====== Using the State Machine ====== In a rich client application, it is often useful to track the current state of an application, such as "logged in" or "unauthenticated". Entourage provides a State Machine component to enable this programming technique, and allow you to create stateful client applications in the web browser. **Live Example**

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\\ **Source Code**








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==== App.StateMachine(name) ==== Create a new State Machine with the given name.


var my_state_machine = App.StateMachine('state_machine');

^ Parameter ^ Description ^ | name | A string which is the name of the state machine. | \\ ==== addState(state,trigger,active) ==== Add a state to the state machine.


my_state_machine.addState('a_state','l:message[name=value,name2!=value]', false);

^ Parameter ^ Description ^ | state | A string which is the the name of the state. | | trigger | A string which defines message and any parameters to trigger the state change. Takes the form of ''l:message[name=value,name2!=value]''. | | active | A boolean identifying if the state should become the active state. | \\ ==== addListener(callback) ==== Adds a listener to the state machine.


my_state_machine.addListener(function(){
  // ...
});

^ Parameter ^ Description ^ | callback | A function that will be called when the state machine state changes. | \\ ==== fireStateChange(state) ==== Changes the state machine's state to the passed in state.


my_state_machine.fireStateChange('a_state');

^ Parameter ^ Description ^ | state | A string which is the the name of the state to fire. | \\ ==== getActiveState() ==== Returns the active state.


my_state_machine.getActiveState();

\\ ==== setActiveState(state) ==== Another way to call ''fireStateChange(state)''.


my_state_machine.setActiveState('a_state');

^ Parameter ^ Description ^ | state | A string which is the the name of the state to fire. |