Doc/mac/libmacic.tex

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