Section: User Contributed Perl Documentation (3)Updated: 2009-02-24Local indexUp
NAME
Prima::Clipboard - GUI interprocess data exchange
DESCRIPTION
Prima::Clipboard class is a descendant of Prima::Component.
It serves as an interface to the specific data
storage, called clipboard, visible to all clients of one
GUI space. The system clipboard is intended for the exchange of
information of an arbitrary type between graphic applications.
SYNOPSIS
my $c = $::application-> Clipboard;
# paste data
my $string = $c-> text;
my $image = $c-> image;
my $other = $c-> fetch('Other type');
# copy datum
$c-> text( $string);
# copy data
$c-> open;
$c-> text( $string);
$c-> image( $image);
$c-> store( $image);
$c-> close;
# clear
$c-> clear;
USAGE
Prima::Clipboard provides access to the system clipboard
data storage. For the easier communication, the system clipboard
has one 'format' field, that is stored along with the data.
This field is used to distinguish between data formats.
Moreover, a clipboard can hold simultaneously several data
instances, of different data formats. Since the primary usage of a clipboard is
'copying' and 'pasting', an application can store copied
information in several formats, increasing possibility
that the receiving application recognizes the data.
Different systems provide spectrum of predefined data
types, but the toolkit uses only three of these - ascii text, utf8 text,
and image. It does not limit, however, the data format
being one of these three types - an application is free to
register its own formats. Both predefined and newly defined data
formats are described by a string, and the three predefined formats
are represented by 'Text', 'UTF8', and 'Image' string constants.
The most frequent usage of Prima::Clipboard is to preform
two tasks - copying and pasting. Both can be exemplified by
the following:
my $c = $::application-> Clipboard;
# paste
my $string = $c-> text;
# copy
$c-> text( $string);
This simplistic code hides other aspects of Prima::Clipboard class.
First, the default clipboard is accessible by an implicit name call,
as an object named 'Clipboard'. This scheme makes it easily overridable.
A more important point is, that the default clipboard object might
be accompanied by other clipboard objects. This is the case with
X11 environment, which defines also 'Primary' and 'Secondary'
system clipboards. Their functionality is identical to the default
clipboard, however. "get_standard_clipboards()" method
returns strings for the clipboards, provided by the system.
Second, code for fetching and storing multi-format data is
somewhat different. Clipboard is viewed as a shared system resource,
and have to be 'opened', before a process can grab it, so other
processes can access the clipboard data only after the clipboard
is 'closed' ( Note: It is not so under X11, where there the clipboard locking
is advisory, and any process can grab clipboard at any time) .
"fetch()" and "store()" implicitly call "open()"
and "close()", but these functions must be called explicitly
for the multi-format data handling. The code below illustrates the
said:
# copy text and image
if ( $c-> open) {
$c-> clear;
$c-> store('Text', $string);
$c-> store('Image', $image);
$c-> close;
}
# check present formats and paste
if ( $c-> open) {
if ( $c-> format_exists('Text')) {
$string = $c-> fetch('Text');
}
# or, check the desired format alternatively
my %formats = map { $_ => 1 } $c-> get_formats;
if ( $formats{'Image'}) {
$image = $c-> fetch('Image');
}
$c-> close;
}
The clear() call in the copying code is necessary so
the newly written data will not mix with the old.
At last, the newly registered formats can be accessed
by a program:
my $myformat = 'Very Special Old Pale Data Format';
if ( $c-> register_format($myformat)) {
$c-> open;
$c-> clear;
$c-> store('Text', 'sample text');
$c-> store($myformat', 'sample ## text');
$c-> close;
}
Custom formats
Once registered, all processes in a GUI space can access
the data by this format. The registration must take place
also if a Prima-driven program needs to read data in
a format, defined by an another program. In either case,
the duplicate registration is a valid event.
When no longer needed, a format can be de-registered.
It is not a mandatory action, however - the toolkit cleans
up before exit. Moreover, the system maintains a reference
counter on the custom-registered formats; de-registering
does not mean deletion, thus. If two processes use a custom
format, and one exits and re-starts, it still can access the
data in the same format, registered by its previous incarnation.
Unicode
In real life, application often interchange text in both ascii and utf8,
leaving the choice to reader programs. While it is possible to access both at
the same time, by "fetch"'ing content of "Text" and "UTF8" clipboard slots,
widgets implement their own pasting scheme. To avoid hacking widget code, usage
of "text" property is advised instead of indicating 'Text' and 'UTF8'
constants. This method is used in standard widgets, and is implemented so
the programmer can reprogram its default action by overloading "PasteText"
notification of "Prima::Application" ( see ``PasteText'' in Prima::Application ).
The default action of "PasteText" is to query first if 'Text' format is available,
and if so, return the ascii text scalar. If "Prima::Application::wantUnicodeInput" is set,
'UTF8' format is checked before resorting to 'Text'. It is clear that this
scheme is not the only possibly needed, for example, an application may want
to ignore ASCII text, or, ignore UTF8 text but have "Prima::Application::wantUnicodeInput"
set, etc.
API
Properties
image OBJECT
Provides access to an image, stored in the system clipboard.
In get-mode call, return "undef" if no image is stored.
text STRING
Provides access to text stored in the system clipboard.
In get-mode call, return "undef" if no text information is
present.
Methods
clear
Deletes all data from clipboard.
close
Closes the open/close brackets. open() and close() can
be called recursively; only the last close() removes the
actual clipboard locking, so other processes can use it as well.
deregister_format FORMAT_STRING
De-registers a previously registered data format.
Called implicitly for all not de-registered format
before a clipboard object is destroyed.
fetch FORMAT_STRING
Returns the data of FORMAT_STRING data format,
if present in the clipboard. Depending on FORMAT_STRING,
data is either text string for 'Text' format,
Prima::Image object for 'Image' format and a binary scalar
value for all custom formats.
format_exists FORMAT_STRING
Returns a boolean flag, showing whether FORMAT_STRING
format data is present in the clipboard or not.
get_handle
Returns a system handle for a clipboard object.
get_formats
Returns array of strings, where each is a format ID,
reflecting the formats present in the clipboard.
Only the predefined formats, and the formats registered
via "register_format()" are returned. There is no
way to see if a format, not registered before, is present.
get_registered_formats
Returns array of strings, each representing
a registered format. "Text" and "Image"
are returned also.
get_standard_clipboards
Returns array of strings, each representing
a system clipboard. The default "Clipboard"
is always present. Other clipboards are optional.
As an example, this function returns only "Clipboard"
under win32, but also "Primary" and "Secondary"
under X11. The code, specific to these clipboards
must refer to this function first.
open
Opens a system clipboard and locks it for the process
single use; returns a success flag. Subsequent "open"
calls are possible, and always return 1. Each "open()"
must correspond to "close()", otherwise the clipboard
will stay locked until the blocking process is finished.
register_format FORMAT_STRING
Registers a data format under FORMAT_STRING string ID,
returns a success flag. If a format is already registered,
1 is returned. All formats, registered via "register_format()"
are de-registered with "deregister_format()" when a program is
finished.
store FORMAT_STRING, SCALAR
Stores SCALAR value into the clipboard in FORMAT_STRING
data format. Depending of FORMAT_STRING, SCALAR is treated as follows:
FORMAT_STRING SCALAR
------------------------------------
Text text string in ASCII
UTF8 text string in UTF8
Image Prima::Image object
other formats binary scalar value
NB. All custom formats treated as a binary data. In case
when the data are transferred between hosts with different byte orders
no implicit conversions are made. It is up to the programmer
whether to convert the data in a portable format, or leave it as
is. The former option is of course preferable. As far as the author knows,
the Storable module from CPAN collection provides the system-independent
conversion routines.