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Miraplacid Publisher SDK 2009: Programming

 

Miraplacid Publisher SDK Programming Guide


Miraplacid Publisher is actually a collection of ActiveX objects which communicate with each other trough well-defined COM interfaces. This model allows us to keep the system highly scalabe and extensible. Every component could be developed independently and base on different technologies as long as it supports COM. All examples provided in two separate folders: "examples" containing project written in VB 6.0, and "examples.net" containing projects written in C#.
There are 5 different types of software modules in Publisher:
  • Driver components. These are system dll modules and settings files. This is mandatory part of Publisher.
  • Core component (mp_core.exe). This is the heart of the whole system. It takes data from the driver, keeps it in internal queue and manages all other components - plug-ins and UI.
  • UI (mp_ui.exe). This is User Interface component. This is COM client of Core component; it uses Core methods and receives COM events from Core. UI interacts with Core only; it have no direct access to other components. User Interface module is not required for Publisher Core and Driver, they can work fine without UI. To display transport and rendering plug-ins user interfaces, UI loads its own set of plug-ins as an ActiveX components.
  • Format plug-ins. Inproc dll ActiveX modules which performs conversion from internal graphics representation into particular graphics format. Core component manages these modules.
  • Transport plug-ins. Inproc dll ActiveX modules which allows to save resulting files to some locations. Core component manages these modules.
This manual describes only Core and UI interaction details and registration services.
Transport and Rendering plug-ins interfaces are still subject of change and will be presented in the next version os SDK.

For simple solutions like scripting support or object creation from VB, please, refer to Scripting manual.

Miraplacid Publisher Object Model


Publisher Core component consists of two COM objects (coclasses):
  • coclass MP (MiraplacidSE.Publisher {C9828C82-2136-4e25-894F-399109583971}). This is the main part of Publisher.
    The folowing interfaces included:
    • IMP (default interface). Includes all methods and properties which control Publisher functionality, including plug-ins.
    • _IMPEvents (default, source interface). This interface is collection of COM events and provided for Core and UI interoperability.
    • Some other internal interfaces which are out of scope of current document. You do not have to learn them to build your system.
  • coclass MP_Register (MiraplacidSE.PublisherRegistrator {235836F3-0079-4067-98B9-7F2E8FFE5876}). This objects includes single interface IMP_Register, which manages registration and verification services.
MP_Register object will be always created and its interface will allow calling program to verify Publisher registration status and to register Publisher. MP object will not be created successfully if trial period is expired. Unlimited version of SDK does not contain MP_Register coclass and object MP will be created always.

For C++ users: Number means long and String means BSTR in this guide.
Do not forget to add get_ (read) and put_ (write) prefixes for properties.

Miraplacid Publisher IMP Object Reference


This is a main Publisher interface. Its IID is {D5FD471D-BAEC-4dfa-8C3C-CCD09050B3AA}.

Property Type Description
Value VARIANT (String Name) (Read / Write) All the Miraplacid Publsher Properties. This is Default Property. Meaning, it could be referred as obj("property_name") as well as obj.Value("property_name")
All the parameters are listed below.
Printers String Collection (Read Only) List of all printers in Publisher collection.
Printer String (Read / Write) Name of the currently selected printer
FormatPluginNames String Collection (Read Only) List of installed format plug-ins (BMP, JPG and so on)
Format String (Read / Write) Selected Format Plug-in name
FormatParam VARIANT (String PluginName, String ParameterName) (Read / Write) Format Plug-in Parameters
All the parameters for all plug-ins are listed below.
FormatParamNoCheck VARIANT(String PluginName, String ParameterName) (Write Only) Format Plug-in Parameters. Use this option to set only appropriate property, without updating plug-in user interface and checking value. This option is useful when you need to set all options in a batch, and some options affect others. After all options are set, call FormatCheckSettings to update plug-in state correctly.
TransportPluginNames String Collection (Read Only) List of installed transport plug-ins (File, FTP and so on)
Transport String (Read / Write) Selected Transport Plug-in names. If more than one transport plug-in selected, names shall be comma delimited.
TransportParam VARIANT(String PluginName, String ParameterName) (Read / Write) Transport Plug-in Parameters
All the parameters for all plug-ins are listed below.
TransportParamNoCheck VARIANT(String PluginName, String ParameterName) (Write Only) Transport Plug-in Parameters. Use this option to set only appropriate property, without updating plug-in user interface and checking value. This option is useful when you need to set all options in a batch, and some options affect others. After all options are set, call TransportCheckSettings to update plug-in state correctly.
DocumentName String (Read Only) Original name of the printed document
ReadyPages Number (Read Only) Amount of pages ready to process
TotalPages Number (Read Only) total estimated amount of pages in current print job
JobStatus Number (Read Only) 0 - Created, 0001b - Opened, 0010b - Printed, 0100b - RequestedPagePrepared, 1000b - Aborted
AutoSend Number (Read / Write) 0 - interactive mode; 1 - Process and Auto-send to the specified destinations
SystemPrinters String Collection (Read Only) List of all printers installed in the system. Useful for user interface, this property allows UI to avoid using spooler API.
DefaultPrinter String (Read Only) Name of the default printer in the system.
AutoSendFromUI (hidden) Number (Write only) 0 - interactive mode; 1 - Process and Auto-send to the specified destinations.
This property is intended for use from UI. Regular property AutoSend causes core to unload UI. AutoSendFromUI does not lead UI unloading.
ValueNoRedraw (hidden) VARIANT (String Name) (Write Only) Does the same as Value except that ValueNoRedraw does not force image re-processing after changing value.
To prevent processing overhead when you need to change several parameters at once, you may use ValueNoRedraw to set all parameters exacept the last, and Value for last parameter to let Core re-process the page once with cumulative changes.
UILoaded (hidden) Number (Read / Write) 0 - UI not loaded; 1 - UI loaded.
UI should set this value when it loaded and initialized and clear (set to 0) on unload.
Method Parameters Description
CancelJob None Cancel current Print Job
CancelAllJobs None Cancel Publisher's internal print queue and spooler queue associated with Publisher
SendAll None Send All through selected Transport Plug-Ins
SendPage Number Send a particular page as an image
Stop None Unloads plug-ins, get ready for unloading from memory. System will unload Miraplacid Publisher core form memory with 2-5 seconds delay. We recommend you to add this method call at the end of each script.
SaveConfiguration None Save current configuration for active user and active printer
SaveCommonConfiguration None Save current configuration for all users (who do not have own configurations yet) and active printer
PreparePage (hidden) Number UI should call this method to force Core prepare page (load, make processing according current settings) for displaying to user.
Parameter mean number of page to prepare, staring from 1. Core will return immediately and provide the page with OnPageReady event.
FormatCheckSettings String plug-in Call this method after updating several plug-in settings in a batch (using FormatParamNoCheck). Some settings may affect others, and this method guarantees that they will be updated in correct order.
TransportCheckSettings String plug-in Call this method after updating several plug-in settings in a batch (using TransportParamNoCheck). Some settings may affect others, and this method guarantees that they will be updated in correct order.

Miraplacid Publisher Properties Reference


All these properties accessible via default "Value" property:
obj.Value("scalewidth") = 1024
or just
obj("scalewidth") = 1024
In C language, this will be:
_bstr_t pname;
pname=L"scalewidth";
mp_core->put_Value(pname,1024);


Property Type Description
scalewidth Number scale size
scaleheight Number scale size
scalemode Number scaling algorithm: 0 - no scaling (default), 1 - Fast, 2 - Bilinear, 3 - Bicubic
scalepercent Number 0 - scale size in pixels (default), 1 - scale size in percents
scaleconstrain Number 1 - constrain scaling proportions, 0 - not (default)
borderwidth Number leave that many pixels space left and right from the detected area (auto-detect mode only)
borderheight Number leave that many pixels space top and bottom from the detected area (auto-detect mode only)
bordertype Number 0 - No (default), 1 - Auto-detect, 2 - Manual
borderleft Number in Manual Mode - set left border for clipping
borderright Number in Manual Mode - set right border for clipping
bordertop Number in Manual Mode - set top border for clipping
borderbottom Number in Manual Mode - set bottom border for clipping
fliph Number 1 - flip image vertical, 0 - not (default)
flipv Number 1 - flip image horizontal, 0 - not (default)
gamma Number gamma (0 .. 511, 255 is default)
saturation Number saturation (0 .. 511, 255 is default)
value Number value (0 .. 511, 255 is default)
hue Number hue (0 .. 359, 179 is default)
grayscale Number 0 - color (default), 1 - force grayscale
invert Number 1 - invert image colors, 0 - not (default)
multipage Number 1 - generate one multipage image of document, 0 - one image per page (default)

Miraplacid Publisher Output Format (Format plug-ins) parameters


To query or modify Format plug-in parameters, use FormatParam property of Miraplacid Publisher object.
obj.FormatParam("GIF","palette")=64

Bitmap
Property Type Description
output Number Output Format. 0 = 32-bit, 1 = 24-bit, 2 = 16-bit, 3 = 8-bit, 4 = 4-bit, 5 = 1-bit.
diffusion Number 0 = turn off errors diffusion algorithm, 1 = turn on
palette Number 0 = use default palette, 1 = use custom palette
GIF
Property Type Description
palette Number Number of colors in resulting GIF file.
delay Number Delay in milliseconds between frames in multipage (animated) GIF.
loops Number Number of repetitions of frame loop in multipage (animated) GIF.
diffusion Number 0 = turn off errors diffusion algorithm, 1 = turn on
JPG
Property Type Description
output Number Output image quality. 0 = 100% quality, 1 = 95% quality and so on up to 10%. 18 = 10% quality.
PDF
Property Type Description
output Number Output Format. 0 = 100% quality, 1 = 95% quality and so on up to 10%. 18 = 10% quality.
title String PDF document Title
creator String PDF document Creator
author String PDF document Author
PNG
Property Type Description
output Number Output Format. 0 = 24-bit, 1 = 8-bit, 2 = 4-bit, 3 = 1-bit.
compression Number 0 = No Compression. 1 = Default Compression. 2 = Fast Compression. 3 = Best Compression (recommended)
diffusion Number 0 = turn off errors diffusion algorithm, 1 = turn on
palette Number 0 = use default palette, 1 = use custom palette
TGA
Property Type Description
output Number Output Format. 0 = 32-bit, 1 = 24-bit, 2 = 16-bit, 3 = 8-bit.
diffusion Number 0 = turn off errors diffusion algorithm, 1 = turn on
palette Number 0 = use default palette, 1 = use custom palette
TIFF
Property Type Description
output Number Output Format. 0 = 32-bit CMYK, 1 = 24-bit, 2 = 8-bit, 3 = 4-bit, 4 = 1-bit.
compression Number 0 = No Compression. 1 = Packbits (RLE), 2 = LZW, 3 = CCITT Group 3, 4 = CCITT Group 4.
2 and 4 work only for 1-bit mode.
diffusion Number 0 = turn off errors diffusion algorithm, 1 = turn on
palette Number 0 = use default palette, 1 = use custom palette

Miraplacid Publisher Send To (Transport plug-ins) parameters


To query or modify Transport plug-in parameters, use TransportParam property of Miraplacid Publisher object.
obj.TransportParam("File","filename")="image_{{PAGE}}"

File
Property Type Description
path String Destination File Path. Special tags supported.
filename String Destination File Name. Special tags supported.
open Number Opens result image file with post-processor.
everypage Number 0 = call post-processor once per document. 1 = call post-processor for each saved image. Ignored if open=0.
hide Number 0 = show post-processor window. 1 = hide post-processor window. Ignored if open=0.
exec String Post-processor filename with full path. Ignored if open=0.
param String additional parameters for post-processor. Ignored if open=0.
FTP
Property Type Description
url String Destination FTP directory URL.
file String Destination File Name. Special tags supported.
passive Number 0 = FTP passive mode OFF. 1 = FTP passive mode ON.
user String FTP server username.
password String FTP server password.
HTTP
Property Type Description
url String Destination HTTP URL.
file String Destination File Name. Special tags supported.
put Number 0 = use POST method. 1 = use PUT method.
user String username.
password String password.
Mail
Property Type Description
mail String Semicolon-separated list of email addresses.
message String Email message body. Special tags supported.
subject String Email message subject. Special tags supported.
filename String Name of attachment file. Special tags supported.
Printer
Property Type Description
printer String Printer name. Can be a real printer name or "Default" string which means default printer.
fit Number 0 = Print page as-is. 1 - Fit image to printer page.

Miraplacid Publisher _IMPEvents Events Reference.


This is connection point interface which UI uses to catch printing events from Core component. Its IID is {BCDAF6C5-8CA2-4eea-A299-45F0FE0365F5}.

Event Parameters Description
OnStartJob None Called when Core receives start job signal from driver.
OnPagePrinted Number Called when Core receives next job from driver with page number as a parameter.
OnAllPagesPrinted None Called when Core receives end job signal from driver.
OnPageReady Number page_id, String object Called when Core prepared a page for displaying in responce to PreparePage method call. Page_id is a number of prepared page. Object parameter is a name of Windows FileMapping object which contains ready-to-display Windows bitmap.
UI may use this object as a memory object with OpenFileMapping/MapViewOfFile API calls.
OnCancelJob None Called when Core finishes all activity with current job as an acknowledge for CancelJob call from UI or after SendAll process end.
OnRewindJob None Called instead of OnCancelJob when SendAll finished with errors.
OnUnload None Called when AutoSend property is set to true. UI should unload upon receiving this event.
OnProgress String source, Number value Called when some lengthy process is taking place. Source could be a name of transport plug-in - in this case it reflects sending progress for this particular plug-in; or special value "process" which reflects the state of image processing. Special value of "convert" reflects state of image conversion process (from internal representation to perticular image format). Value is the value of progress indicator (0 - 100).
OnError Number code, String message Called when some error is happened. Message is textual representation of the error. There are the folowing codes could be passed to this event:
  • General errors - code = 1
  • If Value is wrong - code = 0x400
  • Name errors: configuration, unknown transport or format selected - code = 0x600
  • Range 0x100 - 0x1ff has a special meaning - these are transport plug-in errors. Source transport plug-in may be located by its index which is equal to error_code - 0x100; these errors may happen only during saving procedure.
OnSetDocName String Called when Core sets document name to let UI update its status line, etc.
OnChangePrinter String Called when Core receives print job for different printer or after initial configuration load. UI must re-read all the configuration from Core.
OnAddRemovePrinter None Core monitors printers add/remove operations in the system. When this happen, Core analyses this incident, and, if printer from Publisher family is added/removed, it generates this event to let UI update lists of Publisher printers.

Miraplacid Publisher IMP_Register Object Reference.


When evaluation period is expired, object of the main interface (IMP) will not be created successfully. Application should use IMP_Register interface to register Publisher. Its IID is {90D08213-5B6D-4103-96A7-297AA8EC4DEB}.
Example of registration utility is located at examples\register folder at this package. It is written in VB.

Property Type Description
Valid Number May be used to examine current evaluation state. Has the following values:
  • <=0 - Internal error happened in verification code. This could be caused by corrupted .key file, wrong permissions of .key file, etc.
  • 1 - Publisher is registered.
  • 2 - Publisher is unregistered but trial period is not expired.
  • 3 - Trial periond is expired.
Method Parameters Returns Description
SetLicense String FirtsName, String LastName, String Keycode Number This method is intended for registering Publisher. Application must provide FirstName, LastName and Keycode generated by Miraplacid to this method. Resulting value is 1 if registration succeeded, 0 if not. After 3 unsuccessful registration attempts this method will always return CLASS_E_NOTLICENSED and will not actually try to register. Application should re-create the object to continue registering.
LoadUI None None Method LoadUI allows application to force loading UI which will ask user for registration information. This could be done if Valid property returns 2 or 3.

Miraplacid Publisher UI working scheme.


You can see a live custom UI example in examples\customui folder of SDK package.
It is written in VB. Since it is just an example, it does not display pictures and does not let you to change settings and profiles.
  1. UI is launched by Core when it receives a new job and AutoSend property is in false state or by user when he clicks on Publisher icon on Desktop or Programs folder.
  2. UI loads MP object and obtains IMP interface pointer.
  3. UI establishes a connection with Core and loads configuration (by reading properties). After initialization steps (when it will be ready to receive events), UI must set UILoaded property to 1 (true). Core will wait this for 60 seconds; if UI will not register with this property, Core will continue without UI.
Further steps (4 - 6) make an event-driven loop.
  1. OnStartJob: On this event UI may read document name and examine print job status. Job may already be completed (printed) if next job was printed on background before finalizing previous one.
  2. OnPagePrinted: If the job was already completed, this event will not be generated. On this event, its possible to ask for a page by calling PreparePage method.
    Calling this method will force Core to start processing of the page. It makes sense to ask only for page which is currently displayed.
  3. OnAllPagesPrinted: This is informational event which allows UI to update its internal state (and interface elements like SaveAll button).
  4. OnPageReady: Core sends this event if UI asked for a page and it is ready for displaying. UI may read the picture and display it. This event may be generated not only in responce to PreparePage call; Core will fire it when it saves all job, in page-by-page or multipage mode. The order of pages may be reverse in this case, depending from image format, so page_id parameter is important.
The following stage is interactive job with end user.
  1. User can change settings. Appropriate Core properties must be set by UI. During this process, OnError event might be raised in response to incorrect property change.
  2. User can change configurations, create new configurations and delete existing (except Default). When User Interface changes configuration, it shall reload all settings.
  3. User can save current page. UI shall call SendPage method.
  4. User may want to save all pages. UI shall call SendAllPages method. In response to this call, Core will notify UI by raising OnCancelJob event when job is done. On this event, UI must get ready for the next job. If some transports fail, Core raises OnRewindJob event (but does not cancels the job). On this event UI can rewind the job to the first page, show some (additional) error message, etc.
  5. User can cancel the job. UI must call CancelJob method. In response, Core generates OnCancelJob event.
  6. Special case is AutoSend property. UI should call AutoSendFromUI instead of AutoSend property. When AutoSend is set to 1, Core will raise OnUnload event to tell UI that all further processing will be performed automatically and without UI. AutoSendFromUI property does not generate OnUnload event. AutoSend property should be used from scripts to make sure that all processing will be performed as fast as possible and completely in the background. If your UI ignores OnUnload event (does not unload itself), there is no difference between AutoSend and AutopSendFromUI for it.

Miraplacid Publisher Format plug-ins.


Format plug-ins are Publisher components intended for image conversion from internal image representation (bitmap) to particular graphics format file.
Format plug-ins are AcitveX components which implements all standard visual ActiveX component interfaces.
Additionally, it must obey the following requirements:
  • It must be included into "Miraplacid Publisher Format Plug-ins" COM category (FBFE9C5A-8D40-46bd-99C1-93F162E30AE7), but not create it.
  • It must implement IMP_FPLUGIN interface (69E3226F-C540-4829-9CB4-88738766C9E4) and realize _IMP_FPlugin_Events connection point dispinterface (20B34C58-2EE5-4f87-AC73-F8080DA8ABE1).
  • It must not register its own type library. Ready for use type library provided in imp_fplugin.dll.

IMP_FPLUGIN interface:

Property Type Description
Value Variant (Read/Write) Any properties that your plug-in may have. Some of them may be saved into configuration in registry and restored from it.
ValueNoCheck Variant (Write Only) The same as Value, but does not check value itself or against other values and does not update UI. Use to prevent update relative settings in a wrong order. When all the settings updated, call CheckSettings method.
Name String (Read Only) Plug-in name for internal use.
Layout String (Read Only) This string contains a list of properties (Values) which should be saved inconfiguration or restored from it.
Format of this string is: "Bparam1,Lparam2,BParam3", where "B" and "L" are prefixes meaning type of parameter (BSTR and Long accordingly). Parameter names should be separated by commas. Spaces are not allowed.
Extension String (Read Only) File extension corresponding current rendering plug-in, without leading period, i.e. "xml", "rss".
Method Parameters Description
Convert IImageCollection *images, String filename Conversion procedure. Plug-in sohuld obtain images from images, convert it to appropriate format and save to filename.
CheckSettings no parameterts; returns nothing Call this method after a series of ValueNoCheck done to perform values (mutual) check and update plug-in UI state.

_IMP_FPlugin_Events interface:

Method Parameters Description
OnChangeParam String plugin, String param, VARIANT val When some plug-in parameter has changed via user interface, plug-in informs about that with OnChangeParam event.
"plugin" is internal name of plug-in, "param" is a name of changed parameter, "val" is a new value of parameter.
OnProgress String plugin, long value During conversion process, plug-in may fire this event to provide information about the progress of image conversion.

IImageCollection Core interface:

Property Type Description
Count Number (Read Only) Number of images in image set.
Method Parameters Description
Item Number index; returns String With this method, plug-in receives page content identified by "index". Method returns name of system filemapping object containing image for conversion.

Format plug-in working scheme

  1. UI starts and loads plug-ins. It subscribes to _IMP_FPlugin_Events events interface.
  2. UI gets Layout property. According to Layout parameters, it reads appropriate FormatParam properties from Core and sets as a Values of plug-in (using ValueNoCheck property and calls CheckSettings).
  3. Core creates plug-ins too and subscribes to their events (to get OnProgress event).
  4. Core gets Layout property. According to Layout parameters, it reads saved values from configuration (registry) and sets as Values of plug-in (using ValueNoCheck property and calls CheckSettings).
Remark: UI and Core may start each other, but the final situation does not change: Core reads settings and sets plug-in properties first, then UI reads these properties and sets them to its "own" plug-ins.
There are two sets of plug-ins exists in the scheme, because UI and Core are separate processes.

Interactive job cycle:
  1. User changes settings of plug-in. Plug-in updates its internal state and raises OnChangeParam to UI.
  2. In responce, UI sets appropriate Core property with FormatParam. In result, all parameters are in sync.
Rendering job cycle. Job of rendering plug-in is page-oriented.
  1. When Core needs to convert (and save) current page or all pages in a single miltipage file, it calls Convert method.
  2. Plug-in calls Count property of IImageCollection imterface provided as paramter. If count = 1, plug-in calls Item method and get a name of filemapping obect.
    Then, it just converts an image containing in this object to appropriate image fomat and saves it to file.
    Format of filemapping image is bitmap (BimapInfoHeader + bitmap bits, in 24-bit format).
  3. If count > 1, that means plug-in need to save several images to a single multipage file. Formats which support multipage images (TIFF, animated GIF) may use these possibilities; other formats should just make one lenghty contiuous image file.

Miraplacid Publisher Transport plug-ins.


Transport plug-ins are Publisher components intended for saving converted images to some destination (file, URL) using some transport protocol (file, FTP, HTTP).
Transport plug-ins are AcitveX components which implements all standard visual ActiveX component interfaces.
Additionally, it must obey the following requirements:
  • It must be included into "Miraplacid Publisher Transport Plug-ins" COM category (92D23852-D793-4251-83C2-9D577A779DFB), but not create it.
  • It must implement IMP_TPLUGIN interface (A24B0942-EDCC-47c5-AF3C-82A6A2E4FD11) and realize _IMTD_TPlugin_Events connection point dispinterface (DD69A786-C884-410a-B27B-DECA265042C9).
  • It must not register its own type library. Ready for use type library provided in imp_tplugin.dll.
  • Default write-only properies docname and extension may be used in transport plug-in to capture this setting from UI.

IMP_TPLUGIN interface:

Property Type Description
Value Variant (Read/Write) Any properties that your plug-in may have. Some of them may be saved into configuration in registry and restored from it.
ValueNoCheck Variant (Write Only) The same as Value, but does not check value itself or against other values and does not update UI. Use to prevent update relative settings in a wrong order. When all the settings updated, call CheckSettings method.
Name String (Read Only) Plug-in name (short).
Layout String (Read Only) This string contains a list of properties (Values) which should be saved inconfiguration or restored from it.
Format of this string is: "Bparam1,Lparam2,BParam3", where "B" and "L" are prefixes meaning type of parameter (BSTR and Long accordingly). Parameter names should be separated by commas. Spaces are not allowed.
UsesRawImage Number (Read Only) Plug-in should return 1 if it does not need to convert image to particular format; it uses internal representation (bitmap) directly.
Example of such a plug-in could be printer plug-in which prints bitmap to a printer and does not need converted image.
Method Parameters Description
Start None Publisher Core call this member when it begins saving text page(s). Plug-in may update its internal state and prepare resources.
Process ITransportHelper object Publisher Core calls this method when it needs to send converted file to selected location.
"object" parameter is an interface provided by Core which allows plug-in to retrieve input file name needed for save and translate strings.
End None Publisher Core call this member on end of saving to let plug-in free used resources and update its state.
CheckSettings no parameterts; returns nothing Call this method after a series of ValueNoCheck done to perform values (mutual) check and update plug-in UI state.

_IMP_TPlugin_Events interface:

Method Parameters Description
OnChangeParam String plugin, String param, VARIANT val When some plug-in parameter has changed via user interface, plug-in informs about that with OnChangeParam event.
"plugin" is internal name of plug-in, "param" is a name of changed parameter, "val" is a new value of parameter.
OnError String plugin, Number error_code, String error_message When some error happens during saving the text, plug-in should raise OnError event. "error_code" provided mainly for debugging purposes, to watch this value in MTD log file; "error_message" is what user will see as an error description.
OnProgress String plugin, Number value Plug-in should raise this event periodically during saving process. Value is the value of progress indicator (0 - 100).

ITransportHelper Core interface:

Property Type Description
Source String (Read Only) Name of the source object to save.
For raw plug-ins (UsesRawImage == 1) this will be a name of file mapping object; for other plug-ins this is a name of graphics file.
Method Parameters Description
TranslateString String input; returns String output Translates string possibly containing special tags and replaces these tags with their actual values.

Transport plug-in working scheme

  1. UI starts and loads plug-ins. It subscribes to _IMP_TPlugin_Events events interface.
  2. UI gets Layout property. According to Layout parameters, it reads appropriate TransportParam properties from Core and sets as a Values of plug-in (using ValueNoCheck property and calls CheckSettings).
  3. Core creates plug-ins and subscribes to events. UI listens OnParamChange event; Core listens other events: OnError and OnProgress.
  4. Core gets Layout property. According to Layout parameters, it reads saved values from configuration (registry) and sets as Values of plug-in (using ValueNoCheck property and calls CheckSettings).
Remark: UI and Core may start each other, but the final situation does not change: Core reads settings and sets plug-in properties first, then UI reads these properties and sets them to its "own" plug-ins.
There are two sets of plug-ins exists in the scheme, because UI and Core are separate processes.

Interactive job cycle:
  1. User changes settings of plug-in. Plug-in updates its internal state and raises OnChangeParam to UI.
  2. In responce, UI sets appropriate Core property with TrandportParam. In result, all parameters are in sync.
Saving job cycle.
  1. In response to Save or SaveAll method call, Core initiates saving procedure. Several plug-ins may work at the same time.
    Care calls Start method of each plug-in.
  2. After that, it calls Process method with appropriate parameters. During this call, plug-ins may call TranslateString method provided by Core.
  3. Finally, Core calls End method.

See also:

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