Ok. This isn't the prettiest solution, but it will work. Basically, for every interface "AbstractX" (replace "X" with something else), you need to create two wrapper classes: "ImportX" and "ExportX". The goal of ExportX is to successfully widen AbstractX to type Object, by wrapping an AbstractX, providing all the same methods as type AbstractX, but to use only builtin/predefined data types or data types which are part of flash in their signatures. The goal of ImportX is to narrow a dynamically loaded object with the same characteristics as type AbstractX (but which cannot be cast to type AbstractX and which is not recognized as type AbstractX) but is of type Object to the AbstractX interface. Both ExportX and ImportX use ImportY, ImportZ, etc.; however, ExportX uses ImportY, ImportZ, etc. to wrap parameters, which it delegates to an object of type AbstractX, while ImportX uses them to wrap return values, which come about from delegating to an object of type Object. To make this a little more understandable, I present the following examples:
public interface AbstractX
{
// The export/import functions are mandatory
// for all such interfaces. They allow
// for the wrappers to be correctly manipulated.
function export() : Object;
function original() : Object;
// The interface functions vary from
// interface to interface. They can
// be called something much more appropriate.
function interfaceFunction1(param : AbstractY) : AbstractZ;
function interfaceFunction2(param : AbstractA) : AbstractB;
}
// A class of type Import_ always implements Abstract_
public class ImportX implements AbstractX
{
// The constructor for an Import_ Object
// is always of type Object.
public function ImportX(obj : Object) : void {
_loadedobj = obj;
_exportobj = obj.export();
}
// Every Import_ class must implement a similar "wrap" function:
public static function wrap(obj : Object) : AbstractX {
var result : AbstractX = null;
if ( obj != null ){
if ( obj is AbstractX ){ // Don't wrap if convertible, directly.
result = obj as AbstractX;
}else if ( obj.original() is AbstractX ){ // Don't double wrap
result = obj.original() as AbstractX;
}else{
// Needs to be wrapped.
result = new ImportX(obj);
}
}
return result;
}
public function export() : Object {
return _exportobj;
}
public function original() : Object {
return _loadedobj;
}
// For the interface functions, we delegate to _exportobj
// and we wrap the return values, but not the parameters.
public function interfaceFunction1(param : AbstractY) : AbstractZ {
return AbstractZ.wrap(_exportobj.interfaceFunction1(param));
}
public function interfaceFunction2(param : AbstractA) : AbstractB {
return AbstractB.wrap(_exportobj.interfaceFunction2(param));
}
private var _loadedobj : Object;
private var _exportobj : Object;
}
// Although an Export_ object provides SIMILAR methods to type Abstract_,
// the signatures need to be changed so that only builtin/predefined types
// appear. Thus Export_ NEVER implements Abstract_.
public class ExportX
{
// The constructor to Export_ always takes an object of type Abstract_
public function ExportX(obj : AbstractX) : void {
_obj = obj;
}
public function original() : Object {
return _obj;
}
public function export() : Object {
return this;
}
// For the interface functions, we delegate to _obj
// and we wrap the parameters, not the return values.
// Also note the change in signature.
public function interfaceFunction1(param : Object) : Object {
return _obj.interfaceFunction1(AbstractY.wrap(param));
}
public function interfaceFunction2(param : Object) : Object {
return _obj.interfaceFunction2(AbstractA.wrap(param));
}
private var _obj : AbstractX = null;
}
// The definition of class X can occur in and be loaded by any module.
public class X implements AbstractX
{
public function X( /* ... */ ) : void {
//...
}
public function export() : Object {
if ( ! _export ){
_export = new ExportX(this);
}
return _export;
}
public function original() : Object {
return this;
}
public function interfaceFunction1(param : AbstractY) : AbstractZ {
// ...
}
public function interfaceFunction2(param : AbstractA) : AbstractB {
// ...
}
private var _export : Object = null;
}
// Ok. So here is how you use this...
var classx : Class = dynamicallyLoadClassFromModule("X","module.swf");
var untypedx : Object = new classx();
var typedx : AbstractX = ImportX.wrap(untypedx);
// Use typedx ...