gecko-dev/cck/docs/prefstree/PrefsTreeFileFormat.htm
2002-02-14 22:31:23 +00:00

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<title>Structure of the Pref Editor XML File for the PrefsTree Widget</title>
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<div align="right">Removed <tt>MANAGE </tt>element. Added <tt>REMOTEADMIN
</tt>element and <tt>default </tt>attribute&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 13 Feb 2002<br>
Mention the XSL stylesheet.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 30 Jan 2002<br>
Added <tt>useradded</tt> attribute&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <strike>28 Jan 2002</strike><br>
Added the <tt>MANAGE </tt>element.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <strike>24 Jan 2002</strike><br>
Removed elements <tt>INSTALLATIONFILE </tt>and <tt>PREFFILE. </tt>Changed
<tt>processPrefsTree()</tt> number of params. &nbsp;&nbsp; <strike>02 Jan
2002</strike><br>
Removed <tt>choose </tt>attribute. &nbsp;&nbsp; <strike>13 Dec 2001</strike><br>
Original version. &nbsp;&nbsp; <strike>11 Dec 2001</strike><br>
Steve Meredith<br>
</div>
<h1>Structure of the Pref Editor XML File for the PrefsTree Widget</h1>
<h2>Introduction</h2>
The<i> Pref Editor</i> is a widget for CCK/Factory, named <i>PrefsTree
</i> in .ini files. It is a tree control which displays prefs in a hierarchy
and allows a user to edit their values. It reads an XML file to determine
the structure of the tree control. This XML file includes information on
each pref, including its name, its default value, a description of it, etc.
It also includes structure for how these prefs are grouped in the tree control.
The name of the XML file is specified in the .ini section for the PrefsTree
Widget. The default file must be located in the same directory as the <tt>
WIZARDMACHINE.EXE</tt> . When used, a copy of the file is saved in the working
config directory. This copy contains the changes made by the CCK/Factory
user, and is used by the install builder to write preferences in the install
image. A <tt>SCRIPT.IB</tt> entry must be made in order for it process the
.XML file: <tt>processPrefsTree(,browser.xpi,bin/netscp6.cfg</tt><tt>)</tt>
. Note that spaces are not allowed between the parameters. For details on
adding a PrefsTree control to wizard pages, see the document&nbsp;<a href="PrefsTree.htm">
PrefsTree.htm</a><br>
<h2>Who This Document is For</h2>
You will need to understand the structure of the XML file if you want to
add or remove prefs to the Pref Editor or change how they are grouped. <br>
<h2>A Note on Prefs</h2>
The XML described herein contains elements for prefs and elements to control
how they are grouped in a UI. It was specifically designed for use in this
<i>Pref Editor</i> tree control, but a complete representation of prefs in
XML could be useful in other ways. But for this use, the only prefs which
should be included in this file are prefs which can be set in advance and
saved to a .cfg or .jsc file. Note that this excludes some prefs which might
be found in a profile <tt>prefs.js</tt> , such as those prefs which define
specific mail and news accounts, servers, and identities. These pref names
are generated on the fly by the client. If this XML is to be expanded for
use in other ways, for example as described in <a href="http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=17199">
Bugzilla bug 17199</a> , new tags could be added to each pref to indicate
whether or not it could be set in advance and stored in a .cfg file. The
Pref Editor would have to be modified to respect this new information and
only present the appropriate prefs for editting. Otherwise, any new elements
and attributes are ignored as long as the basic structure of the file remains
valid (<tt>&lt;PREF&gt;</tt>s are grouped within <tt>&lt;PREFSGROUP&gt;</tt>
s) and the required attributes and subelements exist.<br>
<br>
The following prefs should not be placed into this XML file for use in
the prefs editor because they are handled outside the prefs editor, and used
to point to the file created by the install builder and prefs editor.<br>
<ul>
<li><tt>autoadmin.global_config_url</tt></li>
<li><tt>autoadmin.failover_to_cached</tt></li>
<li><tt>autoadmin.offline_failover</tt></li>
<li><tt>autoadmin.refresh_interval</tt><br>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>Problem Prefs</h3>
<ul>
<li><tt>browser.search.defaultengine</tt>: This is a string type, but
it looks like it's a URL to a local file (engine://). I can't set this to
a resonable default value as I don't know where Netscape is going to be installed.
</li>
<li><tt> browser.startup.homepage</tt>:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <a href="http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=109932">
Problem when used with lockPref().</a></li>
<li><tt>network.cookie.p3plevel</tt> has an interaction with <tt>network.cookie.p3p</tt>
. When you change <tt>network.cookie.p3p</tt>,<tt> network.cookie.p3plevel</tt>
should get set to some value. This happens in the pref code in the browser.
There is no way to do this with the Pref Editor right now--prefs are treated
as individual entities. For now I have commented what is supposed to happen
in the description text for these prefs. In the future, perhaps we could define
such relationships in the XML. </li>
</ul>
<h2>Conventions</h2>
For XML item tags, we use ALL CAPS. For attribute names, we use lower case.
&#8220;true&#8221; and &#8220;false&#8221; are also written in lower case. Generally, for PREF items,
the attributes are those things about the pref which are fixed, and use elements
for thing the CCK/Factory app will change. The exception is for <tt>&lt;CHOICES&gt;</tt>
, which are difficult to represent as attributes, so these are elements.<br>
<h2>General Structure of the XML File</h2>
<h3>XSL Stylesheet</h3>
There may be a reference to an XSL stylesheet at the start of the XML file.
For example, <tt>&lt;?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="metaprefs.xsl"?&gt;</tt>
. This is not used by the Pref Editor. It is used when the XML file is
loaded into a Gecko browser (or IE 6) to format the XML into an HTML table
that is easy to read. It is included so that the XML file may be self-documenting
for internal use. The referenced XSL file must also exist in the same directory
for the stylesheet to work.<br>
<h3>Examples</h3>
The easiest way to understand the format of the XML is to look at some short
examples. <br>
<h4>Example1</h4>
The simplest file that may exist consists of one group containing one
pref. <br>
<br>
<code>&lt;?xml version="1.0"?&gt;<br>
&lt;PREFSGROUP uiname="Netscape Preferences"&gt;<br>
&nbsp; &lt;PREF uiname="Open Browser on Startup" prefname="general.startup.browser"
type="bool" default="true" lockable="true" description="When the app starts,
open a browser."&gt;<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &lt;VALUE&gt;true&lt;/VALUE&gt;<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &lt;LOCKED&gt;false&lt;/LOCKED&gt;<br>
&nbsp; &lt;/PREF&gt;<br>
&lt;/PREFSGROUP&gt;</code><br>
<br>
The above file will result in a tree control with one parent, the group,
and one child, the pref. See the example below.<br>
<br>
<img src="PrefsTreeEx1.jpg" alt="Example 1">
<h4>Example 2</h4>
The more complicated example below shows the top level group, with two
sub groups, each with two preferences.<br>
<br>
<code>&lt;?xml version="1.0"?&gt;<br>
&lt;PREFSGROUP uiname="Netscape Preferences"&gt;<br>
&nbsp; &lt;PREFSGROUP uiname="Group 1"&gt;<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &lt;PREF uiname="Autoload What's Related" prefname="browser.related.autoload"
type="int" default="0" lockable="true" description="A good description of
this pref goes here."&gt;<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &lt;CHOICES&gt;<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &lt;CHOICE uiname="Always" value="0"/&gt;<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &lt;CHOICE uiname="After First
Use" value="1"/&gt;<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &lt;CHOICE uiname="Never" value="2"/&gt;<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &lt;/CHOICES&gt;<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &lt;VALUE&gt;0&lt;/VALUE&gt;<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &lt;LOCKED&gt;false&lt;/LOCKED&gt;<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &lt;/PREF&gt;<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&lt;PREF uiname="Start Page" prefname="browser.startup.page"
type="int" lockable="true" default="0" description="Display this page when
Navigator starts up."&gt;<br>
&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&lt;CHOICES&gt;<br>
&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&lt;CHOICE uiname="Blank Page" value="0"/&gt;<br>
&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &lt;CHOICE uiname="Home Page" value="1"/&gt;<br>
&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &lt;CHOICE uiname="Last Page Visited" value="2"/&gt;<br>
&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&lt;/CHOICES&gt;<br>
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &lt;VALUE&gt;0&lt;/VALUE&gt;<br>
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &lt;LOCKED&gt;false&lt;/LOCKED&gt;<br>
&nbsp; &nbsp; &lt;/PREF&gt;<br>
&nbsp; &lt;/PREFSGROUP&gt;<br>
&nbsp; &lt;PREFSGROUP uiname="Group 2"&gt;<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &lt;PREF uiname="Bookmarks" prefname="browser.toolbars.showbutton.bookmarks"
type="bool" default="true" lockable="true" description="Show Booksmarks button
on browser toolbar."&gt;<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &lt;VALUE&gt;true&lt;/VALUE&gt;<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &lt;LOCKED&gt;false&lt;/LOCKED&gt;<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &lt;/PREF&gt;<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &lt;PREF uiname="Go" prefname="browser.toolbars.showbutton.go"
type="bool" default="true" lockable="true" description="Show Go button on
browser toolbar."&gt;<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &lt;VALUE&gt;true&lt;/VALUE&gt;<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &lt;LOCKED&gt;false&lt;/LOCKED&gt;<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &lt;/PREF&gt;<br>
&nbsp; &lt;/PREFSGROUP&gt;<br>
&lt;/PREFSGROUP&gt;<br>
<br>
</code>The above example also demonstrates how to include multiple choice
prefs. These make it easier for the CCK/Factory user to select pref values
without understanding how they are implemented. This XML file results in
the prefs tree structure in the example below.<br>
<br>
<img src="PrefsTreeEx2.jpg" alt="Example 2" width="638" height="493">
<br>
<h2>Reference</h2>
The structure of the file is important. Not much work as been put into handling
malformed files. If the XML is invalid, you'll get an error that the file
failed to load, an error type, and a line number. If you create valid XML,
but don't follow the rules as defined here, the behaviour is undefined. It's
probably easiest to start with an existing prefs XML file, then cut, paste,
and edit the <tt>&lt;PREF&gt;</tt>s from there.<br>
<h3>&lt;PREFSGROUP&gt;</h3>
Each <tt>&lt;PREFSGROUP&gt;</tt> element will make a new level of hierarchy
in the tree control. A <tt>&lt;PREFSGROUP&gt;</tt> may contain <tt>&lt;PREF&gt;</tt>
s or other <tt>&lt;PREFSGROUP&gt;</tt> or both, but must not be empty. The
first element in the file must be a <tt>&lt;PREFSGROUP&gt;</tt>. These may
be nested arbitrarily deep.<br>
<br>
<table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" border="1" width="100%" bgcolor="#ffffff">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><b>Attribute</b><br>
</td>
<td valign="top"><b>Example</b><br>
</td>
<td valign="top"><b>Description</b><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><tt>uiname</tt><br>
</td>
<td valign="top"><tt>uiname="Netscape Preferences"</tt><br>
</td>
<td valign="top">This is the name of the group as it appears in the
tree control. By convention, capitalize the words as if this were a title.<br>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3>&lt;PREF&gt;</h3>
Each pref element will make a leaf node in the tree control--a pref which
the user can edit.These elements must be contained in some <tt>&lt;PREFSGROUP&gt;</tt>
.<br>
<br>
<table width="100%" border="1" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#ffffff">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><b>Attribute</b><br>
</td>
<td valign="top"><b>Example</b><br>
</td>
<td valign="top"><b>Description</b><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><tt>uiname</tt><br>
</td>
<td valign="top"><code>uiname="Open Browser on Startup"</code><br>
</td>
<td valign="top">This is the name of the pref as is appears in the
tree control. It doesn't have to be the name of the pref--it should be something
easy for the user to understand. By convention, capitalize the words as if
this were a title.<br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><tt>prefname</tt><br>
</td>
<td valign="top"><code>prefname="general.startup.browser"</code></td>
<td valign="top">This is the real name of the pref as it is used by
the Netscape client products.<br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><tt>type</tt><br>
</td>
<td valign="top"><code>type="bool"</code><br>
</td>
<td valign="top">Must be one of <b><tt>int</tt></b>, <b><tt>bool</tt></b>
, or <b><tt>string</tt></b>. This determines how the pref will be edited
in the Pref Editor and how it is written to the prefs file in the install
image.<br>
<br>
<tt><b>bool</b> </tt>Pref Editor user allowed to select &#8220;true&#8221; or
&#8220;false&#8221; from a drop-down. No quotes are used when writing the pref in the
pref file. For example, <tt>pref("general.startup.browser", true);</tt><br>
<br>
<b><tt>int &nbsp;</tt></b>Pref Editor user allowed to enter integers.
No quotes are used when writing the pref in the pref file. For example, <tt>
pref("network.proxy.socks_version", 5);</tt><br>
<br>
<b><tt>string &nbsp;</tt></b>Pref Editor user may enter whatever he
likes. Quotes are used when writing the pref in the pref file. For example,
<tt>pref("general.useragent.vendorComment", "AK-MyISP");</tt><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><tt>lockable</tt><br>
</td>
<td valign="top"><code>lockable="true"</code><br>
</td>
<td valign="top">Determines whether or not the Pref Editor user can
change the lock state the pref. This is included in case there are prefs
which, for technical reasons, don't work when locked or locking them does
not have the correct affect. If set to true, the Pref Editor should disable
the "Lock this pref" checkbox.<br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><tt>description</tt><br>
</td>
<td valign="top"><code>description="When the application starts, open
a browser window."</code><br>
</td>
<td valign="top">This is some text which further describes the pref
to the Pref Editor user. It appears when the user selected the pref for editing.
Any text which helps the user under the pref should go here. There is space
in the editor for maybe 125 characters or so. Of course, you can edit the
dialog resource to hold more if this becomes a limitation. Use proper sentences.<br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><tt>useradded</tt><br>
</td>
<td valign="top"><tt>useradded="true"</tt><br>
</td>
<td valign="top">This pref is added and set to true by the Pref Editor
for all new prefs added by the user via the UI. It is normally not present,
and is assumed to be false if missing. User added prefs are deletable via
the Pref Editor UI.<br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><tt>default<br>
</tt></td>
<td valign="top"><tt>default="true"</tt><br>
</td>
<td valign="top">The Netscape default value for this pref. That is,
the value that the pref will get in set to in the code or in some default
.js file.<br>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3>&lt;CHOICES&gt;</h3>
This element can optionally appear in <tt>&lt;PREF&gt;</tt> element if
the values are to be translated into easy to understand multiple choice options.
It contains more than one <tt>&lt;CHOICE&gt;</tt> element. When the user
edits one of these prefs, he gets a list box from which he can select from
those choices described in the <tt>&lt;CHOICE&gt;</tt> elements which are
contained in the <tt>&lt;CHOICES&gt;</tt> element. It will work for any type,
but it is up to the person creating the XML to set the values in the <tt>
value </tt>attribute to the correct type for the enclosing <tt>&lt;PREF&gt;</tt>
. See <b>Example 2</b>, and <tt>&lt;CHOICE&gt;</tt>.<br>
<br>
The example below shows how a multiple choice pref will look like when
the user selects it for editing.<br>
<br>
<img src="PrefsTreeEx3.jpg" alt="Example 3" width="447" height="360">
<br>
<h3>&lt;CHOICE&gt;</h3>
This element appears in <tt>&lt;CHOICES&gt;</tt> elements to describe one
item of a multiple choice. Each <tt>&lt;CHOICE&gt;</tt> element in a <tt>
&lt;CHOICES&gt;</tt> element for a <tt>&lt;PREF&gt;</tt> appears in a list
box when the user edits a pref of this type. When selected, the value of
the <tt>value </tt>attribute for the selected <tt>&lt;CHOICE&gt;</tt> is
saved as the pref's value. See <b>Example 2,</b> and <tt>&lt;CHOICES&gt;</tt>
.<br>
<br>
<table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" border="1" width="100%" bgcolor="#ffffff">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><b>Attribute</b><br>
</td>
<td valign="top"><b>Example</b><br>
</td>
<td valign="top"><b>Description</b><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><tt>uiname</tt><br>
</td>
<td valign="top"><code>uiname="Blank Page"</code><br>
</td>
<td valign="top">The text of this choice in the list box for this
choice.<br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><tt>value</tt><br>
</td>
<td valign="top"><code>value="0"</code><br>
</td>
<td valign="top">The value saved in the <tt>&lt;VALUE&gt;</tt> element
for the <tt>&lt;PREF&gt;</tt> when the pref is edit and this choice is selected
in the list box. The type of the value must be correct for the enclosing
<tt>&lt;PREF&gt;</tt> element.<br>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3>&lt;VALUE&gt;</h3>
One and only one must appear in a <tt>&lt;PREF&gt;</tt> element. This is
the value of the pref. No quotes, regardless of type. This gets modified
when the user edits the pref. Note that the modified file is saved to the
working config directory.<br>
<h3>&lt;LOCKED&gt;</h3>
One and only one must appear in a <tt>&lt;PREF&gt;</tt> element. This is
<tt>true </tt>or <tt>false, </tt>depending on whether the pref is locked
or not. If locked, prefs are written as <tt>lockPref()</tt> instead of <tt>
pref()</tt>. See also <tt>&lt;PREF lockable="true"&gt;</tt>.<br>
<h3>&lt;REMOTEADMIN&gt;</h3>
This pref is added by the pref editor, and is normally absent in a prefs
XML file until it has been processed by the prefs editor. If the <tt>&lt;REMOTEADMIN&gt;</tt>
tag is present, and its value is true, then this pref will be written to
the autoconfig.jsc prefs file when the XML is processed by the install builder
app.<br>
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