Obtaining Childs and ActorFrame Levels

When using Actors, you can use self:GetParent() and self:GetChild() to get elements from other ActorFrames or Actors.

self:GetChild() can only be used by ActorFrames.

You can think of an ActorFrame as a tree of objects. This is the original table. And now you’ve called GetParent on the ActorProxy.

Def.ActorFrame{
	Def.BitmapText{ Name="MyText" },
	* Def.ActorProxy{
		OnCommand=function(self)
			self:GetParent()
		end
	},
}

graph LR
    AF[Def.ActorFrame] --- BT(Def.BitmapText) & AP(Def.ActorProxy)
	style AF stroke-width:4px
	style BT stroke-width:4px
	style AP fill:#585,color:#fff,stroke-width:4px

When calling it, you go back up a level, which in this case, it will become ActorFrame.

graph LR
    AF(Def.ActorFrame) --- BT(Def.BitmapText) & AP(Def.ActorProxy);
	style AF fill:#585,color:#fff,stroke-width:4px
	style BT stroke-width:4px
	style AP stroke-width:4px

In this new location, we get the MyText actor, which can be achieved by calling the GetChild command, and can also return back to the ActorProxy, as we’re now in a level that can get both actors (shown in orange).

Def.ActorFrame{
	* Def.BitmapText{ Name="MyText" },
	Def.ActorProxy{
		OnCommand=function(self)
			self:GetParent():GetChild("MyText"):spin()
		end
	},
}

graph LR
    AF(Def.ActorFrame ) --> BT(Def.BitmapText) & AP(Def.ActorProxy);
	style AF fill:#f85,color:#fff,stroke-width:4px
	style BT fill:#585,color:#fff,stroke-width:4px
	style AP fill:#585,color:#fff,stroke-width:4px

The command uses a String argument, but can also grab from nested tables in case of an ActorFrame not having actors with names assigned. On those cases, actors are just indexed on that ActorFrame set.

Example Without Names

Def.ActorFrame{
	OnCommand=function(self)
		-- If we want to get to the BitmapText, we'll need to get
		-- the second entry on the ActorFrame.
		self:GetChild("")[2] -- returns the BitmapText actor.
	end,
	Def.Sprite{},
	Def.BitmapText{}
}

Example With Names

Def.ActorFrame{
	OnCommand=function(self)
		-- If we want to get to the BitmapText,
		-- we'll need to get the "Text" actor.
		self:GetChild("Text") -- returns the BitmapText actor.
	end,
	Def.Sprite{ Name = "Image" },
	Def.BitmapText{ Name = "Text" }
}