FMAIIOProvider: <span class="productname">FileManager-Actions</span>™ Reference Manual

## FMAIIOProvider FMAIIOProvider — The I/O Provider Interface |

## Functions

#define | FMA_IIO_PROVIDER()
#define | FMA_IS_IIO_PROVIDER()
#define | FMA_IIO_PROVIDER_GET_INTERFACE()
void | fma_iio_provider_item_changed ()

## Types and Values

#define | FMA_TYPE_IIO_PROVIDER
| FMAIIOProvider
| FMAIIOProviderInterface
enum | FMAIIOProviderWritabilityStatus
enum | FMAIIOProviderOperationStatus

## Includes

    #include <filemanager-actions/fma-iio-provider.h>

## Description

The FMAIIOProvider interface is defined in order to let both FileManager-Actions™ internal and user-provided external plugins provide read and write accesses to their own private storage subsystem.

FileManager-Actions™ core does not provide by itself input/output code. Instead, it entirely relies on input/output facilities provided by implementations of this interface.

FileManager-Actions™ is bundled with several I/O providers. Since version 3, the `io-desktop` I/O provider, which implements the

DES-EMA

specification, is the preferred way of storing (and sharing) items.

The FMAIIOProvider interface provides three types of services:

- loading items . Loading items is used both by the file manager plugins, by the FileManager-Actions Configuration Tool™ program, and by the command-line utilities.

- creating, updating or deleting items . Updating items is a feature only used by the FileManager-Actions Configuration Tool™ program and by some command-line utilities.

- informing FileManager-Actions™ of external modifications . The I/O provider should inform FileManager-Actions™ when an item happens to have been modified in the underlying storage subsystem.

  This feature is only used by the file manager plugins and by the FileManager-Actions Configuration Tool™ program.

  The FMAIIOProvider interface does not define specific monitoring methods (but you can also take a glance at FMATimeout object). Instead, it is expected that the I/O provider module takes care itself of managing its own monitoring services at load/unload time, calling the `fma_iio_provider_item_changed()` function when appropriate.

These services may be fully implemented by the I/O provider itself. Or, the I/O provider may also prefer to take advantage of the data factory management (see FMAIFactoryObject and FMAIFactoryProvider interfaces) services.

### I/O provider identifier

For its own internal needs, FileManager-Actions™ requires that each I/O provider have its own identifier, as an ASCII string.

In order to avoid any collision, this I/O provider identifier is allocated by the FileManager-Actions™ maintainers team. If you wish develop yourself a new I/O provider, and so need a new provider identifier, please contact the maintainers (see filemanager-actions.doap at the root of the source tree).

Below is a list of currently allocated I/O provider identifiers. This list has been last updated on 2010, Feb. 14th.

Table 2. Currently allocated I/O provider identifiers

Identifier | Name | Holder | Allocated on |  |
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
`all` | Reserved for FileManager-Actions™ internal needs | FileManager-Actions™ | 2010-01-28 |  | current
`na-desktop` | NA Desktop I/O Provider | FileManager-Actions™ | 2009-12-16 | deprecated |
`na-gconf` | NA GConf I/O Provider | FileManager-Actions™ | 2009-12-16 | deprecated |
`na-xml` | NA XML module | FileManager-Actions™ | 2010-02-14 | deprecated |
`io-desktop` | FMA Desktop I/O Provider | FileManager-Actions™ | 2015- 9-10 |  | current
`io-gconf` | FMA GConf I/O Provider | FileManager-Actions™ | 2015- 9-10 | deprecated |
`io-xml` | FMA XML module | FileManager-Actions™ | 2015- 9-10 |  | current

### Versions historic

Table 3. Historic of the versions of the FMAIIOProvider interface

FileManager-Actions™ version | FMAIIOProvider interface version |
--- | --- | ---
since 2.30 | 1 | current version

## Functions

### FMA_IIO_PROVIDER()

    #define FMA_IIO_PROVIDER( instance )               ( G_TYPE_CHECK_INSTANCE_CAST( instance, FMA_TYPE_IIO_PROVIDER, FMAIIOProvider ))

### FMA_IS_IIO_PROVIDER()

    #define FMA_IS_IIO_PROVIDER( instance )            ( G_TYPE_CHECK_INSTANCE_TYPE( instance, FMA_TYPE_IIO_PROVIDER ))

### FMA_IIO_PROVIDER_GET_INTERFACE()

    #define FMA_IIO_PROVIDER_GET_INTERFACE( instance ) ( G_TYPE_INSTANCE_GET_INTERFACE(( instance ), FMA_TYPE_IIO_PROVIDER, FMAIIOProviderInterface ))

### fma_iio_provider_item_changed ()

    void
    fma_iio_provider_item_changed (const FMAIIOProvider *instance);

Informs FileManager-Actions™ that this FMAIIOProvider `instance` has detected a modification in at least one of its items (menu or action).

This function may be triggered for each and every FMAObjectItem -derived modified object, and should, at least, be triggered once for a coherent set of updates.

When receiving this signal, the currently running program may just want to immediately reload the current list of items, menus and actions (this is for example what the file manager plugins do); it may also choose to ask the user if he is willing to reload such a current list (and this is the way FileManager-Actions Configuration Tool™ has chosen to deal with this message).

Note that application FMAPivot/FMAUpdater pivot is typically the only object connected to this signal. It acts so as a filtering proxy, re-emitting its own 'items-changed' signal for a whole set of detected underlying modifications.

#### Parameters

instance | the calling FMAIIOProvider. |

Since: 2.30

## Types and Values

### FMA_TYPE_IIO_PROVIDER

    #define FMA_TYPE_IIO_PROVIDER                      ( fma_iio_provider_get_type())

### FMAIIOProvider

    typedef struct _FMAIIOProvider FMAIIOProvider;

### FMAIIOProviderInterface

    typedef struct {
    	/**
    	 * get_version:
    	 * @instance: the FMAIIOProvider provider.
    	 *
    	 * FileManager-Actions calls this method each time it needs to know
    	 * which version of this interface the plugin implements.
    	 *
    	 * If this method is not implemented by the plugin,
    	 * FileManager-Actions considers that the plugin only implements
    	 * the version 1 of the FMAIIOProvider interface.
    	 *
    	 * Return value: if implemented, this method must return the version
    	 * number of this interface the I/O provider is supporting.
    	 *
    	 * Defaults to 1.
    	 *
    	 * Since: 2.30
    	 */
    	guint    ( *get_version )        ( const FMAIIOProvider *instance );

    	/**
    	 * get_id:
    	 * @instance: the FMAIIOProvider provider.
    	 *
    	 * The I/O provider must implement this method.
    	 *
    	 * Return value: the implementation must return the internal identifier
    	 * of the I/O provider, as a newly allocated string which will be g_free()
    	 * by the caller.
    	 *
    	 * Since: 2.30
    	 */
    	gchar *  ( *get_id )             ( const FMAIIOProvider *instance );

    	/**
    	 * get_name:
    	 * @instance: the FMAIIOProvider provider.
    	 *
    	 * Return value: if implemented, this method must return the display
    	 * name of the I/O provider, as a newly allocated string which will be
    	 * g_free() by the caller.
    	 *
    	 * This may be the name of the module itself, but this also may be a
    	 * special name the modules gives to this interface.
    	 *
    	 * Defaults to an empty string.
    	 *
    	 * Since: 2.30
    	 */
    	gchar *  ( *get_name )           ( const FMAIIOProvider *instance );

    	/**
    	 * read_items:
    	 * @instance: the FMAIIOProvider provider.
    	 * @messages: a pointer to a GSList list of strings; the provider
    	 *  may append messages to this list, but shouldn't reinitialize it.
    	 *
    	 * Reads the whole items list from the specified I/O provider.
    	 *
    	 * The I/O provider should implement this method, but if it doesn't,
    	 * then this greatly lowerize the interest of this I/O provider (!).
    	 *
    	 * Return value: if implemented, this method must return a unordered
    	 * flat GList of FMAObjectItem-derived objects (menus or actions);
    	 * the actions embed their own profiles.
    	 *
    	 * Defaults to NULL list.
    	 *
    	 * Since: 2.30
    	 */
    	GList *  ( *read_items )         ( const FMAIIOProvider *instance,
    											GSList **messages );

    	/**
    	 * is_willing_to_write:
    	 * @instance: the FMAIIOProvider provider.
    	 *
    	 * The 'willing_to_write' property is intrinsic to the I/O provider.
    	 * It is not supposed to make any assumption on the environment it is
    	 * currently running on.
    	 * This property just says that the developer/maintainer has released
    	 * the needed code in order to update/create/delete FMAObjectItem-derived
    	 * objects.
    	 *
    	 * Note that even if this property is TRUE, there is yet many
    	 * reasons for not being able to update/delete existing items or
    	 * create new ones (see e.g. is_able_to_write() method below).
    	 *
    	 * Return value: if implemented, this method must return a boolean
    	 * value, whose purpose is to let know to FileManager-Actions whether
    	 * this I/O provider is, or not, willing to write.
    	 *
    	 * Defaults to FALSE.
    	 *
    	 * Since: 2.30
    	 */
    	gboolean ( *is_willing_to_write )( const FMAIIOProvider *instance );

    	/**
    	 * is_able_to_write:
    	 * @instance: the FMAIIOProvider provider.
    	 *
    	 * The 'able_to_write' property is a runtime one.
    	 * When returning TRUE, the I/O provider insures that it has
    	 * successfully checked that it was able to write some things
    	 * down to its storage subsystem(s).
    	 *
    	 * The 'able_to_write' property is independent of the
    	 * 'willing_to_write' above, though it is only checked if the
    	 * I/O provider is actually willing to write.
    	 *
    	 * This condition is only relevant when trying to define new items,
    	 * to determine if a willing-to provider is actually able to do write
    	 * operations. It it not relevant for updating/deleting already
    	 * existing items as they have already checked their own runtime
    	 * writability status when read from the storage subsystems.
    	 *
    	 * Note that even if this property is TRUE, there is yet many
    	 * reasons for not being able to update/delete existing items or
    	 * create new ones (see e.g. 'locked' user preference key).
    	 *
    	 * Return value: if implemented, this method must return a boolean
    	 * value, whose purpose is to let know to FileManager-Actions whether
    	 * this I/O provider is eventually able to write.
    	 *
    	 * Defaults to FALSE.
    	 *
    	 * Since: 2.30
    	 */
    	gboolean ( *is_able_to_write )   ( const FMAIIOProvider *instance );

    	/**
    	 * write_item:
    	 * @instance: the FMAIIOProvider provider.
    	 * @item: a FMAObjectItem-derived item, menu or action.
    	 * @messages: a pointer to a GSList list of strings; the provider
    	 *  may append messages to this list, but shouldn't reinitialize it.
    	 *
    	 * Writes a new @item down to the privat underlying storage subsystem
    	 * which happens to be managed by the I/O provider.
    	 *
    	 * There is no update_item function; it is the responsibility
    	 * of the provider to delete the previous version of an item before
    	 * actually writing the new one.
    	 *
    	 * The I/O provider should implement this method, or return
    	 * FALSE in is_willing_to_write() method above.
    	 *
    	 * Return value: IIO_PROVIDER_CODE_OK if the write operation
    	 * was successful, or another code depending of the detected error.
    	 *
    	 * Since: 2.30
    	 */
    	guint    ( *write_item )         ( const FMAIIOProvider *instance,
    											const FMAObjectItem *item,
    											GSList **messages );

    	/**
    	 * delete_item:
    	 * @instance: the FMAIIOProvider provider.
    	 * @item: a FMAObjectItem-derived item, menu or action.
    	 * @messages: a pointer to a GSList list of strings; the provider
    	 *  may append messages to this list, but shouldn't reinitialize it.
    	 *
    	 * Deletes an existing @item from the I/O subsystem.
    	 *
    	 * The I/O provider should implement this method, or return
    	 * FALSE in is_willing_to_write() method above.
    	 *
    	 * Return value: IIO_PROVIDER_CODE_OK if the delete operation was
    	 * successful, or another code depending of the detected error.
    	 *
    	 * Since: 2.30
    	 */
    	guint    ( *delete_item )        ( const FMAIIOProvider *instance,
    											const FMAObjectItem *item,
    											GSList **messages );

    	/**
    	 * duplicate_data:
    	 * @instance: the FMAIIOProvider provider.
    	 * @dest: a FMAObjectItem-derived item, menu or action.
    	 * @source: a FMAObjectItem-derived item, menu or action.
    	 * @messages: a pointer to a GSList list of strings; the provider
    	 *  may append messages to this list, but shouldn't reinitialize it.
    	 *
    	 * FileManager-Actions typically calls this method while duplicating
    	 * a FMAObjectItem-derived object, in order to let the I/O provider
    	 * duplicates itself specific data (if any) it may have set on
    	 * @source object.
    	 *
    	 * Note that this does not duplicate in any way any
    	 * FMAObjectItem-derived object. We are just dealing here with
    	 * the provider-specific data which may have been attached to
    	 * the FMAObjectItem-derived object.
    	 *
    	 * Return value: IIO_PROVIDER_CODE_OK if the duplicate operation
    	 * was successful, or another code depending of the detected error.
    	 *
    	 * Since: 2.30
    	 */
    	guint    ( *duplicate_data )     ( const FMAIIOProvider *instance,
    											FMAObjectItem *dest,
    											const FMAObjectItem *source,
    											GSList **messages );
    } FMAIIOProviderInterface;

This defines the methods that a FMAIIOProvider may, should, or must implement.

#### Members

`get_version` () | [should] returns the version of this interface that the plugin implements. |
`get_id` () | [must] returns the internal id of the plugin. |
`get_name` () | [should] returns the public name of the plugin. |
`read_items` () | [should] reads items. |
`is_willing_to_write` () | [should] asks the plugin whether it is willing to write. |
`is_able_to_write` () | [should] asks the plugin whether it is able to write. |
`write_item` () | [should] writes an item. |
`delete_item` () | [should] deletes an item. |
`duplicate_data` () | [may] let the I/O provider duplicates its specific data. |

### enum FMAIIOProviderWritabilityStatus

The reasons for which an item may not be writable.

Not all reasons are to be managed at the I/O provider level. Some are to be used only internally from FileManager-Actions™ programs.

#### Members

IIO_PROVIDER_STATUS_WRITABLE | item and i/o provider are writable. |
IIO_PROVIDER_STATUS_UNAVAILABLE | unavailable i/o provider. |
IIO_PROVIDER_STATUS_INCOMPLETE_API | i/o provider has an incomplete write api. |
IIO_PROVIDER_STATUS_NOT_WILLING_TO | i/o provider is not willing to write. |
IIO_PROVIDER_STATUS_NOT_ABLE_TO | i/o provider is not able to write. |
IIO_PROVIDER_STATUS_LOCKED_BY_ADMIN | i/o provider has been locked by the administrator. |
IIO_PROVIDER_STATUS_LOCKED_BY_USER | i/o provider has been locked by the user. |
IIO_PROVIDER_STATUS_ITEM_READONLY | item is read-only. |
IIO_PROVIDER_STATUS_NO_PROVIDER_FOUND | no writable i/o provider found. |
IIO_PROVIDER_STATUS_LEVEL_ZERO | level zero is not writable. |
IIO_PROVIDER_STATUS_UNDETERMINED | unknwon reason (and probably a bug). |

### enum FMAIIOProviderOperationStatus

The return code of operations.

#### Members

IIO_PROVIDER_CODE_OK | the requested operation has been successful. |
IIO_PROVIDER_CODE_PROGRAM_ERROR | a program error has been detected; you should open a bug in Bugzilla. |
IIO_PROVIDER_CODE_NOT_WILLING_TO_RUN | the provider is not willing to do the requested action. |
IIO_PROVIDER_CODE_WRITE_ERROR | a write error has been detected. |
IIO_PROVIDER_CODE_DELETE_SCHEMAS_ERROR | the schemas could not be deleted. |
IIO_PROVIDER_CODE_DELETE_CONFIG_ERROR | the configuration could not be deleted. |