Legacy Document

Inside Macintosh: More Macintosh Toolbox /

Chapter 7 - Translation Manager / Translation Extension Reference

Translation Extension Data Structures

File Translation Lists

You use the FileTranslationList data structure to describe which file formats your extension can translate into which other file formats. The Translation Manager uses the file translation list that it gets from each translation system to create a master database of format translations it can direct.

TYPE FileTranslationList = 
   RECORD
      modDate:                LongInt;
      groupCount:             LongInt;
      {group1SrcCount:        LongInt;}
      {group1SrcEntrySize:    LongInt;}
      {group1SrcTypes:        ARRAY[1..group1SrcCount] OF FileTypeSpec;}
      {group1DstCount:        LongInt;}
      {group1DstEntrySize:    LongInt;}
      {group1DstTypes:        ARRAY[1..group1DstCount] OF FileTypeSpec;}
      {repeat above six lines for a total of groupCount times}
   END;
   FileTranslationListPtr     = ^FileTranslationList;
   FileTranslationListHandle  = ^FileTranslationListPtr;

A file translation list consists of a field indicating the modification date of the list and a count of the number of groups that follow those two fields. The size of the translation list prepared by an extension is variable, depending upon the number of groups, the file specification record size, and the number of file types that the extension knows about.

Field Description

modDate

The creation date of the file translation list. If your extension uses external translators, you might set this field to the modification date of a folder containing those translators.

groupCount

The number of translation groups that follow.

group1SrcCount

The number of file types that the extension can read in a group.

group1SrcEntrySize

The size of the file specification records in the array that follows this field. In general, you can set this field to SizeOf(FileTypeSpec).

group1SrcTypes

An array of file specification records. You should include a file specification record in this array for each file type that your extension knows how to translate.

group1DstCount

The number of file types that the extension can write in a group.

group1DstEntrySize

The size of the file specification records in the array that follows this field. In general, you can set this field to SizeOf(FileTypeSpec).

group1DstTypes

An array of file specification records. You should include a file specification record in this array for each file type that your extension can translate into.