'\"
'\" Copyright (c) 1995-1996 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
'\"
'\" See the file "license.terms" for information on usage and redistribution
'\" of this file, and for a DISCLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES.
'\" 
'\" SCCS: @(#) plugin.n 1.19 98/01/22 15:11:50
'\" 
.so man.macros
.TH "Plugin Architecture" n 2.0 Tcl "Tcl Built-In Commands"
.BS
'\" Note:  do not modify the .SH NAME line immediately below!
.SH NAME
Plugin\ Architecture \- The architecture of the Tcl Plugin
.BE
.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
The Tcl Plugin allows Tclets (downloaded Tcl scripts embedded
in HTML web pages) to be executed in the context of a web browser.
The plugin can be configured in a variety of ways described here to provide
a flexible and efficient environment for executing and distributing Tcl
applications over the Web.
.PP
This document is organized in the following sections:
.TP
\fBLIFECYCLE\fR
Everyone should read the \fBPLUGIN LIFECYCLE\fR section for an overview of
the operation of the Tcl plugin, and to understand the layout of the rest
of this manual page.
.TP
\fBTCLET\ EXECUTION\fR
You should read the section on \fBTCLET EXECUTION\fR if you are interested
in how Tclets are downloaded and executed.
The section \fBBASE TCLET ENVIRONMENT\fR describes the procedures and
variables available in the interpreter in which a Tclet is executing, in
addition to those supplied by the Safe Base; to learn about the Safe Base,
you should read the \fBsafe\fR manual page.
.TP
\fBMASTER\ EXECUTION\fR
The sections on \fBFILES\fR, \fBENVIRONMENT VARIABLES\fR and \fBMASTER
EXECUTION\fR contain important information for system
administrators and site managers, and also for more advanced configuration
of the plugin.
.TP
\fBINSPECTION\ FACILITIES\fR
You should read the sections on the \fBPLUGIN CONSOLE\fR and on
\fBLOGGING\fR if you are developing a Tclet, as they contain information
that may aid in debugging.
.TP
\fBCONFIGURATION\fR
Finally, you should read the \fBconfig\fR manual page to understand the
format of configuration files.
.PP

.SH "PLUGIN LIFECYCLE"
.PP
This section summarizes the actions of the Tcl plugin during various stages
of its execution; the text refers to other sections or manual pages for a
complete description.
.PP
The first thing that the plugin does is to create the master interpreter
that will control all Tclets, and locate its runtime library, as described
in the section \fBFILES\fR.
If the runtime library can not be found, no Tclets are executed.
The master interpreter contains several important procedures and variable
settings, as described in the section on the \fBMASTER INTERPRETER
ENVIRONMENT\fR.
.PP
After locating its runtime libraries, the plugin decides whether to execute
Tclets in the same address space as the browser, or in a separate process.
This decision is controlled by the execution platform and by the
\fBTCL_PLUGIN_WISH\fR environment variable, as described in the
\fBENVIRONMENT VARIABLES\fR section.
Next, the master interpreter attempts to source an initialization file and
invoke an initialization procedure, as described in the \fBFILES\fR
section.
.PP
Now, the plugin is ready to accept the first Tclet for execution.
A new interpreter is created and the source for the Tclet is loaded into
it and started, as described in the section \fBTCLET EXECUTION\fR.
.PP
The Tclet executes in an environment described in the \fBBASE TCLET
ENVIRONMENT\fR section, and it can call back into the plugin to use its
features, e.g. to fetch URLs from the network or invoke a JavaScript
command.
To obtain access to features provided by the plugin to the Tclet, a Tclet
must first request to use a security policy that allows these features to
be used by the Tclet.
The Tclet requests to use a policy with the \fBpolicy\fR command described
in the \fBpolicy\fR manual page.
This request causes the master to perform any required security checks.
After the security checks are done, the master installs aliases in the
Tclet that allow it to use the new features.
For an explanation of aliases and multiple interpreters, see the
\fBinterp\fR manual page that comes with the Tcl 8.0 distribution.
.PP
When a Tclet finishes execution, its interpreter is destroyed and all state
associated with the Tclet is discarded.
When the last Tclet finishes execution, the plugin is unloaded by the
hosting browser.
This can happen for example as a result of the user clicking the \fBBack\fR
button to leave the page containing the last Tclet.

.SH "TCLET EXECUTION"
.PP
Tclets are downloaded from a web server and executed locally in a safe
interpreter under the control of a master interpreter.
Tclets are embedded in a web page using the HTML \fBembed\fR statement, as
shown below:
.PP
.CS
<embed src=source.tcl width=100 height=100 ...>
.CE
.PP
The \fBwidth\fR and \fBheight\fR arguments are required if the Tclet is
visible, and may be ommitted if the Tclet is hidden.
The \fBwidth\fR and \fBheight\fR arguments tell the
browser to allocate the specified area, in pixels, on the screen for use by
the plugin.
The Tclet can not control the size of its window and must accept the size
given in the \fBembed\fR statement.
.PP
The value supplied in the \fBsrc\fR argument can be any URL; as shown in
the example above, it is a relative URL, and this directs the browser to
retrieve the Tcl source file \fBsource.tcl\fR from the same server and the
same directory as the HTML page containing the \fBembed\fR statement.
An \fBsrc\fR argument must be supplied if the Tclet is stored in a separate
file; for small Tclets, the Tclet can be given in\-line as the value of a
\fBscript\fR argument.
If an \fBsrc\fR argument is given, the Tclet must be stored on a web server
in a file whose name ends with the \fB.tcl\fR extension, to ensure that the
browser will activate the Tcl plugin.
.PP
Both an \fBsrc\fR and a \fBscript\fR argument may be given; the program
executed by the Tclet is composed of the value of the \fBscript\fR argument
followed by the Tcl code downloaded from the URL value of the \fBsrc\fR
argument.
.PP
If only a \fBscript\fR argument is given, a \fBtype\fR
argument whose value is \fBapplication/x-tcl\fR must also be given. This
tells the browser to activate the Tcl plugin.
Note that some browsers (for example, Microsoft Internet Explorer) do not
properly handle \fBscript\fR arguments without an accompanying \fBsrc\fR
argument, because they do not understand the \fBtype\fR argument and are
unable to start the Tcl plugin in that case.
.PP
Several \fBembed\fR statements can appear within one HTML web page,
resulting in multiple concurrent Tclets being activated.
Each Tclet executes within its own interpreter created by the master
using \fB::safe::interpCreate\fR.
Each interpreter contains all the aliases and commands as defined in the
section \fBBASE TCLET ENVIRONMENT\fR.
The Tclet does not share any code or variables with other concurrently
active Tclets.
All Tclets are controlled by a shared master interpreter.
.PP
During execution, Tclets can request to use a security policy to extend
their features in a safe manner, by invoking the \fBpolicy\fR command.
The \fBpolicy\fR manual page described how Tclets request to use a policy.
.PP
On Unix and Win32 platforms it is possible to execute Tclets in a separate
process; the executable must be based on Tk 8.0p2 for this to work properly.
The environment variable \fBTCL_PLUGIN_WISH\fR determines which executable
is used to execute Tclets. This is fully described in the section
\fBENVIRONMENT VARIABLES\fR.
On the Macintosh platform the only option is to execute Tclets in the same
address space as the hosting browser and the \fBTCL_PLUGIN_WISH\fR
environment variable is ignored.

.SH FILES
.PP
The plugin is partially written in Tcl; a library of scripts is provided
with the distribution to implement various aspects of the plugin.
These files are stored in a directory chosen at installation time and in a
platform specific location.
At runtime, the master interpreter can obtain the location of the library
in the value of the global Tcl variable \fBplugin(library)\fR.
.PP
Here is how the library is located at startup time on each platform:
.TP
\fBUNIX\fR
The plugin first checks whether an environment variable
\fBTCL_PLUGIN_DIR\fR is set. If it is and the value denotes the name of an
existing directory, the plugin library is found by appending the version
number of the plugin (e.g. \fB2.0\fR) and \fBplugin\fR.
If the environment variable is not set, the plugin attempts to use one of
\fI$env(HOME)\fB/.netscape\fR,
\fB/usr/local/lib/netscape\fR,
the grandparent of the directory containing the executable of the browser,
and the current working directory to compute the name of its library.
The name of the library is computed by appending \fBtclplug\fR, the version
number of the plugin (e.g. \fB2.0\fR) and \fBplugin\fR to the candidate
directory, and checking whether that directory exists.
The first directory that is found on the local file system is used as the
location of the plugin library.
If the plugin library can not be found, the plugin produces an error message
and will not execute Tclets.
.TP
\fBWindows\fR
The plugin first checks whether an environment variable
\fBTCL_PLUGIN_DIR\fR is set. If it is and the value denotes the name of an
existing directory, the plugin library is found by appending the version
number of the plugin (e.g. \fB2.0\fR) and \fBplugin\fR.
If the environment variable is not set, the plugin looks in the system
registry for the value \fBDirectory\fR under the key
\fBHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\Software\\Sun\\Tcl Plugin\\2.0\fR and uses the
stored value to compute the name of the library directory by appending the
version number of the plugin and \fBplugin\fR.
If the \fBTCL_PLUGIN_DIR\fR environment variable is not set and the
system registry does not contain the required information,
the plugin will produce an error message and will not execute Tclets.
The installation script provided with the plugin
distribution installs the key and value into the registry.
.PP
An initialization file is \fBsource\fRd into the master interpreter before
the first Tclet interpreter is created.
In it, you can include code that you want to always execute before the
first Tclet runs, e.g. to load extensions into the master interpreter.
The name of the initialization file and where it is found varies by platform:
.TP
\fBUNIX\fR
The plugin tries to source \fI$env(HOME)\fB/.tclpluginrc\fR.
.TP
\fBWindows,\ Mac\fR
On Win32 and Macintosh systems, the plugin sources the file
\fBtclplugin.rc\fR in the \fBplugin(library)\fR directory.
.PP
After potentially sourcing the intialization file, the plugin attempts to
invoke \fBsiteInit\fR.
The definition for this procedure could be provided in the initialization
file or it may be possible to locate it via auto-loading.
If an error results from attempting to invoke \fBsiteInit\fR, it is
logged and ignored.
.PP
The plugin runtime libraries are installed in several directories related
to the \fBplugin(library)\fR directory:
.TP
\fBsafetcl\fR
Contains Tcl code to implement the various features supplied by the plugin
to Tcl scripts, such as the ability to write HTML streams and fetch URLs.
This is a peer directory of \fBplugin(library)\fR.
.TP
\fBtcl8.0\fR
This peer directory contains a copy of the \fBTcl 8.0\fR Tcl library.
These files are included with the plugin installation so that the plugin
can be used without requiring the user to have installed Tcl 8.0.
.TP
\fBtk8.0\fR
This peer directory contains a copy of the \fBTk 8.0\fR Tcl library.
These files are likewise included to allow the plugin to be used when the
user does not have Tk 8.0 installed.
.TP
\fBconfig\fR
This peer directory contains configuration files that control the behavior
of the plugin, such as which security policies and features are enabled.
See the \fBconfig\fR and \fBpolicy\fR manual pages, and manual pages for
individual policies, to learn about the contents of these files.
.TP
\fButils\fR
This child directory of the \fBplugin(library)\fR directory contains
generic Tcl code implementing various utility functions such as support for
logging, URL parsing, configuration file parsing and a remote
procedure invocation package.
These are not specific to the plugin and could be useful in other programs.

.SH "ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES"
.PP
The following environment variables affect the behavior of the Tcl Plugin.
All of these variables are accessible in the master interpreter in the
global Tcl array \fBenv\fR.
.TP
\fBTCL_PLUGIN_DIR\fR
The value is used to find the runtime library for the Tcl plugin.
This process is fully described in the section \fBFILES\fR, above.
.TP
\fBTCL_PLUGIN_WISH\fR
If set to \fB0\fR, Tclets are executed in the address space of the
hosting browser.
If set to \fB1\fR, Tclets are executed in the address space of a \fBwish\fR
supplied with the plugin installation.
If the variable is set to anything else, it is takes as the full path to an
executable that will be used as an external process to run Tclets. The
executable must be based on Tcl and Tk 8.0 or later.
.TP
\fBTCL_PLUGIN_CONSOLE\fR
If set to \fB1\fR, a console using Jeff Hobb's \fBtkCon\fR application will
be created; if set to another value, the console will be created by
\fBsource\fRing the value as a Tcl script.
The console window is created and iconified; it will show up as an icon on
your window manager's task bar.
The console is connected to the master interpreter and can be used to type
commands and query the state of the master interpreter and of all Tclets.
.TP
\fBTCL_PLUGIN_LOGWINDOW\fR
If set to \fB1\fR, and if \fBTCL_PLUGIN_LOGFILE\fR is not set, the master
interpreter logs important events to a window.
The window is initially iconified and its icon appears in your window
manager's task bar.
The window supplies a simple menu bar that allows you to reset its contents
or save it to a file.
.TP
\fBTCL_PLUGIN_LOGFILE\fR
If set, this specifies
the name of a file on the local file system into which the master
interpreter logs important events.
You can follow the operation of the plugin by using \fBtail\fR on this
file; event log entries are flushed to this file as soon as they are added,
so you can use this to interactively debug a Tclet or configuration
problem.
This is equivalent to watching the sequence of log events in the window
created when \fBTCL_PLUGIN_LOGWINDOW\fR is set.

.SH "MASTER INTERPRETER ENVIRONMENT"
.PP
This section describes the environment in which code in the master
interpreter executes.
This is of interest if you want to debug a Tclet with the console, or if
you want to implement new features; this information will aid you in
finding the relevant state information.
.PP
The global array \fBplugin\fR contains information about the Tcl plugin
and its runtime environment:
.TP
\fBplugin(library)\fR
Specifies the directory where the plugin finds its runtime libraries.
This directory is used to find other directories containing script files,
as described in the \fBFILES\fR section.
.TP
\fBplugin(version)\fR
The version number of the Tcl plugin.
.TP
\fBplugin(patchLevel)\fR
The patch level of the Tcl plugin.
.TP
\fBplugin(release)\fR
The release date of this version of the Tcl plugin, encoded as
\fBYYYYMMDD\fR.
.PP
The \fBbrowser\fR namespace contains the implementations of all the
features provided by the plugin to Tclets.
It provides several interesting Tcl variables:
.TP
\fBbrowser::userAgent\fR
A string identifying the hosting browser; note that due to limitations in
the interface between the hosting browser and the plugin this variable is
not set until right before the first Tclet starts executing and is
unavailable when the initialization script is executed.
.TP
\fBbrowser::apiVersion\fR
The major and minor API version numbers for the features provided to the
plugin by the hosting browser.
.PP
The \fBcfg\fR namespace contains the implementation of configuration
management.
The configuration management package \fBcfg\fR is fully documented in the
\fBconfig\fR manual page.
The namespace provides these interesting variables:
.TP
\fBcfg::configDir\fR
The name of the directory containing configuration files for controlling
the behavior of the Tcl plugin.
This is the \fBconfig\fR directory described in the \fBFILES\fR section.
.TP
\fBcfg::featureList\fR
This variable contains an ordered list of all the features available in the
Tcl plugin.
For more information, see the \fBpolicy\fR and \fBconfig\fR manual pages.
.TP
\fBcfg::userConfig\fR
The name of the main configuration file in the configuration directory.
Settings in this file controls major aspects of the behavior of the plugin
such as which policies are available and which features are installed.
See the \fBpolicy\fR and \fBconfig\fR manual pages for more information.
.TP
\fBcfg::slaveNs\fR
The name of the namespace used to house aliases in a Tclet.
The value of this variable is \fBbrowser\fR, which means that aliases
will be installed into the \fBbrowser\fR namespace in Tclets.
.TP
\fBcfg::implNs\fR
The name of the namespace containing the implementation of all features
provided by the Tcl plugin.
The value of this variable is \fBbrowser\fR, which means that aliases
installed in the Tclet interpreter invoke procedures installed in the
\fBbrowser\fR namespace in the master interpreter.
.TP
\fBcfg::safeAttributes\fR
A list of named attributes that are reflected into the Tclet interpreter so
that the Tclet can inspect its state.
Attributes of the Tclet that are not
in this list are only available in the master interpreter for inspection.
Example attributes are \fBoriginURL\fR, which contains the canonical URL
from which the Tclet was loaded, and \fBwindowGeometry\fR, whose value
describes the geometry and location of the main window used by the Tclet.
.PP
The master interpreter manages attributes of a Tclet through an API that
hides the implementation of these attributes. Some of the attribute values
may be cached or computed on demand, or even refreshed every time they are
requested.
Some of the procedures, e.g. to update or delete attributes, are
semi-private and should be used carefully. Their names start with an
upper-case letter to indicate this.
Others, documented below, are for public use; these have names starting
with a lower-case letter.
Each of these procedures takes the name of an interpreter containing a
Tclet name as an argument.
Use \fBinterp slaves\fR to retrieve the names of all slave interpreters
containing Tclets; you can use \fBinterp eval\fR to evaluate an expression
in the context of a Tclet, and \fBinterp invokehidden\fR to invoke a hidden
command in the Tclet's context.
See the \fBinterp\fR manual page in the Tcl distribution
for more details on the \fBinterp\fR command.
.TP
\fBcfg::iget\ \fItclet\ attribute\fR
Retrieves the value of an attribute associated with the Tclet.
If the attribute does not exist, an error is raised.
.TP
\fBcfg::iexists\ \fItclet\ attribute\fR
To check that an attribute exists, use \fBcfg::iexists\fR, which
returns \fB1\fR if the requested attribute exists for the given Tclet, and
\fB0\fR otherwise.
.PP
The following attributes are commonly associated with Tclets
in the master interpreter.
Unless otherwise mentioned, each of these attributes is also accessible in
the Tclet itself, by using \fBgetattr\fR, as described in the \fBBASE TCLET
ENVIRONMENT\fR section:
.TP
\fBoriginURL\fR
The canonical form of the URL from which the Tclet was loaded.
.TP
\fBoriginPageURL\fR
The canonical form of the URL for the page containing the \fBembed\fR
statement that caused the Tclet to be loaded.
This can be used by policies or Tclets to control copying of the Tclet.
For example, a Tclet may refuse to execute if it is loaded from an
unauthorized page.
.TP
\fBoriginHomeDirURL\fR
The canonical form of the URL naming the directory containing the file from
which the Tclet was loaded.
.TP
\fBoriginProto\fR
The protocol used to load the Tclet. This could be \fBhttp\fR, \fBfile\fR
or other protocols supported by the hosting browser.
.TP
\fBoriginHost\fR
The host from which the Tclet was loaded.
If the Tclet was loaded from a \fBscript\fR argument in the \fBembed\fR
statement, this attribute is set to the URL of the containing page.
If the Tclet was loaded from a URL using the \fBfile:\fR protocol, the host
is set to \fBlocalhost\fR.
.TP
\fBoriginSocketHost\fR
The hostname to use for connecting back to the \fBoriginHost\fR via
sockets. This may be different in some esoteric instances from
\fBoriginHost\fR.
.TP
\fBoriginPort\fR
The port used to load the Tclet from the remote web server.
If the Tclet was loaded using the \fBhttp\fR protocol and no port was
specified then \fBoriginPort\fR is set to \fB80\fR, the default port used
by the \fBhttp\fR protocol.
.TP
\fBoriginPath\fR
The path portion of the \fBoriginURL\fR attribute.
.TP
\fBoriginKey\fR
If the URL from which the Tclet was loaded contains a key (\fB#\fR followed
by an alphanumeric string) which identifies a location within the page,
the value of this attribute will contain the key.
.TP
\fBbrowserArgs\fR
A list of the arguments and values supplied in the \fBembed\fR statement.
.TP
\fBscript\fR
The script evaluated in the Tclet.
This consists of the value of the \fBscript\fR argument, if present in the
\fBembed\fR statement, concatenated with the contents of the URL specified
in the \fBsrc\fR argument to the \fBembed\fR statement, if present.
.TP
\fBwindowGeometry\fR
Geometry of the window:
the format is \fIwidth\fRx\fIheight\fR.
All elements are specified in pixel values.
.TP
\fBwidth\fR
The current width in pixels of the window.
Not updated if subsequently the geometry of the window changes.
.TP
\fBheight\fR
The current height in pixels of the window.
Not updated if subsequently the geometry of the window changes.
.TP
\fBcompleteWindowGeometry\fR
A list of eight elements, specifying the geometry of the Tclet's main
window.
All elements are specified in pixel values.
The elements of the list are the x and y offsets of the top
left corner of the Tclet window from the top left corner of the containing
page window, followed by the width and height of the Tclet window,
followed by the left, top, right and bottom coordinates of the clip
rectangle.
The clip rectangle settings are meaningless on Unix and Win32 platforms,
and contain useful values only on the Macintosh platform.
.TP
\fBapiVersion\fR
The major and minor version numbers of the API provided by the browser to
the Tcl plugin.
.TP
\fBuserAgent\fR
A string identifying the browser in which the Tclet is executing.
.TP
\fBTk\fR
The value is \fB1\fR if Tk should be loaded into the Tclet interpreter,
which is the default.
Hidden Tclets do not use Tk, and hence the value will be \fB0\fR for them.
.PP
Other attributes are added as needed by implementations of features.
For example, the local persistent storage feature adds several attributes
that record information about the file and channel usage in a Tclet.
These attributes are documented in the manual pages of each feature.
.PP
The \fBlog\fR namespace contains the implementation of the logging
facility.
It provides several interesting variables and procedures, as explained in
the section on \fBLOGGING\fR, below.
.PP
URL parsing and manipulation is provided by the \fBurl\fR package. See the
manual page for \fBurl\fR for more details.

.SH "BASE TCLET ENVIRONMENT"
.PP
In addition to the Safe Base, described in the \fBsafe\fR manual page, the
Tclet also has access to the following variables and procedures:
.TP
\fBembed_args\fR
an array containing the arguments supplied in the \fBembed\fR statement.
.TP
\fBplugin\fR
A copy of the \fBplugin\fR array from the master interpreter, containing
only the \fBpatchLevel\fR, \fBrelease\fR and \fBversion\fR entries.
Other entries have been removed, for security reasons.
.TP
\fBauto_path\fR
A list of directory tokens representing real directory names, used to
search for implementations of procedures during auto-loading.
The actual names of directories in the list have been replaced with
symbolic tokens, to avoid leaking site-specific information to the Tclet.
See the \fBsafe\fR manual page in the Tcl documentation.
.TP
\fBauto_index\fR
An array of information used by the auto-loading mechanism to find
implementations of procedures.
The names of directories in this array have been replaced by symbolic
tokens to avoid leaking site-specific information to the Tclet.
.TP
\fBtcl_library,\ tk_library\fR
The values of these global variables have been replaced by symbolic tokens,
to avoid leaking site-specific information to the Tclet.
.PP
The Tclet can use \fBgetattr\fR to obtain access to those attributes that
are made accessible by the master interpreter.
If called with no arguments, \fBgetattr\fR returns a list of attribute
names and values.
When called with the name of a specific attribute, the value of that
attribute is returned.
The attributes exported by the master interpreter into the Tclet are
\fBoriginURL\fR, \fBoriginHomeDirURL\fR, \fBoriginProto\fR,
\fBoriginPath\fR, \fBoriginKey\fR, \fBoriginHost\fR, \fBoriginPort\fR,
\fBoriginSocketHost\fR, \fBbrowserArgs\fR, \fBapiVersion\fR,
\fBuserAgent\fR, \fBwindowGeometry\fR, \fBcompleteWindowGeometry\fR,
and \fBTk\fR.
These attributes are the same as explained in the \fBMASTER INTERPRETER
ENVIRONMENT\fR section, above.
Other attributes may be exported into the Tclet by implementations of
features. For example, if the Tclet is using a security policy that enables
the persistent local file feature, several attributes that record file and
channel usage by the Tclet are exported.
These attributes are documented in the manual page for each feature.
.PP
A Tclet can log messages to the plugin log using the \fBlog\fR command.
The argument, a string, is added to the log with identifying information
about the Tclet.
The logging facility is described below, in the section on \fBLOGGING\fR.
.PP
If an error occur during the processing of a Tclet, a special
\fBbgerror\fR graphical user interface installed by the plugin 
will pop up to show the error to
the user by covering the tclet window. It has minimal
interactive debugging capabilities. 
This micro-console like interface can be summoned at anytime 
during the execution of 
the tclet by pressing the hot-key combination Control-Shift-C.
If the tclet wish to handle errors in a special manner it just
need to redefine \fBbgerror\fR and eventually remove the binding
(bound to the tag \fBall\fR).

.SH "PLUGIN CONSOLE"
.PP
The plugin creates a console connected to the master interpreter if the
environment variable \fBTCL_PLUGIN_CONSOLE\fR is set. If its value is
\fB1\fR, the console will be created by using the \fBTkCon\fR
application authored by Jeff Hobbs.
If the environment variable is explicitly set to \fB0\fR, no console window
is created.
.PP
By default, the console is created using \fBtkCon\fR, a sophisticated
console application written by Jeff Hobbs.
For more information, see the \fBtkCon\fR documentation on the web, at
\fBhttp://www.cs.uoregon.edu/~jhobbs/work/tkcon/docs/index.html\fR.
If the environment variable is set to a value other than \fB0\fR or
\fB1\fR, the value is used as the name of a file to \fBsource\fR to
create the console.
.PP
You can type commands in the console window and they will immediately be
executed in the master interpreter, and the result will be displayed in the
console.
The console window has a menu bar with tear off menus that allow quick
access to the interesting bits of state, such as the command history.
.PP
The plugin is unloaded when the last instance is
destroyed and the console is destroyed when the last
Tclet is destroyed. If you leave one page containing a Tclet to visit
another page that also contains a Tclet, the console window will be
destroyed if the page you left contained the last active Tclet.
.PP
Note that when Tclets are hosted in an external process, two console
windows will be provided. The title of each window identifies which process
it is connected to: one is connected to the plugin executing within the
browser address space, and the other is connected to the main interpreter
in the external process.
This arrangement allows you to debug problems in communication between the
two processes and enables you to observe the interaction between the two
processes.

.SH LOGGING
.PP
The Tcl plugin provides a comprehensive and extensible logging facility.
The plugin itself uses this facility extensively throughout its code to log
important life cycle events such as starting and stopping Tclets.
Observing the log is an excellent way to learn more about how the plugin
operates and helps diagnoze problems quickly.
.PP
Logging is controlled by two environment variables,
\fBTCL_PLUGIN_LOGFILE\fR and \fBTCL_PLUGIN_LOGWINDOW\fR.
See the \fBENVIRONMENT VARIABLES\fR section above for an explanation of
these variables.
You can set these variables in your initialization script by setting the
equivalent entries in the \fBenv\fR array and reload the
Tcl plugin, and subsequently the plugin will use the new settings.
This is convenient for platforms such as Windows 95, where environment
variables must be set in system files such as \fBautoexec.bat\fR; setting
them in your initialization script alleviates the need to edit these system
files.
.PP
The following interesting variables are provided by the \fBlog\fR package:
.TP
\fBlog::attributes\fR
A list of log entry classes and their attributes.
These attributes are applied to log entries tagged with the class to
alter the manner in which the log entry is displayed in the log window,
and to identify the class of the log entry in the log file.
The predefined classes include \fBNOTICE\fR, \fBWARNING\fR, \fBSECURITY\fR,
\fBERROR\fR and \fBSLAVE\fR.
The \fBSLAVE\fR class is used for all log entries generated by Tclets
and the other classes are used by the master interpreter.
You can \fBlappend\fR new classes and their attributes to this list and
then call \fBlog::refreshAttributes\fR to make the logging facility aware
of the changes.
Subsequently you can use the new class in \fBlog::log\fR, as described
below.
.TP
\fBlog::max\fR
This many entries are kept in the log window.
.TP
\fBlog::strTruncLen\fR
A log entry is truncated and elided with elipsis if it contains more
characters than the value of this variable.
.PP
The following procedures are provided by the \fBlog\fR package:
.TP
\fBlog::log\ \fIid\ message\ \fR?\fIclass\fR?
The \fImessage\fR argument is added to the log, identified with the
\fIid\fR string and attributes specified by the \fIclass\fR argument
are applied to the log entry.
The default class, if no value is supplied, is \fBNOTICE\fR.
By convention, \fIid\fR is the name of the Tclet or feature for which this
log entry was generated, but it can be anything; its only use is to
identify the log entry to a human viewing the log.
Log entry classes are described in the documentation of the
\fBlog::attributes\fR variable.
If logging is done to a file, the log message is appended and the file is
flushed so that the message appears immediately in the file.
If logging is to a window, the new message is tagged with the attributes of
the specified class, added to the bottom of the
window and the window is scrolled up to make the new message visible.
If you call \fBlog::log\fR with a class name that does not appear in the
\fBlog::attributes\fR list, the entry will be recorded with that class
but no attributes will be applied to alter its display.
.TP
\fBlog::refreshAttributes\fR
Refreshes the list of classes known to the logging facility.
Use this after modifying the value of \fBlog::attributes\fR.
.TP
\fBlog::setup\ \fIflag\fR
Configures the logging facility.
If the flag \fBwindow\fR is given, logging will be done to a window.
You can also use \fBsuspsend\fR, \fBstop\fR, \fBresume\fR and \fBclear\fR
to respectively suspend, stop, resume or clear the log.
If \fIflag\fR is anything else starting with a \fB.\fR, it is assumed to be
a window name and log entries will be directed to that window.
If \fIflag\fR is a string, the logging facility first tries to locate a
channel with that name.
If no such channel is found, it is assumed
to be a file name and log entries will be appended to the named file.
You can call \fBlog::setup\fR in the console window to modify the behavior
of logging interactively.
.PP

.SH "SEE ALSO"
safe(n)
.SH KEYWORDS
browser, console, downloaded code, feature, interpreters, logging, master
interpreter, Safe Base, security policy, Tclet, tkCon
