System Event Notification

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tgunr52
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System Event Notification

Post by tgunr52 » Wed Jul 06, 2016 4:43 am

Not sure which topic this should go under. I am looking to port an application I wrote in Xcode Cocoa to Livecode but don't seem to be able to find a key requirement, namely receiving notification from the system on certain events. In my case, I need a notification of anytime a disk volume is mounted. Obviously, it would be great to have a cross platform capabilioty but I am beginning to fear I would have to write an extenstion for Mac, and Windows.

Is such a plugin/extension possible?

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Re: System Event Notification

Post by jacque » Wed Jul 06, 2016 7:18 pm

Hm. I can't think of any built-in notification, but you could poll for it without much trouble.

Code: Select all

global gVolumeList

on preOpenStack -- store the current volumes
  put the volumes into gVolumeList
  checkVolumes -- start polling
end preOpenStack

command checkVolumes
  put the volumes into tCurVolumes
  if tCurVolumes <> gVolumeList then
    -- check for differences, do somethng with it
    put tCurVolumes into gVolumneList -- update the global
  end if
  send "checkVolumes" to me in 1 second -- adjust timing as needed
end checkVolumes
A one second polling delay shouldn't affect the responsiveness of your app at all.
Jacqueline Landman Gay | jacque at hyperactivesw dot com
HyperActive Software | http://www.hyperactivesw.com

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Re: System Event Notification

Post by mwieder » Thu Jul 07, 2016 4:18 am

I would go even farther with Jacque's suggestion:

Code: Select all

command checkVolumes
  put the volumes into tCurVolumes
  if tCurVolumes <> gVolumeList then
    -- check for differences, do somethng with it
    send "volumesChanged tCurVolumes" to me in 10 milliseconds
   end if
  send "checkVolumes" to me in 1 second -- adjust timing as needed
end checkVolumes

-- here's your notification handler
on volumesChanged pNewVolumes
   put pNewVolumes into gVolumeList -- update the global
   -- now do whatever needs to be done when a volume is inserted
end volumesChanged

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Re: System Event Notification

Post by jacque » Thu Jul 07, 2016 6:10 am

Of course, both our versions will also trigger when a volume is ejected.
Jacqueline Landman Gay | jacque at hyperactivesw dot com
HyperActive Software | http://www.hyperactivesw.com

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Re: System Event Notification

Post by mwieder » Thu Jul 07, 2016 8:56 pm

...and on rethinking this, it might also be good to check for previous messages before adding to the queue:

Code: Select all

  if "checkVolumes" is not in the pending messages then
    send "checkVolumes" to me in 1 second -- adjust timing as needed
  end if

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Re: System Event Notification

Post by rkriesel » Fri Jul 08, 2016 10:07 pm

If you're interested in using an LC library to help implement and manage such notifications, I have one you could try.

For your example, your code could look like this:

Code: Select all

on preOpenStack
    if the owner of the target is me then
        start using stack "libPolling.livecodescript"
        startPoll "checkVolumes", "volumesChanged", 2, "seconds" -- note: "command startPoll pProbe, pAlert, pTime, pUnit"
    end if
    pass preOpenStack
end preOpenStack

command checkVolumes
    return the volumes
end checkVolumes

command volumesChanged pNew, pOld
    --  do something about the diff
end volumesChanged
Note that you wouldn't need to code the scheduling and other operational control.

Here's what the library does:
Dispatch each probe in its time.
When a probe returns a different value, dispatch its alert with the new and old values.
For polls individually, handle events: start*, change*, stop*, pause*, resume*, delete*, get*, poll
For polls collectively, handle events: start*, stop*, pause*, resume*, get*
On closing or releasing the library, stop all probes.
On opening the script-only stack, facilitate closing it.
-- Dick

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