FDK 7.2 : FA_Note_Dialog Notification Problem

[_alma_]

Hello,

I am developping a tool with FDK 7.2 and Sourcerer plugIn.

In this tool, i need to launch some scripts when a notification is done.

This notification is FA_Note_Dialog and is registred like this in F_ApiInitialize(...) :
F_ApiNotification(FA_Note_Dialog, True);

In fapidefs.h, it is written for FA_Note_Dialog "/* NB experimental interfaces */"

In my understanding, every time that FA_Note_Dialog is launched, it will be notified.

All others notifications are well notified (I have made some debugging F_Printf), but this one is not always notified.

It seems that fm keeps in memory notification.

Sourcerer can bad notified or this is experimental so it is bugged or ... i'm crazy.

Do you know how to solve this problem?

Thanks,
Alexandre

[Russ Ward]

Alexandre,

I know how Sourcerer works, but I don't know what you are trying to do. But in any case, how do you know what this notification is supposed to do anyway? It isn't documented anywhere, and as you note, it is commented as "experimental" in the header file. I don't think that you should use it, especially if you don't really know what it is supposed to do in the first place. Unless you've read something else that I haven't seen.

Can you explain further what you are trying to do? Maybe someone can suggest another way. Sourcerer can respond to API calls, but I'm not sure how easily you could be notified of specific Sourcerer events.

Russ

[_alma_]

Hi Russ,

I'm trying to detect Filter Dialog to get Properties of some Paragrahs which are before Condition Tag. Because when i filter, these paragraphs are unstretched and the font change.

After the filter process, i re-apply (set) to these paragraphs their properties.

I have spoken with Sourcerer IT, they tell me that my EDD is responsible. My EDD is very big and strong so it's very difficult to fix this problem without creating more bugs.

So, i have decided to customize the behavior of Filter by the FDK.

I have registred all possible notifications (FDK Programmers Reference page 232) and made some debug informations in F_ApiNotify.

The only way that i can get events from Sourcerer is FA_Note_Dialog and FA_Note_Alert.

When I click on Filter in Sourcerer menu, the notification is FA_Note_Dialog with sparm as FilterDialog.

FA_Note_Dialog is not always notified just once by session of FrameMaker, i need to restart FrameMaker to get another notification when i launch Filter.

FA_Note_Alert is also "experimental" but it is always well notified.

Now, i try to see if another notification can help me but i don't think so.

I will see if ABCM can help me.

Thanks,
Alexandre

[Russ Ward]

Hi Alexandre,

Without reliable behavior from the FrameMaker notification, I think your only option would be to have Sourcerer or ABCM modified to send you notification on their own.

You could ask Sourcerer IT if they would be willing to modify the product for you. If not, I could probably modify ABCM to send you notification. As it stands currently, I don't think you'll see any better results from ABCM, since the source of your problem is FrameMaker and your EDD.

I know you don't want to do it, but I'd recommend reconsidering an update of your EDD. It sounds like the problem you are seeing is due to formatting rules that take over once certain elements are filtered out. If so, you would have this problem, then, whether you used ABCM, Sourcerer, native conditional text, or any other method of filtering out content. This makes your EDD fundamentally incompatible with a conditional-filtering type of logic. Even if you hack up something just to fix this one problem, who knows what might pop up in the future when you filter out some other type of element.

Russ

[_alma_]

Thanks for your answers Russ,

I'm now working with ABCM because i can detect notification by FA_Note_PostFileType and his sparm.

I can also well detect FA_Note_Alert.

Now, I'm working to filter book.

Yes, the futur can be difficult for other type of element to filter ... we will see.

Thanks a lot for all your helps,
Alexandre

[Russ Ward]

Alexandre,

That's a clever solution... indeed, ABCM opens the ABCM_MasterSettings_LocalCopy.fm file to read filter settings when the dialog box is launched. Sourcerer does not do this; rather it holds the settings file open all the time. One cautionary note... it opens the same file in an identical fashion before coloring and validation actions, if I remember correctly.

Russ