// Copyright (C) 2014 Klarälvdalens Datakonsult AB, a KDAB Group company, info@kdab.com, author Milian Wolff <milian.wolff@kdab.com>
// SPDX-License-Identifier: LicenseRef-Qt-Commercial OR GFDL-1.3-no-invariants-only

/*!
    \title Qt WebChannel JavaScript API
    \page qtwebchannel-javascript.html

    \brief This page explains how to use the JavaScript QWebChannel API in HTML clients.

    \section1 Setting up the JavaScript API

    To communicate with a QWebChannel or \l [QML] WebChannel, a client must use and set up the
    JavaScript API provided by \c qwebchannel.js. For clients run inside \l{Qt WebEngine}, you
    can load the file via \c qrc:///qtwebchannel/qwebchannel.js. For external clients, you
    need to copy the file to your web server. Then instantiate a QWebChannel object and pass
    it a transport object and a callback function, which will be invoked once the
    initialization of the channel finishes and the published objects become available. An optional
    third argument contains an array of converter wrapper functions or a single one.

    The transport object implements a minimal message passing interface. It should be an object
    with a \c send() function, which takes a stringified JSON message and transmits it to the
    server-side QWebChannelAbstractTransport object. Furthermore, its \c onmessage property should
    be called when a message from the server was received. Alternatively, you can use a
    \l{Qt WebSockets}{WebSocket} to implement the interface.

    Note that the JavaScript QWebChannel object should be constructed once the transport object is
    fully operational. In case of a WebSocket, that means you should create the QWebChannel in the
    socket's \c onopen handler. Take a look at the \l{Qt WebChannel Standalone Example} to see how
    this is done.

    A converter wrapper function is either a string with the name of a built-in converter or a
    user supplied function that takes the object to process as an argument and returns the
    resultant type or undefined if the function does not apply. If undefined is returned the next
    converter is processed. If there are no converters that returns a value other than undefined,
    processing proceeds as normal. "Date" is the only currently built-in converter function. It
    takes a string with an ISO 8601 date and returns a new Date object if the syntax is right and
    the date is valid.

    \section1 Interacting with QObjects

    Once the callback passed to the QWebChannel object is invoked, the channel has finished
    initialization and all published objects are accessible to the HTML client via the \c channel.objects
    property. Thus, assuming an object was published with the identifier "foo", then we can interact with it
    as shown in the example below. Note that all communication between the HTML client and
    the QML/C++ server is asynchronous. Properties are cached on the HTML side. Furthermore
    keep in mind that only QML/C++ data types which can be converted to JSON will be (de-)serialized
    properly and thus accessible to HTML clients.

    \code
new QWebChannel(yourTransport, function(channel) {

    // Connect to a signal:
    channel.objects.foo.mySignal.connect(function() {
        // This callback will be invoked whenever the signal is emitted on the C++/QML side.
        console.log(arguments);
    });

    // To make the object known globally, assign it to the window object, i.e.:
    window.foo = channel.objects.foo;

    // Invoke a method:
    foo.myMethod(arg1, arg2, function(returnValue) {
        // This callback will be invoked when myMethod has a return value. Keep in mind that
        // the communication is asynchronous, hence the need for this callback.
        console.log(returnValue);
    });

    // Read a property value, which is cached on the client side:
    console.log(foo.myProperty);

    // Writing a property will instantly update the client side cache.
    // The remote end will be notified about the change asynchronously
    foo.myProperty = "Hello World!";

    // To get notified about remote property changes,
    // simply connect to the corresponding notify signal:
    foo.myPropertyChanged.connect(function() {
        console.log(foo.myProperty);
    });

    // One can also access enums that are marked with Q_ENUM:
    console.log(foo.MyEnum.MyEnumerator);
});
    \endcode

    \section2 Overloaded methods and signals

    When you publish a \c QObject that has overloaded methods, QWebChannel will resolve
    method invocations to the best match. Note that due to JavaScript's type system, there is only
    a single 'number' type which maps best to a C++ 'double'. When overloads differ only in the type
    of a number-like parameter, QWebChannel will always choose that overload which best matches the
    JavaScript 'number' type.
    When you connect to an overloaded signal, the QWebChannel client will by default only connect to
    the first signal overload of that name.
    Additionally, overloads of methods and signals can explicitly be requested by their complete
    \c QMetaMethod signature.
    Assume we have the following \c QObject subclass on the C++ side:

    \code
    class Foo : public QObject
    {
        Q_OBJECT
    slots:
        void foo(int i);
        void foo(double d);
        void foo(const QString &str);
        void foo(const QString &str, int i);

    signals:
        void bar(int i);
        void bar(const QString &str);
        void bar(const QString &str, int i);
    };
    \endcode

    Then you can interact with this class on the JavaScript side like this:

    \code
    // methods
    foo.foo(42); // will call the method named foo which best matches the JavaScript number parameter, i.e. foo(double d)
    foo.foo("asdf"); // will call foo(const QString &str)
    foo.foo("asdf", 42); // will call foo(const QString &str, int i)
    foo["foo(int)"](42); // explicitly call foo(int i), *not* foo(double d)
    foo["foo(QString)"]("asdf"); // explicitly call foo(const QString &str)
    foo["foo(QString,int)"]("asdf", 42); // explicitly call foo(const QString &str, int i)

    // signals
    foo.bar.connect(...); // connect to first signal named bar, i.e. bar(int i)
    foo["bar(int)"].connect(...); // connect explicitly to bar(int i)
    foo["bar(QString)"].connect(...); // connect explicitly to bar(const QString &str)
    foo["bar(QString,int)"].connect(...); // connect explicitly to bar(const QString &str, int i)
    \endcode
*/
