d17f923f92
Let's have it as it's common to be, which means top level src/ for sources, single data/ for data, and so on.
114 lines
3.7 KiB
Plaintext
114 lines
3.7 KiB
Plaintext
<preface id="introduction">
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<title>Introduction</title>
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<para>
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This is the &Evolution; Developer's Guide or programming guide
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for the &Evolution; groupware suite. If you are a programmer
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and you wish to use &Evolution;'s functionality from your own
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applications or if you wish to modify the &Evolution; core code,
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you should read this guide.
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</para>
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<para>
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If you are an end-user of &Evolution; you do not need to read
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this guide; please read the &Evolution; User's Guide instead.
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</para>
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<para>
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This guide contains the information you need to know to do the
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following:
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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Write applications that use &Evolution;'s data
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repositories via the &Wombat; personal information server.
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Examples of this would be a <application>GNOME
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Panel</application> applet that displays today's
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appointments, or a telephone dialer application that uses
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the contents of the &Evolution; Addressbook.
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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Write applications that use the &Camel; mail library.
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This includes extending &Evolution;'s own mail component
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to perform additional functions.
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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Write new components for the &Evolution; Shell. Instead
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of writing a stand-alone application, you can provide your
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users with the benefit of having integrated views of their
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data from within Evolution.
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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Write new modules for the &Evolution; Executive Summary.
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This allows you to present commonly-accessed information
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in a convenient fashion directly in the &Evolution; Shell.
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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Modify the core &Evolution; code to add new features or
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change its architecture.
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</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</para>
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<sect1 id="organization">
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<title>Organization of this Guide</title>
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<para>
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This guide is organized in two big sections. The first is a
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programming guide, which consists of one part for each one of
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&Evolution;'s components: there are separate parts for the
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calendar, the addressbook, the mailer, the executive summary,
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and the shell. Each part gives a description of the
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architecture of its corresponding component, and also gives
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information about the component's internal architecture and
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some implementation details.
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</para>
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<para>
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The second section of this guide is a reference guide for
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&Evolution;'s programming interfaces. We have separated these
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into public and private interfaces. The public ones are those
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that most people will need to use when writing extensions or
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third-party components; the private interfaces are those used
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internally in &Evolution;. Even if you do not intend to
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modify the &Evolution; core code, it may be useful to know a
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bit about the way it is organized internally.
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</para>
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<para>
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&Evolution; is free software, and we want you as a programmer
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to make the most of it. We have provided many useful
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interfaces that you can use in your own applications. Still,
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we want you to view &Evolution; as a framework for building
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groupware applications, and this may occasionally involve
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making changes to its core code. We want you to learn from
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&Evolution;'s design because we think it marks an important
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milestone in the development of large-scale free software
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applications. We want you to modify it as you see fit. Free
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software gives you this freedom, and we want the whole world
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to benefit from it.
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</para>
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</sect1>
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</preface>
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