Re: [Rhythmbox-devel] D-BUS APi questions

[Jonathan Matthew <jonathan kaolin wh9 net>]

On Sat, Apr 22, 2006 at 06:04:38PM -0400, Tim Moloney wrote:
> I have three questions regarding the D-BUS API.
> 
> There are four signals (playingChanged, playingUriChanged, 
> elapsedChanged, and visibilityChanged).  Except for visibility, there 
> are matching accessor methods (getPlaying, getPlayingUri, getElapsed).  
> Can a getVisibility accessor be added?  If so, then an application can 
> initialize itself using the accessor methods and use the signals to stay 
> in sync.

This is the sort of thing we should be using the dbus Properties
interface for.

> The /org/gnome/Rhythmbox/Shell object has a getPlayer method.  It 
> appears to return a DBusInterface representation of the 
> /org/gnome/Rhythmbox/Player object.  Why would this method be used 
> rather than asking the org.gnome.Rhythmbox service for the 
> /org/gnome/Rhythmbox/Player object (especially since this is how the 
> /org/gnome/Rhythmbox/Shell object was retrieved in the first place)?

I'm really not sure why that method (and the getPlaylistManager method)
exists.  The example rb-print-playing.py program doesn't use it, it 
requests the player object directly instead.

> The /org/gnome/Rhythmbox/Shell object has a present method.  Looking at 
> the source for Rhythmbox, I think that it's related to removable media 
> but I'm not sure.  Can someone explain what this method does and why 
> someone would use it?

The 'present' method is used to present the main window to the user.  It
unhides the window and grabs focus.  It's called when the user runs a
second rhythmbox process (without the -n flag).