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> Plugin Writer's Guide (0.10.36)</TH
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>Chapter 1. Preface</TD
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><H1
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><A
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>1.4. Structure of This Guide</A
></H1
><P
> To help you navigate through this guide, it is divided into several large
parts. Each part addresses a particular broad topic concerning <SPAN
CLASS="application"
>GStreamer</SPAN
>
plugin development. The parts of this guide are laid out in the following
order:
</P
><P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
> <A
HREF="part-building.html"
>Building a Plugin</A
> -
Introduction to the structure of a plugin, using an example audio
filter for illustration.
</P
><P
> This part covers all the basic steps you generally need to perform
to build a plugin, such as registering the element with <SPAN
CLASS="application"
>GStreamer</SPAN
>
and setting up the basics so it can receive data from and send data
to neighbour elements. The discussion begins by giving examples of
generating the basic structures and registering an element in
<A
HREF="chapter-building-boiler.html"
>Constructing the Boilerplate</A
>. Then, you will learn how
to write the code to get a basic filter plugin working in <A
HREF="chapter-building-pads.html"
>Chapter 4</A
>, <A
HREF="chapter-building-chainfn.html"
>Chapter 5</A
> and <A
HREF="chapter-statemanage-states.html"
>Chapter 6</A
>.
</P
><P
> After that, we will show some of the GObject concepts on how to
make an element configurable for applications and how to do
application-element interaction in
<A
HREF="chapter-building-args.html"
>Adding Arguments</A
> and <A
HREF="chapter-building-signals.html"
>Chapter 8</A
>. Next, you will learn to build
a quick test application to test all that you've just learned in
<A
HREF="chapter-building-testapp.html"
>Chapter 9</A
>. We will just touch upon
basics here. For full-blown application development, you should
look at <A
HREF="http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/data/doc/gstreamer/head/manual/html/index.html"
TARGET="_top"
>the
Application Development Manual</A
>.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> <A
HREF="part-advanced.html"
>Advanced Filter Concepts</A
> -
Information on advanced features of <SPAN
CLASS="application"
>GStreamer</SPAN
> plugin development.
</P
><P
> After learning about the basic steps, you should be able to create a
functional audio or video filter plugin with some nice features.
However, <SPAN
CLASS="application"
>GStreamer</SPAN
> offers more for plugin writers. This part of the
guide includes chapters on more advanced topics, such as scheduling,
media type definitions in <SPAN
CLASS="application"
>GStreamer</SPAN
>, clocks, interfaces and
tagging. Since these features are purpose-specific, you can read them
in any order, most of them don't require knowledge from other
sections.
</P
><P
> The first chapter, named <A
HREF="chapter-scheduling.html"
>Different scheduling modes</A
>,
will explain some of the basics of element scheduling. It is not
very in-depth, but is mostly some sort of an introduction on why
other things work as they do. Read this chapter if you're interested
in <SPAN
CLASS="application"
>GStreamer</SPAN
> internals. Next, we will apply this knowledge and
discuss another type of data transmission than what you learned in
<A
HREF="chapter-building-chainfn.html"
>Chapter 5</A
>: <A
HREF="chapter-scheduling.html"
>Different scheduling modes</A
>. Loop-based elements will give
you more control over input rate. This is useful when writing, for
example, muxers or demuxers.
</P
><P
> Next, we will discuss media identification in <SPAN
CLASS="application"
>GStreamer</SPAN
> in <A
HREF="chapter-building-types.html"
>Chapter 12</A
>. You will learn how to define
new media types and get to know a list of standard media types
defined in <SPAN
CLASS="application"
>GStreamer</SPAN
>.
</P
><P
> In the next chapter, you will learn the concept of request- and
sometimes-pads, which are pads that are created dynamically, either
because the application asked for it (request) or because the media
stream requires it (sometimes). This will be in <A
HREF="chapter-advanced-request.html"
>Chapter 13</A
>.
</P
><P
> The next chapter, <A
HREF="chapter-advanced-clock.html"
>Chapter 14</A
>, will
explain the concept of clocks in <SPAN
CLASS="application"
>GStreamer</SPAN
>. You need this
information when you want to know how elements should achieve
audio/video synchronization.
</P
><P
> The next few chapters will discuss advanced ways of doing
application-element interaction. Previously, we learned on the
GObject-ways of doing this in <A
HREF="chapter-building-args.html"
>Adding Arguments</A
>
and <A
HREF="chapter-building-signals.html"
>Chapter 8</A
>. We will discuss
dynamic parameters, which are a way of defining element behaviour
over time in advance, in <A
HREF="chapter-dparams.html"
>Chapter 15</A
>. Next,
you will learn about interfaces in <A
HREF="chapter-advanced-interfaces.html"
>Chapter 16</A
>. Interfaces are very target-
specific ways of application-element interaction, based on GObject's
GInterface. Lastly, you will learn about how metadata is handled in
<SPAN
CLASS="application"
>GStreamer</SPAN
> in <A
HREF="chapter-advanced-tagging.html"
>Chapter 17</A
>.
</P
><P
> The last chapter, <A
HREF="chapter-advanced-events.html"
>Chapter 18</A
>, will
discuss the concept of events in <SPAN
CLASS="application"
>GStreamer</SPAN
>. Events are, on the
one hand, another way of doing application-element interaction. It
takes care of seeking, for example. On the other hand, it is also
a way in which elements interact with each other, such as letting
each other know about media stream discontinuities, forwarding tags
inside a pipeline and so on.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> <A
HREF="part-other.html"
>Creating special element types</A
> - Explanation
of writing other plugin types.
</P
><P
> Because the first two parts of the guide use an audio filter as an
example, the concepts introduced apply to filter plugins. But many of
the concepts apply equally to other plugin types, including sources,
sinks, and autopluggers. This part of the guide presents the issues
that arise when working on these more specialized plugin types. The
chapter starts with a special focus on elements that can be written
using a base-class (<A
HREF="chapter-other-base.html"
>Pre-made base classes</A
>), and
later also goes into writing special types of elements in
<A
HREF="chapter-other-oneton.html"
>Writing a Demuxer or Parser</A
>, <A
HREF="chapter-other-ntoone.html"
>Writing a N-to-1 Element or Muxer</A
> and <A
HREF="chapter-other-manager.html"
>Writing a Manager</A
>.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> <A
HREF="part-appendix.html"
>Appendices</A
> - Further
information for plugin developers.
</P
><P
> The appendices contain some information that stubbornly refuses
to fit cleanly in other sections of the guide. Most of this section
is not yet finished.
</P
></LI
></UL
><P
> The remainder of this introductory part of the guide presents a short
overview of the basic concepts involved in <SPAN
CLASS="application"
>GStreamer</SPAN
> plugin development.
Topics covered include <A
HREF="chapter-intro-basics.html#section-basics-elements"
>Elements and Plugins</A
>, <A
HREF="section-basics-pads.html"
>Pads</A
>, <A
HREF="section-basics-data.html"
>Data, Buffers and Events</A
> and
<A
HREF="section-basics-types.html"
>Types and Properties</A
>. If you are already familiar with
this information, you can use this short overview to refresh your memory,
or you can skip to <A
HREF="part-building.html"
>Building a Plugin</A
>.
</P
><P
> As you can see, there a lot to learn, so let's get started!
</P
><P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
> Creating compound and complex elements by extending from a GstBin.
This will allow you to create plugins that have other plugins embedded
in them.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> Adding new mime-types to the registry along with typedetect functions.
This will allow your plugin to operate on a completely new media type.
</P
></LI
></UL
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