Generation instructions¶
CppBind uses doxygen style comments for defining API for the given entity. CppBind API must contain __API__ tag. Everything after __API__ are instructions for CppBind. For defining an API we use variables from Variable Definitions. CppBind uses them to know what should be generated, where the generated files should be saved, etc. __API__ comments should be written in yaml format. Otherwise, CppBind complains about the wrong format. Jinja expressions and predefined system variables can be used here. Available system variables are described here.
Note
__API__ tag can be overridden in cppbind_config.cfg application config file. To do that set parser_start property in [API] section.
action variable defines what should be generated in the target code. If it's missing then nothing is generated. It can be skipped when the user doesn't want to generate anything but want to define inheritable variables to pass them to children entities. For example, we can define the package variable for a directory, and the files under that directory can use or override it.
Supported values for action are the following ones:
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gen_class - used to generate a class/struct.
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gen_interface - generate interfaces for the languages that do not support multiple inheritance. For more details see: Multiple Inheritance.
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gen_enum - used to generate enums.
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gen_constructor - used to generate constructors.
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gen_method - used to generate regular methods.
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gen_function - used to generate regular functions.
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gen_getter - used to generate a getter method.
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gen_setter - used to generate a setter. The important thing here is that setter is parsed alongside with getter. If no getter is provided, then nothing is generated.
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gen_property_getter - used to generate a getter for public member.
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gen_property_setter - used to generate both setter and getter for a public member.
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gen_package - used to generate a package for Python bindings. This action can be attached to a directory, and CppBind generates a __init__.py file, making that directory a Python package. This can be used to add some imports and custom code fragments in the __init__.py file. This action is ignored in other languages.
Everything above the __API__ tag is considered a pure comment present in generated target language bindings.
Note
Getters/setters are regular methods in C++, but they may be transferred into properties for the target language.
Note
If you tag only a getter, then only a property with a getter is generated. But if you tag only a setter, then nothing is generated. If you want to bind only a setter, use action: gen_method instead to generate a regular method.
Note
CppBind uses some patterns to search for a corresponding setter for getter to generate them together if both are exposed(i.e. they are tagged as action: gen_getter and action: gen_setter). For example, for getProp CppBind searches a method named setProp or set_prop. To find setter for get_some_prop, CppBind searches set_some_prop or setSomeProp. And for prop it searches setProp or set_prop.