A GstElement object is created from a factory. To create an element, you have to get access to a GstElementFactory object using a unique factory name. The following code example is used to get a factory that can be used to create the 'mad' element, an mp3 decoder. GstElementFactory *factory; factory = gst_element_factory_find ("mad"); Once you have the handle to the element factory, you can create a real element with the following code fragment: GstElement *element; element = gst_element_factory_create (factory, "decoder"); gst_element_factory_create will use the element factory to create an element with the given name. The name of the element is something you can use later on to look up the element in a bin, for example. You can pass NULL as the name argument to get a unique, default name. A simple shortcut exists for creating an element from a factory. The following example creates an element named "decoder" from the element factory named "mad". This convenience function is most widely used to create an element. GstElement *element; element = gst_element_factory_make ("mad", "decoder"); When you don't need the element anymore, you need to unref it, as shown in the following example. GstElement *element; ... gst_element_unref (element); A GstElement can have several properties which are implemented using standard GObject properties. The usual GObject methods to query, set and get property values and GParamSpecs are therefore supported. Every GstElement inherits at least one property of its parent GstObject: the "name" property. This is the name you provide to the functions gst_element_factory_make or gst_element_factory_create. You can get and set this property using the functions gst_object_set_name and gst_object_get_name or use the GObject property mechanism as shown below. GstElement *element; GValue value = { 0, }; /* initialize the GValue for g_object_get() */ element = gst_element_factory_make ("mad", "decoder"); g_object_set (G_OBJECT (element), "name", "mydecoder", NULL); ... g_value_init (&value, G_TYPE_STRING); g_object_get_property (G_OBJECT (element), "name", &value); ... Most plugins provide additional properties to provide more information about their configuration or to configure the element. gst-inspect is a useful tool to query the properties of a particular element, it will also use property introspection to give a short explanation about the function of the property and about the parameter types and ranges it supports. For more information about GObject properties we recommend you read the GObject manual and an introduction to The Glib Object system. A GstElement also provides various GObject signals that can be used as a flexible callback mechanism. We talk some more about the GstElementFactory object.