Alternative to get_element_value method for HtmlDialog

[DanRathbun]

@Aerilius

I would recommend against implementing something like the above get_element_value for HtmlDialog — because it does not do what its name says, it does not get and return anything.

I was thinking along the same lines yesterday, that the method is misnamed, as it’s not a “getter” method.

It is more of a “asynchronous trigger” method. Ie …

In the linked example, perhaps it should be named request_element_value(id) ?
(EDIT: The above method rename was done in the example.)

@DanRathbun

… there is no way to get an immediate synchronous value of a HtmlDialog element. Control must return to the SketchUp engine before the JS to Ruby callbacks will fire. So then there is no way, that a custom get_element_value() method could ever itself return the value, if it is the instigator of the JS call to send the value to Ruby.

However, what this was aimed at, was to have old code work for both UI::WebDialog and UI::HtmlDialog.
BUT, it seems this is not really possible unless the code was designed previously to work asynchronously.

So really this was a testing / proof of concept, that proved the concept incompatible with UI::HtmlDialog.