The commented code for this save interface can be found here.
Introduction:
I'm currently in the process of developing using the Pushbutton Engine, and it's going to be a long time before I can write a tutorial on the ideas/process involved in creating the save interface, so I've decided to just present a tutorial for using it in this post. Also if , if version 1.0 of Pushbutton Engine still doesn't have support specifically for savedata I will port this code to be compatible with the component framework.
Rundown of Classes:
- ISaveState : This is the interface that should be implemented by objects that you intend to use as save states.
- ExampleSaveState : An example implementation of ISaveState, used for the demo in Main.mxml.
- SaveManager : This class contains the code for saving and loading.
- Main.mxml : A messy, poorly labeled, but functional demonstration of the features of SaveManager.
- Ability to save objects to local storage.
- Ability to enumerate and load objects from local storage.
- Ability to delete objects from local storage.
- AutoSave/Load/Delete feature that allows the class to be used without a user interface.
- Multiple save slots, with a code specified max number of slots.
- Alerts to handle user confirmation for overwrites and deletes.
- Data displayed adapts according to current user interface specified.
- showAlerts - Boolean determines if alerts should pop up during use saveClass. This should probably be set to false when autosave is used so that the "Confirm Overwrite" dialog doesn't pop up.
- saveClass - Class representing the class of the saved data. This is required by actionscript serialization so that the object can be successfully serialezed / deserialized from a SharedObject. Without it casting would throw type errors because type info would be lost.
- targetSave - The object you will be saving if this instance is going to be used for saving, can also be set later using targetSaveState()
- slotList - A component that extends the flex ListBase class. This parameter will be used for displaying the save slots.
- saveButton - A button that will cause a save to the currently selected slot, or the autosave slot if no slot is selected.
- loadButton - A button that will load the currently selected slot, or the autosave slot if no slot is selected.
- deleteButton -A button that will delete the currently selected slot, or the autosave slot if no slot is selected.
Dynamic UI:
The UI adjusts depending on which component parameters are set to null.
- If slotList is null, only the autoSave save slot will be available to the buttons, because there is no way to select a save slot.
- If saveButton is null, the Create New Save... entry won't appear in the slotlist.
Demonstration:
Main.mxml defines a bunch of controls that demonstrate the SaveManagerClass.
- The top row of buttons determines which features are available in the current SaveManager. Clicking buttons will hide or show controls according to their nullity.
- The first list shows all of the save states.
- The save button will save the "create save info" text fields to the currently selected slot (or autosave slot).
- The load button loads the currently selected (or autosave) slot.
- The delete button deletes the currently selected (or autosave) slot.
- The three text inputs are for creating save data members to demonstrate saving.
- The data grid shows the object currently stored in targetSaveState of the SaveManager (it will change when slots are loaded)
Usage Notes:
ISaveState.as - Implementing classes must have a parameterless constructor in order for serialization to work.
The commented code for this save interface can be found here.
