gstreamer/docs/pwg/building-pads.xml

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<chapter id="chapter-building-pads">
  <title>Specifying the pads</title>
  <para>
    As explained before, pads are the port through which data goes in and out
    of your element, and that makes them a very important item in the process
    of element creation. In the boilerplate code, we have seen how static pad
    templates take care of registering pad templates with the element class.
    Here, we will see how to create actual elements, use <function>_link ()</function>
    and <function>_getcaps ()</function> functions to let other elements know
    their capabilities and how to register functions to let data flow through
    the element.
  </para>
  <para>
    In the element <function>_init ()</function> function, you create the pad
    from the pad template that has been registered with the element class in
    the <function>_base_init ()</function> function. After creating the pad,
    you have to set a <function>_link ()</function> function pointer and a
    <function>_getcaps ()</function> function pointer. Optionally, you can
    set a <function>_chain ()</function> function pointer (on sink pads in
    filter and sink elements) through which data will come in to the element,
    or (on source pads in source elements) a <function>_get ()</function>
    function pointer through which data will be pulled from the element. After
    that, you have to register the pad with the element. This happens like
    this:
  </para>
  <programlisting>
static GstPadLinkReturn	gst_my_filter_link	(GstPad        *pad,
						 const GstCaps *caps);
static GstCaps *	gst_my_filter_getcaps	(GstPad        *pad);
static void		gst_my_filter_chain	(GstPad        *pad,
						 GstData       *data);

static void
gst_my_filter_init (GstMyFilter *filter)
{
  GstElementClass *klass = GST_ELEMENT_GET_CLASS (filter);

  /* pad through which data comes in to the element */
  filter-&gt;sinkpad = gst_pad_new_from_template (
	gst_element_class_get_pad_template (klass, "sink"), "sink");
  gst_pad_set_link_function (filter-&gt;sinkpad, gst_my_filter_link);
  gst_pad_set_getcaps_function (filter-&gt;sinkpad, gst_my_filter_getcaps);
  gst_pad_set_chain_function (filter-&gt;sinkpad, gst_my_filter_chain);
  gst_element_add_pad (GST_ELEMENT (filter), filter-&gt;sinkpad);

  /* pad through which data goes out of the element */
  filter-&gt;srcpad = gst_pad_new_from_template (
	gst_element_class_get_pad_template (klass, "src"), "src");
  gst_pad_set_link_function (filter-&gt;srcpad, gst_my_filter_link);
  gst_pad_set_getcaps_function (filter-&gt;srcpad, gst_my_filter_getcaps);
  gst_element_add_pad (GST_ELEMENT (filter), filter-&gt;srcpad);
[..]
}
  </programlisting>

  <sect1 id="section-pads-linkfn" xreflabel="The link function">
  <title>The link function</title>
  <para>
    The <function>_link ()</function> is called during caps negotiation. This
    is the process where the linked pads decide on the streamtype that will
    transfer between them. A full list of type-definitions can be found in
    <xref linkend="chapter-building-types"/>. A <function>_link ()</function>
    receives a pointer to a <ulink type="http"
    url="../../gstreamer/html/gstreamer-GstCaps.html"><classname>GstCaps</classname>
    </ulink> struct that defines the proposed streamtype, and can respond with
    either <quote>yes</quote> (<symbol>GST_PAD_LINK_OK</symbol>),
    <quote>no</quote> (<symbol>GST_PAD_LINK_REFUSED</symbol>) or
    <quote>don't know yet</quote> (<symbol>GST_PAD_LINK_DELAYED</symbol>).
    If the element responds positively towards the streamtype, that type
    will be used on the pad. An example:
  </para>
  <programlisting>
static GstPadLinkReturn
gst_my_filter_link (GstPad        *pad,
		    const GstCaps *caps)
{
  GstStructure *structure = gst_caps_get_structure (caps, 0);
  GstMyFilter *filter = GST_MY_FILTER (gst_pad_get_parent (pad));
  GstPad *otherpad = (pad == filter-&gt;srcpad) ? filter-&gt;sinkpad :
					       filter-&gt;srcpad;
  GstPadLinkReturn ret;
  const gchar *mime;

  /* Since we're an audio filter, we want to handle raw audio
   * and from that audio type, we need to get the samplerate and
   * number of channels. */
  mime = gst_structure_get_name (structure);
  if (strcmp (mime, "audio/x-raw-int") != 0) {
    GST_WARNING ("Wrong mimetype %s provided, we only support %s",
		 mime, "audio/x-raw-int");
    return GST_PAD_LINK_REFUSED;
  }

  /* we're a filter and don't touch the properties of the data.
   * That means we can set the given caps unmodified on the next
   * element, and use that negotiation return value as ours. */
  ret = gst_pad_try_set_caps (otherpad, gst_caps_copy (caps));
  if (GST_PAD_LINK_FAILED (ret))
    return ret;

  /* Capsnego succeeded, get the stream properties for internal
   * usage and return success. */
  gst_structure_get_int (structure, "rate", &amp;filter-&gt;samplerate);
  gst_structure_get_int (structure, "channels", &amp;filter-&gt;channels);

  g_print ("Caps negotiation succeeded with %d Hz @ %d channels\n",
	   filter-&gt;samplerate, filter-&gt;channels);

  return ret;
}
  </programlisting>
  <para>
    In here, we check the mimetype of the provided caps. Normally, you don't
    need to do that in your own plugin/element, because the core does that
    for you. We simply use it to show how to retrieve the mimetype from a
    provided set of caps. Types are stored in <ulink type="http"
    url="../../gstreamer/html/gstreamer-GstStructure.html"><classname>GstStructure
    </classname></ulink> internally. A <ulink
    type="http" url="../../gstreamer/html/gstreamer-GstCaps.html"><classname>GstCaps
    </classname></ulink> is nothing more than a small
    wrapper for 0 or more structures/types. From the structure, you can also
    retrieve properties, as is shown above with the function
    <function>gst_structure_get_int ()</function>.
  </para>
  <para>
    If your <function>_link ()</function> function does not need to perform
    any specific operation (i.e. it will only forward caps), you can set it
    to <function>gst_pad_proxy_link</function>. This is a link forwarding
    function implementation provided by the core. It is useful for elements
    such as <classname>identity</classname>.
  </para>
  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="section-pads-getcapsfn" xreflabel="The getcaps function">
  <title>The getcaps function</title>
  <para>
    The <function>_getcaps ()</function> function is used to request the list
    of supported formats and properties from the element. In some cases, this
    will be equal to the formats provided by the pad template, in which case
    this function can be omitted. In some cases, too, it will not depend on
    anything inside this element, but it will rather depend on the input from
    another element linked to this element's sink or source pads. In that case,
    you can use <function>gst_pad_proxy_getcaps</function> as implementation,
    it provides getcaps forwarding in the core. However, in many cases, the
    format supported by this element cannot be defined externally, but is
    more specific than those provided by the pad template. In this case, you
    should use a <function>_getcaps ()</function> function. In the case as
    specified below, we assume that our filter is able to resample sound, so
    it would be able to provide any samplerate (indifferent from the samplerate
    specified on the other pad) on both pads. It explains how a
    <function>_getcaps ()</function> can be used to do this.
  </para>
  <programlisting>
static GstCaps *
gst_my_filter_getcaps (GstPad *pad)
{
  GstMyFilter *filter = GST_MY_FILTER (gst_pad_get_parent (pad));
  GstPad *otherpad = (pad == filter-&gt;srcpad) ? filter-&gt;sinkpad :
					       filter-&gt;srcpad;
  GstCaps *othercaps = gst_pad_get_allowed_caps (otherpad), *caps;
  gint n;

  if (gst_caps_is_empty (othercaps))
    return othercaps;

  /* We support *any* samplerate, indifferent from the samplerate
   * supported by the linked elements on both sides. */
  for (i = 0; i &lt; gst_caps_get_size (othercaps); i++) {
    GstStructure *structure = gst_caps_get_structure (othercaps, i);

    gst_structure_remove_field (structure, "rate");
  }
  caps = gst_caps_intersect (othercaps, gst_pad_get_pad_template_caps (pad));
  gst_caps_free (othercaps);

  return caps;
}
  </programlisting>
  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="section-pads-explicitcaps" xreflabel="Explicit caps">
  <title>Explicit caps</title>
  <para>
    Obviously, many elements will not need the complex mechanism described in
    the previous sections, because they are much simpler than that.
    Such elements only support one format, or their format
    is fixed but the contents of the format depend on the stream or something
    else. In those cases, <emphasis>explicit caps</emphasis> are an easy way
    of handling caps. Explicit caps are an easy way of specifying one, fixed,
    supported format on a pad. Pads using explicit caps do not implement their
    own <function>_getcaps ()</function> or <function>_link ()</function>
    functions. When the exact format is known, an elements uses
    <function>gst_pad_set_explicit_caps ()</function> to specify the exact
    format. This is very useful for demuxers, for example.
  </para>
  <programlisting>
static void
gst_my_filter_init (GstMyFilter *filter)
{
  GstElementClass *klass = GST_ELEMENT_GET_CLASS (filter);
[..]
  filter-&gt;srcpad = gst_pad_new_from_template (
	gst_element_class_get_pad_template (klass, "src"), "src");
  gst_pad_use_explicit_caps (filter-&gt;srcpad);
[..]
}

static void
gst_my_filter_somefunction (GstMyFilter *filter)
{
  GstCaps *caps = ..;
[..]
  gst_pad_set_explicit_caps (filter-&gt;srcpad, caps);
[..]
}
  </programlisting>
  </sect1>
</chapter>