This is useful for allowing the ability to have private data associated
with the object type definition structures. This private data can be
useful for things like plugin wrappers for other languages, or providing
dynamically generated object types.
The API used to be designed in such a way to where it would expect
exports for each individual source/output/encoder/etc. You would export
functions for each and it would automatically load those functions based
on a specific naming scheme from the module.
The idea behind this was that I wanted to limit the usage of structures
in the API so only functions could be used. It was an interesting idea
in theory, but this idea turned out to be flawed in a number of ways:
1.) Requiring exports to create sources/outputs/encoders/etc meant that
you could not create them by any other means, which meant that
things like faruton's .net plugin would become difficult.
2.) Export function declarations could not be checked, therefore if you
created a function with the wrong parameters and parameter types,
the compiler wouldn't know how to check for that.
3.) Required overly complex load functions in libobs just to handle it.
It makes much more sense to just have a load function that you call
manually. Complexity is the bane of all good programs.
4.) It required that you have functions of specific names, which looked
and felt somewhat unsightly.
So, to fix these issues, I replaced it with a more commonly used API
scheme, seen commonly in places like kernels and typical C libraries
with abstraction. You simply create a structure that contains the
callback definitions, and you pass it to a function to register that
definition (such as obs_register_source), which you call in the
obs_module_load of the module.
It will also automatically check the structure size and ensure that it
only loads the required values if the structure happened to add new
values in an API change.
The "main" source file for each module must include obs-module.h, and
must use OBS_DECLARE_MODULE() within that source file.
Also, started writing some doxygen documentation in to the main library
headers. Will add more detailed documentation as I go.
- Add property list callbacks to sources/outputs/encoders so that if
necessary user interface can be automatically generated or perhaps a
property list widget can be used for them.
- Change some of the property API names. obs_property_list_t felt a bit
awkward when actually using it, so I just renamed it to
obs_properties_t.
- Removed the getdata/setdata nad getparam/setparam functions from
sources/services, they will be superseded by the dynamic procedure
call API.
Reduce and simplify the UI export interface. Having to export functions
with designated names was a bit silly for this case, it makes more sense
for inputs/outputs/etc because they have more functions associated with
them, but in this case the callback can be retrieved simply through the
enumeration exports. Makes it a bit easier and a little less awkward
for this situation.
Also, changed the exports and names to be a bit more consistent,
labelling them both as either "modal" or "modeless", and changed the UI
function calls to obs_exec_ui and obs_create_ui to imply modal/modeless
functionality a bit more.
I realized that I had intended modeless UI to be usable by plugins, but
it had been pointed out to me that modeless really needs to return a
pointer/handle to the user interface object that was created.
The ui_enum function gets a const struct obs_ui_info **, which basically
means it expects static data to be used. I originally had it the other
way around, but yea, it's probably not a good idea, so I'm going to
revert back to the original code instead, which doesn't rely on the data
being static.
Made it so that enum_ui returns a const pointer to a structure rather
than require an actual structure.
Changed a few of the descriptions that I missed.
Add the ability to be able to call and use toolkit-specific or
program-specific user interface in modules.
User interface code can be either bundled with the module, or 'split'
out in to separate libraries (recommended).
There are three reasons why splitting is recommended:
1.) It allows plugins to be able to create custom user interface for
each toolkit if desired.
2.) Often, UI will be programmed in one language (the language of the
toolkit), and core logic may be programmed in another. This
allows plugins to keep the languages separated if necessary.
3.) It prevents direct linkage of UI toolkits libraries with core
module logic.
Splitting is not required, though is recommended if you want your plugin
to be more flexible with other user interface toolkits or programs.
Will implement a generic properties lookup next, which will be used for
automatic UI handling so that plugin UI isn't necessarily required.
Ryan Foster
jp9000