Your second application In the previous chapter we created a first version of the helloworld application. We then explained a better way of creating the elements using factories identified by MIME types. In this chapter we will introduce you to autoplugging. Using the MIME types of the elements GStreamer can automatically create a pipeline for you. Autoplugging helloworld We will create a second version of the helloworld application using autoplugging. Its source code is considerably easier to write and it can also handle many more data types. #include <gst/gst.h> static gboolean playing; /* eos will be called when the src element has an end of stream */ void eos (GstSrc *src) { g_print ("have eos, quitting\n"); playing = FALSE; } int main (int argc, char *argv[]) { GstElement *disksrc, *audiosink; GstElement *pipeline; if (argc != 2) { g_print ("usage: %s <filename>\n", argv[0]); exit (-1); } gst_init (&argc, &argv); /* create a new bin to hold the elements */ pipeline = gst_pipeline_new ("pipeline"); /* create a disk reader */ disksrc = gst_elementfactory_make ("disksrc", "disk_source"); gtk_object_set (GTK_OBJECT (disksrc), "location", argv[1], NULL); gtk_signal_connect (GTK_OBJECT (disksrc), "eos", GTK_SIGNAL_FUNC (eos), NULL); /* and an audio sink */ audiosink = gst_elementfactory_make ("audiosink", "play_audio"); /* add objects to the main pipeline */ gst_pipeline_add_src (GST_PIPELINE (pipeline), disksrc); gst_pipeline_add_sink (GST_PIPELINE (pipeline), audiosink); if (!gst_pipeline_autoplug (GST_PIPELINE (pipeline))) { g_print ("unable to handle stream\n"); exit (-1); } /* start playing */ gst_element_set_state (GST_ELEMENT (pipeline), GST_STATE_PLAYING); playing = TRUE; while (playing) { gst_bin_iterate (GST_BIN (pipeline)); } /* stop the bin */ gst_element_set_state (GST_ELEMENT (pipeline), GST_STATE_NULL); gst_pipeline_destroy (pipeline); exit (0); } First of all, we do not use any mpg123 or mp3parse element in this example. In fact, we only specify a source element and a sink element and add them to a pipeline. The most interesting change however is the following: ... if (!gst_pipeline_autoplug (pipeline)) { g_print ("unable to handle stream\n"); exit (-1); } ... This piece of code does all the magic. The pipeline will try to connect the src and the sink element. Since the source has no type, a typedetection will be started on the source element. The best set of elements that connect the MIME type of the source element to the MIME type of the sink are found. The elements are added to the pipeline and their pads are connected. After this autoplugging, the pipeline is ready to play. Remember that this pipeline will be able to playback all of the media types for which an appropriate plugin exists since the autoplugging is all done using MIME types. If you really want, you can use the GSteamer components to do the autoplugging yourself. We will cover this topic in the dynamic pipeline chapter. To compile the helloworld2 example, use: gcc -Wall `gstreamer-config --cflags --libs` helloworld2.c \ -o helloworld2 You can run the example with (substitute helloworld.mp3 with you favorite MP3 file): ./helloworld2 helloworld.mp3 You can also try to use an AVI or MPEG file as its input. Using autoplugging, GStreamer will automatically figure out how to handle the stream. Remember that only the audio part will be played because we have only added an audiosink to the pipeline. ./helloworld2 mymovie.mpeg