rv = catman->AddCategoryEntry(NS_HTTP_STARTUP_CATEGORY, cidString, "Http Cookie Notify", catman.addCategoryEntry("command-line-argument-handlers",CHATZILLASERVICE_PROGID, "chatzilla command line handler", true, true); catman.addCategoryEntry("command-line-argument-handlers", JSCONSOLEHANDLER_PROGID, "jsconsole command line handler", true, true); These are all reversing the entry/value arguments. It should be in the order: category name, entry name, progid.

looking at comments in nsICategoryManager.idl, yes, you are right. but then nsCategoryManager::EnumerateCategory or nsCategoryManager::AddCategoryEntry() is broken. currently, when we add (aEntry,aValue), we enumerate all the aEntry values. scc / shaver, please let me know what you want to do with nsICategoryManager.idl / nsCategoryManager.cpp once that is settled, I'll fix all the callers.

I'm not sure I agree. If you AddCategoryEntry("category", "entry1", "value1") AddCategoryEntry("category", "entry2", "value2") AddCategoryEntry("category", "entry3", "value3") then EnumerateCategoryEntries("category") should give you back EnumeratorOf("entry1", "entry2", "entry3") If you want the values, you should be doing: foreach entry in EnumeratorOf("entry1", "entry2", "entry3") value = GetCategoryEntry("category", entry) or something. (Note: EnumerateCategoryEntries, not EnumerateCategoryValues.) Make sense?

ah, that makes sense. I need to use GetCategoryEntry(), I was being stupid. I better go make sure the entry values I've been using are unique. I should have a fix in hand today.

ok, fix in hand. thanks again to bruce for pointing out the problem. I've fixed the command line handler code and the NS_HTTP_STARTUP_CATEGORY code. the category code under mozilla/mailnews/import looks ok, but I'll send mail to tony, and let him take a look. I'll try to check this stuff in today. bad usage of the category manager will just get copied and pasted around, so I want to fix this stuff asap.

shaver, take a look at your code in mozilla/layout/base/src/nsContentPolicy.cpp you need to use GetCategoryEntry(), to get the progid from the category entry. (I don't see where anyone adds anything to the NS_CONTENTPOLICY_CATEGORY category, so it's not critical.)

The content-policy category uses progid for entry and value, actually, so it doesn't matter. It's not so much a parameterized category as a simple list. (I much prefer parameterization over simple lists, where that's sane, but I can't think of a good way to parameterize the content-policy stuff. Any suggestions?) For clarity, though, maybe I should encourage people to use a human-meaningful name for the entry, and the progid for the value. But wait, progids are supposed to be human-meaningful themselves. So I need something unique and meaningful as the entry name. Why not use the progid, which people should already be working to make be both of those things? In the command-line argument case, why not use the command-line switch as the category entry? So you'd AddCategoryEntry("command-line-argument-handlers", "chat", CHATZILLA_PROGID); AddCategoryEntry("command-line-argument-handlers", "irc", CHATZILLA_PROGID); to make it get called for both -chat and -irc. We obviously need some best practices guidance here.

shaver, using the command line for the entry is a good idea, and I've got another bug for that. marking nsbeta2, I've got the fix for this problem in hand, and I'd like to check it in, to avoid future copy-n-paste errors. (someone is bound to copy the way I've used the category manager)

checked in the fix.

Yay. This looks good. I'll file a bug to do the same fix for the mailnewsimport stuff against tonyr@fbdesigns.com

Heh, I indeed did the copy-n-paste =) That's why the JS console command line handler had the same problem. I fixed my Zope Studio component as well.