root / pykoticon / trunk / README @ 150

# $Id$

PyKotIcon - Client side helper for PyKota and other applications

(c) 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 Jerome Alet <alet@librelogiciel.com>
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.

====================================================================

PyKotIcon is a cross-platform client-side helper for PyKota.

It is meant to be launched whenever the user logs in, and stay in 
the taskbar (depending on the client operating system) until the 
user closes his session. 
  
Installation :

  * GNU/Linux and similar :
  
    $ cd pykoticon
    $ python setup.py install
    
    Then modify your .xsession file, or the appropriate file depending
    on your desktop environment, to ensure that the pykoticon command
    is launched in the background each time your X Window session
    starts.
    
    You MUST pass the list of hostnames or IP addresses from which
    PyKotIcon should accept incoming connexions on pykoticon's
    command line. Connexions from localhost are always accepted.
    If you use PyKotIcon with PyKota, you'll want to pass the
    hostnames or IP addresses of ALL print servers on pykoticon's
    command line.
    
    NB : `pykoticon --help` will give you hints about the expected
    command line parameters.
    
  * MS Windows :  
  
    Download pykoticon-x.yy.zip from 
    
        http://www.pykota.com/software/pykoticon/download/tarballs/
        
    Unzip it into a directory of its own. I usually unzip it into    
    /var/lib/samba/netlogon/pykoticon/
    
    Modify the PYKOTICON.VBS file to include the list of authorized
    print servers and change other parameters as needed, as explained
    in the GNU/Linux section above.
    
    Ensure that PYKOTICON.VBS is executed each time an user logs
    in. The easiest way to do this is in STARTUP.CMD :
    
      --- CUT ---
      SET PATH=%PATH%;\\MYSERVER\NETLOGON\PYKOTICON\
      \\MYSERVER\NETLOGON\PYKOTICON\PYKOTICON.VBS 
      --- CUT ---
      
    NB : if you launch PYKOTICON.EXE directly instead of from
    PYKOTICON.VBS, a small but disturbing window may appear on 
    the screen.


Usage :

  PyKotIcon is often used as a client side companion for the PyKota
  print accounting solution, but in reality PyKotIcon is completely
  independant of PyKota, and can be used from any application
  which can do remote procedure calls over XML-RPC.
  
  PyKotIcon exposes 4 of its methods over XML-RPC, here they are :
  
    - nop :
    
      This methods does exactly nothing :)
      
      - Input : No argument.
      
      - Output : returns the True boolean value.
      
    - quitApplication :  
    
      This method causes the PyKotIcon application to exit.
      
      - Input : No argument.
      
      - Output : returns the True boolean value.
          
    - showDialog :  
   
      This methods displays an informational message, and returns
      the choice the user made, if any.
       
      - Input : 
        
        - message : a Binary XML-RPC object representing an UTF-8 encoded 
          character string which will be displayed to the end user. 
          This string can contain literal "\n" sequences which will 
          be automatically expanded into a line break by PyKotIcon.
          
        - confirmation : a boolean value indicating if the user will  
          be given the choice to valid or cancel (True), or only
          to valid (False) the dialog box.
            
      - Output :      
      
        - the literal string "OK" if the user clicked on the OK button,
          else the literal string "CANCEL". The latter is only possible
          if the method was called with its second parameter set to
          True.
        
    - askDatas :      
    
      This method can generate an input form and return what the user
      entered in the different fields.
      
      - Input :
      
        
      
      - Output :

====================================================================
    
Please e-mail bugs to the PyKota mailing list at : pykota@librelogiciel.com
or to the main author at : alet@librelogiciel.com (Jerome Alet)