/Doc/library/ic.rst

  1:mod:`ic` --- Access to the Mac OS X Internet Config
  2====================================================
  3
  4.. module:: ic
  5   :platform: Mac
  6   :synopsis: Access to the Mac OS X Internet Config.
  7   :deprecated:
  8
  9
 10This module provides access to various internet-related preferences set through
 11:program:`System Preferences` or the :program:`Finder`.
 12
 13.. note::
 14
 15   This module has been removed in Python 3.x.
 16
 17
 18.. index:: module: icglue
 19
 20There is a low-level companion module :mod:`icglue` which provides the basic
 21Internet Config access functionality.  This low-level module is not documented,
 22but the docstrings of the routines document the parameters and the routine names
 23are the same as for the Pascal or C API to Internet Config, so the standard IC
 24programmers' documentation can be used if this module is needed.
 25
 26The :mod:`ic` module defines the :exc:`error` exception and symbolic names for
 27all error codes Internet Config can produce; see the source for details.
 28
 29
 30.. exception:: error
 31
 32   Exception raised on errors in the :mod:`ic` module.
 33
 34The :mod:`ic` module defines the following class and function:
 35
 36
 37.. class:: IC([signature[, ic]])
 38
 39   Create an Internet Config object. The signature is a 4-character creator code of
 40   the current application (default ``'Pyth'``) which may influence some of ICs
 41   settings. The optional *ic* argument is a low-level ``icglue.icinstance``
 42   created beforehand, this may be useful if you want to get preferences from a
 43   different config file, etc.
 44
 45
 46.. function:: launchurl(url[, hint])
 47              parseurl(data[, start[, end[, hint]]])
 48              mapfile(file)
 49              maptypecreator(type, creator[, filename])
 50              settypecreator(file)
 51
 52   These functions are "shortcuts" to the methods of the same name, described
 53   below.
 54
 55
 56IC Objects
 57----------
 58
 59:class:`IC` objects have a mapping interface, hence to obtain the mail address
 60you simply get ``ic['MailAddress']``. Assignment also works, and changes the
 61option in the configuration file.
 62
 63The module knows about various datatypes, and converts the internal IC
 64representation to a "logical" Python data structure. Running the :mod:`ic`
 65module standalone will run a test program that lists all keys and values in your
 66IC database, this will have to serve as documentation.
 67
 68If the module does not know how to represent the data it returns an instance of
 69the ``ICOpaqueData`` type, with the raw data in its :attr:`data` attribute.
 70Objects of this type are also acceptable values for assignment.
 71
 72Besides the dictionary interface, :class:`IC` objects have the following
 73methods:
 74
 75
 76.. method:: IC.launchurl(url[, hint])
 77
 78   Parse the given URL, launch the correct application and pass it the URL. The
 79   optional *hint* can be a scheme name such as ``'mailto:'``, in which case
 80   incomplete URLs are completed with this scheme.  If *hint* is not provided,
 81   incomplete URLs are invalid.
 82
 83
 84.. method:: IC.parseurl(data[, start[, end[, hint]]])
 85
 86   Find an URL somewhere in *data* and return start position, end position and the
 87   URL. The optional *start* and *end* can be used to limit the search, so for
 88   instance if a user clicks in a long text field you can pass the whole text field
 89   and the click-position in *start* and this routine will return the whole URL in
 90   which the user clicked.  As above, *hint* is an optional scheme used to complete
 91   incomplete URLs.
 92
 93
 94.. method:: IC.mapfile(file)
 95
 96   Return the mapping entry for the given *file*, which can be passed as either a
 97   filename or an :func:`FSSpec` result, and which need not exist.
 98
 99   The mapping entry is returned as a tuple ``(version, type, creator, postcreator,
100   flags, extension, appname, postappname, mimetype, entryname)``, where *version*
101   is the entry version number, *type* is the 4-character filetype, *creator* is
102   the 4-character creator type, *postcreator* is the 4-character creator code of
103   an optional application to post-process the file after downloading, *flags* are
104   various bits specifying whether to transfer in binary or ascii and such,
105   *extension* is the filename extension for this file type, *appname* is the
106   printable name of the application to which this file belongs, *postappname* is
107   the name of the postprocessing application, *mimetype* is the MIME type of this
108   file and *entryname* is the name of this entry.
109
110
111.. method:: IC.maptypecreator(type, creator[, filename])
112
113   Return the mapping entry for files with given 4-character *type* and *creator*
114   codes. The optional *filename* may be specified to further help finding the
115   correct entry (if the creator code is ``'????'``, for instance).
116
117   The mapping entry is returned in the same format as for *mapfile*.
118
119
120.. method:: IC.settypecreator(file)
121
122   Given an existing *file*, specified either as a filename or as an :func:`FSSpec`
123   result, set its creator and type correctly based on its extension.  The finder
124   is told about the change, so the finder icon will be updated quickly.