Sample code for Editor API bindings

[Peter Kelly <pm...@apache.org>]

Due to the poorly documented/explained nature of the way in which the Editor API [1], I decided to share the binding code from UX Write, to aid in implementing the same thing in C++ for the Qt version of the app. The relevant files are:

sample_code/objc_bindings/EDJSInterface.h
sample_code/objc_bindings/EDJSInterface.m

A couple of things to note:

1. If you haven’t worked with Objective C before, you’ll find the syntax a bit weird. This is normal. All parameters in Objective C have to be named, so you get things like:

- (void)setProperties:(NSString *)itemId width:(NSString *)width src:(NSString *)src

instead of

void setProperties(NSString *itemId, NSString *width, NSString *src)

2. For callback functions, the UIWebView class in iOS doesn’t actually provide a way to do this directly (that is, it’s possible to call from Objective C to JavaScript, but not the other way round). Thus, every call gets routed through the executeJavaScript method which, after it has completed the main call, invokes jsCallCompleted to get a list of “messages” indicating callbacks that must be performed. As such, *all* callbacks that the editing library makes - via calls to Editor_someFunction() are asynchronous.

Hopefully this should help clarify things a little… let me know if you have any further questions.

As I mentioned in my previous mail, I don’t think this is necessary or viable to to do for the Python bindings at the moment, because it’s heavily dependent on which embedded browser engine is being used in the app, which introduces additional complexities. But if a Python GUI were to be developed at some point, then Python bindings would be useful in that context, although might be better implemented in Python itself rather than C, depending on the technique used for embedding a web view.

[1] https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/Corinthia/API+reference

—
Dr Peter M. Kelly
pmkelly@apache.org

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