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Please review the following information to ensure ** the GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 requirements ** will be met: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html. ** $QT_END_LICENSE$ ** ****************************************************************************/ /*! \group sensors_backend_topics \title Qt Sensors Backend \brief Information about the Qt Sensors back end The Qt Sensors backend connects the Qt Sensors API to the platform services or hardware sensors. \tableofcontents \section1 Overview \section1 Backend API QSensor instances talk to a backend object. Backends are usually supplied with the Qt Sensors library for a specific device although third party backends may be used as well. A backend may talk directly to hardware or it may talk to a system service. In some instances it may even talk to another sensor. An example of this is the orientation sensor backend that talks to an accelerometer to determine the device orientation. \section1 Backend Classes If you are making sensors available through the Sensors API, these are the classes to use. \annotatedlist sensors_backend \section1 Backend Topics \generatelist related */ /*! \page creating-a-sensor-plugin.html \title Creating a sensor plugin \ingroup sensors_backend_topics \section1 How a sensor plugin is loaded Since sensor backends are created on demand, the sensor plugin is loaded and asked to register the sensor backends it handles. The plugin should implement QSensorPluginInterface::registerSensors() and call QSensorManager::registerBackend() to register available backends. Typically the plugin will also inherit from QSensorBackendFactory and implement QSensorBackendFactory::createBackend() in order to instantiate backends it has registered. The simplest plugin will have just once sensor backend although there is no reason that multiple sensor backends cannot be in a plugin. An example follows. \snippet snippets/sensors/plugin.cpp Plugin */ /*! \page determining-the-default-sensor-for-a-type.html \title Determining the default sensor for a type \ingroup sensors_backend_topics \section1 Multiple sensors can exist for a type Sensors was designed so that multiple sensors could exist for a given type. Why? Consider this example. The N900 has an accelerometer built-in. It also features bluetooth and can pair with a gaming controller that features an accelerometer. To a developer writing a game these two devices are conceptually the same type. \section1 Default sensor for a type To avoid the need to know (or check) what the default sensor for a type is, the system will use the default sensor for a type. Most of the time this is what the app developer wants to do. In cases where the app developer wants to select a specific sensor they must call the QSensor::setIdentifier() method before they start the sensor so that the appropriate backend is used. From a system perspective though, selecting which sensor should be the default gets tricky. The sensors library uses the first registered identifier as the default. This means that the order in which sensor backends are registered is important so the system will allow a config file to determine the default instead. \section1 Sensors.conf The config file that determines the default sensor for a type is called Sensors.conf. If present, it is located in /etc/xdg/Nokia. It has the standard formatting of an ini file. The settings live in the Default group and the general format is: \code type = identifier \endcode An example Sensors.conf that ensures the N900 accelerometer is used as the default no matter the order in which backends were registered is presented here. \code [Default] QAccelerometer = n900.accelerometer \endcode If Sensors.conf specifies an identifier that is not registered then the system will fall back to the first registered identifier as the default. Note that there is special case logic to prevent the generic plugin's backends from becoming the default when another backend is registered for the same type. This logic means that a backend identifier starting with \c{generic.} will only be the default if no other backends have been registered for that type or if it is specified in \c{Sensors.conf}. */ /*! \page dynamic-sensor-backend-registration.html \title Dynamic Sensor Backend Registration \ingroup sensors_backend_topics \section1 Static Backend Registration Sensor backends are generally registered statically. The registration happens when the sensors library is first used and the registration remains in effect while the program runs. \image sensors-static.png Statically registered backends may still exhibit some dynamic behaviour as the QSensorBackendFactory is free to return 0 to indicate that a backend cannot be created. \section1 Dynamic Backend Registration While static registration is fine for most backends there are some situations where this is problematic. The clearest example is backends that represent non-fixed hardware. As an example, lets consider a game controller that is connected via Bluetooth. As there may be more than one game controller in range of the phone, the program wants to record that a specific game controller should be used. If the backend had been registered statically there would have been no unique information about the controller. Instead, the registration is delayed until the controller is seen. \image sensors-dynamic.png \section1 Suggested Registration Policy A backend for fixed hardware should be registered immediately. Applications can see that the sensor can be used. A backend for remote hardware should not be registered immediately. Applications can see that the sensor cannot be used. When the remote hardware becomes available the backend should be registered. Applications can see that the sensor is now available. If it is necessary to return 0 from a factory for a backend that was registered, the backend should be unregistered. Applications can see that the sensor is no longer available. If the factory can create the backend again it should be registered. Applications can see that the sensor is available again. When the underlying hardware is no longer available, the backend should be deregistered. Existing instances of the backend should report error states to the application but should handle the situation gracefully. */