iLiad Problem Launching ipdf from other app

[joana.estafanell]

Hi all,

I'm launching the ipdf through a C application, let's call it "A", to show a .pdf document, but when I try to come back to the application "A" pushing the top left button, the iLiad refreshes the screen and displays the .pdf document again, getting impossible to come back to "A".

I paste here the code snippet where I call the ipdf to open a document:

int openPdf ()
{
pid_t childpid; /* variable to store the child's pid */
int status; /* parent process: child's exit status */

flush ();

/* now create new process */
childpid = fork();

if (childpid >= 0) /* fork succeeded */
{
if (childpid == 0) /* fork() returns 0 to the child process */
{
printf("CHILD: I am the child process!\n");
printf("CHILD: Here's my PID: %d\n", getpid());
printf("CHILD: My parent's PID is: %d\n", getppid());
printf("CHILD: The value of my copy of childpid is: %d\n", childpid);
printf("CHILD: Enter an exit value (0 to 255): ");

execlp ("/usr/bin/ipdf", "/usr/bin/ipdf", "/mnt/free/books/test/test.pdf");

flush ();

printf("CHILD: Goodbye!\n");
return 0;
}
else /* fork() returns new pid to the parent process */
{
printf("PARENT: I am the parent process!\n");
printf("PARENT: Here's my PID: %d\n", getpid());
printf("PARENT: The value of my copy of childpid is %d\n", childpid);
printf("PARENT: I will now wait for my child to exit.\n");

flush ();
wait(&status); /*wait for child to exit, and store its status*/
}
}
else /* fork returns -1 on failure */
{
perror("fork"); /* display error message */
return 0;
}

flush ();
}

Can anyone help me with this? Is there any other way to call to another application inside the iLiad different to 'fork' or using the manager process of iliad ??

Thanks!!

joana.

[ericshliao]

Do you have special code to process the top left button? I think that the two buttons above flip bar and NEWS, BOOKS, DOCS, NOTES are proprietary to contentlister. I haven't found a way to catch them as GdkEventKey. If I am right, then your app won't respond to those key press unless special connection to contentlister is established.

Added:
My above words might not be relevant to your problem. Ideally, when the top-left button is pressed, ipdf should exit. Then, one question: which process will be displayed on screen, your application "A" or contentlister?

[ericshliao]

After a second thought, I want to ask you a question:
You said that

the iLiad refreshes the screen and displays the .pdf document again

Did you mean that ipdf exited and then re-executed, or ipdf just didn't exit?
I guesss it should be the later case. Based on my understanding, ipdf started by contentlister will establish a ipc channel to communicate with contentlister, so that contentlister can pass NEWS, BOOKS, DOCS, NOTES and the two buttons above the flip-bar to ipdf. When ipdf is started by your application "A", maybe the IPC channel is not established, and you can't close ipdf by pressing the top-left key.
Well, these words are all conjecture. I don't know if they are correct.

[Max]

Hi,

It seems that counter list sends the keypressed signals to your program instead to ipdf.

About the keypress signals, Counterlist catch that signals and re-send to the open programs. It only re-send the left side buttons signals (pageBar, arrow up, arrow down, dot, exit and previus).

If you have added your program in the register.xml, to cath this signals the program should have gtk wmclass and title equal to the value of xResourceName of the register. If you lauch your program form a shell script, you should put "sh"

see this thread about buttons pressed:

http://forum.irexnet.com/viewtopic.php?t=2366

[ericshliao]

I just found a very informative old thread contributed by jharker. It should be the most detailed study on iLiad key press. See here.

[joana.estafanell]

Thanks for your prompt answer. I´ve been checking your comments, but I still have the same problem.

Originally Posted by ericshliao

which process will be displayed on screen, your application "A" or contentlister?

This is the situation:
- First, I launch "A" application written in C.
- "A" app launchs ipdf
- I try to exit ipdf
- and if the behavior were ok, I will back to the "A" app

I hope this solve your question.

Originally Posted by ericshliao

Did you mean that ipdf exited and then re-executed, or ipdf just didn't exit?

Yes, it´s the second. The buttons NEWS, BOOKS, DOCS and NOTES reacts exactly like with the top left button, that means, I see a blink of the screen (I think that inside change to the proper directory) but the ipdf stills on top. If I press flipbar, the screen don´t blink and it doesn´t do anything.

@Max

I´m not sure if the signals are sent to my program instead to ipdf. I have test what you say to launch my app with sh (I tried 'sh -c myapp') but It still doesn´t work.

---

In short, I can´t exit or flippage inside the ipdf I have launched. I have realized that I have the same problem if I open a shell (or ssh) and open ipdf by command line.

Thanks,

joana.

[Adam B.]

The problem is that the contentlister doesn't know what application to send the keypresses to. It has to do with the IPC channel. You'll likely need to modify the contentlister to get multiple apps to function.

[ericshliao]

I think Joana probabily tried to make another interface ontop of CL. This thread stroke on a interesting topic and made me curious what does contentlister do when it starts another viewer. I found that, in "viewer.c" on contentlister, there is a fuction "gboolean viewerInit(char *viewer) ", when CL starts another viewer, CL will find the viewer's identity and setup a IPC channel for later communication. So, for viewers not stared by CL, CL won't know how to communicate with them. That's why Joana have the same problem if she open a shell (or ssh) and open ipdf by command line.

Then, a quite challenging question comes out: is it possible to make a middle-ware between CL and viewer, and enable IPC between CL and viewer? I think it's possible, but I don't know how to do it.