--- /dev/null
+== ACTIVEX Control for VLC ==
+
+The VLC ActiveX Control has been primary designed to work with Internet Explorer.
+however it may also work with Visual Basic and/or .NET
+Please note, that this code does not rely upon Microsoft MFC/ATL code,
+hence good compatibility is not guaranteed.
+
+I. Compiling
+
+The ActiveX Control should compile without any glitches as long as you have the latest
+version of mingw gcc and headers. However, In order to script the ActiveX Control
+on Internet Explorer, a type library is required.
+
+This type library is usually generated from an IDL file using Microsoft MIDL compiler.
+Therefore, for convenience I have checked in the output of the MIDL compiler in the
+repository so that you will only need the MIDL compiler if you change axvlc.idl.
+the generated files are as follow:
+
+axvlc_idl.c
+axvlc_idl.h
+axvlc.tlb
+
+To use the MIDL compiler on cygwin, you will need to set some environment variables
+before configuring vlc. If you have a copy of 'Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0' installed,
+the following settings are correct:
+
+export PATH=$PATH:"/cygdrive/c/Program Files/Microsoft Visual Studio/COMMON/MSDev98/Bin":"/cygdrive/c/Program Files/Microsoft Visual Studio/VC98/Bin"
+export INCLUDE='C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\Include'
+export MIDL="midl"
+
+if you are cross-compiling on Linux, you may be able to use 'widl' which is part of
+the WINE project (http://www.winehq.com), however I have not tested it.
+
+II. Debugging
+
+the ActiveX control is compiled with verbose output by default. However you will
+need to launch Internet Explorer from a Cygwin shell to see the output.
+Alternatively, the plugin will also use the VLC preferences, hence if you enable
+the file logging interface through the player and save the preferences, the
+control will automatically log its verbose output into the designated file.
+
+Debugging the ActiveX control DLL with GNU GDB can be difficult. Fortunately,
+the ActiveX control can also be compiled as an executable rather than a DLL.
+In ActiveX terms, this is called a local server.
+The advantage of a local server is that it will never crash its client,
+i.e Internet Explorer, if itself is crashing.
+The build system does not currently allow to create an executable version of
+the ActiveX control, you will need to manually define the BUILD_LOCALSERVER
+pre-processor variable and modify the Makefile to exclude the '-shared' option
+at the linking stage. Once this is done, you just need to launch axvlc.exe to
+have a working Activex control. Please note, that executable version of the
+ActiveX control will override any settings required for the DLL version, which
+will no longer work until you (re)register it as shown in the following section
+
+III. Local Install
+
+The VLC NSIS installer will install the ActiveX Control without requiring any
+further manual intervention, but for people who like to live on the edge, here
+are the steps you need to perform once you have built the ActiveX Control.
+
+The ActiveX control DLL file may be copied anywhere on the target machine,
+but before you can use the control, you will need to register it with Windows
+by using the REGSVR32 command, as per following example:
+
+REGSVR32 C:\WINDOWS\AXVLC.DLL
+
+if the control needs to use external VLC plugins (i.e other than built-in ones),
+make sure that the plugin path is set in the registry as per following example:
+
+[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\VideoLAN\VLC]
+InstallDir="C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC"
+
+The InstallDir must be the parent directory of the 'plugins' directory.
+
+WARNING: Both control and plugins must come from the same build source tree.
+Otherwise, at best, the control will not play any content, at worse
+it may crash Internet Explorer while attempting to load incompatible plugins.
+
+IV. Internet Install
+
+The activex control may be installed from a remote through Internet Installer if
+it is packaged up in a CAB file. The following link explains how to achieve this
+
+http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/components/activex/packaging.asp
+
+For convenience, I have provided a sample axvlc.INF file, which assumes that the VLC
+NSIS Installer has been packaged up a CAB file called AXVLC.CAB.
+
+The ActiveX Control DLL file can also be distributed by itself if it has been
+compiled with built-in VLC plugins; check developer information for more
+information on built-in plugins.
+
+V. Controlling the plugin
+
+1) Properties
+
+the following public properties can be used to control the plugin from HTML,
+the property panel of Visual Basic and most ActiveX aware applications
+
++==========+=========+================================+===============+
+| Name: | Type: | Description: | Alias: |
++==========+=========+================================+===============+
+| autoplay | boolean | play when control is activated | autostart |
++----------+---------+--------------------------------+---------------+
+| autoloop | boolean | loop the playlist | loop |
++----------+---------+--------------------------------+---------------+
+| mrl | string | initial MRL in playlist | src, filename |
++----------+---------+--------------------------------+---------------+
+| mute | boolean | mute audio volume | |
++----------+---------+--------------------------------+---------------+
+| visible | boolean | show/hide control viewport | showdisplay |
++----------+---------+--------------------------------+---------------+
+| volume | integer | set/get audio volume | |
++----------+---------+--------------------------------+---------------+
+
+the alias column allows to specify an alternative <PARAM name> for the
+property in internet explorer, which is useful to maintain compatibility
+with HTML pages already leveraging Windows Media Player
+
+2) Programming APIs
+
+the MRL, Autoplay and Autoloop properties are only used to configure the initial
+state of the ActiveX control,i.e before its activation; they are ignored afterward.
+Therefore, if some runtime control is required, the following APIs should be used
+within your programming environment:
+
+Variables:
+
++==========+=========+=========+=======================================+
+| Name: | Type: | Access: | Description: |
++==========+=========+=========+=======================================+
+| Playing | boolean | RO | Returns whether some MRL is playing |
++----------+---------+---------+---------------------------------------+
+| Time | integer | RW | Time elapsed in seconds playing |
+| | | | current MRL |
+| | | | NOTE: live feeds returns 0 |
++----------+---------+---------+---------------------------------------+
+| Position | real | RW | Playback position within current MRL |
+| | | | in a scale from 0.0 to 1.0 |
+| | | | NOTE: live feeds returns 0.0 |
++----------+---------+---------+---------------------------------------+
+| Length | integer | RO | Total length in seconds of current MRL|
+| | | | NOTE: live feeds returns 0 |
++----------+---------+---------+---------------------------------------+
+| Volume | integer | RW | Current volume from 0 to 100 |
++----------+---------+---------+---------------------------------------+
+| Visible | boolean | RW | Indicates whether control is visible |
++----------+---------+---------+---------------------------------------+
+
+Methods:
+
+play()
+ Play current item the playlist
+
+pause()
+ Pause current item in the playlist
+
+stop()
+ Stop playing current item in playlist
+
+shuttle(Seconds as integer)
+ Advance/backtrack playback by specified amount (which is negative for
+ backtracking). This is also called relative seeking.
+ This method does not work for live streams.
+
+fullscreen()
+ Switch between normal and full screen video
+
+playFaster()
+ Increase play back speed by 2X, 4X, 8X
+
+playSlower()
+ Decrease play back speed by 2X, 4X, 8X
+
+toggleMute()
+ mute/unmute sound output
+
+addTarget(MRL As String, Options as array of strings, Mode as enumeration, Position as integer)
+ Add MRL into the default playlist, you can also specify a list of playlist Options to attach
+ to this MRL or Null for no options. mode indicates the action taken by the playlist on MRL
+ which is one the following:
+ VLCPlayListInsert = 1 (Insert MRL into playlist at Position)
+ VLCPlayListInsertAndGo = 9 (Insert MRL into playlist at Position and play it immediately)
+ VLCPlayListReplace = 2 (Replace MRL in playlist at Position)
+ VLCPlayListReplaceAndGo = 10 (Replace MRL in playlist at Position and play it immediately)
+ VLCPlayListAppend = 4 (Append MRL in playlist after Position)
+ VLCPlayListAppendAndGo = 12 (Append MRL in playlist after Position and play it immediately)
+ VLCPlayListCheckInsert = 16 (Verify if MRL is in playlist)
+ Position can take the value of -666 as wildcard for the last element in playlist
+
+
+setVariable(Name as string, Value as object);
+ Set a value into a VLC variables
+
+getVariable( Name as string) as object
+ Retrieve the value of a VLC variable.
+
+Regards,
+ Damien Fouilleul <Damien dot Fouilleul at laposte dot net>
+
projects / vlc / blobdiff