xFx SDK source code/documentation refresh (v1.2.9.12)

[Stuart Booth <lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Folks,

I probably should have kept this bit for here rather than on the
xAPAutomation list, but too late now! If anybody's using v1.2.9.6,
there are a fair list of changes in this latest release of xFx.

One of the things I'm considering doing is 'upgrading' the main xFx
source code package to include all the various plugin runtime
application source too, rather than have them as standalone source
downloadables. So a future release of this may be a bit larger, a bit
more 'kitchen sink', and just all-round easier to maintain. But I'm
not sure how all this gets used by others. I do know that some just
work with the binaries, whereas I'm more of a 'source code man'
myself, building up the DLLs myself and fitting them into my own
development system.

xFx v1.2.9.12 Change History
========================

* Added a new key to the config file, xAPCharacterEncoding, to allow the
encoding scheme for xAP messages to be adjusted.
* Made the xAPMessage class and many other core xAP message classes
serialisable. You can now serialise xAPMessage's to a Stream.
* Implemented the IComparable interface for xAPMessage - present on all
other classes but missing at the top level here.
* Fixed several bugs in xAPAddressBase that were unable to handle address
of "KCSoft.>" or just ">".
* Altered xAPHeaderSource address copy CTOR to take xAPAddressBase objects
instead of xAPHeaderSource objects.
* Internal changes to message parsing to support 'raw' data in message
preview panes.
* Fixed a bug reading in binary data using the ! separator. This would get
altered into an = separator in all applications.
* Changed the xAP News schema classes to use class Uri rather than Url.
* Added a Source property to xAPPluginModuleBase to ease access to the
plugin's own source address.
* Added BitTorrent.Download schema wrappers to xAPSchemas.
* Changed the signature of xAPMessageBlock.GetYesNo to match that of the
other value accessor helpers.
* Added xAPMessageBlock.GetOptionalBoolean and GetMandatoryBoolean to pair
with the Get[Flavour]YesNo variants.
* Fixed: a xFx-based xAPp running as a Hub wouldn't send xap-hbeat.stopped
messages when it closed. Only HubClients would do so.
* Changed the default listening and broadcast IPs that xFx uses. It now
picks the first network adapter it finds rather than a 'broader' address to
fix problems with multiple NICs being installed.
* Added xAPErrorAppMessage CTOR that unwraps the details of an Exception
object.
* Added support for "Test-XX=Parameter Value" fields in message
headers. These can be used for various testing purposes.
* Added a filtering option for invalid messages, in addition to
unrecognised messages, to xAPUI.
* Added an additional overload of OutputMessage to xAPPluginModuleBase to
ease plugin development and screen output.
* Added a plugin event tag object to store basic string objects to
xAPUtilities.
* Added ConcatenateMessageBlockNames to xAPMessageBody so all message block
names can be concatenated together into one string e.g.
"Playlist.Query, Track.Info"
* Added attribute for plugins to specify that they require desktop
interaction when installed as a Windows Service.
* Added IR schema.
* Fixed bug in header copy constructor whereby a Target address wasn't
being cloned correctly.
* Altered the xAPListenerErrorEventArgs class to implement IFormattable so
that the message output content can be customised.
* Changed the parameter list for OnUnknownMessage in transport class
xAPListener. Makes it consistent with the others and allows more data to be
added to the event args object without changing interfaces.
* Added IxAPTimestampedEvent interface to xAPMessage and some listener
events to provide a common interface to the date/time that the event
occured.
* Fixed bug in handling of target address fields. Blank target lines ie
"target=" were flagged as an error by xFx when in fact they are
valid, just non-targetted. Source lines MUST be fully-formed.

Full source code and documentation:
<http://www.xapframework.net/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=getit&lid=22>

Binaries + documentation:
<http://www.xapframework.net/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=getit&lid=3>

Any problems/comments ... shout.

S
--
Stuart Booth <stuart@xxxxxxx>
xAPFramework.NET - a xAP software development framework for .NET

http://www.xapautomation.org/ 
     http://www.xapframework.net/