Want to develop plug in... need guidance

Hi all,

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, so please move it to the correct location if it is not.

Let me start off by saying that this is an awesome application, great job so far.

I would like to start developing plug-ins and need a better understanding of how the Serviio framework is constructed. I looked at the api documentation, but it does not have what I am looking for (although it is useful for other things). What I am looking for is override documentation for particular classes. what I would like to do is add the following abilities to Serviio:

Ability to use other db engines besides derby and allow segregation of the db service (mysql, sql server mainly)

Allow for the altering of presentation interface so it is/can be completely customized (moving the categories to the db instead of hard coded in the .jar, which I presume it is as I can't find any scheme for categories. Have yet to look at the stored procedures or views for this)

ability to use flowplayer on ipad & iphone http://flowplayer.org/plugins/javascript/ipad.html

add the ability to modify certain fields within the db (like ONLINE_IDENTIFIERS field and CONTENTENT_TYPE. The reason for this is that I have encountered problems with some movies that show correctly in the folder view of the mediabrowser, but don't display in the movies section due to content_type being unknown. have already verified that this works on my own system)

I'm sure I'll come up with more after I get some of these completed. I do know I can extend the classes, but any override help would be useful.

Thanks,

Karnith

[zip]

Hi,

plugins are only there for retrieving online streams. You won't be able to change the functionality the way you describe with them.

Oh, ok.

Did you not incorporate the ability for class overrides within your framework?

If you didn't, I would like to make a request that this be added. By doing this, you can allow for other developers in your community to add functionality where they need, which in turn gives back to the community new features. A community vote could take place ever so often to select one or more features to integrate into Serviio and all you would need to do is proofread the code and add to your main structure.

I don't mean to overstep my boundaries, but this methodology (from my experience) is used by companies ranging from Microsoft to Degium (Asterisk PBX) and (as you are already aware) even Linux OS distributions.

I don't know how large your development team is, but leveraging the community (in my opinion) could really introduce an aspect to the software that could really show it as the world class software it is.

[will]

There have been people who wanted to change a few things and did so by decompiling and making changes for their own personal use. Other than that, there hasn't been much demand for users make significant changes, at least while i've been on the forums.

Petr aka zip, is the only developer of Serviio (there are lots of users who contribute plugins for fetching online content, and a few of us who have written alternative consoles and in my case an alternative MediaBrowser).

I'll let zip answer your questions, but IIRC the reasoning for not releasing the code/providing documentation etc is to avoid 1000's of forks and patches.

Hi,

I had thought about decompiling, but I wasn't sure if this would be acceptable or against the EULA with Serviio.

My meaning wasn't to turn Serviio into an open source project, but to help capture new features and ideas from those that have implemented / created, tested and submitted them to the community.

[zip]

Thanks for the offer. As said before, you can decompile for your own use. I won't be releasing the source any time soon and currently don't plan to open the project to more devs.