Class sap.ui.core.ElementModule: sap/ui/core/Element

If vData is an Element already, that element is returned. If vData is an object (literal), then a new element is created with vData as settings. The type of the element is either determined by a "Type" entry in the vData or by a type information in the oKeyInfo object

oClassInfo might contain the following:

• metadata: an (optional) object literal containing meta information about the class. The information in the object literal will be wrapped by an instance of ElementMetadata and might contain the following information:
  • all values accepted for metadata as documented for the Object.extend method
  • library: {string} (optional) name of the library that contains the element/control
  • properties: a map of property info objects, mapped by the property name Each info object should be a simple object literal and may contain the following information
    • type {string} optional type of the property, defaults to type "string"
    • [defaultValue] {any} default value of the property. When omitted, defaults to the default value for the type
    • group {string} optional semantic group of the property. Defaults to "Misc"
    If the property info object is not an object literal, it is assumed to be a string and interpreted as the type of the property. All other informations use their default values.
  • aggregations: a map of aggregation info objects, mapped by the aggregation name By convention, the name should be a singular name for aggregations of cardinality 0..1 and should be a plural name for aggregations of cardinality 0..n.

    The info object should contain the following information

    • type {string} (optional) type of the aggregated controls/elements, defaults to sap.ui.core.Control
    • altTypes {string[]} (optional) alternative primitive types that the aggregation can have (like string etc.). Defaults to no alternative types.
    • multiple {boolean} (optional) information about the cardinality, defaults to true (multiple aggregation)
    • singularName {string} (optional) singular name for 0..n aggregations. If not specified, a singular name is guessed from the plural name.
    If the aggregation info object is not an object literal, it is assumed to be a string and interpreted as the type of the aggregation. All other informations use their default values.
  • associations: a map of association info objects, mapped by the association name By convention, the name should be a singular name for aggregations of cardinality 0..1 and should be a plural name for aggregations of cardinality 0..n.

    The info object should contain the following information

    • type {string} type of the associated controls/elements, defaults to sap.ui.core.Control
    • multiple {boolean} (optional) information about the cardinality, defaults to false (single aggregation)
    • singularName {string} (optional) singular name for 0..n aggregations. If not specified, a singular name is guessed from the plural name.
    If the association info object is not an object literal, it is assumed to be a string and interpreted as the type of the aggregation. All other informations then use their default values.
  • events: a map of event info objects, mapped by the event name The info object can contain the following information
    • allowPreventDefault: {boolean} whether the control allows to prevent its default behavior for this event (defaults to false)
  For all properties, aggregations, associations and events, the usual access methods are created and added to the public facade. They don't need to be listed in the publicMethods array.
• constructor: a function that serves as a constructor function for the new element class. If no constructor function is given, the framework creates a default implementation that delegates all its arguments to the constructor function of the base class. Note: most of the time, subclasses of Element don't need to specify their own constructor function. They should use the symmetric init and exit hooks instead.
• renderer: definition of a renderer. This can be any of the following
  • the class name of a renderer class (a string)
  • a render function with signature function(oRenderManager, oControl) that implements the rendering for the new class
  • an object literal that contains functions/properties that should be mixed into a new render class which is created as a subclass of the renderer of the current class.
  Note: usually only controls have a renderer. But to keep the control creation APIs simple and to honor future extensions of the current policy, the definition of a renderer is supported for direct subclasses of Element as well.
• any-other-name: any other property in the oClassInfo is copied into the prototype object of the newly created class. Callers can thereby add methods or properties to all instances of the class. But be aware that the given values are shared between all instances of the class. Usually, it doesn't make sense to use primitive values here other than to declare public constants.

  All methods added this way and whose name is not 'init' nor 'exit' nor does it start with an underscore ('_') nor with the prefix 'on' are assumed to be public methods and are automatically added to the list of public facade methods.

The prototype object of the newly created class uses the same prototype as instances of the base class (prototype chaining).

A metadata object is always created, even if there is no metadata entry in the oClassInfo object. A getter for the metadata is always attached to the prototype and to the class (constructor function) itself.

Last but not least, with the third argument FNMetaImpl the constructor of a metadata class can be specified. Instances of that class will be used to represent metadata for the newly created class and for any subclass created from it. Typically, only frameworks will use this parameter to enrich the metadata for a new class hierarchy they introduce (as done by Element).