Common Desktop Environment: Advanced User's and System Administrator's Guide

9 Creating Actions and Data Types
Using Create Action


Contents of Chapter:
What Create Action Does
Limitations of Create Action
Action Limitations
Data Type Limitations
Creating an Action and Data Type for an Application with Create Action
To Create an Action for an Application
To Create One or More Data Types for an Application
Using the Find Set Dialog Box To Specify an Icon
To Specify a Set of Icons Located on the Icon Search Path
To Specify an Icon in a Registration Package
Create Action is a tool for creating:

Create Action is also useful for creating simple actions for running operating system commands and shell scripts.

For reference information, see the dtcreate(1X) man page.


What Create Action Does

Create Action includes a main window and a set of dialog boxes for creating an action and its associated data types.

Create Action does the following:


Limitations of Create Action

Create Action is designed to create actions and data types for running applications. However, actions and data types are very flexible, and include additional functionality that can only be accessed if you create the definitions manually.

For more information, see:

Action Limitations

You cannot use Create Action to create the action for an application if any of the following conditions are true:

Data Type Limitations

You cannot use Create Action to create the data type for an application if any of the following conditions are true:


Creating an Action and Data Type for an Application with Create Action

There are some things you'll need to know about the application before you run Create Action.

To Create an Action for an Application

  1. Double-click Create Action in the Desktop_Apps application group.

    Figure 9-1 Create Action icon in Application Manager

    This displays the main Create Action window.

    Figure 9-2 Create Action main window

  2. Type the name that will label the action icon into the Action Name text field.

  3. Use the Action Icons controls to specify the icon for the application. Initially, the default icon is shown.

  4. In the Command When Action Icon Is Opened text field, type the command to start the application.

    Use the syntax $n for a file argument; for example:

    emacs
    bitmap $1
    diff $1 $2
    lp -oraw $1

    If the command line includes a file argument ($n), then the action icon will be a drop zone for files.

    The command lines are not passed to a shell unless you explicitly specify the use of a shell. For example, these lines use shell processing:

    /bin/sh -c 'ps | lp'
    /bin/sh -c 'spell $1 | more'

  5. Type the On Item help text for the action icon into the Help Text For Action Icon text field.

    The text will automatically wrap in the text field. However, these line breaks are not preserved online. If you want to specify a hard line break, use \n.

  6. Choose the windowing support required by the action from the Window Type option menu.

    Graphical (X-Window)
    The application creates its own window

    Terminal (Auto-Close)
    The application will run in a terminal emulator window that closes automatically when the user exits the application

    Terminal (Manual Close)
    The application will run in a terminal emulator window that remains open until the user explicitly closes it

    No Output
    The application does not produce output to the display

  7. Proceed as follows:

To Create One or More Data Types for an Application

  1. Define the action for the application using the procedure in the previous section, "To Create an Action for an Application".

  2. Click the Advanced button in the Create Action window to expand the window.

    Figure 9-3 Advanced features in the main Create Action window

  3. If you want the application icon to prompt for a file argument when the icon is double-clicked, type the text of the prompt into the ``When Action Opens, Ask Users for'' text field.

    Use these guidelines for this text field:

  4. Specify the types of files that the action will accept as arguments:

    Initially, the Datatypes That Use This Action list is empty. As you create data types for the application, they are added to the list.

  5. Click Add beside the Datatypes That Use This Action list box to display the Add Data Type dialog box.

    Figure 9-4 Create Action's Add Datatype dialog box

  6. Optional: If you don't want to use the default data type name, type a new name for the data type into the Name of Datatype Family text field.

    The name cannot include spaces. The data type name is not visible to application users; it is used in the actions/data types database to identify the data type definition.

  7. Click the Edit button beside the Identifying Characteristics box to display the Identifying Characteristics dialog box.

    Figure 9-5 Create Action's Identifying Characteristics dialog box

    Characteristics of a data type are the criteria used to differentiate the data type from others. You can choose one or more of the following criteria:

    Files or Folder
    The data type applies only to files or only to folders

    Name Pattern
    Data typing based on the file name

    Permission Pattern
    Read, write, execute permissions

    Contents
    Contents of a specified portion of the file

  8. Select whether the data type represents a file or folder.

    Figure 9-6 Specifying a file or directory characteristic for a data type.

  9. If the data typing depends on the name, select the Name Pattern check box and fill in the text field.

    Figure 9-7 Specifying the file name characteristic for a data type

    You can use * and ? as wildcards:

    *
    Matches any sequence of characters

    ?
    Matches any single character

  10. If the data typing depends on the permissions, select the Permission Pattern check box and select the permissions for the data type.

    Figure 9-8 Specifying the permission characteristics for a data type

    On
    The file must have the specified permission

    Off
    The file must lack the specified permission

    Either
    The specified permission does not matter

  11. If the data typing depends on the contents, select the Contents check box and supply the requested information--Pattern to search for and Type of contents. Optionally, you can supply the byte location where the search should start.

    Figure 9-9 Specifying the contents characteristics for a data type


    Note: Use of content-based data typing may affect the performance of the system.
  12. Click OK to close the Identifying Characteristics dialog box.

    The characteristics will be displayed in the Identifying Characteristics field using this coding:

    d
    A directory

    r
    The file has read permission

    w
    The file has write permission

    x
    The file has execute permission

    !
    Logical operator NOT

    &
    Logical operator AND

  13. Type the help text for the data files into the Help Text text field.

  14. Use the Datatype Icons controls to specify the icon for the application. Initially, the default icon is shown.

  15. Verify the command in the Command to Open this Datatype text field. This is the command that will be executed when the user double-clicks a data file.

  16. Optional: If the application supplies a print command for printing data files from the command line, type the command into the Command to Print this Datatype text field, using the syntax $ n for a file argument.

  17. Do one of the following to save the data type definition:

Using the Find Set Dialog Box To Specify an Icon

The Find Set dialog box is displayed when you click Find Set in the Create Action main window or in the Add Datatype window. Use the dialog box to specify the icon that will be used for the action or data type.

Figure 9-10 Find Set dialog box

The Find Set dialog box lets you specify a set of icon image files located:


Note: The action and data type definitions created using Create Action write out the base name for the icon files (the file name minus the file-name suffixes for size and type). Icons for actions and data types created with Create Action must eventually be placed in directories on the icon search path.

To Specify a Set of Icons Located on the Icon Search Path

  1. In the Find Set dialog box's Icon Folders list, double-click the folder path containing the icon.

    The Icon Files list will show all the icon files in that folder.

  2. In the Icon Files list, click the icon you want to use.

    This places the base name of the icon file in the Enter Icon File name text field.

  3. Click OK.

To Specify an Icon in a Registration Package

If you are a system administrator or programmer creating a registration package, the icon image files are initially located in a directory in the registration package:

app_root/dt/appconfig/icons/language

After registration with dtappintegrate, the icon files will be copied to /etc/dt/appconfig/icons/language, which is on the icon search path.

Use this procedure to specify icons that are part of a registration package:

  1. In the Find Set dialog box's Enter Icon Filename text field, type the base name of the icon file.

  2. Click OK.

    Create Action displays a dialog box to inform you that the icons were not found in directories on the icon search path.

  3. In the information dialog box that appears, choose No Change.



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