Most pages in OGo are triggered using an "activation" system.

TODO: write much more ...

The activation system uses a combination of a MIME type and a "verb" to locate and trigger web components (eg viewers, editors). The basic idea is similiar to that of the Java activation framework though the details differ a lot.

Example activation triples (ID, MIME type, verb, component):

  "10000" - eo/person - view - SkyPersonViewer
  "10000" - eo-gid/person - view - SkyPersonViewer

Verbs

Activation in Code

Lets take a component action triggered by some link:

- (id)viewObject {
  return [self activateObject:[self object] withVerb:@"view"];
}

This will place the object returned by "[self object]" in the transfer pasteboard and trigger the activation system with the "view" verb. The activation system will instantiate the proper components which is returned as the result page of the component action and therefore will be displayed as the new current page.

Activate using a URL

Activation of a page can also be triggered using a URL:

  http://[yourhost]/OpenGroupware/x/activate?oid=10000&verb=view

10000 is the object id of the root account, so the above URL should work for you out of the box. The verb parameter can be omitted and defaults to "view".

Note: the direct action activates based on the object primary key (or more exactly based on a so called EOKeyGlobalID), which is represented as "eo-gid/[entity]".
A lot of components are not bound to the primary-key but only to the "live" object MIME type ("eo/[entity]"). Eg you currently cannot activate the person editor using "activate?oid=10000&verb=edit".

Writing a component which can be activated ...

Subclasses of LSWEditorPage and LSWViewerPage already provide some basic activation support, that is, they fill the object ivar of the page in question.
What happens if -activateObject:withVerb: is invoked?:

1. check whether the object passed in is valid at all
2. transfer the object to the transfer pasteboard in the session
   1. call -transferObject:owner:(nil) on the session
3. call executePasteboardCommand with the verb
   1. gets the sessions transfer pasteboard object
   2. if its the "view" verb, check whether the last page is showing the same object (and if so, return that)
   3. call the session -instantiateComponentForCommand:type:object: method to produce a WOComponent
      1. locate the bundle providing the component using the NGBundleManager (LSWCommands key)
      2. use -pageWithName: to instantiate page
      3. activate the component by doing one of those:
         • -activateObject:verb:type: (can replace the component)
         • -prepareForActivationCommand:type:object: (deprecated)
         • -prepareForActivationCommand:type: (deprecated)
         • -prepareForActivationCommand:type:configuration: (deprecated)
   4. if the components conform to the OGoContentPage protocol, put it on the navigation stack
4. return the active page

So, unless you are using an LSWEditorPage, you probably want to implement the -activateObject:verb:type: method in your page component to fill your object with the information you need.
Notably you can return a different object and therefore use it to dispatch the activation to another component. For example this is used in the project application if a folder is activated (a folder is technically a regular document, so the document viewer will forward activation to the projectviewer).

LSWEditorPage

LSWEditorPage splits up the activation into 'new' or 'edit' mode and triggers different setup methods which you may or may not want to override:

- (BOOL)prepareForNewCommand:(NSString *)_command
  type:(NGMimeType *)_type
  configuration:(NSDictionary *)_cmdCfg;
- (BOOL)prepareForEditCommand:(NSString *)_command
  type:(NGMimeType *)_type
  configuration:(NSDictionary *)_cmdCfg;

Prior edit activation, it also makes a snapshot of the object being edited based on the EOEntity of the object.