>I want to build a system for automatically tracking version
>information for my stacks. What I'm thinking is storing version
>information in a property of the stack, and updating that
>information each time the stack is saved. But I don't see any way to
>intercept the save message (MC doesn't let you write an "on save"
>handler in your script). Is this possible? Has anyone else created a
>system for version tracking that they would share?
>
>TIA,
>Leston
As I frequently save during editing sessions, I'd avoid a scheme that
updated version information after every save.
Instead, I'd trap the quit and do any version updating and stack
saving there - handle the 'closeStackRequest' message. This will
allow you to save the new version as a property of the stack and to
'save this stack' before quitting.
However, rather than embed the version number in the stack, I tend to
use a control file that contains program name, copyright, version
information. You can make your stack read the contents of such a
control file into a single stack property "controlParams" say. I
make sure that this only happens when running in development mode
which means that I can control updates by simply editing the control
file which is just a text file.
In preOpenStack I call "getParams" which reads the control file and
sets the stack property if in developer mode, and then reads the
various parameters from the stack property for program name, version,
etc.
A more sophisticated versions of the same approach uses two control
files - one which is read ONLY in developer mode (containing
copyright info etc.) and the other which is read at start-up
(allowing some local customising). So I have a "master.txt" which is
read in developer mode and a "control.txt" which is read every time.
I call the following handler to get the parameters:
on getParams
global gProgPath -- this must be set prior to entry
global gProgName, gProgVersion -- these are read from "master.txt"
& "control.txt"
if "Development" is in the environment then
-- only in developer mode upload master control params:
put gProgPath & "master.txt" into controlFile
if there is a file controlFile then
open file controlFile for read
read from file controlFile until eof
close file controlFile
set the MasterParams of this stack to it
end if
end if
-- always read general control params:
put gProgPath & "control.txt" into controlFile
if there is a file controlFile then
open file controlFile for read
read from file controlFile until eof
close file controlFile
set the ControlParams of this stack to (the MasterParams of this stack) \
& return & it
else
set the ControlParams of this stack to (the MasterParams of this stack) \
& return & the ControlParams of this stack
end if
put the ControlParams of this stack into ctrlParams
put empty into makeParamsScript
set itemDelimiter to "="
repeat with i = 1 to number of lines in ctrlParams
put line i of ctrlParams into paramLine
if first char of paramLine <> ";" and paramLine is not empty then
put item 1 of paramLine into theParam
put item 2 of paramLine into theValue
put "global " & theParam & ";" after makeParamScript
put "put " & quote & theValue & quote & " into " & theParam &
return after makeParamScript
end if
end repeat
set itemDelimiter to comma
if makeParamScript is not empty then
doScript makeParamScript
end if
set the title of this stack to gProgName && gProgVersion
end getParams
on doScript theScript
repeat for each line theLine in theScript
do theLine
end repeat
end doScript
The control.txt and master.txt files are plain text, use a leading
";" as a comment character, ignore blank lines, and initialise a
series of global values. The following are simple examples of the
content of such files:
"master.txt":
; Master Control Params for My Program
gProgName=My program
gProgAuthor=Reid-IT Limited � 2000
gProgDevSys=MetaCard � 2000 MetaCard Corporation
"control.txt":
; Control Params for Bombay Company Catalogue
gProgVersion=v0.1
gProgDate=10 November 2000
; Output media (voice, text, both):
gOutputMedia=both
gVoiceCapable=true
gModeSelectable=true
Having run my "getParams" the various globals 'defined' in the two
control files are initialised.
I find this scheme, whilst a bit more complicated, very flexible
allowing me to make the changes I want and allow the end user to make
changes whilst preserving my copyright and other information.
I hope this helps!
Cheers
Peter
--
--------------------------------------------------------
Peter Reid
Reid-IT Limited, Loughborough, Leics., UK
Tel: +44 (0)1509 268843 Fax: +44 (0)870 052 7576
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web: http://www.reidit.co.uk
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