Belligero

Well, it's been a few weeks since my 0.1, and while I've been busy with other assignments, I've managed to get my 0.2 working.

Changes since 0.1:

• Memory management is now proper (releases the DBus Connection)
• dbusClient now requires more verbose naming
  • used to just pass "inside" and full name would become "org.freedesktop.nmautologin.inside", now full string has to be passed
  • sendSignal requires object name, interface name, message name, and message to be sent, rather than just message name and message.  the first two were built-in to the client
• With the above, dbusClient has been split into its own extension, allowing others to make easier use of it withoutthe nmAutologin extension installed
  • Better compiler settings for output.  Verbose and silent, currently compiled with verbose output
• Sent a message to the NetworkManager mailing list about the idea, and got replies
  • They do not want the information stored in NM itself
  • Will be using a daemon to be the in-between
• The nmAutologin extension has pushed the dbusClient processing into a background thread
  • Now able to use Firefox/Minefield while it islistening for incoming signals
  • Pops up alert box when message received
  • Makes sure listener is stopped when last browser window closed
• For simplicity's sake, this is being released x86 only.  It has not been tested on a 64-bit system
• The code in the nmAutologin extension has been split up into multiple files, to make for better organization
  • startup.js
    • contains the startup() and shutdown() methods along with the code to start and run the DBus thread
  • process.js
    • contains the sendSignal() and handleMessage() methods
    • Will be used to hold the methods for processing a signal when received
  • settings.js
    • Contains connName, objName, interfaceName,and msgName strings
    • Open to hold any more settings that may be needed

Instructions for use:

1. Download and extract the tarball
2. Install both the nmautologin.xpi and dbusclient-x86.xpi files into Firefox
3. Start firefox, and if from a terminal, enjoy the verbose output
4. Run the dbus executable from the tarball in a terminal:
   1. To send a signal: ./dbus send "message"
5. Try sending various messages to Firefox at given intervals

If you want to compile the packages themselves, simpoly follow the instructions in my 0.1 release post.  The only difference is that the dbusclient directory is the one to be compiled in Firefox source.  Its *.xpi can be grabbed from objdir/dist/xpi-stage and installed directly.

Now, my plans for 0.3:

• Look into NetworkManager, find out exactly what indormation it sends, its naming schemes, etc.
• Make a daemon to listen for these and pass them to Firefox, along with a URL
  • URL will likey be a generic one for testing purposes, until a proper storage system is implemented
•  When Firefox receives these signals, open a new tab and go to the URL
• If time permits (which it likely will not) get Firefox to automatically login to the page, if it has such a form

After this, I have 8 months of coop work, and shall not be in school.  If I don't get overwhelmed by other things I want to work on, I'm hoping to have a 0.9 before I come back in the fall, which will do pretty much everything needed.