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Conference azur::mcc

Title:DECmcc user notes file. Does not replace IPMT.
Notice:Use IPMT for problems. Newsletter location in note 6187
Moderator:TAEC::BEROUD
Created:Mon Aug 21 1989
Last Modified:Wed Jun 04 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:6497
Total number of notes:27359

4608.0. "Application launch by double clicking??" by RDGENG::PRATT () Thu Feb 25 1993 06:47

What I want to do is create my own entity class, with a set of reference 
attributes, so that I can double click on it, and launch my application - the 
actual entity class will not be managable, it will only be used to launch the 
appl. The reference attributes would be passed as arguments to the application.

The simplest way would be to use the Reference Entity, but this means that my 
application definition would have to apply to all Reference entities - this is 
no good if I want to have different applications launched by double clicking. 

Is there a simple way to create a 'simple' non managable entity class in the 
dictionary (without corrupting it)?

Or can someone suggest an alternative way of utilizing the double-click method
of application launch.

Cheers

Ian
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name		DateLines
4608.1you can do it with a little work -1or 2 daysKAJUN::NELSONThu Feb 25 1993 09:0336
You can look in the dictionary and see what is defined for the reference 
entity class.  This is basically the minimal set of things an entity
class needs to be considered whole and registerable.  Basically your
class needs a name - datatype Fullname and it needs to support SHOW
IDENT, REGISTER, DEREGISTER, DIRECTORY, ERASE.  You probably also want
the reference attribute partition.  REGISTER, DEREGISTER, DIRECTORY,
ERASE, and SHOW REFERENCE are all supported by the REGISTRATION FM and
you only need to include the definitions in an management specification.

Read the Management Module Programmer's Guide Chapter 5 for directions 
on creating a management specification.

Create an MSL file describing your new class.  Be careful choosing a
class id code - you will probably want to get it registered - it must be
unique.  Run the MSL translator to get the .COM file that contains DAP
commands. 

Read the MM Programmer's Guide Chapter 3 (VMS) or Chapter 4 (ULTRIX) for 
directions on how to set up a private dictionary.

Update your dictionary.  You probably want to make a copy of the 
dictionary to work with just to be safe.  When you exit DAP you will 
have a new dictionary, new parse table file, new containment tree file.

You also need a small management module that can support SHOW
IDENTIFIERS for your class.  This is needed to register it. Read MM
Programmer's Guide Chapter 15 on how to create an AM.  Use the TOOLKIT
automated tools for generating this AM.  The automated process generates
an AM that only supports SHOW IDENT. 

You can then define your application launch definition file with the 
double click action for your new class.

You can probably get the whole thing working in less than a day or two.

...kjn
4608.2Looks like a lot of work...RDGENG::PRATTThu Feb 25 1993 11:2614
Re. -1

Thanks, your answer was basically what I suspected was involved. May I raise the
point though that you have provided a very neat way of launching an application,
but have made it extremely difficult to actually implement. 

Your average network manager is not going to be able to spend 2 days creating an
entity class, but he would like to be able to set up his applications to be
'point and click', so that network operators can easily access the applications.

Maybe this could be looked into in a future release. I think I will stick to 
pull down menus for the time being.

Ian