[vlc-devel] [lua] Proposal for a standard-included playlist script...

[John Oyler]

Hi everybody,

   I have a playlist script that I think (eventually) warrants
inclusion in the Videolan package itself.
The script file would be named zzzzzzzz.lua so that it runs after
everything else. The probe() function
would (almost) always return true, so that if a valid http/https URL
were input, this script would run.

The parse() function run through the returned html text, looking for
specially formatted <link> tags. If it
found one, it would use the href of that link tag to download
playlists/sds/extensions and store those in
the appropriate location.

There are some gotchas:

1. Videolan doesn't seem to allow the dialog portion of the API from
within a playlist. This would be
needed to prompt the user to confirm that they wanted to install it.
2. Videolan doesn't seem to allow any filesystem access whatsoever.
Limited write access to the
relevant directories would be necessary. It could be adjusted in such
a way that no true arbitrary access
exists, or whatever other security considerations you guys deem necessary.

Doing this would allow website owners to embed playlist parsers
directly into the page, and allow them to
help the user install playlists much more easily than is currently the case.

I would like to work on a patch to Videolan that would add these (and
other features) to the software, but
I'm still digging through and trying to figure out what sort of build
environment I'd need for that. If anyone
can point me in the right direction for that, it would be appreciated.

But I also want to invite comments, suggestions, and criticism for
this. Especially concerning security,
I'm having trouble seeing what some of the more subtle hacks are that
would make such a thing unsafe.

Prototype script at: http://pastebin.com/KDha6CYc

Thanks,
John O.