# LV2 State Extension # Copyright 2010-2011 David Robillard # Copyright 2010 Leonard Ritter # # Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for any # purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above # copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies. # # THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES # WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF # MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR # ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES # WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN # ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF # OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE. @prefix state: . @prefix doap: . @prefix foaf: . @prefix lv2: . @prefix rdf: . @prefix rdfs: . a lv2:Specification ; doap:name "LV2 State" ; doap:shortdesc "An interface for LV2 plugins to save and restore state." ; doap:license ; doap:release [ doap:revision "0.2" ; doap:created "2011-11-14" ] ; doap:developer [ a foaf:Person ; foaf:name "Leonard Ritter" ; foaf:homepage ; ] ; doap:maintainer [ a foaf:Person ; foaf:name "David Robillard" ; foaf:homepage ; rdfs:seeAlso ] ; lv2:documentation """

This extension provides a mechanism for plugins to save and restore state across instances, allowing hosts to save configuration/state/data with a project or fully clone (i.e. make a deep copy of) a plugin instance.

This extension allows plugins to save private state data, i.e. data that is not contained in input ports. The motivating ideal is for the state of a plugin instance to be entirely described by port values (as with all LV2 plugins) and a key/value dictionary as defined by this extension. This mechanism is simple, yet sufficiently powerful to describe very advanced and complex state.

The state described by this extension is conceptually a single key/value dictionary. Keys are URIs, and values are type-tagged blobs of any type. The plugin provides a save and restore method for saving and restoring state. To initiate a save or restore, the host calls these methods, passing a callback to be used for handling a single key/value pair. The host is free to implement saving and restoring in any way; the actual mechanism is completely abstract from the plugin's perspective.

Because the state is a simple dictionary, hosts and plugins can work with state easily from many languages and protocols. Additionally, this format is simple and terse to serialise in many formats (e.g. any RDF syntax, JSON, XML, key/value databases such as BDB, etc.). In particular, state can be elegantly described in a plugin's Turtle description, which is useful for e.g. presets or default state.

This extension defines a conceptual model of state and a mechanism for saving and restoring it, but no interface for manipulating that state dynamically. It is intended that a generic way to modify this state (e.g. with messages sent via ports) is the preferred way to achieve more advanced plugin control than control ports provide, but the details of this mechanism should be addressed by a separate extension.

In pseudo code, a typical use case in a plugin is:

#define NS_EG   "http://example.org/"
#define NS_ATOM "http://lv2plug.in/ns/ext/atom#"

LV2_Handle my_instantiate(...)
{
    MyPlugin* plugin = ...;
    plugin->uris.atom_String = map_uri(NS_ATOM "String");
    plugin->uris.eg_greeting = map_uri(NS_EG "greeting");
    plugin->state.greeting   = strdup("Hello");
    return plugin;
}

void my_save(LV2_Handle               instance,
             LV2_State_Store_Function store,
             void*                    callback_data,
             uint32_t                 flags)
{
    MyPlugin*   plugin   = (MyPlugin*)instance;
    const char* greeting = plugin->state.greeting;

    store(callback_data,
          plugin->uris.eg_greeting,
          greeting,
          strlen(greeting) + 1,
          plugin->uris.atom_String,
          LV2_STATE_IS_POD | LV2_STATE_IS_PORTABLE);
}

void my_restore(LV2_Handle                  instance,
                LV2_State_Retrieve_Function retrieve,
                void*                       callback_data,
                uint32_t                    flags)
{
    MyPlugin* plugin = (MyPlugin*)instance;

    size_t      size;
    uint32_t    type;
    uint32_t    flags;
    const char* greeting = retrieve(callback_data,
                                    plugin->uris.eg_greeting,
                                    &size,
                                    &type,
                                    &flags);

    if (greeting) {
        free(plugin->state->greeting);
        plugin->state->greeting = strdup(greeting);
    } else {
        plugin->state->greeting = strdup("Hello");
    }
}

const void* my_extension_data(const char* uri)
{
    static const LV2_State_Interface state_iface = { my_save, my_restore };
    if (!strcmp(uri, "http://lv2plug.in/ns/ext/state#Interface")) {
        return &state_iface;
    }
}

Similarly, a typical use case in a host is:

int store_callback(void*       callback_data,
                   uint32_t    key,
                   const void* value,
                   size_t      size,
                   uint32_t    type,
                   uint32_t    flags)
{
    if ((flags & LV2_STATE_IS_POD)) {
        /* We only care about POD since we're keeping state in memory only.
           If this was for disk or network storage/transmission,
           LV2_STATE_IS_PORTABLE would have to be checked as well.
        */
        Map* state_map = (Map*)callback_data;
        state_map->insert(key, Value(copy(value), size, type, pod));
        return 0;
    } else {
        return 1; /* Non-POD events are unsupported. */
    }
}

Map get_plugin_state(LV2_Handle instance)
{
    LV2_State* state = instance.extension_data("http://lv2plug.in/ns/ext/state");
    Map state_map;
    /** Request a fast/native/POD save, since we're just copying in memory */
    state.save(instance, store_callback, &state_map,
               LV2_STATE_IS_POD|LV2_STATE_IS_NATIVE);
    return state_map;
}
""" . state:Interface a rdfs:Class ; rdfs:subClassOf lv2:ExtensionData ; lv2:documentation """ A structure (LV2_State_Interface) which contains functions to be called by the host to save and restore state. In order to support this extension, the plugin must return a valid LV2_State_Interface from LV2_Descriptor::extension_data() when it is called with URI "http://lv2plug.in/ns/ext/state#StateInterface". The plugin data file should describe this like so: 
@prefix state: <http://lv2plug.in/ns/ext/state#> .

<plugin>
    a lv2:Plugin ;
    lv2:extensionData state:Interface .
""" . state:InstanceState a rdfs:Class ; rdfs:label "Plugin Instance State" ; rdfs:comment """ This class is used to express a plugin instance's state in RDF. The key/value properties of the instance form the predicate/object (respectively) of triples with a state:InstanceState as the subject (see state:instanceState for an example). This may be used wherever it is useful to express a plugin instance's state in RDF (e.g. for serialisation, storing in a model, or transmitting over a network). Note that this class is provided because it may be useful for hosts, plugins, or extensions that work with instance state, but its use is not required to support the LV2 State extension. """ . state:instanceState a rdf:Property ; rdfs:range state:InstanceState ; lv2:documentation """ Predicate to relate a plugin instance to an InstanceState. This may be used wherever the state of a particular plugin instance needs to be represented. Note that the domain of this property is unspecified, since LV2 does not define any RDF class for plugin instance. This predicate may be used wherever it makes sense to do so, e.g.: 
@prefix eg: <http://example.org/> .

<plugininstance> state:instanceState [
    eg:somekey "some value" ;
    eg:someotherkey "some other value" ;
    eg:favourite-number 2
] .
Note that this property is provided because it may be useful for hosts, plugins, or extensions that work with instance state, but its use is not required to support the LV2 State extension. """ .