Useful Info -> What info should you know when making plugins?

[DrO]

Finding those little extra bits of info for making your plugin can be hard especially when you don't know what you're searching for. Remember searching for hours to try and find out about something and fail So what should be done about this?


Well my thought is to add to the forum a "useful info" sticky which should point to relevant info, etc. As well i'm looking at providing example code for most of the api messages (taken also from examples other members have posted just to make it easier when you first start using the api) with an updated sdk installer coming in the next few weeks.

So what other info do you think should be made part of this sticky? Post here and i'll sort through it in the next few weeks as i finish doing the bits i'm working on.

-daz

[[email protected]]

Empty plugins like the generic empty project for all types of plugins.

.. starting with the ml_type first

[DrO]

what about ml_ex in the sdk? though it needs some more documenting i think

-daz

[[email protected]]

Yeah it does need more documenting and it is not exactly "Empty", but it is what I am using at the moment.

[DrO]

lol, no pleasing some people
point noted and i'll get a ml_basic added as soon as i can though for some of the plugins, you need the 'extra' parts in to see what's going on ie input, output and vis though ml and gen can be stripped to a basic level

-daz

[[email protected]]

Hey, I am just being a helpful newbie .... giving you an insight in to the mind of a person who has no idea what he is doing but is still building a plugin

It is good to have both ml_basic as a foundation to build your own and ml_ex with all the 'extras' so you can see what you can do with it.

Buttom up building vs top down.

[DrO]

that's good since the aim is to help newbies get on without having to search for hours on end. the aim also is to have ml_basic, ml_ex and the original version of ml_www in there as well.

-daz

[shaneh]

Although not for a plugin as such, I think some info on how to do all the IPC calls from an external app would be nice, as I think quite a few people start off by writing an external app (even though its harder!). An explanation on these issues would be good too.

I also took part in a thread on how to catch song changes, which isn't really documented in the SDK. The newer 'PLAYINGFILE' or whatever IPC is only new, and doesn't catch http title changes. (the 666 message does though).

Some docs on how to subclass the various windows could be good. These issues are mainly for general plugins, theres probably heaps more for input/output/vis plugins.

@petepan: I think the ml_ex is probably pretty good as a basic skeleton type code. Its not too difficult to cull the stuff you dont need, but at the same time it provides a good framework for the stuff that many ml plugins would need. You were obviously able to get it going in a couple days, which is not bad considering how much effort goes into getting some other undocumented stuff going.

[DrO]

shaneh: i agree with you there, the number of times i've seen that over the few years i've been active/browsing it would make sense to have something on that (issue noted).

i'd better get browsing then

-daz

[torsius]

I posted some very simple code that provides a general interface for interacting with winamp from an external process that allows most (if not all) of the plugin api calls. I even included a sample vc++ project demonstrating how to use it, should help lots of folks out (even though noone responded to it in the thread )

here it is

[Lord Darius]

And once again, I think it would be appreciable if the WM_COMMAND parameters for winamp were in their own header file .

[DrO]

do you mean something like this?

-daz

[edit]

will need to comment out the defines in wa_ipc.h at the bottom for it to compile fine + fixed an issue with the header not compiling (v1.0a attached)

anyone noticed the typo mistakes in wa_ipc.h?

[/edit]

[DrO]

and another file sorted, i've gone through ipc_pe.h adding in some info with working example code as needed.

-daz

[Lord Darius]

you're doing a great work DrO, thanks a lot

[DrO]

Originally posted by Lord Darius
you're doing a great work DrO, thanks a lot

thanks

-daz