Better documentation on how to use this

[supagu]

I"m trying to work out how to use this autobinding tool.

I have set up the dependency in my pubspec.yaml:

  hetu_binding_generator:
    git: https://github.com/hetu-script/hetu-script-autobinding.git

now I don't know how to run build.sh. I have no idea where flutter put the repo it checked out.

I figured that this library should be similar to the json serliazation library so tried following similar steps to this: https://www.raywenderlich.com/books/flutter-apprentice/v1.0.ea2/chapters/11-serialization-with-json

I tried running the command:

flutter pub run hetu_binding_generator build

which tells me:

Could not find bin/hetu_binding_generator.dart in package hetu_binding_generator

Can we get a sample with this library being used?

Also, what file do I include so I can use the @HTBinding() annotation?

[rockingdice]

Will update the document later.
I've been very busy these days and the auto-binding tool is not catching up with the hetu-script. So maybe you cannot use it with the latest version of hetu-script.

You can use the branch called 'app-stable' of hetu-script, which should be usable since I'm working on a project using it for production without many issues.

The tool is not made with build-runner, so you cannot use flutter pub run to generate codes, but it's on the roadmap, so in the future you may use it as what you're doing now. You can only use a prebuilt executable to generate for now.

You don't need to add a dependency of this tool to your project, instead just add a dependency of hetu-script is enough. I'll try to explain how to prepare and to use this tool:

1. You should build a dart executable from this repo. You can use the build.sh on Mac to build the tool, but if you are using Windows, you can make a folder named 'bin' under the project root folder then run the command directly (from the build.sh):

dart compile exe lib/main.dart -o bin/ht-binding-generator

Then you should get an executable under the 'bin' folder.

2. Prepare a sh/bat script to generate codes for your project, here's an example from my project:

FLUTTER_PUB_CACHE="/Users/YOUR_USER_NAME/github/flutter/.pub-cache"
FLUTTER_ROOT="/Users/YOUR_USER_NAME/github/flutter"

ht-binding-generator \
-f $FLUTTER_ROOT/ \
-o /Users/YOUR_USER_NAME/github/flutter_projects/mhro/lib/auto_bindings \
-u /Users/YOUR_USER_NAME/github/flutter_projects/mhro/lib/ \
-s /Users/YOUR_USER_NAME/github/flutter_projects/mhro/ht-lib/ \
-i /pull_to_refresh-1.6.4/lib/src/internals/,\
/scrollable_positioned_list-0.2.0-nullsafety.0/lib/src/element_registry.dart,\
/scrollable_positioned_list-0.2.0-nullsafety.0/lib/src/item_positions_notifier.dart,\
/scrollable_positioned_list-0.2.0-nullsafety.0/lib/src/positioned_list.dart,\
/scrollable_positioned_list-0.2.0-nullsafety.0/lib/src/post_mount_callback.dart,\
/scrollable_positioned_list-0.2.0-nullsafety.0/lib/src/scroll_view.dart,\
/scrollable_positioned_list-0.2.0-nullsafety.0/lib/src/viewport.dart,\
flutter_html-2.0.0-nullsafety.0/lib/src/widgets \
-p $FLUTTER_PUB_CACHE/git/stateflow-4d9e0cb0f2ffd60ec3bda8bb71365c64b6d1ca68/lib,\
/Users/YOUR_USER_NAME/github/flutter_projects/rop_sdk/lib,\
$FLUTTER_PUB_CACHE/git/reorderables-0390991b1bbebea8e959ecb985f5f30459d57220/lib,\
$FLUTTER_PUB_CACHE/git/flutter_typeahead-841c0ef341fbb071d340884901e79dd089be3cb5/lib,\
$FLUTTER_PUB_CACHE/hosted/pub.flutter-io.cn/auto_size_text-3.0.0-nullsafety.0/lib,\
$FLUTTER_PUB_CACHE/hosted/pub.flutter-io.cn/layout-0.6.1/lib,\
$FLUTTER_PUB_CACHE/hosted/pub.flutter-io.cn/flutter_markdown-0.6.1/lib,\
$FLUTTER_PUB_CACHE/hosted/pub.flutter-io.cn/tinycolor-1.0.3/lib,\
$FLUTTER_PUB_CACHE/hosted/pub.flutter-io.cn/cached_network_image-3.0.0-nullsafety/lib,\
$FLUTTER_PUB_CACHE/hosted/pub.flutter-io.cn/pull_to_refresh-1.6.4/lib,\
-g \
Animator:double,AnimatorState:double,AnimatorKey:double,Tween:double,TypeAheadField:dynamic,TextFieldConfiguration:dynamic \
-j gen/json \
>> log.log

It's a bit complicated, but most of them are optional, you can check the document that cover almost all the arguments:
https://github.com/hetu-script/hetu-script-autobinding/blob/main/README.md

Basically, you need to provide -f to specify the path of the flutter framework, -o to specify the path for the generated dart codes, and -s for the generated hetu codes.
After run this script, you'll need to integrate the generated codes to your project.
You will use this script every time that you need to rebuild the binding codes.

3. You need to add some integration codes before using the binding codes:

    var hetu = Hetu(
      errorHandler: ScriptErrorHandler(),
      moduleHandler: ScriptImportHandler(),
    );

    var hetuFuture = hetu.init();
    //Integrate the binding codes
    var hetuBinding = HetuScriptBinding();
    hetuBinding.loadAutoBinding(hetu);
    // ht-lib is the .ht root folder that generated from this tool
    var bindFuture = hetuBinding.loadAutoBindingScripts(hetu, 'ht-lib');
    // wait for the end of these initialization
    await Future.wait([hetuFuture, bindFuture]);
    // you can then use the scripts
    await hetu.import('init.ht', invokeFunc: 'initialize');

That's it!
But there are more use cases like binding packages, binding user codes, etc that is not covered yet. I'll try to add to the document if I've got spare time.

[supagu]

Thanks.
I made a little script to help with the first step:

#!/bin/bash

git clone https://github.com/hetu-script/hetu-script-autobinding.git

cd hetu-script-autobinding

dart pub get

./build.sh

I am hitting a build error:

fabian@192-168-1-105 hetu-script-autobinding % ./build.sh
Info: Compiling with sound null safety
../../../.pub-cache/hosted/pub.dartlang.org/analyzer-1.1.0/lib/src/error/best_practices_verifier.dart:1952:14: Error: A non-null value must be returned since the return type 'String' doesn't allow null.
String get displayString {
^
lib/main.dart: Warning: Interpreting this as package URI, 'package:hetu_binding_generator/main.dart'.
Error: AOT compilation failed
Generating AOT kernel dill failed!

[hythl0day]

I am hitting a build error:

This is a dart bug. I encounter this just recently

solution here: dart-lang/sdk#46286

[supagu]

Yeah thanks.

I've got it comped now and trying to run over my code.

To be able to use this annotation:

@HTBinding()

I have cheated by doing this:

// this is here just to let it compile with hetu bindings
class HTBinding {
  const HTBinding();
}

I also get a bunch of compile errors when trying to build in the auto_bindings directory:

It looks like its trying to generate autobindings for a lot of thirdparty stuff. Can I easily tell it to only generate autobindings for my own code base?

[rockingdice]

@supagu you need to check if you are using app-stable branch of hetu-script. Some of the types are renamed in the latest branch if I recall correctly.
If you don't use -p or -u then the tool won't generate custom codes (like packages). It only generate codes for flutter and dart.
You can use -i to ignore some of the classes, but it's not necessary if you just want to make it working. I'm using flutter stable channel v2.2.1 and it should work without any issue.