XTEST Extension Protocol

X Consortium Standard

Kieron Drake

UniSoft Ltd.

X Version 11, Release 7.7

Version 2.2

Copyright © 1992 UniSoft Group Ltd.

Copyright © 1992, 1994 X Consortium

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Table of Contents

1. Overview
2. Description
3. Types
4. Client Operations
5. Server Requests
6. Encoding
    New Types
    Requests
7. References

Chapter 1. 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.

Chapter 2. Description

The functions provided by this extension fall into two groups:

           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
Client     caching, and so on, is provided. In the C binding, defined in "XTEST
Operations 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.

           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:
Server
Requests     • 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.

Chapter 3. 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.

Chapter 4. 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.

Chapter 5. 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.

       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,
detail 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.

       This is either CurrentTime (meaning no delay) or the delay in
       milliseconds that the server should wait before simulating this event.
time   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.

       In the case of motion events this field is the ID of the root window on
root   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  In the case of motion events these fields indicate relative distance or
&      absolute pointer coordinates, according to the setting of detail. If the
rootY  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.

Chapter 6. Encoding

Table of Contents

New Types
Requests

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

Chapter 7. 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.

