Catalog items such as tools and tool palettes do not maintain active links to their source catalog files. However, you can design your application to refresh its items from the most recent catalog source. This may be useful if, for instance, you periodically provide updated catalogs on a remote source such as the Internet.
In order for refresh operations to succeed, your catalog must provide a source URL and source ID for each item that you wish to refresh. You use the AcTcCatalogItem::SetSourceURL() and AcTcCatalogItem::SetSourceID() methods to write this information to your ATC file. AcTcCatalogItem::Refresh() reads the catalog from the source URL, and then searches for the XML node whose ID matches your source ID. If both the URL and the item's ID are found, this operation overwrites the current user's catalog data for that item and updates the Tool Palettes window to match the downloaded data. Calling the Refresh() method on an item discards any changes the user has made to that item.
How often your application checks for updates, and where you call Refresh() in your code, are at your discretion. If you wish, the Tool Palette framework can automatically refresh your items. Automatic refresh occurs at the start of every session, and currently supports only palette refreshing. Use the AcTcCatalogItem::SetAutoRefresh() method to enable or disable automatic refresh operations. You can disable other refresh operations by using the AcTcCatalogItem::SetRefresh() method to set the refresh flag to false.