Modifying Applications to Use the ToolTalk Service

Before you modify your application to use the ToolTalk service you must define (or locate) a ToolTalk message protocol: a set of ToolTalk messages that describe operations applications agree to perform. The message protocol specification includes the set of messages and how applications should behave when they receive the messages.

To use the ToolTalk service, an application calls ToolTalk functions from the ToolTalk application programming interface (API). The ToolTalk API provides functions to register with the ToolTalk service, to create message patterns, to send messages, to receive messages, to examine message information, and so on. To modify your application to use the ToolTalk service, you must first include the ToolTalk API header file in your program. You also need to modify your application to:

• Initialize the ToolTalk service and join a session.

• Register message patterns with the ToolTalk service.

• Send and receive messages.

• Unregister message patterns and leave your ToolTalk session.