[vlc-devel] [PATCH 00/10] Item browsing system

[Julien 'Lta' BALLET]

From: Julien 'Lta' BALLET <contact at lta.io>

Hi vlc-devel,
Hi core maintainers,

I've been working recently on a tiny library implementing SMB with an
iOS compatible license and was about to start writing a vlc module for
it. A smb module should have 3 parts:
  - Discovering other infected machines.
  - Browsing shares and folder inside of shares
  - Reading files

While VLC has way to handle the first and last part. The middle one,
browsing, seems to be an issue. After searching through VLC's code,
i've found a solution in access/directory.c but not really the kind of
solution i wanted to reproduce (it generates XSPF on-the-fly).
After discussing the issue with j-b and felix, it appeared that they
were similar concerns for UPNP and Bonjour.

Here's then a patchset implementing a browsing system for input_item_t
i'd like to submit to your expert attention.

Why a browsing system ?

  - I'm working on a SMB client with an iOS compatible license and was
    about to integrate it when i discovered access/directory.c. I
    don't want to implement SMB browsing the same way.

  - Improving media discovery: Some service discovery protocols needs
    to forward items to other modules. A typical example is
    mDNS/Bonjour (works for UPNP as well). Bonjour allows you to
    discover services that use other protocols. When the Bonjour SD
    finds an ftp server, he cannot tells the user what's inside of the
    ftp server, that should be the responsability of a ftp module. So
    he needs to forward the discovered item (ftp://srv_addr) to
    another module which speaks ftp.

  - Media discovery and browsing is a different job than the core
    media playback and streaming (input). Improving media discovery
    shouldn't make the core more complex. On the other hand,
    extracting browsing features to another subsytem will prevent
    people working on discovery and browsing to introduce bugs in the
    input core.

  - The lack of a proper item browsing system has led to clever but
    still somewhat dirty hacks, like on-demand generation of XSPF
    playlist when 'playing' a folder.

  - Making playlist files handling simpler.
    1. It'll be possible to mutualize some item_node handling code
       from playlists and to reduce coupling between core playlist
       and modules.
    2. It'll allow to move playlist parsing modules out of the demux
       system and folders.
    3. It'll make the playlist modules have a simple API and data
       structures (no seek, no ES, no control).

  - (It'll allow for playlist filters, althought i haven't found
    precise use cases for that. So let's no count that one.)

What do i mean by 'browsing system' ? There's two things:

  - A new type of module: 'browse' module, whose job is to take an
    input_item_t (and optionnaly a stream) as an input and to fill an
    input_item_node_t as its output. Basically it's meant to read
    folders, playlists, discovery protocol and APIs.

  - A (very) lightweigt clone of the input_thread_t to handle the
    browse modules: browser_thread_t. The browser thread is integrated
    to the playlist loop, to have a consistent behavior with what
    happens with input.

How it works ?

  - Browse modules have a very simple API: They expose only a
    pf_browse function. They receive an input_item_t item to browse,
    optionnaly a stream_t and a input_item_node_t to fill.

  - There are two kind of browse module. access_browser and browser.
    - access_browser are for browsing folders at a low
      (system/protocol) level (local, ftp, smb folders).
    - browser requires a stream_t and handle files/streams (API,
      playlist files).

  - Browsing thread looks like input_thread_t. While it carries most
    of its looks and behavior (events, state, API), it is much much
    simpler. He runs on it's own thread but will soon gain a
    synchronous and simpler API for usage in UIs.

  - Item gets a few flags (browsable/alread browsed) to handle node
    going back and forth between input and browsing.

  - When the playlist tries to play an item with the browsable flag
    it starts a browser thread instead of an input one.

  - input modules (especially access) have the opportunity to mark
    item as browsable, making the playlist retry them in the browser

  - A rewrite of access/directory.c is included to demonstrate this.
    A browser version of wpl playlist module is working, but needs some
    cleaning before submission.

What still needs to be done ?

  - Gather all the precious constructive comments i hope to receive
    here and fix my code.

  - Implementing a fallback mechanism to try items in the browser if
    input was unable to read them, even after the PS input fallback.
    (BTW: I'm very curious about this, why PS is the input fallback ?)

  - Implementing a simple API call on top of that, in the spirit of
    input_Read()

  - Move playlist parsers to this system.

All those item will be handled in about two weeks, after i finish
preparing and giving an intensive week-long class in a french school.


If you read this line, i thank you for the time you spent and encourage
you to go forward and review the patchset :)


Cheers,
Lta.

Julien 'Lta' BALLET (10):
  Adds a flag field in input_item_t. Adds browsable and already browsed
    flags enum definition
  Adds accessors functions for input_item_t flags
  Adds categories and help for browse modules
  Adds a new browsing facility whose job is to browse/expand items like
       folders, playlist or item from APIs.
  Adds INPUT_EVENT_BROWSE
  Adds VLC_ENEEDBROSE and make input report an item need browsing
  Integrates browsing inside of the playlist
  Moves a usefull function of access/directory.c from Remi
    Denis-Courmont to src/text/url.c
  Rewrite access/directory.c as an access_browser. No more xspf
    generation ... Yeah!
  Let's not fetch art for browsable items

 include/vlc_browsing.h           | 138 ++++++++++
 include/vlc_common.h             |   2 +
 include/vlc_config_cat.h         |  13 +
 include/vlc_input.h              |   4 +
 include/vlc_input_item.h         |  12 +
 include/vlc_plugin.h             |   2 +
 include/vlc_url.h                |   1 +
 modules/access/directory.c       | 537 ++++++++++++++++-----------------------
 modules/access/file.c            |  29 +--
 modules/access/fs.c              |   5 +-
 modules/access/fs.h              |   3 -
 src/Makefile.am                  |   5 +
 src/browser/browse.c             | 106 ++++++++
 src/browser/browser.c            | 348 +++++++++++++++++++++++++
 src/browser/browser_internal.h   |  48 ++++
 src/browser/event.c              |  55 ++++
 src/browser/event.h              |  36 +++
 src/input/event.c                |   6 +
 src/input/event.h                |   1 +
 src/input/input.c                |  52 +++-
 src/input/item.c                 |  48 ++++
 src/libvlccore.sym               |   5 +
 src/playlist/engine.c            |   1 +
 src/playlist/fetcher.c           |   4 +
 src/playlist/playlist_internal.h |  16 +-
 src/playlist/thread.c            | 194 ++++++++++++--
 src/text/url.c                   |  38 +++
 27 files changed, 1329 insertions(+), 380 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 include/vlc_browsing.h
 create mode 100644 src/browser/browse.c
 create mode 100644 src/browser/browser.c
 create mode 100644 src/browser/browser_internal.h
 create mode 100644 src/browser/event.c
 create mode 100644 src/browser/event.h

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1.9.3