A property is a piece of information that is associated with an object. Storing and retrieving all of the properties belonging to an object through a single interface provides a convenient and generic way to deal with any property. The ability to discover and access an object’s properties at run time makes it possible to write generic services for accessing properties. For example, the same serialization code is used to store and retrieve the properties of all components. There is no need to change the serialization code when new properties are added. A generic property browser is also possible given a consistent interface to an object’s properties.

Objective Views uses the interfaces and classes provided by the SFL Properties package for defining and accessing properties. Components are property containers that maintain a list of cached property values and a static register of property descriptions. Fonts, line drawing characteristics, fill (brush) characteristics, and editing capabilities are examples of the information treated as properties. Refer to the Stingray Foundation Library User’s Guide for more information about the Properties package.