Overview

The Handler is a class that you can develop and include in your component to provide additional functionality.

A component handler can provide the following additional functionality:

  • Validating the configuration of the component (i.e., that it has appropriate values for all the required property information defined for the component) and providing error, warning, or information messages to the user as needed (e.g., an optimization component might provide a warning if no objectives have been defined).

  • Performing actions immediately when this component is added to the model (e.g., an e-mail component might automatically check the preferences for the user’s e-mail address and mail server to preconfigure itself accordingly).

  • Reacting to changes in the model (e.g., if a parameter name changes your component, it might need to update some information that it had stored that referred to that name).

  • Providing logic for comparing the configuration of this component with the configuration of another instance of this same type of component, allowing for a more detailed description of changes between models.