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GObject.Binding

class — extends Object

GObject instance (or source) and another property on another GObject instance (or target).

Whenever the source property changes, the same value is applied to the target property; for instance, the following binding:

  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 GObject.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 GObject instances, so that if either property changes, the other is updated as well, for instance:

  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:

  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 celsius_to_fahrenheit 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 fahrenheit_to_celsius 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 GObject::notify signal only if the value has effectively been changed. A binding is implemented using the GObject::notify signal, so it is susceptible to all the various ways of blocking a signal emission, like signal_stop_emission or signal_handler_block.

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

Bindings for languages with garbage collection can use Binding.unbind 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.

Methods

dup_source

def dup_source(self) -> Object | None

Retrieves the Object instance used as the source of the binding.

A Binding can outlive the source Object as the binding does not hold a strong reference to the source. If the source is destroyed before the binding then this function will return None.

dup_target

def dup_target(self) -> Object | None

Retrieves the Object instance used as the target of the binding.

A Binding can outlive the target Object as the binding does not hold a strong reference to the target. If the target is destroyed before the binding then this function will return None.

get_flags

def get_flags(self) -> BindingFlags

Retrieves the flags passed when constructing the Binding.

get_source

def get_source(self) -> Object | None

:::warning Deprecated since 2.68 This API is deprecated. :::

Retrieves the Object instance used as the source of the binding.

A Binding can outlive the source Object as the binding does not hold a strong reference to the source. If the source is destroyed before the binding then this function will return None.

Use Binding.dup_source if the source or binding are used from different threads as otherwise the pointer returned from this function might become invalid if the source is finalized from another thread in the meantime.

get_source_property

def get_source_property(self) -> str

Retrieves the name of the property of Binding:source used as the source of the binding.

get_target

def get_target(self) -> Object | None

:::warning Deprecated since 2.68 This API is deprecated. :::

Retrieves the Object instance used as the target of the binding.

A Binding can outlive the target Object as the binding does not hold a strong reference to the target. If the target is destroyed before the binding then this function will return None.

Use Binding.dup_target if the target or binding are used from different threads as otherwise the pointer returned from this function might become invalid if the target is finalized from another thread in the meantime.

get_target_property

def get_target_property(self) -> str

Retrieves the name of the property of Binding:target used as the target of the binding.

unbind

def unbind(self) -> None

Explicitly releases the binding between the source and the target property expressed by binding.

This function will release the reference that is being held on the binding instance if the binding is still bound; if you want to hold on to the Binding instance after calling Binding.unbind, you will need to hold a reference to it.

Note however that this function does not take ownership of binding, it only unrefs the reference that was initially created by Object.bind_property and is owned by the binding.

Properties

flags

flags: BindingFlags | int  # read/write

Flags to be used to control the Binding

source

source: Object  # read/write

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

source_property

source_property: str  # read/write

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

This should be in [canonical form][classGObject.ParamSpec#parameter-names] to get the best performance.

target

target: Object  # read/write

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

target_property

target_property: str  # read/write

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

This should be in [canonical form][classGObject.ParamSpec#parameter-names] to get the best performance.