Chapter 20 More About Filetypes

Table of Contents

You can think of filetypes, used in conjuction with actions, as HP VUE components that create a grammar for your system. If you think of files as nouns, then filetypes are the adjectives and actions are the verbs. Like grammar, the pieces are related to one another. There are rules that govern how you put them together and how they affect one another.

Filetypes are visual. The visual distinction between filetypes is provided by using a unique icon for the filetype.

Filetypes are connected to actions.

A filetype can have a custom default (double-click) action and Actions menu.
Filetypes provide "context-sensitivity" for actions. For example, you can write different versions of the PRINT action for different filetypes; this creates a filetype-sensitive Print control for the Front Panel.
Filetypes can restrict actions. You can write an action that accepts only a particular filetype as data.

Criteria for filetypes. You can use any of the following criteria for assigning a file to a filetype:

File name.
File location (entire path).
File content.

Example. The following definition creates a filetype for the documents for a project named "QS". The files are distinguished by filenames beginning with QS and ending with .doc.

   FILETYPE        QS_Doc

     FILE-PATTERN  QS*.doc

     DESCRIPTION   This file contains a document for the QS project.\

                   Double-click the file to open it for editing.

     L-ICON        Word_Doc.l

     S-ICON        Word_Doc.s

     ACTIONS       OPEN

   END

Chapter 20 More About Filetypes

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