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Aminet 22
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Aminet 22 (1997)(GTI - Schatztruhe)[!][Dec 1997].iso
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Manual
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1997-10-09
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10KB
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217 lines
AUTHOR
Dietmar Eilert
Mies-v-d-Rohe-Str.31, 52074 Aachen, Germany
WWW: http://www.clearlight.com/~dietmar
E-Mail: dietmar@tomate.tng.oche.de
Dietmar.Eilert@post.rwth-aachen.de
Tel: +49-(0)241-81665
+49-(0)2525-7776
Fax: +49-(0)241-81665
COPYRIGHT
All executables and the library in this package (remote.library,
remoteopen, remoteconfig) are freely distributable public domain softare
and may be included with other software. All other files (source code,
install script, documentation, etc.) are copyrighted by the author and
may not be included with other software.
INSTALLATION
Doubleclick at the installer script icon.
DESCRIPTION
RA is a shared library to open files in remote applications (e.g. a
browser) without knowledge of the executable name, its location on disk
or its ARexx port. Example usage: add a go-online button to your
application and use this library to run the browser and to show your
homepage. With less than five lines of code.
The package includes freely distributable library frontends (shell
commands) for use in installer scripts so that software authors can
directly register their programs as default application for appropriate
application classes.
EXAMPLE
This example demonstrates how simple usage of this libary is - it opens
the specified url (STRPTR) in a web browser:
if (RemoteBase = OpenLibrary("remote.library", 37)) {
int error = RemoteOpen("BROWSER", NULL, url, REMOTE_OPEN_ASYNC);
CloseLibrary(RemoteBase);
}
RA uses a database of application descriptions to find information on
applications stored on the user's computer. A small default database is
shipped with this package. It includes preconfigured information on
common Amiga applications. New application descriptions can be added to
the database with the remoteconfig program (the idea behind remoteconfig
is that future installation scripts will directly register applications
with RA). The library will use the database to find the listed
applications on the user's computer. This process is called database
validation. It involves scanning all local drives. Once validated, all
applications detected during validation can be accessed through the
library functions on a class basis: programmers won't deal with specific
applications but with application classes like BROWSER or EDITOR. The
library will then resolve your requests and internally select an
application (with preference given to running applications).
THE USER FILES
RA includes two command files for shell usage and for usage in installer
scripts (you are encouraged to ship these files with your software):
remoteconfig and remoteopen. Place these files in your "c:" folder if you
plan to use them often.
1. bin/remoteopen
remoteopen is used to run registered applications and to open files in
registered applications. The command template (syntax) is: remoteopen
CLASS/A,FILE/K,APP/K. CLASS/A is the application class. FILE/K is the
file you would like to open. And APP/K is the name of your preferred
application for this job (if you have any preference). The following
example will open an URL in the web browser:
remoteopen BROWSER file="http://www.clearlight.com/~dietmar".
2. bin/remoteconfig
remoteconfig is used to validate and to configure the RA database of
applications. The command template (syntax) of remoteconfig is
remoteconfig ADD/K,DEL/K,VALIDATE/S,FOLDER/K,DEEP/S. ADD/K adds the
specified configuration string to the database. The configuration string
must end with an LF code (further format details can be found below; see
"database format"). DEL/K deletes the specified application(s) from the
database. You may use wildcards to delete multiple applications. Finally,
VALIDATE/S starts the database validation process, ie. a disk scan to
locate applications on your drives. DEEP/S and FOLDER/K may be used to
refine the validation process: RA defaults to use a smart searching
strategy to keep the time required for a disk scan as low as possible.
However, RA may fail to detect all applications in smart mode. DEEP/S
will force RA to use slow conventional searching instead. The FOLDER/K
parameter can be used to set the starting point for the drive scan to
further minimize validation time (why waste time on searching all drives
if you install your software in "software:" ?). Examples:
remoteconfig validate
remoteconfig validate folder="c:"
remoteconfig add="class=BROWSER name=AWeb exe=aweb *n"
remoteconfig del="#?aweb#?"
THE LIBRARY
A description of the library interface for programmers who wish to
interface to the library directly without using remoteopen/remoteconfig
can be found in the autodoc file "developer/library/autodoc/remote.doc".
The following library functions are available:
remote.library/RemoteInit
remote.library/RemoteAdd
remote.library/RemoteRemove
remote.library/RemoteOpen
remote.library/RemoteValidate
DATABASE FORMAT
The database usually is kept in the file "s:remote.ini" (or optionally in
the file the environment variable "remote.cfg" is pointing to). It can be
viewed and modified with any text editor. The average user will never
have to deal with this file while software authors should understand the
database format so that they can register their own applications in the
database (the remoteconfig command uses the same format). This is how the
database file might look like on your computer:
; remote.library configuration file (wildcards supported in VERSION/K,PORT/K,INSTALLPATH/K)
CLASS="BROWSER" NAME="IBrowse" VERSION="" INSTALLPATH="#?/ibrowse/" EXE="ibrowse" MINSIZE=100000 STACK=8192 ASSIGN="" PORT="IBROWSE" OPEN="*"%s*"" OPENRX="GOTOURL *"%s*""
CLASS="BROWSER" NAME="AWeb DEMO" VERSION="#?DEMO#?" INSTALLPATH="#?/aweb#?" EXE="aweb" MINSIZE=100000 STACK=16384 ASSIGN="AWEB:" PORT="" OPEN="*"%s*"" OPENRX=""
CLASS="BROWSER" NAME="AWeb" VERSION="~(#?DEMO#?)" INSTALLPATH="#?/aweb#?" EXE="aweb" MINSIZE=100000 STACK=16384 ASSIGN="AWEB:" PORT="AWEB.#?" OPEN="*"%s*"" OPENRX="OPEN *"%s*""
CLASS="BROWSER" NAME="Mindwalker" VERSION="" INSTALLPATH="" EXE="mindwaker" MINSIZE=100000 STACK=32768 ASSIGN="" PORT="MINDWALKER" OPEN="*"%s*"" OPENRX="OPENURL *"%s*""
CLASS="BROWSER" NAME="Voyager NG" VERSION="" INSTALLPATH="#?/voyager/" EXE="v" MINSIZE=100000 STACK=65536 ASSIGN="" PORT="VOYAGER" OPEN="*"%s*"" OPENRX="OPENURL *"%s*""
There is exactly one entry (line) for each application. It lists the
application class, the application name and a few other details which
will be used by the library to locate and access the applications. Order
in this file is important: RA will scan the database file from top to
bottom when looking for applications. The syntax you use in this file
will have to conform with AmigaDOS rules. For example, string arguments
must be given in quotation marks if they contain spaces. Quotation marks
in strings can be inserted as *". Linefeeds can be inserted as *n. Below
is a description of all options:
CLASS
The application class. While you can freely choose any string you like I
would suggest that you only use class names from the list below (and that
you register new names with the RA author to have them included here).
EDITOR Editor for ASCII files
WORDPROCESSOR Editor for RTF
HTMLEDITOR Editor for HTML
MAILTO E-Mail sender
PLAYWAV Player for WAV
TCPSTACK TCP stack
VIEWGUIDE Viewer for guides
VIEWIMAGE Viewer for images
SPOOLER Spooler for ASCII files
BROWSER WWW browser
NAME
A symbolic application name; can be chosen freely.
VERSION
Version requirement: This pattern is pattern-matched with the version
string found in files during database validation to improve reliability
of executable identification
INSTALLPATH
Path requirement (root directory): This pattern is pattern-matched with
the path to files during database validation to improve reliability of
executable identification.
EXE
The executable name.
MINSIZE
The executable size given here is used during database validation to
improve validation reliability: files smaller than MINSIZE are ignored.
Consider that compression may be used on some systems: the MINSIZE value
should not exceed 50% of the real file size so that compressed
executables can still be identified.
STACK
The minimum stack required to run the program.
ASSIGN
Some applications require that a new assign to the root directory is
created during installation. You can specify the assign in the database
to help RA improve reliability of executable identification.
PORT
ARexx port name of the application (may contain wildcards).
OPEN
The argument template for passing a file name to the application when it
is started (if RA can't find running applications).
OPENRX
The argument template for passing a file name to the application's ARexx
port (if RA can find running applications).