# Dynamic pipelines

this chapter we will see how you can create a dynamic pipleine. A dynamic pipeline is a pipeline that is updated or created while media is flowing through it. We will create a partial pipeline first and add more elements while the pipeline is playing. Dynamic pipelines cause all sorts of scheduling issues and will remain a topic of research for a long time in GStreamer.

We will show how to create an mpeg1 video player using dynamic pipelines. As you have seen in the pad section, we can attach a signal to an element when a pad is created. We will use this to create our MPEG1 player.

We'll start with a simple main function:

    #include <gnome.h>
    #include <gst/gst.h>

    void eof(GstElement *src) {
      g_print("have eos, quitting\n");
      exit(0);
    }

    gboolean
    idle_func (gpointer data)
    {
      gst_bin_iterate (GST_BIN (data));
      return TRUE;
    }

    int
    main(int argc, char *argv[])
    {
      GstElement *pipeline, *src, *parse;

      gst_init (&argc, &argv);
      gnome_init ("MPEG1 Video player","0.0.1", argc, argv);

      pipeline = gst_pipeline_new ("pipeline");
      g_return_val_if_fail (pipeline != NULL, -1);

      src = gst_elementfactory_make ("filesrc", "src");
      g_return_val_if_fail (src != NULL, -1);
      g_object_set (G_OBJECT (src), "location", argv[1], NULL);

      parse = gst_elementfactory_make ("mpeg1parse", "parse");
      g_return_val_if_fail (parse != NULL, -1);

      gst_bin_add (GST_BIN (pipeline), GST_ELEMENT (src));
      gst_bin_add (GST_BIN (pipeline), GST_ELEMENT (parse));

      g_signal_connect (G_OBJECT (parse), "new_pad",
                         G_CALLBACK (new_pad_created), pipeline);

      g_signal_connect (G_OBJECT (src), "eos",
                         G_CALLBACK (eof), NULL);

      gst_pad_connect (gst_element_get_pad (src, "src"),
                       gst_element_get_pad (parse, "sink"));

      gst_element_set_state (GST_ELEMENT (pipeline), GST_STATE_PLAYING);

      g_idle_add (idle_func, pipeline);

      gdk_threads_enter ();
      gst_main ();
      gdk_threads_leave ();

      return 0;
    }

We create two elements: a filesrc (the element that will read the file from disk) and an mpeg1parser. We also add an EOS (End Of Stream) signal to the filesrc so that we will be notified when the file has ended. There's nothing special about this piece of code except for the signal 'new_pad' that we connected to the mpeg1parser using:

      g_signal_connect (G_OBJECT (parse), "new_pad",
                         G_CALLBACK (new_pad_created), pipeline);

When an elementary stream has been detected in the system stream, mpeg1parse will create a new pad that will provide the data of the elementary stream. A function 'new_pad_created' will be called when the pad is created:

    void
    new_pad_created (GstElement *parse, GstPad *pad, GstElement *pipeline)
    {
      GstElement *parse_audio, *parse_video, *decode, *decode_video, *play, *videoscale, *show;
      GstElement *audio_queue, *video_queue;
      GstElement *audio_thread, *video_thread;

      GtkWidget *appwindow;

      g_print ("***** a new pad &percnt;s was created\n", gst_pad_get_name (pad));

      gst_element_set_state (GST_ELEMENT (pipeline), GST_STATE_PAUSED);

      // connect to audio pad
      if (strncmp (gst_pad_get_name (pad), "audio_", 6) == 0) {

        // construct internal pipeline elements
        parse_audio = gst_elementfactory_make ("mp3parse", "parse_audio");
        g_return_if_fail (parse_audio != NULL);
        decode = gst_elementfactory_make ("mpg123", "decode_audio");
        g_return_if_fail (decode != NULL);
        play = gst_elementfactory_make ("audiosink", "play_audio");
        g_return_if_fail (play != NULL);

        // create the thread and pack stuff into it
        audio_thread = gst_thread_new ("audio_thread");
        g_return_if_fail (audio_thread != NULL);
        gst_bin_add (GST_BIN (audio_thread), GST_ELEMENT (parse_audio));
        gst_bin_add (GST_BIN (audio_thread), GST_ELEMENT (decode));
        gst_bin_add (GST_BIN (audio_thread), GST_ELEMENT (play));

        // set up pad connections
        gst_element_add_ghost_pad (GST_ELEMENT (audio_thread),
                                   gst_element_get_pad (parse_audio, "sink"));
        gst_pad_connect (gst_element_get_pad (parse_audio,"src"),
                         gst_element_get_pad (decode,"sink"));
        gst_pad_connect (gst_element_get_pad (decode,"src"),
                         gst_element_get_pad (play,"sink"));

        // construct queue and connect everything in the main pipelie
        audio_queue = gst_elementfactory_make ("queue", "audio_queue");

        gst_bin_add (GST_BIN (pipeline), GST_ELEMENT (audio_queue));
        gst_bin_add (GST_BIN (pipeline), GST_ELEMENT (audio_thread));

        gst_pad_connect (pad,
                         gst_element_get_pad (audio_queue, "sink"));
        gst_pad_connect (gst_element_get_pad (audio_queue, "src"),
                         gst_element_get_pad (audio_thread, "sink"));

        // set up thread state and kick things off
        g_print ("setting to READY state\n");
        gst_element_set_state (GST_ELEMENT (audio_thread), GST_STATE_READY);

      }
      else if (strncmp (gst_pad_get_name (pad), "video_", 6) == 0) {

        // construct internal pipeline elements
        parse_video = gst_elementfactory_make ("mp1videoparse", "parse_video");
        g_return_if_fail (parse_video != NULL);
        decode_video = gst_elementfactory_make ("mpeg_play", "decode_video");
        g_return_if_fail (decode_video != NULL);

        show = gst_elementfactory_make ("videosink", "show");
        g_return_if_fail (show != NULL);

        appwindow = gnome_app_new ("MPEG1 player", "MPEG1 player");
        gnome_app_set_contents (GNOME_APP (appwindow),
          	        gst_util_get_widget_arg (GTK_OBJECT (show), "widget"));
    		gtk_widget_show_all (appwindow);

        // create the thread and pack stuff into it
        video_thread = gst_thread_new ("video_thread");
        g_return_if_fail (video_thread != NULL);
        gst_bin_add (GST_BIN (video_thread), GST_ELEMENT (parse_video));
        gst_bin_add (GST_BIN (video_thread), GST_ELEMENT (decode_video));
        gst_bin_add (GST_BIN (video_thread), GST_ELEMENT (show));

        // set up pad connections
        gst_element_add_ghost_pad (GST_ELEMENT (video_thread),
                                   gst_element_get_pad (parse_video, "sink"));
        gst_pad_connect (gst_element_get_pad (parse_video, "src"),
                         gst_element_get_pad (decode_video, "sink"));
        gst_pad_connect (gst_element_get_pad (decode_video, "src"),
                         gst_element_get_pad (show, "sink"));

        // construct queue and connect everything in the main pipeline
        video_queue = gst_elementfactory_make ("queue", "video_queue");

        gst_bin_add (GST_BIN (pipeline), GST_ELEMENT (video_queue));
        gst_bin_add (GST_BIN (pipeline), GST_ELEMENT (video_thread));

        gst_pad_connect (pad,
                         gst_element_get_pad (video_queue, "sink"));
        gst_pad_connect (gst_element_get_pad (video_queue, "src"),
                         gst_element_get_pad (video_thread, "sink"));

        // set up thread state and kick things off
        g_object_set (G_OBJECT (video_thread), "create_thread", TRUE, NULL);
        g_print ("setting to READY state\n");
        gst_element_set_state (GST_ELEMENT (video_thread), GST_STATE_READY);
      }
      g_print("\n");
      gst_element_set_state (GST_ELEMENT (pipeline), GST_STATE_PLAYING);
    }

In the above example, we created new elements based on the name of the newly created pad. We added them to a new thread There are other possibilities to check the type of the pad, for example, by using the MIME type and the properties of the pad.