1. Introducing the ToolTalk Service
2. An Overview of the ToolTalk Service
4. Setting Up and Maintaining the ToolTalk Processes
5. Maintaining Application Information
6. Maintaining Files and Objects Referenced in ToolTalk Messages
7. Participating in ToolTalk Sessions
Determining Object Specification Properties
Querying for Specific Specs in a File
Managing Object and File Information
Managing Files that Contain Object Data
Managing Files that Contain ToolTalk Information
An Example of Object-Oriented Messaging
13. Managing Information Storage
A. Migrating from the Classing Engine to the ToolTalk Types Database
B. A Simple Demonstration of How the ToolTalk Service Works
Object-oriented messages are addressed to objects managed by applications. To use object-oriented messaging, you need to be familiar with process-oriented messaging concepts and the ToolTalk concept of object.
Object data are stored in two parts as shown in .
Figure 12-1 ToolTalk Object Data
One part is called the object content. The object content is managed by the application that creates or manages the object and is typically a piece, or pieces, of an ordinary file: a paragraph, a source code function, or a range of spreadsheet cells, for example.
The second part is called the object specification (spec). A spec contains standard properties such as the type of object, the name of the file in which the object contents are located, and the object owner. Applications can also add their own properties to a spec, for example, the location of the object content within a file. Because applications can store additional information in specs, you can identify data in existing files as objects without changing the formats of the files. You can also create objects from pieces of read-only files. Applications create and write specs to the ToolTalk database managed by rpc.ttdbserverd.
Note - You cannot create objects in files that reside in a read-only file system. The ToolTalk service must be able to create a database in the same file system that contains the object.
A ToolTalk object is a portion of application data for which a ToolTalk spec has been created.