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    12 <concept id="GUID-34EF6527-14D0-5C8B-9E20-A3A3B3320054" xml:lang="en"><title>SIF Overview</title><prolog><metadata><keywords/></metadata></prolog><conbody>

    13 <section id="GUID-A3BAEDB1-D62E-4877-84E2-8C247FF9DDFF"><title>Purpose</title> <p>SIF provides uniform interfaces for installation of software

    14 and management of software Symbian platform devices regardless of

    15 the type of a package. The uniform interfaces provided by SIF enable: </p> <ul>

    16 <li id="GUID-3A207AF4-C957-566D-94A6-0EE9D4FC46A8"><p>Installation

    17 of software, for example SIS or JAR files. </p> </li>

    18 <li id="GUID-85E29288-459D-5FE2-8668-E32848B4AF19"><p>Management of

    19 software, for example removing an existing software component installed

    20 on a device. </p> </li>

    21 <li id="GUID-F8C01B68-14DF-5631-A0C5-C27BB1A005E7"><p>Extracting package

    22 information. </p> </li>

    23 </ul> </section>

    24 <section id="GUID-ED363D15-01A7-4D9D-A8DF-F4D9A0618788"><title>Architecture</title> <p>The following diagram illustrates the SIF interaction with SWI,

    25 AppArc and other components of the Universal Software Installation

    26 Framework : </p><fig id="GUID-2F4266C8-C5C7-44A3-A65A-4448919BBEDF">

    27 <title>SIF interaction diagram</title>

    28 <image href="GUID-9B97E076-22CB-434A-B16A-E4CE3A859F05_d0e41292_href.jpg" placement="inline"/>

    29 </fig><fig id="GUID-14AE4786-0AFB-4B5C-9306-1B112985FF7B">

    30 <image href="GUID-41CE73A7-4820-417D-8AD7-92F9DB9C552A_d0e41296_href.jpg" placement="inline"/>

    31 </fig> <p> <b>SIF Transport Library</b>  </p> <p>This is a client-server

    32 framework used to send and receive SIF requests across a process boundary.

    33 It significantly reduces the time needed to implement an installer

    34 client and a server for sending and receiving SIF requests. The SIF

    35 Transport Library consists of a SIF Transport Client and a Server. </p> <p>The SIF Transport Client sends software management requests (for

    36 example, installation, uninstallation, activation, deactivation and

    37 so on) across the process boundary to a specified SIF Transport Server.

    38 The SIF Transport Server processes the requests from the SIF Transport

    39 Client by instantiating a SIF Transport session object and hands over

    40 further processing to it. </p> <p> <b>SIF Utility library</b>  </p> <p>This library provides an API for uninstalling a software component

    41 from the system and is for simple installers. It removes the component

    42 from the System Component Registry (SCR) and deletes its files from

    43 the file system. </p> <p> <b>SIF Launcher</b>  </p> <p>SIF Launcher

    44 is a SIF component that handles installation requests from the AppArc

    45 APIs. Installation requests are issued by generic clients, such as

    46 file or web browsers. When the user clicks on a file or link, a browser

    47 may use <xref href="GUID-5EEE8745-F483-33C0-A5B1-AEB5544DE2BA.dita#GUID-5EEE8745-F483-33C0-A5B1-AEB5544DE2BA/GUID-FE6E7F9F-86AB-398E-A979-90F1DAC93E71"><apiname>RApaLsSession::StartDocument()</apiname></xref> to start

    48 the SIF Launcher automatically.</p> <p><b>Notifier Framework</b></p><p>There is a need to receive progress notifications during package

    49 management operations, such as installation, upgradation and uninstallion.

    50 The native and non-native installers follow legacy mechanisms to publish

    51 the installation context.  If each installer provides a different

    52 publication mechanism, the observers of the events need to make additional

    53 changes relevant to the installer. To overcome this redundancy, SIF

    54 provides a unified notification mechanism that makes receiving progress

    55 notifications simpler. </p><p>The Notifier framework delivers the

    56 start, progress and completion status of SIF operation (install or

    57 uninstall) to registered clients in a unified mechanism. The Publish

    58 and Subscribe Keys defined by the Universal Software Install Framework

    59 (USIF) can be used by all installers to <xref href="GUID-6A9E486A-6C1B-4E31-832A-FD39AF041817.dita">publish the progress

    60 of operations</xref>. The clients must <xref href="GUID-FDA575AB-F5A5-4244-B47C-F1B1794F09F6.dita">subscribe to receive

    61 the progress notifications</xref>.</p><p> A utility library is provided

    62 with APIs that set and publish the SIF operation progress. Installers

    63 and client applications can use these APIs to publish and subscribe

    64 for install, upgrade and uninstall status notifications.</p></section>

    65 <section id="GUID-B0AD8013-8166-411C-BA70-E0FC494094B2"><title>Key

    66 Classes</title> <p>The following table summarizes the key classes

    67 of SIF: </p> <table id="GUID-95FAE876-4A42-5AFA-8D92-B14E4B3C3B8B">

    68 <tgroup cols="2"><colspec colname="col0"/><colspec colname="col1"/>

    69 <thead>

    70 <row>

    71 <entry>Class Name</entry>

    72 <entry>Description</entry>

    73 </row>

    74 </thead>

    75 <tbody>

    76 <row>

    77 <entry><p> <xref href="GUID-1A295877-CBEF-3C5C-A72E-FFB5D2E57B22.dita"><apiname>RSoftwareInstall</apiname></xref>  </p> </entry>

    78 <entry><p>Provides an asynchronous interface to SIF. This class wraps

    79 all the details of client-server communication with the SIF server

    80 residing in a separate process. </p> </entry>

    81 </row>

    82 <row>

    83 <entry><p> <xref href="GUID-CD380D01-8649-36E4-8435-C6F600D5A5CF.dita"><apiname>CSifPlugin</apiname></xref>  </p> </entry>

    84 <entry><p>Is an abstract SIF plug-in

    85 interface. Derived classes must implement the functions of the interface

    86 for each particular software type. </p> </entry>

    87 </row>

    88 <row>

    89 <entry><p> <xref href="GUID-D526646E-45DB-3DC4-9384-CFF02C590F74.dita"><apiname>RSifTransportClient</apiname></xref>  </p> </entry>

    90 <entry><p>Is a client side of the SIF Transport. This class sends

    91 software management requests across the process boundary to a specified

    92 Transport Server. </p> </entry>

    93 </row>

    94 <row>

    95 <entry><p> <xref href="GUID-6C066A48-4889-302B-879B-4A07552C3AFC.dita"><apiname>CSifTransportTask</apiname></xref>  </p> </entry>

    96 <entry><p>Defines an abstract interface for SIF Transport tasks. It

    97 is the core class of the SIF Transport library. Transport tasks are

    98 instantiated and run to handle incoming software management requests. </p> </entry>

    99 </row>

   100 <row>

   101 <entry><p><xref href="GUID-F1D2CE7E-B5B9-3E35-B648-55F1B24E6272.dita"><apiname>CSifOperationStartData</apiname></xref></p></entry>

   102 <entry><p>Contains basic information

   103 about packages to be installed or uninstalled.</p></entry>

   104 </row>

   105 <row>

   106 <entry><p><xref href="GUID-4F0E57D3-CE4C-3A41-951B-F2BB43E7BA34.dita"><apiname>CSifOperationEndData</apiname></xref> </p></entry>

   107 <entry><p>Contains the error status

   108 information after an installation or uninstallation.</p></entry>

   109 </row>

   110 <row>

   111 <entry><p><xref href="GUID-DBEB6AEF-2128-3566-93AA-3CDB5D554B1E.dita"><apiname>CSifOperationProgressData</apiname></xref></p></entry>

   112 <entry><p>Provides the progress

   113 status.</p></entry>

   114 </row>

   115 <row>

   116 <entry><p><xref href="GUID-59E1372C-F4F8-3762-B6D9-B92BB5F53FC6.dita"><apiname>CPublishSifOperationInfo</apiname></xref></p></entry>

   117 <entry><p>Is used by installers

   118 to publish a single install, uninstall or update operation information.</p></entry>

   119 </row>

   120 <row>

   121 <entry><p><xref href="GUID-4683B704-D21C-3D42-82BB-2B4B88B4974C.dita"><apiname>MSifOperationsHandler</apiname></xref></p></entry>

   122 <entry><p>Is an interface class

   123 required to be implemented by the client class to receive notifications.

   124 This class has functions that notify about the SIF operation start,

   125 end and progress updates.</p></entry>

   126 </row>

   127 <row>

   128 <entry><p><xref href="GUID-33D234E5-2970-3521-BDB9-EE29C9165856.dita"><apiname>CSifOperationsNotifier</apiname></xref></p></entry>

   129 <entry><p> An object of the class

   130 is created for carrying out subscription to notification. </p></entry>

   131 </row>

   132 </tbody>

   133 </tgroup>

   134 </table> </section>

   135 <section id="GUID-7B431AC3-6B81-40A1-98E4-31CA7B20B5DE"><title>Typical

   136 uses</title> <p>You can use the APIs provided by SIF to <xref href="GUID-51EDBA17-41AF-58FB-A96F-D5A136F83977.dita">create an installer</xref> . When you use SIF with SCR you can perform <xref href="GUID-8EE40A1A-7905-522B-A1A1-3F4ED053B042.dita">application management

   137 functions</xref> such as listing software components on a device and

   138 extracting package information about a software component. </p> </section>

   139 </conbody><related-links>

   140 <link href="GUID-B2BD19A4-132E-5D5C-8870-04BADB6E7815.dita"><linktext>SIF

   141 Tutorial</linktext></link>

   142 <link href="GUID-2AB7F53A-5EDF-574D-866D-EF2592881559.dita"><linktext>Configuring

   143 the SIF Launcher</linktext></link>

   144 </related-links></concept>