Slideshow
=========

Observe and Control Slideshow Applications

Abstract
--------

Slideshow is a Node/JavaScript Application Programming Interface
(API) and Command Line Interface (CLI) for observing and controlling
the slideshow presentation applications
Microsoft PowerPoint 2010+ for Windows,
Microsoft PowerPoint 2011+ for Mac OS X and
Apple KeyNote 5+ for Mac OS X.
It can determine the current state of the application, gather information
about the slides and control the application's slideshow mode.
It is implemented as a thin Node/JavaScript API layer on
top of platform-specific Windows WSH/JScript and Mac OS X Automator AppleScript/JavaScript connectors.
No native code is required.

Installation
------------

Use the Node Package Manager (NPM) to install this module
locally (default) or globally (with option -g):

$ npm install [-g] slideshow

Usage
-----

``sh


CLI variant


slideshow powerpoint boot
slideshow powerpoint open sample.pptx
slideshow powerpoint start
slideshow powerpoint goto 2
sleep 2
slideshow powerpoint stop
slideshow powerpoint close
slideshow powerpoint quit
`

`js
// API variant
var SlideShow = require("slideshow")
var slideshow = new SlideShow("powerpoint")
slideshow.boot()
.then(function () { slideshow.open("sample.pptx") })
.then(function () { slideshow.start() })
.then(function () { slideshow.goto(2) })
.delay(2*1000)
.then(function () { slideshow.stop() })
.then(function () { slideshow.close() })
.then(function () { slideshow.quit() })
.then(function () { slideshow.end() })
.done()
`

Architecture
------------

The architecture of Slideshow fulfills the following constraints:

1. No Native Code: There should be no native code required because
this is nasty (especially under Windows) during module installation
time (because a compiler is required). The solution is to leverage
the scripting environment of the particular platform (Windows
Scripting Host (WSH) under Windows and AppleScript under Mac OS X).

2. Separate Platform Specifics: The platform specific code should be kept separate
(because else the infrastructure code would have to be duplicated).
The solution is the splitting as seen below.

3. Universal Platform Interface: The communication between the Node process and the
platform specific process should be universal
(because else we need multiple communication variants).
The solution is to use simple stdio based communication.

The architecture in particular looks like this:

+-------------------------------------------------+
| node |
+-------------------------------------------------+
+-------------------------------------------------+
| Slideshow CLI (slideshow-cli.js) or App |
+-------------------------------------------------+
+-------------------------------------------------+
| Slideshow API (slideshow-api.js) |
+-------------------------------------------------+
+-------------------------------------------------+
| Connector API (connector.js) |
+-------------------------------------------------+
| | |
+------------+ +------------+ +------------+ +-- -
|command.com | |sh | |sh | |
+------------+ +------------+ +------------+ +-- -
+------------+ +------------+ +------------+ +-- -
|win-ppt.bat | |osx-ppt.sh | |osx-kn.sh | |
+------------+ +------------+ +------------+ +-- -
| | |
+------------+ +------------+ +------------+ +-- -
|cscript | |osascript | |osascript | |
+------------+ +------------+ +------------+ +-- -
+------------+ +------------+ +------------+ +-- -
|win-ppt.js | |osx-ppt.scpt| |osx-kn.scpt | |
+------------+ +------------+ +------------+ +-- -

Presentation Application Support Status
---------------------------------------

- SUPPORTED: Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 under Windows:

Fully supported through connector-win-ppt2010, which uses
Windows Scripting Host (WST)'s JScript engine and the
Component Object Model (COM) of PowerPoint.

- SUPPORTED: Microsoft PowerPoint 2013 under Windows:

Expected to be supported (but not tested by the author) through
connector-win-ppt2010, which uses Windows Scripting Host (WST)'s JScript
engine and the Component Object Model (COM) of PowerPoint.

- SUPPORTED: Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 under Windows:

Expected to be supported (but not tested by the author) through
connector-win-ppt2010, which uses Windows Scripting Host (WST)'s JScript
engine and the Component Object Model (COM) of PowerPoint.

- SUPPORTED: Microsoft PowerPoint 2011 under Mac OS X:

Fully supported through connector-osx-ppt2011, which uses AppleScript
engine and the application Dictionary of the PowerPoint:mac variant.

- SUPPORTED: Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 under Mac OS X:

Fully supported through connector-osx-ppt2011, which uses AppleScript
engine and the application Dictionary of the PowerPoint:mac variant.

- SUPPORTED: Apple Keynote 5 under Mac OS X:

Fully supported through connector-osx-kn5, which uses AppleScript
engine and the application Dictionary of Keynote.

- PARTIALLY SUPPORTED: Apple Keynote 6 under Mac OS X:

Partially supported through connector-osx-kn6`, which uses AppleScript
engine and the application Dictionary of Keynote. Currently partially
broken up to at least Keynote 6.2.2 (August 2014), because the
AppleScript support in Keynote 6 still lacks many things Keynote 5
already supported. The main problem currently is that one cannot
detect whether a slideshow is playing and that slide changing is
reflected in AppleScript only once the Keynote window lost its focus.

- STILL UNSUPPORTED: LibreOffice 4 Impress under Windows/Mac OS X/Linux:

Currently not supported, but there are two possible
approaches for the future: the newer LibreOffice Impress Remote Protocol
or the older Universal Network Objects (UNO) Java interface.

- STILL UNSUPPORTED: OpenOffice 4 Impress under Windows/Mac OS X/Linux:

Currently not supported, but there is one possible
approach for the future: the Universal Network Objects (UNO) Java interface.

License
-------

Copyright (c) 2014-2023 Dr. Ralf S. Engelschall <http://engelschall.com>

This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
License (MPL), version 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed
with this file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.