=for rcs $Id: Clipboard.pod,v 1.3 2002/09/25 13:31:21 dk Exp $

=head1 NAME

Prima::Clipboard - GUI-driven intreprocess communication

=head1 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.

=head1 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 distingush 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 system provide spectrum of pre-defined data
types, but the toolkit uses only two of these - a text
and an image. It does not limit, however, the data format
being one of these two types - an application is free to
register its own formats. Both pre-defined and newly defined data 
formats are described by a string, and the two pre-defined formats
are represented by C<'Text'> and C<'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-> fetch('Text');

   # copy
   $c-> store( 'Text', $string);
   

This simplistic code hides other aspects of Prima::Clipboard class,
although it is fully functional.

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. C<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 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'. C<fetch()> and C<store()> implicitly call C<open()>
and C<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;
   }


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.

=head1 API

=head2 Properties

=over

=item image OBJECT

Provides access to an image, stored in the system clipboard.
In get-mode call, return C<undef> if no image is stored.

=item text STRING

Provides access to a text stored in the system clipboard.
In get-mode call, return C<undef> if no text information is
present.

=back

=head2 Methods

=over

=item clear

Deletes all data from clipboard.

=item 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.

=item 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.

=item 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 C<'Text'> format, 
Prima::Image object for C<'Image'> format and a binary scalar
value for all custom formats.

=item format_exists FORMAT_STRING

Returns a boolean flag, showing whether FORMAT_STRING
format data is present in the clipboard or not.

=item get_handle

Returns a system handle for a clipboard object.

=item get_formats

Returns array of strings, where each is a format ID,
reflecting the formats present in the clipboard.

Only the pre-defined formats, and the formats registered
via C<register_format()> are returned. There is no
way to see if a format, not registered before, is present.

=item get_registered_formats

Returns array of strings, each representing 
a registered format. C<Text> and C<Image>
are returned also.

=item get_standard_clipboards

Returns array of strings, each repersenting
a system clipboard. The default C<Clipboard>
is always present. Other clipboards are optional.
As an example, this function returns only C<Clipboard>
under win32, but also C<Primary> and C<Secondary>
under X11. The code, specific to these clipboards
must refer to this function first.

=item open

Opens a system clipboard and locks it for the process
single use; returns a success flag. Subsequent C<open>
calls are possible, and always return 1. Each C<open()>
must correspond to C<close()>, otherwise the clipboard 
will stay locked until the blocking process is finished.

=item 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 C<register_format()>
are de-registered with C<deregister_format()> when a program is
finished.

=item 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
   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 I<Storable> module from I<CPAN> collection provides the system-independent
conversion routines.

=back

=head1 AUTHOR

Dmitry Karasik, E<lt>dmitry@karasik.eu.orgE<gt>.

=head1 SEE ALSO

L<Prima>, L<Prima::Component>, L<Prima::Application>

