Questions re: the Logos 4 API

I suppose I'm addressing this question to Bradley Grainger, or anyone else who is familiar with the L4 API.

I am very happy to see the API for Logos 4. I have been looking forward to this and recently had a chance to dig into it.

I am working on re-creating some of the automation solutions I had built for v 3 and I have a few questions for you about what is exposed in the L4 API.

1. It doesn't appear that any of the UI is exposed--in other words, you cannot create custom controls (toolbars, etc) within the UI. Correct? If not, are there any plans for this?

2. Also, it doesn't appear that there is any way to grab text selected in the active panel. Correct? If not, any plans?

3. Is there a way to grab a specific word at all--with the metadata associated with it?

4. Is there a range parameter on a search query passed as a URI string? It appears that a search URI picks up the most recent range from the UI (NT, OT, etc). Is there anyway to set the range in the URI? Is there any more documentation available on the URI parameters beyond what is already in the Logos Wiki?

5. This is probably the biggest thing: it doesn't appear that there is any way to access the results of a search query through the API, correct? Quite a while ago, you sent me some documentation on the search results returned in v 3. Is there anything like that in L4?

I want to be able to do what I did in v 3--pull the results of a search into another app to arrange the results and dig into them further with additional searches, etc. This was pretty handy and I'd like to do it in L4, too. Essentially, you can take apart the search hits--move them around, group them, prune them, study them.

Thanks for you direction with this. I appreciate the ministry you have through this product.

Steve Kaminski

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Bradley Grainger (Logos)

Let me preface this answer by saying that the Logos 4 COM API is very limited in its current incarnation, and was not intended to be a full replacement for the LDLS3 COM API (which really only existed because we needed it ourselves in order to write the Libronix DLS UI). The Logos 4 COM API was designed to solve some very specific scenarios, such as supporting Smart Tags in Microsoft Office.

1. It doesn't appear that any of the UI is exposed--in other words, you cannot create custom controls (toolbars, etc) within the UI. Correct? If not, are there any plans for this?

The UI is not automatable, and we do not currently have any plans for a plugin/extension model (that would let you create custom toolbars, panels, etc.).

You can drag URLs and shortcuts to the shortcut bar, though (so you could fake a custom toolbar by dragging in shortcuts to programs with specific command lines).

2. Also, it doesn't appear that there is any way to grab text selected in the active panel. Correct? If not, any plans?

Correct; no current plans to expose this.

This would probably depend on implementing selectable text in all panels first (http://logos.uservoice.com/forums/42823-logos-bible-software-4/suggestions/513519-copy-from-anywhere-guides-search-results-resour).

3. Is there a way to grab a specific word at all--with the metadata associated with it?

No.

4. Is there a range parameter on a search query passed as a URI string? It appears that a search URI picks up the most recent range from the UI (NT, OT, etc). Is there anyway to set the range in the URI? Is there any more documentation available on the URI parameters beyond what is already in the Logos Wiki?

Extending the URIs for Search panels to support all possible settings is an open case in our bug tracker. Some issues making this difficult are that the implementation doesn't store all the settings in ways that would be settable from a URI, and URIs are typically truncated by a browser when they get too long. Sending an arbitrary search range in a URI could be difficult in the general case.

5. This is probably the biggest thing: it doesn't appear that there is any way to access the results of a search query through the API, correct? Quite a while ago, you sent me some documentation on the search results returned in v 3. Is there anything like that in L4?

I want to be able to do what I did in v 3--pull the results of a search into another app to arrange the results and dig into them further with additional searches, etc. This was pretty handy and I'd like to do it in L4, too. Essentially, you can take apart the search hits--move them around, group them, prune them, study them.

Search results are not exposed through the API at all.

Steven Kaminski

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/301024#Comment_301024

Thanks for the response, Bradley. Here are a few additional comments. I understand that opening up the API is probably not a top priority, but it could significantly extend the potential of the system.

This would probably depend on implementing selectable text in all panels first (http://logos.uservoice.com/forums/42823-logos-bible-software-4/suggestions/513519-copy-from-anywhere-guides-search-results-resour).

I would like to see this with . . . .

3. Is there a way to grab a specific word at all--with the metadata associated with it?

No.

. . . the ability to grab the metadata for each word. This allows for deep-dive searching into a text. With L3, I was able to grab a Greek phrase with the metadata for each word, then do a search of each lemma and prune the results. It became a significant help to understanding a passage. I'd like to do this again in L4.

Extending the URIs for Search panels to support all possible settings is an open case in our bug tracker. Some issues making this difficult are that the implementation doesn't store all the settings in ways that would be settable from a URI, and URIs are typically truncated by a browser when they get too long. Sending an arbitrary search range in a URI could be difficult in the general case.

I would like to see something like this.

Search results are not exposed through the API at all.

Will they ever be available in L4? In L3, I could get the search results as a DOM Object. This would be very helpful.

Using the L4 API, I have been able to rebuild the "Smart tags" that I had build for L3 and MindManager. They are working well. I must say that L4 allows for a much smoother solution than L3--where I had to read and encode the data off the clipboard object.

A couple of other comments/questions:

1. It doesn't appear that the L4 API exposes user preferences or file lists (notes, prayer lists, etc), as L3 did, correct?

2. However, I assume that since these data are stored in databases, it would be possible to read and parse these data from a database query, correct?

3. Also, where is the default Bible version preference stored? I assume it's in UserPreferences.db or LocalUserPreferences.db--in the home page settings? I'd like to pull it and use it.

Again, thanks for you direction.

Tim Engwer

5. This is probably the biggest thing: it doesn't appear that there is any way to access the results of a search query through the API, correct? Quite a while ago, you sent me some documentation on the search results returned in v 3. Is there anything like that in L4?

Here is a snippet of code I am using in an addon app for searchin multiple tags and search fields. This snippet fetches the search history from the database and puts it in a combo box. It uses Autoit code so you'll have to convert it to whatever code you use.

UpdateSearchQuery()
For $i = 0 To UBound($SearchString) - 1
;MsgBox(4096,"",$SearchString[$i])
$SearchString[$i] = StringReplace($SearchString[$i], """, """")
$SearchString[$i] = StringReplace($SearchString[$i], "<", "<")
$SearchString[$i] = StringReplace($SearchString[$i], ">", ">")
GUICtrlSetData($QueryBox, $SearchString[$i], $SearchTerm)
Next
GUICtrlSetData($QueryBox, $SearchTerm, $SearchTerm)

Func UpdateSearchQuery()
$dbname = "C:\Reference\Logos4\Documents\1syqf3a3.vlb\UserPreferences\PreferencesManager.db" ;;;Get Search Query
_SQLite_Startup()
_SQLite_Open($dbname)
_SQLite_SQLiteExe($dbname, "SELECT Data FROM Preferences;", $Data)
If $Data = "" Then
  MsgBox(4096, "", "Fetching Data", 2)
  _SQLite_SQLiteExe($dbname, "SELECT Data FROM Preferences;", $Data)
EndIf
;$SearchString = _StringBetween($Data, "<SearchHistory><SearchHistoryItem Title=""", "|")
$SearchString = _StringBetween($Data, "<SearchHistoryItem Title=""", "|")
;MsgBox(4096,"",$SearchString[1])
$SearchTermAndCollection = _StringBetween($Data, "<SearchHistory><SearchHistoryItem Title=""", """")
$Collection = StringSplit($SearchTermAndCollection[0], "|")
;MsgBox(4096, "", $SearchTermAndCollection[0])
$Collection = StringTrimLeft($Collection[2], 1)
;MsgBox(4096, "", $Collection)
_SQLite_Close($dbname)
_SQLite_Shutdown()
$SearchTerm = $SearchString[0]
$SearchTerm = StringReplace($SearchTerm, """, """")
$SearchTerm = StringReplace($SearchTerm, "<", "<")
$SearchTerm = StringReplace($SearchTerm, ">", ">")
If StringInStr($SearchTerm,"]") <> 0 Then
  $SearchTerm = StringSplit($SearchTerm,"]");get rid of field string
  $SearchTerm = $SearchTerm[2]
  $SearchTerm = StringTrimLeft($SearchTerm,1);remove preceding space from searchstring
  ;msgbox(4096,"",$SearchTerm)
EndIf
$Data = ""
EndFunc   ;==>UpdateSearchQuery

Tim Engwer

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/301769#Comment_301769

BTW I am using a working version of this app and continuing to build on it and so far have had no problems with data being fetched from the database. I did experiment with changing some database entries as a way of doing things the API cannot presently do and ended up with a sync problem and had to reinstall the program. Actually changing DB data is risky business but I'll probably do some more experimenting anyway since I also want the kind of control I had in L3 to do scripting.

Bradley Grainger (Logos)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/301674#Comment_301674

1. It doesn't appear that the L4 API exposes user preferences or file lists (notes, prayer lists, etc), as L3 did, correct?

2. However, I assume that since these data are stored in databases, it would be possible to read and parse these data from a database query, correct?

3. Also, where is the default Bible version preference stored? I assume it's in UserPreferences.db or LocalUserPreferences.db--in the home page settings? I'd like to pull it and use it.

Correct; these are not exposed in the API.
Yes, that should be technically possible but highly discouraged. You'd be relying on an implementation detail that could change from release to release. For example, in 4.3 and 4.5 many preferences moved to "sync v2" and are stored differently.
The "default Bible" is the highest prioritised Bible, or (if no Bibles are prioritised) the Bible with the highest default priority. I don't actually know (off the top of my head) where this is stored; even if I did know, it could well be a setting that has moved in a recent beta, or is just about to move.

Also, please do not modify the databases. Because SQLite is an embedded DB engine, it has very little support for enforcing referential integrity constraints, so we don't specify any in the database; we rely on the code that modifies the databases to keep the data consistent. It would be very easy to corrupt these databases by editing them directly.