Converter Architecture overview

The Converter Architecture provides a framework through which clients can convert one data type to another, for example, HTML files to Symbian Word documents, and with which new converters can be written as plug-ins.

The source code for an example converter and client is located in \examples\AppFramework\Converter\.

The Converter Architecture provides:

• an abstract interface which all converters must implement,

• APIs to list and search for converters,

• APIs to determine the MIME types which the available converters support,

• an observer interface through which the progress and success/failure of the conversion can be reported.

Converters are implemented as ECOM plug-ins, each of which can implement one or more converters. Like all binaries, the plugins are installed in the \sys\bin\ directory. Each must provide two resource files: one contains a CONARC_RESOURCE_FILE resource to describe the converters implemented in the DLL, and the other is a registration file, which is required by the ECOM framework.

The following UML diagram shows the key elements of the converter architecture, including an example client and an example converter DLL that provides two converters, myConverter1 and myConverter2.