XTEST Extension Protocol
X Consortium Standard
Version 2.2
KieronDrake
UniSoft Ltd.
1992UniSoft Group Ltd.
1992,1994X Consortium
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Overview
This extension is a minimal set of client and server extensions
required to completely test the X11 server with no user intervention.
This extension is not intended to support general journaling and
playback of user actions. This is a difficult area [XTrap, 89] as it attempts
to synchronize synthetic user interactions with their effects; it is at the
higher level of dialogue recording/playback rather than at the strictly lexical
level. We are interested only in the latter, simpler, case. A more detailed
discussion and justification of the extension functionality is given in
[Drake, 91].
We are aiming only to provide a minimum set of facilities that
solve immediate testing and validation problems. The testing extension
itself needs testing, where possible, and so should be as simple as possible.
We have also tried to:
Confine the extension to an appropriate high level within the server
to minimize portability problems. In practice this means that the extension
should be at the DIX level or use the DIX/DDX interface, or both. This
has effects, in particular, on the level at which "input synthesis"
can occur.
Minimize the changes required in the rest of the server.
Minimize performance penalties on normal server operation.
Description
The functions provided by this extension fall into two groups:
Client Operations
These routines manipulate otherwise hidden client-side behavior. The
actual implementation will depend on the details of the actual language
binding and what degree of request buffering, GContext caching, and so on, is
provided.
In the C binding, defined in "XTEST Extension Library", routines are
provided to access the internals of two opaque data structures
-- GCs
and
Visuals --
and to discard any requests pending within the
output buffer of a connection. The exact details can be expected to differ for
other language bindings.
Server Requests
The first of these requests is similar to that provided in most
extensions: it allows a client to specify a major and minor version
number to the server and for the server to respond with major and minor
versions of its own. The remaining two requests allow the following:
Access to an otherwise "write-only" server resource: the cursor
associated with a given window
Perhaps most importantly, limited synthesis of input device events,
almost as if a cooperative user had moved the pointing device
or pressed a key or button.
Types
The following types are used in the request and event definitions in
subsequent sections:
FAKE_EVENT_TYPE
{ KeyPress,
KeyRelease,
MotionNotify,
ButtonPress,
ButtonRelease }
FAKE_EVENT
[type: FAKE_EVENT_TYPE,
detail: BYTE,
time: TIME,
root: WINDOW,
rootX, rootY: INT16]
CURSOR { CurrentCursor, None }
or a cursor as defined by the X11 Protocol.
Client Operations
These are abstract definitions of functionality. They refer to client-side
objects such as "GC" and "VISUAL" that are quoted to
denote their abstract nature. Concrete versions of these functions are
defined only for particular language bindings. In some circumstances
a particular language binding may not implement the relevant abstract
type or may provide it as a transparent, rather than opaque, type, with
the result that the corresponding function does not make sense or is
not required, respectively.
XTestSetGContextOfGC
gc: "GC"
gid: GCONTEXT
Sets the GCONTEXT within the "GC" gc to have
the value specified by gid.
XTestSetVisualIDOfVisual
visual: "VISUAL"
visualid: VISUALID
Sets the VISUALID within the "VISUAL" visual to have
the value specified by visualid.
XTestDiscard
dpy: "CONNECTION"
=>
status: BOOL
Discards any requests that are present in the request buffer associated with
the "CONNECTION" dpy.
The status returned is
True
if there were one or more requests
in the buffer and
False
otherwise.
Server Requests
XTestGetVersion
clientMajorVersion: CARD16
clientMinorVersion: CARD16
=>
serverMajorVersion: CARD16
serverMinorVersion: CARD16
Errors: Length
This request can be used to ensure that the server version of the XTEST
extension is usable by the client. This document defines major version two
(2), minor version one (1).
XTestCompareCursor
window: WINDOW
cursor-id: CURSOR or
CurrentCursor
or
None
=>
same: BOOL
Errors:
Window,
Length,
Cursor
This request looks up the cursor associated with the window and
compares it with either the null cursor if cursor-id is
None ,
or the current cursor (that is, the one being displayed),
or the cursor whose ID is cursor-id, and returns
the result of the comparison in same.
XTestFakeInput
events: LISTofFAKE_EVENT
Errors:
Window,
Length,
Alloc,
Value
This request simulates the limited set of core protocol
events within the set FAKE_EVENT_TYPE. Only the following event fields,
defined in FAKE_EVENT, are interpreted:
type
This must be one of
KeyPress,
KeyRelease,
MotionNotify,
ButtonPress,
or
ButtonRelease,
or else a
Value
error occurs.
detail
For key events, this field is interpreted as the physical keycode.
If the keycode is less than min-keycode or greater than max-keycode,
as returned in the connection setup, then a
Value
error occurs.
For button events, this field is interpreted as the physical (or core) button,
meaning it will be mapped to the corresponding logical button according to
the most recent
SetPointerMapping
request.
If the button number is less than one or greater than the number of physical
buttons, then a
Value
error occurs.
For motion events, if this field is
True ,
then rootX and rootY
are relative distances from the current pointer location; if this field is
False,
then they are absolute positions.
time
This is either
CurrentTime
(meaning no delay)
or the delay in milliseconds that the server should wait before
simulating this event. No other requests from this client will be
processed until this delay, if any, has expired and subsequent processing
of the simulated event has been completed.
root
In the case of motion events this field is the ID of the root window on
which the new motion is to take place. If
None
is specified, the root window of the screen the pointer is currently on
is used instead.
If this field is not a valid window, then a
Window
error occurs.
rootX &
rootY
In the case of motion events these fields indicate relative distance or
absolute pointer coordinates, according to the setting of detail.
If the specified coordinates are off-screen, the closest on-screen
coordinates will be substituted.
When the simulated event(s) are processed, they cause event propagation,
passive grab activation, and so on, just as if the corresponding input device
action had occurred. However, motion events might not be recorded in the
motion history buffer.
For the currently supported event types, the event list must have length one,
otherwise a
BadLength
error occurs.
XTestGrabControl
impervious: BOOL
If impervious is
True,
then the executing client becomes impervious to server grabs;
that is, it can continue executing requests even if another client
grabs the server.
If impervious is
False,
then the executing client returns to the normal state of being
susceptible to server grabs.
Encoding
Please refer to the X11 Protocol Encoding document as this document uses
conventions established there.
The name of this extension is "XTEST".
New Types
FAKE_EVENT_TYPE
2 KeyPress
3 KeyRelease
4 ButtonPress
5 ButtonRelease
6 MotionNotify
NOTE that the above values are defined to be the same as those for
the corresponding core protocol event types.
Requests
XTestGetVersion
1 CARD8 opcode
1 0 xtest opcode
2 2 request length
1 CARD8 client major version
1 unused
2 CARD16 client minor version
=>
1 1 Reply
1 CARD8 server major version
2 CARD16 sequence number
4 0 reply length
2 CARD16 server minor version
22 unused
XTestCompareCursor
1 CARD8 opcode
1 1 xtest opcode
2 3 request length
4 WINDOW window
4 CURSOR cursor-id
0 None
1 CurrentCursor
=>
1 1 Reply
1 BOOL cursors are the same
2 CARD16 sequence number
4 0 reply length
24 unused
XTestFakeInput
1 CARD8 opcode
1 2 xtest opcode
2 1+(1*8) request length
1 FAKE_EVENT_TYPE fake device event type
1 BYTE detail: button or keycode
2 unused
4 TIME delay (milliseconds)
0 CurrentTime
4 WINDOW root window for MotionNotify
0 None
8 unused
2 INT16 x position for MotionNotify
2 INT16 y position for MotionNotify
8 unused
XTestGrabControl
1 CARD8 opcode
1 3 xtest opcode
2 2 request length
1 BOOL impervious
3 unused
References
Annicchiarico, D., et al.,
XTrap: The XTrap Architecture.
Digital Equipment Corporation, July 1991.
Drake, K. J.,
Some Proposals for a
Minimum X11 Testing Extension.
UniSoft Ltd., June 1991.