Example of Creating a Personal Action and Data Type

Suppose your system contains an application named xgif, which displays GIF pictures. Ordinarily, you run the program by executing:

xgif filename

You want to be able to display GIF pictures several ways:

• By double-clicking a GIF data file

• By selecting the data file and choosing the application from the Selected menu

1. Open a new file HomeDirectory/.dt/types/GifViewer.dt for editing.

2. Type the data type definitions:

   	DATA_ATTRIBUTES Gif
    	{
    		DESCRIPTION				Gif image file.
    		ICON						GifIcon
    		ACTIONS					View
    	}
    	DATA_CRITERIA Gif_Criteria
    	{
    		DATA_ATTRIBUTES_NAME			Gif
    		NAME_PATTERN						*.gif
    	}

3. Type the action definition for the GifViewer action:

   	ACTION GifViewer
    	{
    		EXEC_STRING					xgif %(File)Arg_1"Gif file to view:"
    		WINDOW_TYPE					NO_STDIO
    		DESCRIPTION					Double-click or drop a file to \
    										start the Gif viewer.
    	}

   Since the definition does not include an ICON field, the action will use the system's default icon.

4. Type the following map action to connect the GifViewer action to the View action listed in the data type definition. Use the ARG_TYPE field to restrict this view action to Gif-type files.

   	ACTION View
    	{
    		ARG_TYPE				Gif
    		TYPE					MAP
    		MAP_ACTION			GifViewer
    	} 

5. Save the file.

6. Double-click Reload Actions in the Desktop_Tools application group to reread the database.