inter-app communication to LiveCode?

[Trevor DeVore]

On Thu, Sep 19, 2019 at 5:25 PM Peter Bogdanoff via use-livecode <
use-livecode at lists.runrev.com> wrote:

> A user asked about “linking” to my desktop LC app from a PDF. Is there
> anything in the PDF spec that does this? His idea was that it the link
> would do more than just opening up my app, but contain data that indicates
> a specified “page” in my app.
>
> My application is Mac/Windows.
>

You can define a url protocol (e.g. myapp://) which can be configured on
Mac or Windows to launch your application. This works with links in a
browser so that a web page can contain a link that launchers your
application. I don't know if it will work from a PDF file, though. It may
depend on the PDF viewer or other variables. It is probably worth trying as
you can embed the "page" number in the url.

On Windows you need to update the Windows Registry. Here is a link to some
code in a library that ships with Levure that will set the appropriate
values in the registry:

https://github.com/trevordevore/levure/blob/develop/framework/helpers/file_system/file_system.livecodescript#L193

You can run this code when your application first launches.

On Mac/iOS you need to add some keys to your Info.plist file. The README
for the library has an example:

https://github.com/trevordevore/levure/tree/develop/framework/helpers/file_system#url-protocols

Once you've set the registry/Info.plist files up (you will need to launch
the app at least once on macOS so it picks up the settings in the plist
file) your app will be launched when the URL protocol is triggered. On
macOS you will handle an appleEvent. You can look at the code in the
library for hints:

https://github.com/trevordevore/levure/blob/develop/framework/helpers/file_system/file_system.livecodescript#L83

For Windows you can read the `commandArguments` when the app launches or,
if the application is already running, handle the `relaunch` command and
use the parameters passed to it.

Hopefully that is enough to get you started.

-- 
Trevor DeVore
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