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NIFReadEntries

Function : Views
NIFReadEntries - Reads information about entries in a collection.

#include <nif.h>
STATUS LNPUBLIC NIFReadEntries(

    HCOLLECTION  hCollection,
    COLLECTIONPOSITION far *IndexPos,
    WORD  SkipNavigator,
    DWORD  SkipCount,
    WORD  ReturnNavigator,
    DWORD  ReturnCount,
    DWORD  ReturnMask,
    DHANDLE far *rethBuffer,
    WORD far *retBufferLength,
    DWORD far *retNumEntriesSkipped,
    DWORD far *retNumEntriesReturned,
    WORD far *retSignalFlags);
Description :

This function scans a collection and returns information about the entries in the collection.

The function takes as input a collection (parameter 1) and a starting location in the collection (parameter 2). The function skips some number of entries (possibly zero), based on parameters 3 and 4. After skipping some entries, the function begins reading the entries in the collection, based on parameters 5, 6 and 7. Parameters 5 and 6 specify how to navigate the collection while reading, and parameter 7 specifies what information to return about each entry in the collection.

The information is returned in a buffer (parameter 8). All the information about the first entry appears first in the buffer, all the information about the second entry appears next and so on. Within each entry, the information occurs in the order of the bits in the bit flags READ_MASK_xxx.

After a call to NIFReadEntries(), the collection position (parameter 2) points to the last entry read. You can use repeated calls to NIFReadEntries to move incrementally through a collection. However, upon repeating the call to NIFReadEntries(), use one of the NAVIGATE_NEXT_xxx skip navigate flags (the third parameter) and use a skip count of 1L (the fourth parameter) to advance the collection position past the last one read so that it begins reading with the next entry in the collection.

If the amount of information to be returned cannot fit in the return buffer, then the SIGNAL_MORE_TO_DO bit is set in the retSignalFlags parameter, no error is returned, and the buffer is returned truncated on the last "whole" entry that fits into the buffer. There will never be a truncated entry in the returned buffer. Therefore, you should always call NIFReadEntries in a loop and test the SIGNAL_MORE_TO_DO bit in the SignalFlags parameter. This ensures that you obtain information about all the notes in a collection.

After each call to NIFReadEntries is completed, you must check that the returned buffer handle (8th argument) is not NULLHANDLE, and then call OSLockObject to lock the buffer and obtain the address of the requested data.
Also check the number of entries returned (11th argument) to ensure that the buffer contains valid entries. When you are through using the buffer, you must call OSUnlockObject to unlock it and OSMemFree to deallocate it.

Note: Even though the number of entries returned and/or the returned buffer length are 0, you must use OSMemFree if the returned buffer handle is not NULLHANDLE. The return of a buffer handle that is not NULLHANDLE does not necessarily mean that entries were found by NIFReadEntries. Use the returned number of entries to determine whether the buffer contains valid entries.

You can get to the last N entries of a view by setting the Skip Navigator to NAVIGATE_NEXT | NAVIGATE_CONTINUE, setting the SkipCount to MAXDWORD, setting the ReturnNavigator to NAVIGATE_PREV_EXPANDED, and setting the ReturnCount to N (N must be greater than 0).

For a very quick way of getting the last entry of a view, set the Skip Navigator to NAVIGATE_NEXT | NAVIGATE_CONTINUE, set the SkipCount to MAXDWORD, set the ReturnNavigator to NAVIGATE_CURRENT, set the retNumEntriesSkipped parameter to NULL, and set the ReturnCount to N (N must be greater than 0).
For optimization, do not use the full text seaarch navigator flags (NAVIGATE_xxx_HIT) in the SkipNavigator.

Parameters : Input : hCollection - The handle of the collection that you want to read.

IndexPos - A pointer to a COLLECTIONPOSITION that holds the starting point within the collection. The starting point controls which note in the collection is the first note read. To start at the beginning of the collection, set CollPosition.Level to 0 and CollPosition.Tumbler[0] to 1. An alternative way to start at the beginning of the collection is to set the CollPosition.Level to 0, set the CollPosition.Tumbler[0] to 0, set the skip navigate flag (third parameter) to NAVIGATE_NEXT and set the skip count (fourth parameter) to 1L.

SkipNavigator - Flags that controls how the collection is navigated during the "skip" operation. Skipping occurs before the collection is read and may be used to pass over some of the collection's entries. The skip flags are defined in NAVIGATE_xxx.

SkipCount - How many entries to skip before reading the collection. The skip pattern is determined by SkipNavigator parameter. To skip no entries, set this argument to 0.

ReturnNavigator - Flags that control how the collection is navigated when the entries are read (after skipping is complete). The read flags are defined in NAVIGATE_xxx. See the example below for how to read all the entries in a collection.

ReturnCount - The maximum number of entries that should be returned. To read all the entries in the collection, set this argument to 0xFFFFFFFF. To stop reading before the end of the collection, set this argument to the number of entries you want.

ReturnMask - Flags that control what information about the collection's entries will be returned. The information flags are defined in READ_MASK_xxx, and may be OR'ed together to combine functionailty. If more than one flag is requested, the order of the item's information in the buffer is the same order as the flag's bit numbers (i.e. flag bit 0 precedes bit 1, then bit 2, etc).

Output : (routine) - Return status from this call -- indicates either success or what the error is. The return codes include:

NOERROR ERR_UNSUPPORTED_FLAGS ERR_NONAMES

IndexPos - A pointer to a COLLECTIONPOSITION indicating the last note in the collection that was read by NIFReadEntries. If the entire collection is not read by a call to NIFReadEntries, this COLLECTIONPOSITION can be used as input into the next call to NIFReadEntries. In this case, be sure to set the skip navigate flag and skip count so that the last note read in the previous call to NIFReadEntries is skipped.

rethBuffer - The address of a HANDLE variable in which the handle to a buffer of information about this collection is returned. This may be returned as NULLHANDLE if there were no entries returned, so be sure to check for NULLHANDLE before attempting to lock the returned handle.

The caller is responsible for freeing this buffer using OSMemFree.

retBufferLength - The address of a WORD in which the length of the information buffer is returned. If you are not interested in this length, set this argument to NULL.

retNumEntriesSkipped - The address of a WORD in which the number of entries that were skipped is returned. If you are not interested in this information, set this argument to NULL.

retNumEntriesReturned - The address of a DWORD in which the number of entries is returned. If you are not interested in this information, set this argument to NULL. However, you should use this returned value to determine whether this function found any entries.

retSignalFlags - The address of a WORD in which various result flags are returned. If one of the the flags represented by SIGNAL_ANY_CONFLICT is set, the collection has changed since it was last read. If the SIGNAL_MORE_TO_DO flag is set, then the end of the collection has not been reached and there exists more information than could fit in the return buffer. In this case, NIFReadEntries should be called again to retrieve an additional buffer of information. The signal flags are defined in SIGNAL_xxx, and are returned OR'ed together.

Sample Usage :

/* This code fragment shows a typical call to NIFReadEntries. */

/* Set up the data structure, COLLECTIONPOSITION, that           */
/* controls where in the collection we will begin when we read  */
/* the collection.  Specify that we want to start at the beginning. */

 CollPosition.Level = 0;
 CollPosition.Tumbler[0] = 0;

/* Get a buffer of all the note IDs for the notes in this collection.
Check the return code to see if the collection is empty. */

do
{
 error = NIFReadEntries(
      hCollection,     /* handle to this collection */
      &CollPosition,    /* where to start in collection */
      NAVIGATE_NEXT,    /* order to skip entries */
      1L,      /* number to skip */
      NAVIGATE_NEXT,    /* order to use after skipping */
      0xFFFF,       /* max return number */
      READ_MASK_NOTEID,     /* info we want */
      &hBuffer,     /* handle to info (return) */
      NULL,      /* length of buffer (return) */
      NULL,      /* entries skipped (return) */
      &NotesFound,     /* number of notes (return) */
      &SignalFlags);    /* share warning (return) */

 if (error) return(error);

/* Lock down (freeze the location) of the buffer of notes IDs. Cast
the resulting pointer to the type we need. */

 if (hBuffer != NULLHANDLE)
   {
   IdList = (NOTEID far *)OSLockObject(hBuffer);

/* Print out the list of all the note IDs in this collection. */

   for (i=0; i<NotesFound; i++)
      printf ("Note ID number %lu is: %lu\n", ++NumNotes,
                   IdList[i]);

/* Unlock the list of note IDs. */

   OSUnlockObject(hBuffer);

/* Free the memory allocated by NIFReadEntries. */

   OSMemFree(hBuffer);
   }

/* repeat loop if more signal flag is set */

} while (SignalFlags & SIGNAL_MORE_TO_DO);       
See Also : NIFCloseCollection NIFOpenCollection OSLockObject OSMemFree OSUnlockObject SIGNAL_xxx