General Description of the ToolTalk Document and Media Exchange Message Set

The ToolTalk Document and Media Message Set allows a tool to be a container for arbitrary media, or to be a media player/editor that can be driven from such a container. The ToolTalk Document and Media Exchange Message Set is composed of several request messages, listed in Table 20-6.

These messages are oriented towards creating, editing, and using documents of a certain media type. The conventions for this message set allow a container application to compose, display, edit, print, or transform a document of an arbitrary media type without understanding anything about the format of that media type. The ToolTalk service routes container requests to the user's preferred tool for the given media type and operation, including routing the request to an instance of the tool that is already running if that instance is best-positioned to handle the request.