[maemo-developers] Some DBus related questions

[From: Kimmo Hämäläinen]

On Sun, 2008-09-07 at 22:17 +0200, ext Tim Teulings wrote:
> Hello!
> 
> A few questions about DBus-based features under maemo.
> 
> I would like to enhance several applications with the following dbus stuff:
> * Show list of available networks in WifiInfo using dbus calls (because
> querying the kernel interface directly seems to interfere with the
> "normal" operation).
> * I would like to get information about current network connectivity and
> trigger network connectivity on demand. This can be implemented by using
> libconic.
> * Later on possibly connect to other services and get other events...
> 
> The problem is, that I'm not an Gtk application. So there are IMHO two
> possibilities:

I assume you mean you don't use the Glib main loop. Gtk is not needed
for D-Bus communication.

> * Generate a separate thread that uses a glib main event loop and try to
> get libosso and libconic to run using this event loop - communication
> with the rest of my application using thread synchronisations. Would
> that work?

Maybe that would work, but it's certainly a horrible hack. 

> * I already have a dbus event loop running as part of my internal event
> loop. However this is not glib main-loop based, so I would not be able
> using libooso, libconic and similar, but have to get the direct dbus
> calls from their sources (having to adapt code every time the dbus
> interface changes).

I think the simplest solution is to use Glib main loop in your program.
Otherwise you would need to hack the libraries to work with your non-
Glib main loop (which is not impossible, but quite a lot of work).  Glib
main loop is like the GPL, it contaminates your program :)

BR; Kimmo

> So here are the questions:
> * Does anybody have experience with non-gtk applications and can
> recommend on of the two ways?
> * Is there any code for accessing the list of wlan access points via dbus?
> * How can I develop and test against thus dbus services using scratchbox
> developemnt environment. Are there fake-services configured that can be
> started and return "enough to test" results.
> * Is LibLocation also DBus based? How can I access GPSD from non-Gtk
> applications? How can I test accessing the GPS functionality formt eh
> scratchbox environment. Is there also a fake-service?
> 
> All information is based on Diablo reference manual.
>