[Rubycocoa-talk] Ruby-fying the SyncServices - SimpleStickies tutorial fom Apple

[Rupert B. <rup...@fr...>]

OK, with much help from Jonathan, I have got the Apple SyncServices  
"SimpleStickies" [1] translated and working (partially) in Ruby. The  
SimpleStickies is much more than a simple tutorial, the resulting  
program is a complete syncing engine, demo-ed on the 'Note' class  
which implements Simple Stickies.

What I did was simply to :
1) modify the Objective-C 'main' to startup with Ruby : this is just  
the standard Ruby 'main.m' and 'rb_main.rb'
2) replace the 'Note.h' and 'Note.m' files for the Note class by  
'Note.rb' and kvc_wrapper.rb [2]

By the way, do not forget to create the following directory :
	~/Library/Application Support/SyncExamples
where the tutorial stores its persistence cache.

What is working :
- the program runs and starts,
- it will save data to a persistence XML file store (in ~/Library/ 
Application Support/SyncExamples)
- it will sync with Tiger's SyncServices (both read and write)
- .Mac syncing works natively once the data has got into the  
SyncServices engine : you can see the SimpleStickies logo in the .Mac  
prefderences : exiting to thing that this is carying data generated  
by Ruby !

What I cannot get to work :
- reading from the XML persistence file store : this must due to some  
issue with archiving/unarchiving. To get the program to work  
properly, delete file in ~/Library/Application Support/SyncExamples  
before every launch
- I cannot programmatically (from Ruby) add objects to the Notes  
controller to get them inserted into GUI

Any help would be welcome to help resolve these two points.

Rupert



[1] SimpleStickies tutorial : http://developer.apple.com/ 
documentation/AppleApplications/Conceptual/SyncServicesTutorial/ 
index.html


[2] Here are the files :
Notes.rb :

#
#  Note.rb
#  SimpleStickies adapted to Ruby
#
#  Created by Rupert Barrow on 06/11/05.
#  Copyright (c) 2005 La Romane. All rights reserved.
#

require 'osx/cocoa'
require 'osx/coredata'
require 'kvc_wrapper'

class Note < OSX::NSObject
	include OSX
	
	 
kvc_wrapper_representation :createDate, :originX, :originY, :width, :hei 
ght, :color
	 
kvc_wrapper_representation :text, :translucent, :floating, :shaded, :pri 
maryKey
	
	ns_overrides 'init', 'dealloc'
	
	@_representation = nil
	@_changed = nil
	
	def init
		self.super_init
		
		@_representation = NSMutableDictionary.dictionary

		self.setValue_forKey(NSDate.date, "createDate")
	
		self.setValue_forKey(100, "originX")
		self.setValue_forKey(100, "originY")
		self.setValue_forKey(400, "width")
		self.setValue_forKey(300, "height")
		
		self.setValue_forKey(NSColor.yellowColor, "color")
		
		attrString = NSAttributedString.alloc.initWithString("My simple  
sticky.")
		self.setValue_forKey(NSArchiver.archivedDataWithRootObject 
(attrString), "text")
		
		self
	end
		
	def dealloc
		super_dealloc
	end
	
	def changed
		@_changed
	end
	self.addRubyMethod_withType("changed".to_sym, "v@:@")
	def setChanged(v)
		@_changed = v
	end
	self.addRubyMethod_withType("setChanged:".to_sym, "v@:@")

	def representation
		@_representation
	end
	
	def description
		"representation = #{@_representation.description}"
	end
		
	def valueForUndefinedKey(k)
		@_representation.valueForKey(k)
	end
	
	def setValue_ForUndefinedKey(v, k)
		@_representation.setValueForKey(v, k)
	end
	
	def initWithCoder(coder)
		self.super_init
		if (coder.allowsKeyedCoding?)
			@_representation = coder.decodeObjectForKey("representation")
		else
			@_representation = coder.decodeObject;
		end
		return self
	end
	
	def encodeWithCoder(coder)
		if (coder.allowsKeyedCoding?)
			coder.encodeObject_forKey(@_representation, "representation")
		else
			coder.encodeObject(@_representation);
		end
		return
	end

end


kvc_wrapper.rb :

#
#  kvc_wrapper.rb
#  SimpleStickies adapted to Ruby
#
#  Created by Rupert Barrow on 05/11/05.
#  Copyright (c) 2005 La Romane. All rights reserved.
#

# add kvc_wrapper
module OSX

	module NSKVCBehaviorAttachment

         def kvc_wrapper_representation(*keys)
             keys.each do |key|
                 set_key = "set#{key}"
                 set_key[3..3] = set_key[3..3].upcase
                 class_eval <<- 
EOE_KVC_WRAPPER_REPRESENTATION,__FILE__,__LINE__+1
                     def #{key}
#                       self.willAccessValueForKey("#{key}")
                         @_representation.valueForKey("#{key}")
#                       self.didAccessValueForKey("#{key}")
                     end
                     def #{key}=(val)
                         self.willChangeValueForKey("#{key}")
                         @_representation.setValue_forKey(val, "#{key}")
                         self.didChangeValueForKey("#{key}")
                     end
                     def #{set_key}(val); self.#{key}= val; end
                     EOE_KVC_WRAPPER_REPRESENTATION
				self.addRubyMethod_withType("#{key}".to_sym, "v@:@")
				self.addRubyMethod_withType("#{set_key}:".to_sym, "v@:@")
             end
         end

	end

end