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-<?xml version="1.0" standalone="no"?>
-<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.4//EN"
-"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.4/docbookx.dtd"
-[
-]>
-
-<article id="index">
- <articleinfo>
- <title>D-Bus Tutorial</title>
- <releaseinfo>Version 0.5.0</releaseinfo>
- <date>20 August 2006</date>
- <authorgroup>
- <author>
- <firstname>Havoc</firstname>
- <surname>Pennington</surname>
- <affiliation>
- <orgname>Red Hat, Inc.</orgname>
- <address><email>hp@pobox.com</email></address>
- </affiliation>
- </author>
- <author>
- <firstname>David</firstname>
- <surname>Wheeler</surname>
- </author>
- <author>
- <firstname>John</firstname>
- <surname>Palmieri</surname>
- <affiliation>
- <orgname>Red Hat, Inc.</orgname>
- <address><email>johnp@redhat.com</email></address>
- </affiliation>
- </author>
- <author>
- <firstname>Colin</firstname>
- <surname>Walters</surname>
- <affiliation>
- <orgname>Red Hat, Inc.</orgname>
- <address><email>walters@redhat.com</email></address>
- </affiliation>
- </author>
- </authorgroup>
- </articleinfo>
-
- <sect1 id="meta">
- <title>Tutorial Work In Progress</title>
-
- <para>
- This tutorial is not complete; it probably contains some useful information, but
- also has plenty of gaps. Right now, you'll also need to refer to the D-Bus specification,
- Doxygen reference documentation, and look at some examples of how other apps use D-Bus.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- Enhancing the tutorial is definitely encouraged - send your patches or suggestions to the
- mailing list. If you create a D-Bus binding, please add a section to the tutorial for your
- binding, if only a short section with a couple of examples.
- </para>
-
- </sect1>
-
- <sect1 id="whatis">
- <title>What is D-Bus?</title>
- <para>
- D-Bus is a system for <firstterm>interprocess communication</firstterm>
- (IPC). Architecturally, it has several layers:
-
- <itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- A library, <firstterm>libdbus</firstterm>, that allows two
- applications to connect to each other and exchange messages.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- A <firstterm>message bus daemon</firstterm> executable, built on
- libdbus, that multiple applications can connect to. The daemon can
- route messages from one application to zero or more other
- applications.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <firstterm>Wrapper libraries</firstterm> or <firstterm>bindings</firstterm>
- based on particular application frameworks. For example, libdbus-glib and
- libdbus-qt. There are also bindings to languages such as
- Python. These wrapper libraries are the API most people should use,
- as they simplify the details of D-Bus programming. libdbus is
- intended to be a low-level backend for the higher level bindings.
- Much of the libdbus API is only useful for binding implementation.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
- </para>
-
- <para>
- libdbus only supports one-to-one connections, just like a raw network
- socket. However, rather than sending byte streams over the connection, you
- send <firstterm>messages</firstterm>. Messages have a header identifying
- the kind of message, and a body containing a data payload. libdbus also
- abstracts the exact transport used (sockets vs. whatever else), and
- handles details such as authentication.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- The message bus daemon forms the hub of a wheel. Each spoke of the wheel
- is a one-to-one connection to an application using libdbus. An
- application sends a message to the bus daemon over its spoke, and the bus
- daemon forwards the message to other connected applications as
- appropriate. Think of the daemon as a router.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- The bus daemon has multiple instances on a typical computer. The
- first instance is a machine-global singleton, that is, a system daemon
- similar to sendmail or Apache. This instance has heavy security
- restrictions on what messages it will accept, and is used for systemwide
- communication. The other instances are created one per user login session.
- These instances allow applications in the user's session to communicate
- with one another.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- The systemwide and per-user daemons are separate. Normal within-session
- IPC does not involve the systemwide message bus process and vice versa.
- </para>
-
- <sect2 id="uses">
- <title>D-Bus applications</title>
- <para>
- There are many, many technologies in the world that have "Inter-process
- communication" or "networking" in their stated purpose: <ulink
- url="http://www.omg.org">CORBA</ulink>, <ulink
- url="http://www.opengroup.org/dce/">DCE</ulink>, <ulink
- url="http://www.microsoft.com/com/">DCOM</ulink>, <ulink
- url="http://developer.kde.org/documentation/library/kdeqt/dcop.html">DCOP</ulink>, <ulink
- url="http://www.xmlrpc.com">XML-RPC</ulink>, <ulink
- url="http://www.w3.org/TR/SOAP/">SOAP</ulink>, <ulink
- url="http://www.mbus.org/">MBUS</ulink>, <ulink
- url="http://www.zeroc.com/ice.html">Internet Communications Engine (ICE)</ulink>,
- and probably hundreds more.
- Each of these is tailored for particular kinds of application.
- D-Bus is designed for two specific cases:
- <itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Communication between desktop applications in the same desktop
- session; to allow integration of the desktop session as a whole,
- and address issues of process lifecycle (when do desktop components
- start and stop running).
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Communication between the desktop session and the operating system,
- where the operating system would typically include the kernel
- and any system daemons or processes.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
- </para>
- <para>
- For the within-desktop-session use case, the GNOME and KDE desktops
- have significant previous experience with different IPC solutions
- such as CORBA and DCOP. D-Bus is built on that experience and
- carefully tailored to meet the needs of these desktop projects
- in particular. D-Bus may or may not be appropriate for other
- applications; the FAQ has some comparisons to other IPC systems.
- </para>
- <para>
- The problem solved by the systemwide or communication-with-the-OS case
- is explained well by the following text from the Linux Hotplug project:
- <blockquote>
- <para>
- A gap in current Linux support is that policies with any sort of
- dynamic "interact with user" component aren't currently
- supported. For example, that's often needed the first time a network
- adapter or printer is connected, and to determine appropriate places
- to mount disk drives. It would seem that such actions could be
- supported for any case where a responsible human can be identified:
- single user workstations, or any system which is remotely
- administered.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- This is a classic "remote sysadmin" problem, where in this case
- hotplugging needs to deliver an event from one security domain
- (operating system kernel, in this case) to another (desktop for
- logged-in user, or remote sysadmin). Any effective response must go
- the other way: the remote domain taking some action that lets the
- kernel expose the desired device capabilities. (The action can often
- be taken asynchronously, for example letting new hardware be idle
- until a meeting finishes.) At this writing, Linux doesn't have
- widely adopted solutions to such problems. However, the new D-Bus
- work may begin to solve that problem.
- </para>
- </blockquote>
- </para>
- <para>
- D-Bus may happen to be useful for purposes other than the one it was
- designed for. Its general properties that distinguish it from
- other forms of IPC are:
- <itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Binary protocol designed to be used asynchronously
- (similar in spirit to the X Window System protocol).
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Stateful, reliable connections held open over time.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The message bus is a daemon, not a "swarm" or
- distributed architecture.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Many implementation and deployment issues are specified rather
- than left ambiguous/configurable/pluggable.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Semantics are similar to the existing DCOP system, allowing
- KDE to adopt it more easily.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Security features to support the systemwide mode of the
- message bus.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
- </para>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
- <sect1 id="concepts">
- <title>Concepts</title>
- <para>
- Some basic concepts apply no matter what application framework you're
- using to write a D-Bus application. The exact code you write will be
- different for GLib vs. Qt vs. Python applications, however.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- Here is a diagram (<ulink url="diagram.png">png</ulink> <ulink
- url="diagram.svg">svg</ulink>) that may help you visualize the concepts
- that follow.
- </para>
-
- <sect2 id="objects">
- <title>Native Objects and Object Paths</title>
- <para>
- Your programming framework probably defines what an "object" is like;
- usually with a base class. For example: java.lang.Object, GObject, QObject,
- python's base Object, or whatever. Let's call this a <firstterm>native object</firstterm>.
- </para>
- <para>
- The low-level D-Bus protocol, and corresponding libdbus API, does not care about native objects.
- However, it provides a concept called an
- <firstterm>object path</firstterm>. The idea of an object path is that
- higher-level bindings can name native object instances, and allow remote applications
- to refer to them.
- </para>
- <para>
- The object path
- looks like a filesystem path, for example an object could be
- named <literal>/org/kde/kspread/sheets/3/cells/4/5</literal>.
- Human-readable paths are nice, but you are free to create an
- object named <literal>/com/mycompany/c5yo817y0c1y1c5b</literal>
- if it makes sense for your application.
- </para>
- <para>
- Namespacing object paths is smart, by starting them with the components
- of a domain name you own (e.g. <literal>/org/kde</literal>). This
- keeps different code modules in the same process from stepping
- on one another's toes.
- </para>
- </sect2>
-
- <sect2 id="members">
- <title>Methods and Signals</title>
-
- <para>
- Each object has <firstterm>members</firstterm>; the two kinds of member
- are <firstterm>methods</firstterm> and
- <firstterm>signals</firstterm>. Methods are operations that can be
- invoked on an object, with optional input (aka arguments or "in
- parameters") and output (aka return values or "out parameters").
- Signals are broadcasts from the object to any interested observers
- of the object; signals may contain a data payload.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- Both methods and signals are referred to by name, such as
- "Frobate" or "OnClicked".
- </para>
-
- </sect2>
-
- <sect2 id="interfaces">
- <title>Interfaces</title>
- <para>
- Each object supports one or more <firstterm>interfaces</firstterm>.
- Think of an interface as a named group of methods and signals,
- just as it is in GLib or Qt or Java. Interfaces define the
- <emphasis>type</emphasis> of an object instance.
- </para>
- <para>
- DBus identifies interfaces with a simple namespaced string,
- something like <literal>org.freedesktop.Introspectable</literal>.
- Most bindings will map these interface names directly to
- the appropriate programming language construct, for example
- to Java interfaces or C++ pure virtual classes.
- </para>
- </sect2>
-
- <sect2 id="proxies">
- <title>Proxies</title>
- <para>
- A <firstterm>proxy object</firstterm> is a convenient native object created to
- represent a remote object in another process. The low-level DBus API involves manually creating
- a method call message, sending it, then manually receiving and processing
- the method reply message. Higher-level bindings provide proxies as an alternative.
- Proxies look like a normal native object; but when you invoke a method on the proxy
- object, the binding converts it into a DBus method call message, waits for the reply
- message, unpacks the return value, and returns it from the native method..
- </para>
- <para>
- In pseudocode, programming without proxies might look like this:
- <programlisting>
- Message message = new Message("/remote/object/path", "MethodName", arg1, arg2);
- Connection connection = getBusConnection();
- connection.send(message);
- Message reply = connection.waitForReply(message);
- if (reply.isError()) {
-
- } else {
- Object returnValue = reply.getReturnValue();
- }
- </programlisting>
- </para>
- <para>
- Programming with proxies might look like this:
- <programlisting>
- Proxy proxy = new Proxy(getBusConnection(), "/remote/object/path");
- Object returnValue = proxy.MethodName(arg1, arg2);
- </programlisting>
- </para>
- </sect2>
-
- <sect2 id="bus-names">
- <title>Bus Names</title>
-
- <para>
- When each application connects to the bus daemon, the daemon immediately
- assigns it a name, called the <firstterm>unique connection name</firstterm>.
- A unique name begins with a ':' (colon) character. These names are never
- reused during the lifetime of the bus daemon - that is, you know
- a given name will always refer to the same application.
- An example of a unique name might be
- <literal>:34-907</literal>. The numbers after the colon have
- no meaning other than their uniqueness.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- When a name is mapped
- to a particular application's connection, that application is said to
- <firstterm>own</firstterm> that name.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- Applications may ask to own additional <firstterm>well-known
- names</firstterm>. For example, you could write a specification to
- define a name called <literal>com.mycompany.TextEditor</literal>.
- Your definition could specify that to own this name, an application
- should have an object at the path
- <literal>/com/mycompany/TextFileManager</literal> supporting the
- interface <literal>org.freedesktop.FileHandler</literal>.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- Applications could then send messages to this bus name,
- object, and interface to execute method calls.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- You could think of the unique names as IP addresses, and the
- well-known names as domain names. So
- <literal>com.mycompany.TextEditor</literal> might map to something like
- <literal>:34-907</literal> just as <literal>mycompany.com</literal> maps
- to something like <literal>192.168.0.5</literal>.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- Names have a second important use, other than routing messages. They
- are used to track lifecycle. When an application exits (or crashes), its
- connection to the message bus will be closed by the operating system
- kernel. The message bus then sends out notification messages telling
- remaining applications that the application's names have lost their
- owner. By tracking these notifications, your application can reliably
- monitor the lifetime of other applications.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- Bus names can also be used to coordinate single-instance applications.
- If you want to be sure only one
- <literal>com.mycompany.TextEditor</literal> application is running for
- example, have the text editor application exit if the bus name already
- has an owner.
- </para>
-
- </sect2>
-
- <sect2 id="addresses">
- <title>Addresses</title>
-
- <para>
- Applications using D-Bus are either servers or clients. A server
- listens for incoming connections; a client connects to a server. Once
- the connection is established, it is a symmetric flow of messages; the
- client-server distinction only matters when setting up the
- connection.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- If you're using the bus daemon, as you probably are, your application
- will be a client of the bus daemon. That is, the bus daemon listens
- for connections and your application initiates a connection to the bus
- daemon.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- A D-Bus <firstterm>address</firstterm> specifies where a server will
- listen, and where a client will connect. For example, the address
- <literal>unix:path=/tmp/abcdef</literal> specifies that the server will
- listen on a UNIX domain socket at the path
- <literal>/tmp/abcdef</literal> and the client will connect to that
- socket. An address can also specify TCP/IP sockets, or any other
- transport defined in future iterations of the D-Bus specification.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- When using D-Bus with a message bus daemon,
- libdbus automatically discovers the address of the per-session bus
- daemon by reading an environment variable. It discovers the
- systemwide bus daemon by checking a well-known UNIX domain socket path
- (though you can override this address with an environment variable).
- </para>
-
- <para>
- If you're using D-Bus without a bus daemon, it's up to you to
- define which application will be the server and which will be
- the client, and specify a mechanism for them to agree on
- the server's address. This is an unusual case.
- </para>
-
- </sect2>
-
- <sect2 id="bigpicture">
- <title>Big Conceptual Picture</title>
-
- <para>
- Pulling all these concepts together, to specify a particular
- method call on a particular object instance, a number of
- nested components have to be named:
- <programlisting>
- Address -&gt; [Bus Name] -&gt; Path -&gt; Interface -&gt; Method
- </programlisting>
- The bus name is in brackets to indicate that it's optional -- you only
- provide a name to route the method call to the right application
- when using the bus daemon. If you have a direct connection to another
- application, bus names aren't used; there's no bus daemon.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- The interface is also optional, primarily for historical
- reasons; DCOP does not require specifying the interface,
- instead simply forbidding duplicate method names
- on the same object instance. D-Bus will thus let you
- omit the interface, but if your method name is ambiguous
- it is undefined which method will be invoked.
- </para>
-
- </sect2>
-
- <sect2 id="messages">
- <title>Messages - Behind the Scenes</title>
- <para>
- D-Bus works by sending messages between processes. If you're using
- a sufficiently high-level binding, you may never work with messages directly.
- </para>
- <para>
- There are 4 message types:
- <itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Method call messages ask to invoke a method
- on an object.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Method return messages return the results
- of invoking a method.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Error messages return an exception caused by
- invoking a method.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Signal messages are notifications that a given signal
- has been emitted (that an event has occurred).
- You could also think of these as "event" messages.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
- </para>
- <para>
- A method call maps very simply to messages: you send a method call
- message, and receive either a method return message or an error message
- in reply.
- </para>
- <para>
- Each message has a <firstterm>header</firstterm>, including <firstterm>fields</firstterm>,
- and a <firstterm>body</firstterm>, including <firstterm>arguments</firstterm>. You can think
- of the header as the routing information for the message, and the body as the payload.
- Header fields might include the sender bus name, destination bus name, method or signal name,
- and so forth. One of the header fields is a <firstterm>type signature</firstterm> describing the
- values found in the body. For example, the letter "i" means "32-bit integer" so the signature
- "ii" means the payload has two 32-bit integers.
- </para>
- </sect2>
-
- <sect2 id="callprocedure">
- <title>Calling a Method - Behind the Scenes</title>
-
- <para>
- A method call in DBus consists of two messages; a method call message sent from process A to process B,
- and a matching method reply message sent from process B to process A. Both the call and the reply messages
- are routed through the bus daemon. The caller includes a different serial number in each call message, and the
- reply message includes this number to allow the caller to match replies to calls.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- The call message will contain any arguments to the method.
- The reply message may indicate an error, or may contain data returned by the method.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- A method invocation in DBus happens as follows:
- <itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The language binding may provide a proxy, such that invoking a method on
- an in-process object invokes a method on a remote object in another process. If so, the
- application calls a method on the proxy, and the proxy
- constructs a method call message to send to the remote process.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- For more low-level APIs, the application may construct a method call message itself, without
- using a proxy.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- In either case, the method call message contains: a bus name belonging to the remote process; the name of the method;
- the arguments to the method; an object path inside the remote process; and optionally the name of the
- interface that specifies the method.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The method call message is sent to the bus daemon.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The bus daemon looks at the destination bus name. If a process owns that name,
- the bus daemon forwards the method call to that process. Otherwise, the bus daemon
- creates an error message and sends it back as the reply to the method call message.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The receiving process unpacks the method call message. In a simple low-level API situation, it
- may immediately run the method and send a method reply message to the bus daemon.
- When using a high-level binding API, the binding might examine the object path, interface,
- and method name, and convert the method call message into an invocation of a method on
- a native object (GObject, java.lang.Object, QObject, etc.), then convert the return
- value from the native method into a method reply message.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The bus daemon receives the method reply message and sends it to the process that
- made the method call.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The process that made the method call looks at the method reply and makes use of any
- return values included in the reply. The reply may also indicate that an error occurred.
- When using a binding, the method reply message may be converted into the return value of
- of a proxy method, or into an exception.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
- </para>
-
- <para>
- The bus daemon never reorders messages. That is, if you send two method call messages to the same recipient,
- they will be received in the order they were sent. The recipient is not required to reply to the calls
- in order, however; for example, it may process each method call in a separate thread, and return reply messages
- in an undefined order depending on when the threads complete. Method calls have a unique serial
- number used by the method caller to match reply messages to call messages.
- </para>
-
- </sect2>
-
- <sect2 id="signalprocedure">
- <title>Emitting a Signal - Behind the Scenes</title>
-
- <para>
- A signal in DBus consists of a single message, sent by one process to any number of other processes.
- That is, a signal is a unidirectional broadcast. The signal may contain arguments (a data payload), but
- because it is a broadcast, it never has a "return value." Contrast this with a method call
- (see <xref linkend="callprocedure"/>) where the method call message has a matching method reply message.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- The emitter (aka sender) of a signal has no knowledge of the signal recipients. Recipients register
- with the bus daemon to receive signals based on "match rules" - these rules would typically include the sender and
- the signal name. The bus daemon sends each signal only to recipients who have expressed interest in that
- signal.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- A signal in DBus happens as follows:
- <itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- A signal message is created and sent to the bus daemon. When using the low-level API this may be
- done manually, with certain bindings it may be done for you by the binding when a native object
- emits a native signal or event.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The signal message contains the name of the interface that specifies the signal;
- the name of the signal; the bus name of the process sending the signal; and
- any arguments
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Any process on the message bus can register "match rules" indicating which signals it
- is interested in. The bus has a list of registered match rules.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The bus daemon examines the signal and determines which processes are interested in it.
- It sends the signal message to these processes.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Each process receiving the signal decides what to do with it; if using a binding,
- the binding may choose to emit a native signal on a proxy object. If using the
- low-level API, the process may just look at the signal sender and name and decide
- what to do based on that.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
- </para>
-
- </sect2>
-
- <sect2 id="introspection">
- <title>Introspection</title>
-
- <para>
- D-Bus objects may support the interface <literal>org.freedesktop.DBus.Introspectable</literal>.
- This interface has one method <literal>Introspect</literal> which takes no arguments and returns
- an XML string. The XML string describes the interfaces, methods, and signals of the object.
- See the D-Bus specification for more details on this introspection format.
- </para>
-
- </sect2>
-
- </sect1>
-
- <sect1 id="glib-client">
- <title>GLib API: Using Remote Objects</title>
-
- <para>
- The GLib binding is defined in the header file
- <literal>&lt;dbus/dbus-glib.h&gt;</literal>.
- </para>
-
- <sect2 id="glib-typemappings">
- <title>D-Bus - GLib type mappings</title>
- <para>
- The heart of the GLib bindings for D-Bus is the mapping it
- provides between D-Bus "type signatures" and GLib types
- (<literal>GType</literal>). The D-Bus type system is composed of
- a number of "basic" types, along with several "container" types.
- </para>
- <sect3 id="glib-basic-typemappings">
- <title>Basic type mappings</title>
- <para>
- Below is a list of the basic types, along with their associated
- mapping to a <literal>GType</literal>.
- <informaltable>
- <tgroup cols="4">
- <thead>
- <row>
- <entry>D-Bus basic type</entry>
- <entry>GType</entry>
- <entry>Free function</entry>
- <entry>Notes</entry>
- </row>
- </thead>
- <tbody>
- <row>
- <entry><literal>BYTE</literal></entry>
- <entry><literal>G_TYPE_UCHAR</literal></entry>
- <entry></entry>
- <entry></entry>
- </row><row>
- <entry><literal>BOOLEAN</literal></entry>
- <entry><literal>G_TYPE_BOOLEAN</literal></entry>
- <entry></entry>
- <entry></entry>
- </row><row>
- <entry><literal>INT16</literal></entry>
- <entry><literal>G_TYPE_INT</literal></entry>
- <entry></entry>
- <entry>Will be changed to a <literal>G_TYPE_INT16</literal> once GLib has it</entry>
- </row><row>
- <entry><literal>UINT16</literal></entry>
- <entry><literal>G_TYPE_UINT</literal></entry>
- <entry></entry>
- <entry>Will be changed to a <literal>G_TYPE_UINT16</literal> once GLib has it</entry>
- </row><row>
- <entry><literal>INT32</literal></entry>
- <entry><literal>G_TYPE_INT</literal></entry>
- <entry></entry>
- <entry>Will be changed to a <literal>G_TYPE_INT32</literal> once GLib has it</entry>
- </row><row>
- <entry><literal>UINT32</literal></entry>
- <entry><literal>G_TYPE_UINT</literal></entry>
- <entry></entry>
- <entry>Will be changed to a <literal>G_TYPE_UINT32</literal> once GLib has it</entry>
- </row><row>
- <entry><literal>INT64</literal></entry>
- <entry><literal>G_TYPE_GINT64</literal></entry>
- <entry></entry>
- <entry></entry>
- </row><row>
- <entry><literal>UINT64</literal></entry>
- <entry><literal>G_TYPE_GUINT64</literal></entry>
- <entry></entry>
- <entry></entry>
- </row><row>
- <entry><literal>DOUBLE</literal></entry>
- <entry><literal>G_TYPE_DOUBLE</literal></entry>
- <entry></entry>
- <entry></entry>
- </row><row>
- <entry><literal>STRING</literal></entry>
- <entry><literal>G_TYPE_STRING</literal></entry>
- <entry><literal>g_free</literal></entry>
- <entry></entry>
- </row><row>
- <entry><literal>OBJECT_PATH</literal></entry>
- <entry><literal>DBUS_TYPE_G_PROXY</literal></entry>
- <entry><literal>g_object_unref</literal></entry>
- <entry>The returned proxy does not have an interface set; use <literal>dbus_g_proxy_set_interface</literal> to invoke methods</entry>
- </row>
- </tbody>
- </tgroup>
- </informaltable>
- As you can see, the basic mapping is fairly straightforward.
- </para>
- </sect3>
- <sect3 id="glib-container-typemappings">
- <title>Container type mappings</title>
- <para>
- The D-Bus type system also has a number of "container"
- types, such as <literal>DBUS_TYPE_ARRAY</literal> and
- <literal>DBUS_TYPE_STRUCT</literal>. The D-Bus type system
- is fully recursive, so one can for example have an array of
- array of strings (i.e. type signature
- <literal>aas</literal>).
- </para>
- <para>
- However, not all of these types are in common use; for
- example, at the time of this writing the author knows of no
- one using <literal>DBUS_TYPE_STRUCT</literal>, or a
- <literal>DBUS_TYPE_ARRAY</literal> containing any non-basic
- type. The approach the GLib bindings take is pragmatic; try
- to map the most common types in the most obvious way, and
- let using less common and more complex types be less
- "natural".
- </para>
- <para>
- First, D-Bus type signatures which have an "obvious"
- corresponding built-in GLib type are mapped using that type:
- <informaltable>
- <tgroup cols="6">
- <thead>
- <row>
- <entry>D-Bus type signature</entry>
- <entry>Description</entry>
- <entry>GType</entry>
- <entry>C typedef</entry>
- <entry>Free function</entry>
- <entry>Notes</entry>
- </row>
- </thead>
- <tbody>
- <row>
- <entry><literal>as</literal></entry>
- <entry>Array of strings</entry>
- <entry><literal>G_TYPE_STRV</literal></entry>
- <entry><literal>char **</literal></entry>
- <entry><literal>g_strfreev</literal></entry>
- <entry></entry>
- </row><row>
- <entry><literal>v</literal></entry>
- <entry>Generic value container</entry>
- <entry><literal>G_TYPE_VALUE</literal></entry>
- <entry><literal>GValue *</literal></entry>
- <entry><literal>g_value_unset</literal></entry>
- <entry>The calling conventions for values expect that method callers have allocated return values; see below.</entry>
- </row>
- </tbody>
- </tgroup>
- </informaltable>
- </para>
- <para>
- The next most common recursive type signatures are arrays of
- basic values. The most obvious mapping for arrays of basic
- types is a <literal>GArray</literal>. Now, GLib does not
- provide a builtin <literal>GType</literal> for
- <literal>GArray</literal>. However, we actually need more than
- that - we need a "parameterized" type which includes the
- contained type. Why we need this we will see below.
- </para>
- <para>
- The approach taken is to create these types in the D-Bus GLib
- bindings; however, there is nothing D-Bus specific about them.
- In the future, we hope to include such "fundamental" types in GLib
- itself.
- <informaltable>
- <tgroup cols="6">
- <thead>
- <row>
- <entry>D-Bus type signature</entry>
- <entry>Description</entry>
- <entry>GType</entry>
- <entry>C typedef</entry>
- <entry>Free function</entry>
- <entry>Notes</entry>
- </row>
- </thead>
- <tbody>
- <row>
- <entry><literal>ay</literal></entry>
- <entry>Array of bytes</entry>
- <entry><literal>DBUS_TYPE_G_BYTE_ARRAY</literal></entry>
- <entry><literal>GArray *</literal></entry>
- <entry>g_array_free</entry>
- <entry></entry>
- </row>
- <row>
- <entry><literal>au</literal></entry>
- <entry>Array of uint</entry>
- <entry><literal>DBUS_TYPE_G_UINT_ARRAY</literal></entry>
- <entry><literal>GArray *</literal></entry>
- <entry>g_array_free</entry>
- <entry></entry>
- </row>
- <row>
- <entry><literal>ai</literal></entry>
- <entry>Array of int</entry>
- <entry><literal>DBUS_TYPE_G_INT_ARRAY</literal></entry>
- <entry><literal>GArray *</literal></entry>
- <entry>g_array_free</entry>
- <entry></entry>
- </row>
- <row>
- <entry><literal>ax</literal></entry>
- <entry>Array of int64</entry>
- <entry><literal>DBUS_TYPE_G_INT64_ARRAY</literal></entry>
- <entry><literal>GArray *</literal></entry>
- <entry>g_array_free</entry>
- <entry></entry>
- </row>
- <row>
- <entry><literal>at</literal></entry>
- <entry>Array of uint64</entry>
- <entry><literal>DBUS_TYPE_G_UINT64_ARRAY</literal></entry>
- <entry><literal>GArray *</literal></entry>
- <entry>g_array_free</entry>
- <entry></entry>
- </row>
- <row>
- <entry><literal>ad</literal></entry>
- <entry>Array of double</entry>
- <entry><literal>DBUS_TYPE_G_DOUBLE_ARRAY</literal></entry>
- <entry><literal>GArray *</literal></entry>
- <entry>g_array_free</entry>
- <entry></entry>
- </row>
- <row>
- <entry><literal>ab</literal></entry>
- <entry>Array of boolean</entry>
- <entry><literal>DBUS_TYPE_G_BOOLEAN_ARRAY</literal></entry>
- <entry><literal>GArray *</literal></entry>
- <entry>g_array_free</entry>
- <entry></entry>
- </row>
- </tbody>
- </tgroup>
- </informaltable>
- </para>
- <para>
- D-Bus also includes a special type DBUS_TYPE_DICT_ENTRY which
- is only valid in arrays. It's intended to be mapped to a "dictionary"
- type by bindings. The obvious GLib mapping here is GHashTable. Again,
- however, there is no builtin <literal>GType</literal> for a GHashTable.
- Moreover, just like for arrays, we need a parameterized type so that
- the bindings can communiate which types are contained in the hash table.
- </para>
- <para>
- At present, only strings are supported. Work is in progress to
- include more types.
- <informaltable>
- <tgroup cols="6">
- <thead>
- <row>
- <entry>D-Bus type signature</entry>
- <entry>Description</entry>
- <entry>GType</entry>
- <entry>C typedef</entry>
- <entry>Free function</entry>
- <entry>Notes</entry>
- </row>
- </thead>
- <tbody>
- <row>
- <entry><literal>a{ss}</literal></entry>
- <entry>Dictionary mapping strings to strings</entry>
- <entry><literal>DBUS_TYPE_G_STRING_STRING_HASHTABLE</literal></entry>
- <entry><literal>GHashTable *</literal></entry>
- <entry>g_hash_table_destroy</entry>
- <entry></entry>
- </row>
- </tbody>
- </tgroup>
- </informaltable>
- </para>
- </sect3>
- <sect3 id="glib-generic-typemappings">
- <title>Arbitrarily recursive type mappings</title>
- <para>
- Finally, it is possible users will want to write or invoke D-Bus
- methods which have arbitrarily complex type signatures not
- directly supported by these bindings. For this case, we have a
- <literal>DBusGValue</literal> which acts as a kind of special
- variant value which may be iterated over manually. The
- <literal>GType</literal> associated is
- <literal>DBUS_TYPE_G_VALUE</literal>.
- </para>
- <para>
- TODO insert usage of <literal>DBUS_TYPE_G_VALUE</literal> here.
- </para>
- </sect3>
- </sect2>
- <sect2 id="sample-program-1">
- <title>A sample program</title>
- <para>Here is a D-Bus program using the GLib bindings.
-<programlisting>
-int
-main (int argc, char **argv)
-{
- DBusGConnection *connection;
- GError *error;
- DBusGProxy *proxy;
- char **name_list;
- char **name_list_ptr;
-
- g_type_init ();
-
- error = NULL;
- connection = dbus_g_bus_get (DBUS_BUS_SESSION,
- &amp;error);
- if (connection == NULL)
- {
- g_printerr ("Failed to open connection to bus: %s\n",
- error-&gt;message);
- g_error_free (error);
- exit (1);
- }
-
- /* Create a proxy object for the "bus driver" (name "org.freedesktop.DBus") */
-
- proxy = dbus_g_proxy_new_for_name (connection,
- DBUS_SERVICE_DBUS,
- DBUS_PATH_DBUS,
- DBUS_INTERFACE_DBUS);
-
- /* Call ListNames method, wait for reply */
- error = NULL;
- if (!dbus_g_proxy_call (proxy, "ListNames", &amp;error, G_TYPE_INVALID,
- G_TYPE_STRV, &amp;name_list, G_TYPE_INVALID))
- {
- /* Just do demonstrate remote exceptions versus regular GError */
- if (error->domain == DBUS_GERROR &amp;&amp; error->code == DBUS_GERROR_REMOTE_EXCEPTION)
- g_printerr ("Caught remote method exception %s: %s",
- dbus_g_error_get_name (error),
- error-&gt;message);
- else
- g_printerr ("Error: %s\n", error-&gt;message);
- g_error_free (error);
- exit (1);
- }
-
- /* Print the results */
-
- g_print ("Names on the message bus:\n");
-
- for (name_list_ptr = name_list; *name_list_ptr; name_list_ptr++)
- {
- g_print (" %s\n", *name_list_ptr);
- }
- g_strfreev (name_list);
-
- g_object_unref (proxy);
-
- return 0;
-}
-</programlisting>
- </para>
- </sect2>
- <sect2 id="glib-program-setup">
- <title>Program initalization</title>
- <para>
- A connection to the bus is acquired using
- <literal>dbus_g_bus_get</literal>. Next, a proxy
- is created for the object "/org/freedesktop/DBus" with
- interface <literal>org.freedesktop.DBus</literal>
- on the service <literal>org.freedesktop.DBus</literal>.
- This is a proxy for the message bus itself.
- </para>
- </sect2>
- <sect2 id="glib-method-invocation">
- <title>Understanding method invocation</title>
- <para>
- You have a number of choices for method invocation. First, as
- used above, <literal>dbus_g_proxy_call</literal> sends a
- method call to the remote object, and blocks until a reply is
- recieved. The outgoing arguments are specified in the varargs
- array, terminated with <literal>G_TYPE_INVALID</literal>.
- Next, pointers to return values are specified, followed again
- by <literal>G_TYPE_INVALID</literal>.
- </para>
- <para>
- To invoke a method asynchronously, use
- <literal>dbus_g_proxy_begin_call</literal>. This returns a
- <literal>DBusGPendingCall</literal> object; you may then set a
- notification function using
- <literal>dbus_g_pending_call_set_notify</literal>.
- </para>
- </sect2>
- <sect2 id="glib-signal-connection">
- <title>Connecting to object signals</title>
- <para>
- You may connect to signals using
- <literal>dbus_g_proxy_add_signal</literal> and
- <literal>dbus_g_proxy_connect_signal</literal>. You must
- invoke <literal>dbus_g_proxy_add_signal</literal> to specify
- the signature of your signal handlers; you may then invoke
- <literal>dbus_g_proxy_connect_signal</literal> multiple times.
- </para>
- <para>
- Note that it will often be the case that there is no builtin
- marshaller for the type signature of a remote signal. In that
- case, you must generate a marshaller yourself by using
- <application>glib-genmarshal</application>, and then register
- it using <literal>dbus_g_object_register_marshaller</literal>.
- </para>
- </sect2>
- <sect2 id="glib-error-handling">
- <title>Error handling and remote exceptions</title>
- <para>
- All of the GLib binding methods such as
- <literal>dbus_g_proxy_end_call</literal> return a
- <literal>GError</literal>. This <literal>GError</literal> can
- represent two different things:
- <itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- An internal D-Bus error, such as an out-of-memory
- condition, an I/O error, or a network timeout. Errors
- generated by the D-Bus library itself have the domain
- <literal>DBUS_GERROR</literal>, and a corresponding code
- such as <literal>DBUS_GERROR_NO_MEMORY</literal>. It will
- not be typical for applications to handle these errors
- specifically.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- A remote D-Bus exception, thrown by the peer, bus, or
- service. D-Bus remote exceptions have both a textual
- "name" and a "message". The GLib bindings store this
- information in the <literal>GError</literal>, but some
- special rules apply.
- </para>
- <para>
- The set error will have the domain
- <literal>DBUS_GERROR</literal> as above, and will also
- have the code
- <literal>DBUS_GERROR_REMOTE_EXCEPTION</literal>. In order
- to access the remote exception name, you must use a
- special accessor, such as
- <literal>dbus_g_error_has_name</literal> or
- <literal>dbus_g_error_get_name</literal>. The remote
- exception detailed message is accessible via the regular
- GError <literal>message</literal> member.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
- </para>
- </sect2>
- <sect2 id="glib-more-examples">
- <title>More examples of method invocation</title>
- <sect3 id="glib-sending-stuff">
- <title>Sending an integer and string, receiving an array of bytes</title>
- <para>
-<programlisting>
- GArray *arr;
-
- error = NULL;
- if (!dbus_g_proxy_call (proxy, "Foobar", &amp;error,
- G_TYPE_INT, 42, G_TYPE_STRING, "hello",
- G_TYPE_INVALID,
- DBUS_TYPE_G_UCHAR_ARRAY, &amp;arr, G_TYPE_INVALID))
- {
- /* Handle error */
- }
- g_assert (arr != NULL);
- printf ("got back %u values", arr->len);
-</programlisting>
- </para>
- </sect3>
- <sect3 id="glib-sending-hash">
- <title>Sending a GHashTable</title>
- <para>
-<programlisting>
- GHashTable *hash = g_hash_table_new (g_str_hash, g_str_equal);
- guint32 ret;
-
- g_hash_table_insert (hash, "foo", "bar");
- g_hash_table_insert (hash, "baz", "whee");
-
- error = NULL;
- if (!dbus_g_proxy_call (proxy, "HashSize", &amp;error,
- DBUS_TYPE_G_STRING_STRING_HASH, hash, G_TYPE_INVALID,
- G_TYPE_UINT, &amp;ret, G_TYPE_INVALID))
- {
- /* Handle error */
- }
- g_assert (ret == 2);
- g_hash_table_destroy (hash);
-</programlisting>
- </para>
- </sect3>
- <sect3 id="glib-receiving-bool-int">
- <title>Receiving a boolean and a string</title>
- <para>
-<programlisting>
- gboolean boolret;
- char *strret;
-
- error = NULL;
- if (!dbus_g_proxy_call (proxy, "GetStuff", &amp;error,
- G_TYPE_INVALID,
- G_TYPE_BOOLEAN, &amp;boolret,
- G_TYPE_STRING, &amp;strret,
- G_TYPE_INVALID))
- {
- /* Handle error */
- }
- printf ("%s %s", boolret ? "TRUE" : "FALSE", strret);
- g_free (strret);
-</programlisting>
- </para>
- </sect3>
- <sect3 id="glib-sending-str-arrays">
- <title>Sending two arrays of strings</title>
- <para>
-<programlisting>
- /* NULL terminate */
- char *strs_static[] = {"foo", "bar", "baz", NULL};
- /* Take pointer to array; cannot pass array directly */
- char **strs_static_p = strs_static;
- char **strs_dynamic;
-
- strs_dynamic = g_new (char *, 4);
- strs_dynamic[0] = g_strdup ("hello");
- strs_dynamic[1] = g_strdup ("world");
- strs_dynamic[2] = g_strdup ("!");
- /* NULL terminate */
- strs_dynamic[3] = NULL;
-
- error = NULL;
- if (!dbus_g_proxy_call (proxy, "TwoStrArrays", &amp;error,
- G_TYPE_STRV, strs_static_p,
- G_TYPE_STRV, strs_dynamic,
- G_TYPE_INVALID,
- G_TYPE_INVALID))
- {
- /* Handle error */
- }
- g_strfreev (strs_dynamic);
-</programlisting>
- </para>
- </sect3>
- <sect3 id="glib-getting-str-array">
- <title>Sending a boolean, receiving an array of strings</title>
- <para>
-<programlisting>
- char **strs;
- char **strs_p;
- gboolean blah;
-
- error = NULL;
- blah = TRUE;
- if (!dbus_g_proxy_call (proxy, "GetStrs", &amp;error,
- G_TYPE_BOOLEAN, blah,
- G_TYPE_INVALID,
- G_TYPE_STRV, &amp;strs,
- G_TYPE_INVALID))
- {
- /* Handle error */
- }
- for (strs_p = strs; *strs_p; strs_p++)
- printf ("got string: \"%s\"", *strs_p);
- g_strfreev (strs);
-</programlisting>
- </para>
- </sect3>
- <sect3 id="glib-sending-variant">
- <title>Sending a variant</title>
- <para>
-<programlisting>
- GValue val = {0, };
-
- g_value_init (&amp;val, G_TYPE_STRING);
- g_value_set_string (&amp;val, "hello world");
-
- error = NULL;
- if (!dbus_g_proxy_call (proxy, "SendVariant", &amp;error,
- G_TYPE_VALUE, &amp;val, G_TYPE_INVALID,
- G_TYPE_INVALID))
- {
- /* Handle error */
- }
- g_assert (ret == 2);
- g_value_unset (&amp;val);
-</programlisting>
- </para>
- </sect3>
- <sect3 id="glib-receiving-variant">
- <title>Receiving a variant</title>
- <para>
-<programlisting>
- GValue val = {0, };
-
- error = NULL;
- if (!dbus_g_proxy_call (proxy, "GetVariant", &amp;error, G_TYPE_INVALID,
- G_TYPE_VALUE, &amp;val, G_TYPE_INVALID))
- {
- /* Handle error */
- }
- if (G_VALUE_TYPE (&amp;val) == G_TYPE_STRING)
- printf ("%s\n", g_value_get_string (&amp;val));
- else if (G_VALUE_TYPE (&amp;val) == G_TYPE_INT)
- printf ("%d\n", g_value_get_int (&amp;val));
- else
- ...
- g_value_unset (&amp;val);
-</programlisting>
- </para>
- </sect3>
- </sect2>
-
- <sect2 id="glib-generated-bindings">
- <title>Generated Bindings</title>
- <para>
- By using the Introspection XML files, convenient client-side bindings
- can be automatically created to ease the use of a remote DBus object.
- </para>
- <para>
- Here is a sample XML file which describes an object that exposes
- one method, named <literal>ManyArgs</literal>.
- <programlisting>
-&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?&gt;
-&lt;node name="/com/example/MyObject"&gt;
- &lt;interface name="com.example.MyObject"&gt;
- &lt;method name="ManyArgs"&gt;
- &lt;arg type="u" name="x" direction="in" /&gt;
- &lt;arg type="s" name="str" direction="in" /&gt;
- &lt;arg type="d" name="trouble" direction="in" /&gt;
- &lt;arg type="d" name="d_ret" direction="out" /&gt;
- &lt;arg type="s" name="str_ret" direction="out" /&gt;
- &lt;/method&gt;
- &lt;/interface&gt;
-&lt;/node&gt;
-</programlisting>
- </para>
- <para>
- Run <literal>dbus-binding-tool --mode=glib-client
- <replaceable>FILENAME</replaceable> &gt;
- <replaceable>HEADER_NAME</replaceable></literal> to generate the header
- file. For example: <command>dbus-binding-tool --mode=glib-client
- my-object.xml &gt; my-object-bindings.h</command>. This will generate
- inline functions with the following prototypes:
- <programlisting>
-/* This is a blocking call */
-gboolean
-com_example_MyObject_many_args (DBusGProxy *proxy, const guint IN_x,
- const char * IN_str, const gdouble IN_trouble,
- gdouble* OUT_d_ret, char ** OUT_str_ret,
- GError **error);
-
-/* This is a non-blocking call */
-DBusGProxyCall*
-com_example_MyObject_many_args_async (DBusGProxy *proxy, const guint IN_x,
- const char * IN_str, const gdouble IN_trouble,
- com_example_MyObject_many_args_reply callback,
- gpointer userdata);
-
-/* This is the typedef for the non-blocking callback */
-typedef void
-(*com_example_MyObject_many_args_reply)
-(DBusGProxy *proxy, gdouble OUT_d_ret, char * OUT_str_ret,
- GError *error, gpointer userdata);
-</programlisting>
- The first argument in all functions is a <literal>DBusGProxy
- *</literal>, which you should create with the usual
- <literal>dbus_g_proxy_new_*</literal> functions. Following that are the
- "in" arguments, and then either the "out" arguments and a
- <literal>GError *</literal> for the synchronous (blocking) function, or
- callback and user data arguments for the asynchronous (non-blocking)
- function. The callback in the asynchronous function passes the
- <literal>DBusGProxy *</literal>, the returned "out" arguments, an
- <literal>GError *</literal> which is set if there was an error otherwise
- <literal>NULL</literal>, and the user data.
- </para>
- <para>
- As with the server-side bindings support (see <xref
- linkend="glib-server"/>), the exact behaviour of the client-side
- bindings can be manipulated using "annotations". Currently the only
- annotation used by the client bindings is
- <literal>org.freedesktop.DBus.GLib.NoReply</literal>, which sets the
- flag indicating that the client isn't expecting a reply to the method
- call, so a reply shouldn't be sent. This is often used to speed up
- rapid method calls where there are no "out" arguments, and not knowing
- if the method succeeded is an acceptable compromise to half the traffic
- on the bus.
- </para>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
-
- <sect1 id="glib-server">
- <title>GLib API: Implementing Objects</title>
- <para>
- At the moment, to expose a GObject via D-Bus, you must
- write XML by hand which describes the methods exported
- by the object. In the future, this manual step will
- be obviated by the upcoming GLib introspection support.
- </para>
- <para>
- Here is a sample XML file which describes an object that exposes
- one method, named <literal>ManyArgs</literal>.
-<programlisting>
-&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?&gt;
-
-&lt;node name="/com/example/MyObject"&gt;
-
- &lt;interface name="com.example.MyObject"&gt;
- &lt;annotation name="org.freedesktop.DBus.GLib.CSymbol" value="my_object"/&gt;
- &lt;method name="ManyArgs"&gt;
- &lt;!-- This is optional, and in this case is redunundant --&gt;
- &lt;annotation name="org.freedesktop.DBus.GLib.CSymbol" value="my_object_many_args"/&gt;
- &lt;arg type="u" name="x" direction="in" /&gt;
- &lt;arg type="s" name="str" direction="in" /&gt;
- &lt;arg type="d" name="trouble" direction="in" /&gt;
- &lt;arg type="d" name="d_ret" direction="out" /&gt;
- &lt;arg type="s" name="str_ret" direction="out" /&gt;
- &lt;/method&gt;
- &lt;/interface&gt;
-&lt;/node&gt;
-</programlisting>
- </para>
- <para>
- This XML is in the same format as the D-Bus introspection XML
- format. Except we must include an "annotation" which give the C
- symbols corresponding to the object implementation prefix
- (<literal>my_object</literal>). In addition, if particular
- methods symbol names deviate from C convention
- (i.e. <literal>ManyArgs</literal> -&gt;
- <literal>many_args</literal>), you may specify an annotation
- giving the C symbol.
- </para>
- <para>
- Once you have written this XML, run <literal>dbus-binding-tool --mode=glib-server <replaceable>FILENAME</replaceable> &gt; <replaceable>HEADER_NAME</replaceable>.</literal> to
- generate a header file. For example: <command>dbus-binding-tool --mode=glib-server my-object.xml &gt; my-object-glue.h</command>.
- </para>
- <para>
- Next, include the generated header in your program, and invoke
- <literal>dbus_g_object_class_install_info</literal> in the class
- initializer, passing the object class and "object info" included in the
- header. For example:
- <programlisting>
- dbus_g_object_type_install_info (COM_FOO_TYPE_MY_OBJECT, &amp;com_foo_my_object_info);
- </programlisting>
- This should be done exactly once per object class.
- </para>
- <para>
- To actually implement the method, just define a C function named e.g.
- <literal>my_object_many_args</literal> in the same file as the info
- header is included. At the moment, it is required that this function
- conform to the following rules:
- <itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The function must return a value of type <literal>gboolean</literal>;
- <literal>TRUE</literal> on success, and <literal>FALSE</literal>
- otherwise.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The first parameter is a pointer to an instance of the object.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Following the object instance pointer are the method
- input values.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Following the input values are pointers to return values.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The final parameter must be a <literal>GError **</literal>.
- If the function returns <literal>FALSE</literal> for an
- error, the error parameter must be initalized with
- <literal>g_set_error</literal>.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
- </para>
- <para>
- Finally, you can export an object using <literal>dbus_g_connection_register_g_object</literal>. For example:
- <programlisting>
- dbus_g_connection_register_g_object (connection,
- "/com/foo/MyObject",
- obj);
- </programlisting>
- </para>
-
- <sect2 id="glib-annotations">
- <title>Server-side Annotations</title>
- <para>
- There are several annotations that are used when generating the
- server-side bindings. The most common annotation is
- <literal>org.freedesktop.DBus.GLib.CSymbol</literal> but there are other
- annotations which are often useful.
- <variablelist>
- <varlistentry>
- <term><literal>org.freedesktop.DBus.GLib.CSymbol</literal></term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- This annotation is used to specify the C symbol names for
- the various types (interface, method, etc), if it differs from the
- name DBus generates.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term><literal>org.freedesktop.DBus.GLib.Async</literal></term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- This annotation marks the method implementation as an
- asynchronous function, which doesn't return a response straight
- away but will send the response at some later point to complete
- the call. This is used to implement non-blocking services where
- method calls can take time.
- </para>
- <para>
- When a method is asynchronous, the function prototype is
- different. It is required that the function conform to the
- following rules:
- <itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The function must return a value of type <literal>gboolean</literal>;
- <literal>TRUE</literal> on success, and <literal>FALSE</literal>
- otherwise. TODO: the return value is currently ignored.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The first parameter is a pointer to an instance of the object.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Following the object instance pointer are the method
- input values.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The final parameter must be a
- <literal>DBusGMethodInvocation *</literal>. This is used
- when sending the response message back to the client, by
- calling <literal>dbus_g_method_return</literal> or
- <literal>dbus_g_method_return_error</literal>.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term><literal>org.freedesktop.DBus.GLib.Const</literal></term>
- <listitem>
- <para>This attribute can only be applied to "out"
- <literal>&lt;arg&gt;</literal> nodes, and specifies that the
- parameter isn't being copied when returned. For example, this
- turns a 's' argument from a <literal>char **</literal> to a
- <literal>const char **</literal>, and results in the argument not
- being freed by DBus after the message is sent.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term><literal>org.freedesktop.DBus.GLib.ReturnVal</literal></term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- This attribute can only be applied to "out"
- <literal>&lt;arg&gt;</literal> nodes, and alters the expected
- function signature. It currently can be set to two values:
- <literal>""</literal> or <literal>"error"</literal>. The
- argument marked with this attribute is not returned via a
- pointer argument, but by the function's return value. If the
- attribute's value is the empty string, the <literal>GError
- *</literal> argument is also omitted so there is no standard way
- to return an error value. This is very useful for interfacing
- with existing code, as it is possible to match existing APIs.
- If the attribute's value is <literal>"error"</literal>, then the
- final argument is a <literal>GError *</literal> as usual.
- </para>
- <para>
- Some examples to demonstrate the usage. This introspection XML:
- <programlisting>
-&lt;method name="Increment"&gt;
- &lt;arg type="u" name="x" /&gt;
- &lt;arg type="u" direction="out" /&gt;
-&lt;/method&gt;
- </programlisting>
- Expects the following function declaration:
- <programlisting>
-gboolean
-my_object_increment (MyObject *obj, gint32 x, gint32 *ret, GError **error);
- </programlisting>
- </para>
- <para>
- This introspection XML:
- <programlisting>
-&lt;method name="IncrementRetval"&gt;
- &lt;arg type="u" name="x" /&gt;
- &lt;arg type="u" direction="out" &gt;
- &lt;annotation name="org.freedesktop.DBus.GLib.ReturnVal" value=""/&gt;
- &lt;/arg&gt;
-&lt;/method&gt;
- </programlisting>
- Expects the following function declaration:
- <programlisting>
-gint32
-my_object_increment_retval (MyObject *obj, gint32 x)
- </programlisting>
- </para>
- <para>
- This introspection XML:
- <programlisting>
-&lt;method name="IncrementRetvalError"&gt;
- &lt;arg type="u" name="x" /&gt;
- &lt;arg type="u" direction="out" &gt;
- &lt;annotation name="org.freedesktop.DBus.GLib.ReturnVal" value="error"/&gt;
- &lt;/arg&gt;
-&lt;/method&gt;
- </programlisting>
- Expects the following function declaration:
- <programlisting>
-gint32
-my_object_increment_retval_error (MyObject *obj, gint32 x, GError **error)
- </programlisting>
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- </variablelist>
- </para>
- </sect2>
- </sect1>
-
- <sect1 id="python-client">
- <title>Python API</title>
- <para>
- The Python API, dbus-python, is now documented separately in
- <ulink url="http://dbus.freedesktop.org/doc/dbus-python/doc/tutorial.html">the dbus-python tutorial</ulink> (also available in doc/tutorial.txt,
- and doc/tutorial.html if built with python-docutils, in the dbus-python
- source distribution).
- </para>
- </sect1>
-
- <sect1 id="qt-client">
- <title>Qt API: Using Remote Objects</title>
- <para>
-
- The Qt bindings are not yet documented.
-
- </para>
- </sect1>
-
- <sect1 id="qt-server">
- <title>Qt API: Implementing Objects</title>
- <para>
- The Qt bindings are not yet documented.
- </para>
- </sect1>
-</article>