Activates the action. Since 2.28
Request for the state of action to be changed to value. The action must be stateful and value must be of the correct type. See g_action_get_state_type(). This call merely requests a change. The action may refuse to change its state or may change its state to something other than value. See g_action_get_state_hint(). If the value GVariant is floating, it is consumed. Since 2.30
Get the main Gtk struct
Checks if action is currently enabled. An action must be enabled in order to be activated or in order to have its state changed from outside callers. Since 2.28
Queries the name of action. Since 2.28
Queries the type of the parameter that must be given when activating action. When activating the action using g_action_activate(), the GVariant given to that function must be of the type returned by this function. In the case that this function returns NULL, you must not give any GVariant, but NULL instead. Since 2.28
Queries the current state of action. If the action is not stateful then NULL will be returned. If the action is stateful then the type of the return value is the type given by g_action_get_state_type(). The return value (if non-NULL) should be freed with g_variant_unref() when it is no longer required. Since 2.28
Requests a hint about the valid range of values for the state of action. If NULL is returned it either means that the action is not stateful or that there is no hint about the valid range of values for the state of the action. If a GVariant array is returned then each item in the array is a possible value for the state. If a GVariant pair (ie: two-tuple) is returned then the tuple specifies the inclusive lower and upper bound of valid values for the state. In any case, the information is merely a hint. It may be possible to have a state value outside of the hinted range and setting a value within the range may fail. The return value (if non-NULL) should be freed with g_variant_unref() when it is no longer required. Since 2.28
Queries the type of the state of action. If the action is stateful (e.g. created with g_simple_action_new_stateful()) then this function returns the GVariantType of the state. This is the type of the initial value given as the state. All calls to g_action_change_state() must give a GVariant of this type and g_action_get_state() will return a GVariant of the same type. If the action is not stateful (e.g. created with g_simple_action_new()) then this function will return NULL. In that case, g_action_get_state() will return NULL and you must not call g_action_change_state(). Since 2.28
Checks if action_name is valid. action_name is valid if it consists only of alphanumeric characters, plus '-' and '.'. The empty string is not a valid action name. It is an error to call this function with a non-utf8 action_name. action_name must not be NULL. Since 2.38
Parses a detailed action name into its separate name and target components. Detailed action names can have three formats. The first format is used to represent an action name with no target value and consists of just an action name containing no whitespace nor the characters ':', '(' or ')'. For example: "app.action". The second format is used to represent an action with a target value that is a non-empty string consisting only of alphanumerics, plus '-' and '.'. In that case, the action name and target value are separated by a double colon ("::"). For example: "app.action::target". The third format is used to represent an action with any type of target value, including strings. The target value follows the action name, surrounded in parens. For example: "app.action(42)". The target value is parsed using g_variant_parse(). If a tuple-typed value is desired, it must be specified in the same way, resulting in two sets of parens, for example: "app.action((1,2,3))". A string target can be specified this way as well: "app.action('target')". For strings, this third format must be used if * target value is empty or contains characters other than alphanumerics, '-' and '.'. Since 2.38
Formats a detailed action name from action_name and target_value. It is an error to call this function with an invalid action name. This function is the opposite of g_action_parse_detailed_action_name(). It will produce a string that can be parsed back to the action_name and target_value by that function. See that function for the types of strings that will be printed by this function. Since 2.38
the main Gtk struct
GAction represents a single named action.
The main interface to an action is that it can be activated with g_action_activate(). This results in the 'activate' signal being emitted. An activation has a GVariant parameter (which may be NULL). The correct type for the parameter is determined by a static parameter type (which is given at construction time).
An action may optionally have a state, in which case the state may be set with g_action_change_state(). This call takes a GVariant. The correct type for the state is determined by a static state type (which is given at construction time).
The state may have a hint associated with it, specifying its valid range.
GAction is merely the interface to the concept of an action, as described above. Various implementations of actions exist, including GSimpleAction and GtkAction.
In all cases, the implementing class is responsible for storing the name of the action, the parameter type, the enabled state, the optional state type and the state and emitting the appropriate signals when these change. The implementor responsible for filtering calls to g_action_activate() and g_action_change_state() for type safety and for the state being enabled.
Probably the only useful thing to do with a GAction is to put it inside of a GSimpleActionGroup.