[mythtv] Guide to write a plugin?

[Josh Lefler]

<snip>
Josh Lefler wrote:
>> Henrik,
>>
>> I recently wrote my first plugin for myth (Ticket #2482) and had much 
>> the same dilemma as you when I got started. Here are a few bits of 
>> information that made the process easier for me:
>>
>>     
<snip>
> Thank you very much for your reply. A few more questions:
>
> How do I go about compiling the thing? I should end up with what? A .so 
> file? And where do I place this? With what filename?
>   
Yes, you should end up with a .so file. Look at the (pluginname).pro 
file for one of the plugins or my patch. You'll see that each plugin 
actually has several .pro files. One in the parent directory, and one in 
each subdirectory. The one in the parent directory simply points to the 
ones in the subdirectories so you can keep different binaries for you 
plugin (if it has more than one binary) organized but still make them 
all with one command. Your best bet is just to copy these pro files from 
another plugin then tweak them to your needs by changing the lines 
specific to your plugin. Look through the files and you'll get a better 
idea of what I mean.

Then, you run qmake to generate a Makefile based upon the .pro files and 
then make as normal. If you setup your plugin like an existing official 
plugin (like I did mine), then you'll have an easier time with 
installation etc. as the mythplugins directory itself helps find the 
proper install location etc. Look through configure for mythplugins to 
see what I mean.


> Regarding the UI xml file, does it need to have a specific name, or do I 
> reference it from within my code?
>
>   
You pass in a portion of the filename. Specifically, anything before the 
"ui.xml". I do this on line 46 of main.cpp in my plugin.


> Do you know anything about the i18n folder, containing translations? Is 
> that for internal use only, or does mythtv choose the translation etc 
> somehow?
>
>   
The i18n folder is for translations - but I haven't implemented it yet 
so can't help ya much there.
> Sorry if I'm asking dumb questions, I haven't yet figured out how things 
> play together.
>
>   
I asked a lot of dumb questions when I was getting started, and Anduin, 
Isaac (chutt), xris, etc. were very helpful.. just happy to be able to 
return the favor in an indirect sort of way.
> / Henrik
>   
>> Henrik Gammelmark wrote:
>>     
>>> I have looked around on mythtv.org, but I cannot seem to find any 
>>> documentation / howtos / turorials / faqs on how to build a simple 
>>> plugin for MythTV.
>>>
>>> Does anyone know of any such guide or at least some sort of 
>>> documentation to use? For starters I wish to create simple Hello World 
>>> plugin that appears in the main menu, and responds to a keystroke (or 
>>> lirc key) by doing something useless.
>>>
>>> In #mythtv @ Freenode, I was told that there is no such guide or sample 
>>> plugin, and the best way to go about it, is study an existing plugin. So 
>>> I started taking apart mythweather, but I quickly got stuck.
>>>
>>> Any pointers would be helpful - what is the bare minimum of code 
>>> required to accomplish the above task, and also, what is the build 
>>> procedure? I never used qmake before, and I'm not sure I understand what 
>>> it does.
>>>
>>> Thank you very much in advance
>>>
>>> / Henrik
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> mythtv-dev at mythtv.org
>>> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-dev
>>>       
>
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>   
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