contentmgmt/contentaccessfwfordrm/engineering/dox/Attributes.dox
author andy simpson <andrews@symbian.org>
Sat, 05 Dec 2009 21:41:51 +0000
changeset 31 c0e7917aa107
parent 11 9d767430696e
parent 29 ece3df019add
permissions -rw-r--r--
merge 200948 drop

// Copyright (c) 2006-2009 Nokia Corporation and/or its subsidiary(-ies).
// All rights reserved.
// This component and the accompanying materials are made available
// under the terms of the License "Eclipse Public License v1.0"
// which accompanies this distribution, and is available
// at the URL "http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html".
//
// Initial Contributors:
// Nokia Corporation - initial contribution.
//
// Contributors:
//
// Description:
// Each of these objects may have properties or attributes associated with it. This section
// outlines how applications can retrieve these using the CAF API.
// <hr>
// Different agents may use different terms to describe the same concept. Generic attributes provide a 
// way for applications to query standardised information about a content object. 
// These standardised attributes are given by the enumeration <code>ContentAccess::TAttribute</code>. It is possible 
// for agents to extend this set of attributes, starting from <code>EAgentSpecificAttributeBase</code>. 
// The attribute functions are implemented in <code>ContentAccess::CContent</code>, <code>ContentAccess::CData</code> and 
// <code>ContentAccess::CManager</code>.
// <b> Retrieving a Single Attribute </b>
// The attributes of one content object in a file may not necessarily be the same as the
// attributes of other content objects within the same file. Attributes relate to a single
// content object within a file. 
// It is possible that the attribute may not make sense for a particular content object. In that 
// case the agent will return an error <code>KErrCANotSupported</code>. If an attempt is made to 
// retrieve the attributes of a content object that does not exist the agent will return <code>KErrNotFound</code>.
// The following code fragment illustrates how to retrieve an attribute for a particular
// object within a content file.
// CContent* content = CContent::NewL(uri);
// // check if DRM rights are pending for the object specified by uniqueId
// TInt attributeValue;
// TInt err = content->GetAttribute(ERightsPending, attributeValue, uniqueId);
// if(err == KErrNone)
// // Check the value of the attribute
// if(attributeValue == ETrue)
// // Rights are pending, display waiting for rights countdown
// else if(attributeValue == EFalse)
// // Rights are not pending
// else if(err == KErrCANotSupported)
// // This attribute does not apply to this content object
// else if(err == KErrNotFound)
// // Cannot find the object specified by the given uniqueId
// else if (err != KErrPermissionDenied)
// // Unknown error
// User::Leave(err);
// <b> Retrieving Several Attributes </b>
// For some agent implementations it may be more efficient to retrieve all the attributes for a content
// object in one function call. The <code>ContentAccess::RAttributeSet</code> object is used here to provide a way to
// request and store several attributes.
// Querying two attributes using the CManager API would look like the following:
// // Agent manager
// CManager *manager = CManager::NewLC();
// // Prepare the attributes to query using the CAttributeSet object
// RAttributeSet attributeSet;
// CleanupClosePushL(attributeSet);
// attributeSet.AddL(EProtected);
// attributeSet.AddL(ECanView);
// // Retrieve the attribute values from the agent
// User::LeaveIfError(manager->GetAttributeSet(attributeSet, virtualPath));
// // Check if the content object is protected
// TInt attributeValue;
// TInt err = attributeSet.GetValue(EProtected, attributeValue);
// if(err == KErrNone && attributeValue)
// // content object is DRM protected
// // Check if the content object can be display on screen
// TInt err = attributeSet.GetValue(ECanView, attributeValue);
// if(err == KErrNone && attributeValue)
// // content object has rights that allow it to be displayed on screen
// // Finished	
// CleanupStack::PopAndDestroy(2);		// manager, attributeSet
// <hr>
// String attributes are similar to the attributes described above except the value associated
// with the attribute is a string. A good example of where a string attribute is required is the
// MIME type of a content object within a file. 
// The string attributes are standardised by the <code>ContentAccess::TStringAttribute</code> enumeration. This
// allows applications to request information such as the MIME type in a generic way for all agents.
// Agents can extend this mechanism to provide agent specific attributes starting at 
// <code>EAgentSpecificStringAttributeBase</code>.
// The following example finds the author of a content object.
// CContent* content = CContent::NewL(uri);
// // define a buffer to store the attribute value string
// TBuf <100> buf;
// // retrieve the attribute
// err = content->GetAttribute(EAuthor, authorBuffer, uniqueId);
// // Display the authors name on screen
// if (err == KErrNone)
// DisplayAuthor(buf);
// If the Agent does not support this attribute, it will return <code>KErrCANotSupported</code>.
// <b> Retrieving Several String Attributes </b>
// For some agent implementations it may be more efficient to retrieve several string attributes for a content
// object in one function call. The <code>ContentAccess::RStringAttributeSet</code> object is used here to provide a way to
// request and store several attributes.
// Querying three attributes using the CManager API would look like the following:
// CManager *manager = CManager::NewLC();
// // Prepare the attributes to query using the CAttributeSet object
// RStringAttributeSet stringAttributeSet;
// CleanupClosePushL(stringAttributeSet);
// stringAttributeSet.AddL(ETitle);
// stringAttributeSet.AddL(EAuthor);
// stringAttributeSet.AddL(EDescription);
// // Retrieve the attribute values from the agent
// User::LeaveIfError(manager->GetStringAttributeSet(stringAttributeSet, virtualPath));
// // Display the values
// TBuf <256> value;
// TInt err = stringAttributeSet.GetValue(ETitle, value);
// if(err == KErrNone)
// Printf("Title       : %s", value);
// err = stringAttributeSet.GetValue(EAuthor, value);
// if(err == KErrNone)
// Printf("Author      : %s", value);
// err = stringAttributeSet.GetValue(EDescription, value);
// if(err == KErrNone)
// Printf("Description : %s", value);
// // Finished
// CleanupStack::PopAndDestroy(2);		// manager, stringAttributeSet
// <hr>
// Some agents may expose meta data so they can be read using a \c CData object. The format 
// of these meta-data objects is not specified by the Content Access Framework but could 
// be useful for applications familiar with the agent to read meta data this way.
// \c CData objects for agent specific meta-data can be opened in the same way content objects
// are opened using the <code>ContentAccess::CContent::OpenContentL()</code> function.
// CContent* content = CContent::NewLC(uri);
// // Create an array to store the embedded objects 
// RStreamablePtrArray<CEmbeddedObject> myArray;
// CleanupClosePushL(myArray);
// // Get the embedded "Agent Specific" objects in the current container
// content->GetEmbeddedObjectsL(myArray, EAgentSpecificObject);
// // Get the unique Id of the first meta-data object
// TPtrC aUniqueId = myArray[0]->UniqueId();
// // create a CData object to read the meta data
// CData *myMetaData = content->OpenContentLC(EPeek, aUniqueId);
// // Do something with the data
// // Finished
// CleanupStack::PopAndDestroy(3);		// content, myArray, myMetaData
// <hr>
// 
//

/**
 @page ContentAttributes Content Object Attributes
 As shown in the @ref CContentAPI "Consumer API", a file may consist of many content and container objects.
 - @ref CAFAttributes
 - @ref CAFStringAttributes
 - @ref CAFAgentSpecificMetaData 
 @section CAFAttributes Generic Attributes
 @code
 @endcode
 @code
 @endcode
 @section CAFStringAttributes Generic String attributes
 @code
 @endcode
 @code
 @endcode
 @section CAFAgentSpecificMetaData Agent specific meta-data
 @code
 @endcode
*/