callback may be triggered during the invoking.

Time complexities

The time complexities being discussed here is about when operating on the listener in the underlying list, and n is the number of listeners. It doesn't include the event searching in the underlying std::map which is always O(log n).

• appendListener: O(1)
• prependListener: O(1)
• insertListener: O(1)
• removeListener: O(1)
• enqueue: O(1)

Internal data structure

EventDispatcher uses CallbackList to manage the listener callbacks.