New Return Types

Hello all,

Here's my situation: I am implementing a modified version of the TinyXML/TorqueConsole interface script (here). Now, I need to return a handle on a found object in TorqueScript like so (not at all to do with books, but for example):

new xmlDoc(doc);

%book = doc.pushFirstChildElement("book");

However, as you can see in xmlDoc.cc, this method return a boolean value, and modifies the original calling object. So, %book will be a 1 or 0 based on if the function worked... not a handle on the actual object of TiXmlElement* and doc would be modified to be the pointer... thus throwing everything into chaos. A simplified example of the method is this:

ConsoleMethod(xmlDoc, getEl, bool, 3, 3, "Return not what I want!!!")
{
object = object->getEl( argv[2]);

return true;
}

I've worked through this (TDN -- Console Types), and can create a dataType that will compile:

consoleTypes.h

DefineConsoleType( TypeTiXmlElement )

consoleTypes.cc

//include tinyxml so that TiXmlElement is a recognizable type...
#include "xml/tinyxml.h"

...

//Other document stuff...

...

// TypeTiXmlElement
ConsoleType( TiXmlElement, TypeTiXmlElement, sizeof(TiXmlElement*) )

ConsoleSetType( TypeTiXmlElement )
{
   if(argc == 1)
   {
      TiXmlElement **obj = (TiXmlElement **)dptr;
      *obj = dynamic_cast<TiXmlElement*>(Sim::findObject(argv[0]));
   }
   else
      Con::printf("(TypeTiXmlElement) Cannot set multiple args to a single TiXmlElement.");
}

ConsoleGetType( TypeTiXmlElement )
{
   TiXmlElement **obj = (TiXmlElement**)dptr;
   char* returnBuffer = Con::getReturnBuffer(256);
   dSprintf(returnBuffer, 256, "%s", *obj ? (*obj)->getName() : "");
   return returnBuffer;
}

So all that will compile, but when I try to implement this in xmlDoc.cc....

TiXmlElement* xmlDoc::getEl(const char* rName)
{
   TiXmlElement* pElement;
   if(!m_paNode.empty())
   {
      const int iLastElement = m_paNode.size() - 1;
      TiXmlElement* pNode = m_paNode[iLastElement];

      pElement = pNode->FirstChildElement(rName);
   }
   else
      pElement = m_qDocument->FirstChildElement(rName);

   return pElement;
}

ConsoleMethod(xmlDoc, getEl, TypeTiXmlElement, 3, 3, "Get a handle on first element...")
{
   return object->getEl( argv[2] );
}

...I get compiler errors such as (fairly cropped, it was several pages :D):

<pathToTorque>\torque\sdk\engine\<myGame>\xmlDoc.cc(20) : error C2059: syntax error : ')'
<pathToTorque>\torque\sdk\engine\<myGame>\xmlDoc.cc(360) : error C2146: syntax error : missing ';' before identifier 'cxmlDocgetEl'
<pathToTorque>\torque\sdk\engine\<myGame>\xmlDoc.cc(360) : error C2433: 'TypeTiXmlElement' : 'inline' not permitted on data declarations
...
<pathToTorque>\torque\sdk\engine\<myGame>\xmlDoc.cc(360) : error C2146: syntax error : missing ';' before identifier 'cxmlDocgetElcaster'
<pathToTorque>\torque\sdk\engine\<myGame>\xmlDoc.cc(360) : error C4430: missing type specifier - int assumed. Note: C++ does not support default-int
<pathToTorque>\torque\sdk\engine\<myGame>\xmlDoc.cc(360) : error C2086: 'S32 TypeTiXmlElement' : redefinition
...
<pathToTorque>\torque\sdk\engine\console\consoletypes.h(38) : see declaration of 'TypeTiXmlElement'
...
<pathToTorque>\torque\sdk\engine\<myGame>\xmlDoc.cc(362) : error C2440: 'return' : cannot convert from 'TiXmlElement *' to 'int'

However, all the declarations I have in my header files, and the actual usage in the cc files, do not have ints anywhere, they all return TiXmlElement* or TiXmlElement, the only thing that does differently is the ConsoleMethod as you can see above which uses the declared console-type of TypeTiXmlElement.

So, any thoughts? Any help would be greatly appreciated.