Doc/mac/libmacic.tex

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