Field.text_: Documentation vs use

Our documentation is very clear about not using Field’s .text_ property.

“Warning: Never access the text_ property directly, instead access it through getText. It is maintained for backwards compatibility.” “Caution: Never use the text_ property to access or edit the text of your field. It is maintained for backwards compatibility.” https://devsite.googleplex.com/blockly/guides/create-custom-blocks/fields/customizing-fields/creating

“We recommend that you never access or update the text_ property of your field directly.” https://devsite.googleplex.com/blockly/guides/create-custom-blocks/fields/customizing-fields/upgrading

Yet our codebase uses it all over the place:

• Blockly.Block.prototype.toString
• Blockly.FieldAngle.prototype.onMouseMove
• Blockly.FieldDropdown.prototype.doValueUpdate_
• Blockly.FieldImage
• Blockly.FieldImage.prototype.initView
• Blockly.FieldImage.prototype.setAlt
• Blockly.FieldTextInput.prototype.doValueUpdate_
• Blockly.FieldTextInput.prototype.showPromptEditor_
• Blockly.FieldTextInput.prototype.widgetDispose_
• Blockly.FieldVariable.prototype.doValueUpdate_
• Blockly.FieldVariable.prototype.refreshVariableName

Is .text_ a fundamental part of fields that needs to be used whenever one creates a new field?

[samelhusseini]

Thanks for bearing with me @BeksOmega. First off, I’d very much appreciate a demo. My reservation with making this generic has been to not end up with a solution that’s pretty much the same as what we have with this.text_ just renamed to a displayVaue or a tempValue.

Allow fields to display values that are different than their actual values in a generalized way.

I think that’s a great idea, instead of having the field_textinput have to set the this.text_ field directly in order to “hack” the field sizing, providing a more generic way to replace what is shown in the display would be great. I don’t see how you can do that with a single property on the field (unless that property is a DOM element), but please feel free to go ahead with a demo, I think that will give me a much better idea of your proposal.

[samelhusseini]

Documentation updated and will be published in the next release.