Sam Tarakajian

So. What I'd like to do is make an external that can download content from the web. The SDK doesn't seem to allow for this specifically, so I thought I'd try creating a maxurl object internally, then sending messages to that.

x->maxurl = object_new(CLASS_BOX, gensym("maxurl"));

object_post(x, "Pointer to the internal maxurl object is %p", x->maxurl);

Fine. It's easy enough to forward download requests to the maxurl object as well.

void samssexyexternal_download(t_persist *x, t_symbol *url_symbol)

object_method_sym(x->maxurl, gensym("get"), url_symbol, NULL);

But, now how do I attach to the outlets of the maxurl object, so that I can get updates as my stuff downloads? Or is this whole method doomed, and should I handle all these http requests without relying on a maxurl object?

Hi everyone,
So. What I'd like to do is make an external that can download content from the web. The SDK doesn't seem to allow for this specifically, so I thought I'd try creating a maxurl object internally, then sending messages to that.

// Add the internal maxurl object
x->maxurl = object_new(CLASS_BOX, gensym("maxurl"));
object_post(x, "Pointer to the internal maxurl object is %p", x->maxurl);

void samssexyexternal_download(t_persist *x, t_symbol *url_symbol)
{
    object_method_sym(x->maxurl, gensym("get"), url_symbol, NULL);
}

connecting-to-an-internal-object

You are looking for the "set_dictionary" method:

t_dictionary *d = NULL;
const char *req_json ="{ \"http_method\": \"get\", \"url\": \"https://cycling74.com\", \"filename_out\": \"~/Desktop/cycling_home.html\" }";

dictobj_dictionary_fromstring(&d, req_json, true, NULL);
if (d) {
  object_method(x->maxurl, gensym("set_dictionary"), d, (method)cb_fn /* result callback */, NULL /* void* result cb argument */, (method)NULL /* progress callback */, NULL /* void*, progress cb argument */);
  object_free(d);
}


The dictionary keys can be found in the maxurl help file.

Your result callback should look like this:

void cb_fn(void *maxurl, t_dictionary *result, void *data);


 is the result of your request (for instance, dictionary_getlong(result, gensym("status"), &status))), and 

 is whatever you passed in as the argument. Note that you may not free the maxurl inside of this function. If you need to free it, defer_low() to do that.

So far so good. Now it gets a little hairy, since I've never needed to use the progress callback, so I can't vouch for anything. Theoretically, your progress callback should look like this:

void prg_cb_fn(void *data, double dltotal, double dlnow, double ultotal, double ulnow);


 is an opaque private pointer. So set an argument, otherwise you can't get back to your object instance. The other values should be reasonably self-explanatory, assuming that they work.

All of the above is untested code written in a browser, YMMV. But those are the broad strokes. August is on papa-leave, he may want to chime in on this at some point, but feel free to send semi-working code and we'll try to get you up and running if this isn't enough information. At some point, we could add an example to the SDK, but this is still a relatively new API and there hasn't been an opportunity to properly document it yet.

Where maxurl is your maxurl object, result is the result of your request (for instance, dictionary_getlong(result, gensym("status"), &status))), and data is whatever you passed in as the argument. Note that you may not free the maxurl inside of this function. If you need to free it, defer_low() to do that.

If you specified an argument, data is that, otherwise data is an opaque private pointer. So set an argument, otherwise you can't get back to your object instance. The other values should be reasonably self-explanatory, assuming that they work. 

All of the above is untested code written in a browser, YMMV. But those are the broad strokes. August is on papa-leave, he may want to chime in on this at some point, but feel free to send semi-working code and we'll try to get you up and running if this isn't enough information. At some point, we could add an example to the SDK, but this is still a relatively new API and there hasn't been an opportunity to properly document it yet.


Connecting to an internal object