Binding is the representation of a binding between a property on a Object instance (or source) and another property on another Object instance (or target). Whenever the source property changes, the same value is applied to the target property; for instance, the following binding:

C code

 g_object_bind_property (object1, "property-a",
                         object2, "property-b",
                         G_BINDING_DEFAULT);

will cause the property named "property-b" of object2 to be updated every time g_object_set() or the specific accessor changes the value of the property "property-a" of object1.

It is possible to create a bidirectional binding between two properties of two Object instances, so that if either property changes, the other is updated as well, for instance:

C code

 g_object_bind_property (object1, "property-a",
                         object2, "property-b",
                         G_BINDING_BIDIRECTIONAL);

will keep the two properties in sync.

It is also possible to set a custom transformation function (in both directions, in case of a bidirectional binding) to apply a custom transformation from the source value to the target value before applying it; for instance, the following binding:

C code

 g_object_bind_property_full (adjustment1, "value",
                              adjustment2, "value",
                              G_BINDING_BIDIRECTIONAL,
                              celsius_to_fahrenheit,
                              fahrenheit_to_celsius,
                              NULL, NULL);

will keep the "value" property of the two adjustments in sync; the celsiusToFahrenheit function will be called whenever the "value" property of adjustment1 changes and will transform the current value of the property before applying it to the "value" property of adjustment2.

Vice versa, the fahrenheitToCelsius function will be called whenever the "value" property of adjustment2 changes, and will transform the current value of the property before applying it to the "value" property of adjustment1.

Note that Binding does not resolve cycles by itself; a cycle like

 object1:propertyA -> object2:propertyB
 object2:propertyB -> object3:propertyC
 object3:propertyC -> object1:propertyA

might lead to an infinite loop. The loop, in this particular case, can be avoided if the objects emit the notify signal only if the value has effectively been changed. A binding is implemented using the notify signal, so it is susceptible to all the various ways of blocking a signal emission, like signalStopEmission or signalHandlerBlock.

A binding will be severed, and the resources it allocates freed, whenever either one of the Object instances it refers to are finalized, or when the Binding instance loses its last reference.

Bindings for languages with garbage collection can use bindingUnbind to explicitly release a binding between the source and target properties, instead of relying on the last reference on the binding, source, and target instances to drop.

Binding is available since GObject 2.26

Since: 2.26

Flags to be used to control the Binding

Since: 2.26

The Object that should be used as the source of the binding

Since: 2.26

The name of the property of Binding:source that should be used as the source of the binding

Since: 2.26

The Object that should be used as the target of the binding

Since: 2.26

The name of the property of Binding:target that should be used as the target of the binding

Since: 2.26