Doc/libmacic.tex

   1 \section{Standard Module \module{ic}}
   2 \label{module-ic}
   3 \bimodindex{ic}
   4
   5
   6 This module provides access to Macintosh Internet Config package,
   7 which stores preferences for Internet programs such as mail address,
   8 default homepage, etc. Also, Internet Config contains an elaborate set
   9 of mappings from Macintosh creator/type codes to foreign filename
  10 extensions plus information on how to transfer files (binary, ascii,
  11 etc).
  12
  13 There is a low-level companion module
  14 \module{icglue}\refbimodindex{icglue} which provides the basic
  15 Internet Config access functionality.  This low-level module is not
  16 documented, but the docstrings of the routines document the parameters
  17 and the routine names are the same as for the Pascal or \C{} API to
  18 Internet Config, so the standard IC programmers' documentation can be
  19 used if this module is needed.
  20
  21 The \module{ic} module defines the \exception{error} exception and
  22 symbolic names for all error codes Internet Config can produce; see
  23 the source for details.
  24
  25 \begin{excdesc}{error}
  26 Exception raised on errors in the \module{ic} module.
  27 \end{excdesc}
  28
  29
  30 The \module{ic} module defines the following class and function:
  31
  32 \begin{classdesc}{IC}{\optional{signature\optional{, ic}}}
  33 Create an internet config object. The signature is a 4-character creator
  34 code of the current application (default \code{'Pyth'}) which may
  35 influence some of ICs settings. The optional \var{ic} argument is a
  36 low-level \code{icglue.icinstance} created beforehand, this may be
  37 useful if you want to get preferences from a different config file,
  38 etc.
  39 \end{classdesc}
  40
  41 \begin{funcdesc}{launchurl}{url\optional{, hint}}
  42 \funcline{parseurl}{data\optional{, start\optional{, end\optional{, hint}}}}
  43 \funcline{mapfile}{file}
  44 \funcline{maptypecreator}{type, creator\optional{, filename}}
  45 \funcline{settypecreator}{file}
  46 These functions are ``shortcuts'' to the methods of the same name,
  47 described below.
  48 \end{funcdesc}
  49
  50
  51 \subsection{IC Objects}
  52
  53 \class{IC} objects have a mapping interface, hence to obtain the mail
  54 address you simply get \code{\var{ic}['MailAddress']}. Assignment also
  55 works, and changes the option in the configuration file.
  56
  57 The module knows about various datatypes, and converts the internal IC
  58 representation to a ``logical'' Python data structure. Running the
  59 \module{ic} module standalone will run a test program that lists all
  60 keys and values in your IC database, this will have to server as
  61 documentation.
  62
  63 If the module does not know how to represent the data it returns an
  64 instance of the \code{ICOpaqueData} type, with the raw data in its
  65 \member{data} attribute. Objects of this type are also acceptable values
  66 for assignment.
  67
  68 Besides the dictionary interface, \class{IC} objects have the
  69 following methods:
  70
  71
  72 \begin{methoddesc}{launchurl}{url\optional{, hint}}
  73 Parse the given URL, lauch the correct application and pass it the
  74 URL. The optional \var{hint} can be a scheme name such as
  75 \code{'mailto:'}, in which case incomplete URLs are completed with this
  76 scheme.  If \var{hint} is not provided, incomplete URLs are invalid.
  77 \end{methoddesc}
  78
  79 \begin{methoddesc}{parseurl}{data\optional{, start\optional{, end\optional{, hint}}}}
  80 Find an URL somewhere in \var{data} and return start position, end
  81 position and the URL. The optional \var{start} and \var{end} can be
  82 used to limit the search, so for instance if a user clicks in a long
  83 textfield you can pass the whole textfield and the click-position in
  84 \var{start} and this routine will return the whole URL in which the
  85 user clicked.  As above, \var{hint} is an optional scheme used to
  86 complete incomplete URLs.
  87 \end{methoddesc}
  88
  89 \begin{methoddesc}{mapfile}{file}
  90 Return the mapping entry for the given \var{file}, which can be passed
  91 as either a filename or an \function{macfs.FSSpec()} result, and which
  92 need not exist.
  93
  94 The mapping entry is returned as a tuple \code{(}\var{version},
  95 \var{type}, \var{creator}, \var{postcreator}, \var{flags},
  96 \var{extension}, \var{appname}, \var{postappname}, \var{mimetype},
  97 \var{entryname}\code{)}, where \var{version} is the entry version
  98 number, \var{type} is the 4-character filetype, \var{creator} is the
  99 4-character creator type, \var{postcreator} is the 4-character creator
 100 code of an
 101 optional application to post-process the file after downloading,
 102 \var{flags} are various bits specifying whether to transfer in binary
 103 or ascii and such, \var{extension} is the filename extension for this
 104 file type, \var{appname} is the printable name of the application to
 105 which this file belongs, \var{postappname} is the name of the
 106 postprocessing application, \var{mimetype} is the MIME type of this
 107 file and \var{entryname} is the name of this entry.
 108 \end{methoddesc}
 109
 110 \begin{methoddesc}{maptypecreator}{type, creator\optional{, filename}}
 111 Return the mapping entry for files with given 4-character \var{type} and
 112 \var{creator} codes. The optional \var{filename} may be specified to
 113 further help finding the correct entry (if the creator code is
 114 \code{'????'}, for instance).
 115
 116 The mapping entry is returned in the same format as for \var{mapfile}.
 117 \end{methoddesc}
 118
 119 \begin{methoddesc}{settypecreator}{file}
 120 Given an existing \var{file}, specified either as a filename or as an
 121 \function{macfs.FSSpec()} result, set its creator and type correctly based
 122 on its extension.  The finder is told about the change, so the finder
 123 icon will be updated quickly.
 124 \end{methoddesc}