Difference between revisions of "Idle Call"

Revision as of 21:04, 3 April 2012

You can have FileMaker call your plugin during the standard system idle call. During this time, you can execute call backs to FileMaker, including Script and/or SQL callbacks.

NOTE : Be careful that your idle code doesn't take too much time - it's called frequently and any time it takes reduces the overall performance of FileMaker.

Step One - Enable Idle Time Flag

Set the 'Want idle time' flag in the plugin Option String to be 'Y' (the third to last flag)

#define IDMA_Plugin_OptionString		"IDMA1nnYYnn"
//						 ^--^ || | |---- // No Win32s support
//						 |    || |------ // Want idle time 
//						 |    ||-------- // No old external functions
//						 |    |--------- // Has preferences dialog
//						 |-------------- // 'IDMA' plug-in ID

Step Two - Do_PluginIdle function

In your main file, you will find the 'Do_PluginIdle' function.

static void Do_PluginIdle(FMX_IdleLevel idleLevel) 
{
	if (pluginIsRunningOnFMPro)          // Only execute if running on client or runtime  (ie. don't call when on server)
	{                                                    // BOOL pluginIsRunningOnFMPro  set during plugin init
		// Check idle state
		switch (idleLevel)
		{
			case kFMXT_UserIdle:
			{
				// The user hasn't done anything for 30 seconds or more.  (mouse movement don't reset this)
			}
			break;
				
 			case kFMXT_UserNotIdle:
			{
				// The user has done something within the last 30 seconds
			}
			break;

			case kFMXT_ScriptPaused:
			{
				// The user is running a script that is paused
			}
			break;

			case kFMXT_ScriptRunning:
			{
				// The user is running a script
			}
			break;
				
			case kFMXT_Unsafe:
			{
				// The plug-in should wait and do nothing at this time.
			}
			break;
		}// switch idleLevel

	}
} // Do_PluginIdle