---

2.6.3 Event Objects

   The OSA Event Registry: Standard Suites includes definitions for OSA event 
   object classes, which are simply names for objects that can be acted upon 
   by each kind of OSA event.  Applications use these definitions and OSA 
   Event Manager routines to create complex descriptions of almost any 
   discrete item in another application or its documents.  For example, an 
   application could use OSA Event Manager routines and standard object class 
   definitions to construct a Get Data event that requests for example: 

     the most recent invoice to John Miller in the Invoices 
     database on the Archives server 

   and send the event to the appropriate application across the network. 

   An OSA event object is any item supported by an application, such as a 
   word, paragraph, shape, or document, that can be described in an OSA 
   event.  In the example in " Standard Events" in topic 2.6.2, the specified 
   document, chapter, paragraph, string, and word are nested OSA event 
   objects.  Nearly any item that a user can differentiate and manipulate on 
   an OSA-compliant system can be described as an OSA event object of a 
   specified object class nested within other OSA event objects.  When 
   handling an OSA event that includes such a description, an application 
   must locate the specified OSA event object and perform the requested 
   action on it. 

   These functions are called object accessor functions according to the 
   event objects they are supporting.  An OSA-aware application must provide 
   for each defined object class for example, paragraph and word, an object 
   accessor function.  This function is called by the OpenDoc ODNameResolver 
   object to resolve the specified object.  The target object is resolved in 
   a recursive process from the outside most general object for example, 
   chapter to the inside words to be changed.  The document itself has no 
   idea about the words to change, but it can resolve chapters 5 through 7; 
   the chapters can resolve the paragraphs; the paragraphs can resolve the 
   words which in turn know their color attribute. 

   Most of the standard OSA events, defined in the OSA Event Registry: 
   Standard Suites, require applications to recognize specific OSA event 
   object classes.  Support for the standard OSA events, including OSA event 
   object classes, allows your application to respond to requests for 
   services or information from any other application or process. 

IBM BookManager® BookServer Copyright 1989, 1999 IBM Corporation. All rights reserved.