SoC 2008/MTP
This project is part of Google Summer of Code 2008.
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Contents
Project Abstract
As MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) devices become more and more popular, and the protocol itself is about to become a standard, using them is still a problem for some people, since they cannot be mounted or opened as disks, but can be natively used only on Vista and Windows XP with WMP10, or using other programs.
Adding the MTP support to VLC would not only give the opportunity to use these device on almost every platform, but also allow to have a free, open source and largely diffuse program to manage them.
My work on the MTP support will enable VLC not only to play music from the device, but also to add new music, manage the content of the device, edit tags, playlists and anything else that would be needed by an Mp3 player user.
The coding would be done in C, mainly as a service discovery for VLC,with an access module to enable the reproduction of files; everything will be done using libmtp (POSIX compliant, so it should work nice on almost every system) as a base, and probably HAL to allow the program to detect the devices as soon as they plugged into the pc.
Schedule
- Linux/POSIX version
- Service Discovery: recognize device connections, create a playlist
- Access Module: play files from the device
- Playlist Management: view/edit tags, transfer files from/to device
- Other: try to manage more than one device at time (not sure about this)
- Windows version
- Try to port the POSIX one using libmtp (it should work without need to change the code, maybe just some fixes)
- Rewrite all using some other API (if the above doesn't work)
- Make sure everything is well integrated in the UI
- Ipods (if there's time and it's not too difficult)
Timeline
| May 26 | Coding begins |
|---|---|
| June 15 (?) - July 15 (?) | Examination period, will work with no problem |
| July 7-14 | Mid-term evaluation |
| July 28 - August 4 | On holiday... |
| August 11-18 | "Pencil down" |
| August 18 - September 1 | Final evaluation |
| September 3 | Submitting required code samples to Google |
The planning is still a little vague, i still don't know examination dates, so it's just a guess, but i don't think to have big problems on working during that period (probably just a break the day of the exam or the day before...)
Current Status
Git
You can checkout to my repository by:
$ git clone git://git.videolan.org/vlc-sephiroth87.git
Remember to switch to branch "work".
Progress
| What | When | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Study libmtp, services discovery and playlist API, VLC internals | May | Done (for now) |
| MTP Service Discovery: detect device (real-time), playlist creation (POSIX) | June | Done |
| MTP Access Module: play files from the device (POSIX) | June | Done? (if no better way is found) |
| MTP management: Modify services discovery API and interface to add tracks to a device (POSIX) | June | In progress |
| MTP management: Delete tracks in the device (POSIX) | June | Not started |
| MTP management: Save tracks from the device (POSIX) | June | Almost done |
| MTP management: Tags, album arts, playlists(?) (POSIX) | June | Not started |
| Multi-MTP: Detect more than one device (still not sure about this) (POSIX) | June | Not started |
| MTP Service Discovery: detect device (real-time), playlist creation (Win) | July | Not started |
| MTP Access Module: play files from the device (Win) | July | Not started |
| MTP management: Modify services discovery API and interface to add tracks to a device (Win) | July | Not started |
| MTP management: Delete tracks in the device (Win) | July | Not started |
| MTP management: Save tracks from the device (Win) | July | Not started |
| MTP management: Tags, album arts, playlists(?) (Win) | July | Not started |
| Multi-MTP: Detect more than one device (still not sure about this) (Win) | July | Not started |
| Be late: Finish what needs to (I know I won't manage to stick to the schedule) | August | Not started |
| Polish: Fix bugs, do performance testing and stuff like that | August | Not started |
| Bonus: iPods... If there's time and it's not too different... | August | not started |
Right now?
Check if the file to send is supported by the device... Use a thread to not freeze the interface (help ?)
Sample Version
[1] Here's the first version of my work, the one i submitted to get started with SoC. It's a basic support, can read one device at time, and you can play files on it, nothing more, just a proof of concept...
