FileSystem Overview¶The wxHTML library uses a virtual file systems mechanism similar to the one used in Midnight Commander, Dos Navigator, FAR or almost any modern file manager.
It allows the user to access data stored in archives as if they were ordinary files. On-the-fly generated files that exist only in memory are also supported.
Three classes are used in order to provide virtual file systems mechanism:
The wx.FSFile class provides information about opened file (name, input stream, mime type and anchor).
The wx.FileSystem class is the interface. Its main methods are
wx.FileSystem.ChangePathTo and
wx.FileSystem.OpenFile. This class is most often used by the
end user.
The wx.FileSystemHandler is the core of virtual file systems
mechanism. You can derive your own handler and pass it to the VFS
mechanism. You can derive your own handler and pass it to the
wx.FileSystem.AddHandler method. In the new handler you only
need to override the wx.FileSystemHandler.OpenFile and
wx.FileSystemHandler.CanOpen methods.
Locations (aka filenames aka addresses) are constructed from four parts:
protocol - handler can recognize if it is able to open a file by
checking its protocol. Examples are "http", "file" or
"ftp".
right location - is the name of file within the protocol. In
"http://www.wxwidgets.org/index.html" the right location is
"//www.wxwidgets.org/index.html".
anchor - an anchor is optional and is usually not present. In
"index.htm#chapter2" the anchor is "chapter2".
left location - this is usually an empty string. It is used by ‘local’ protocols such as ZIP. See the Combined Protocols paragraph for details.
The left location precedes the protocol in the URL string.
It is not used by global protocols like HTTP but it becomes handy when nesting protocols - for example you may want to access files in a ZIP archive:
file:archives/cpp_doc.zip#zip:reference/fopen.htm#syntax
In this example, the protocol is "zip", right location is
"reference/fopen.htm", anchor is "syntax" and left location is
file:archives/cpp_doc.zip.
There are two protocols used in this example: “zip” and “file”.
The following virtual file system handlers are part of wxPython so far:
wx.ArchiveFSHandler: A handler for archives such as zip and
tar. URLs examples: "archive.zip#zip:filename",
"archive.tar.gz#gzip:#tar:filename".
wx.FilterFSHandler: A handler for compression schemes such as
gzip. URLs are in the form, e.g.: "document.ps.gz#gzip:".
wx.InternetFSHandler: A handler for accessing documents via HTTP or FTP protocols.
wx.MemoryFSHandler: This handler allows you to access data
stored in memory (such as bitmaps) as if they were regular
files. See wx.MemoryFSHandler for details. URL is prefixed with
memory:, e.g. "memory:myfile.htm".
In addition, FileSystem itself can access local files.
Use wx.FileSystem.AddHandler to initialize a handler, for
example:
def OnInit(self):
wx.FileSystem.AddHandler(wx.MemoryFSHandler())