Wiretap SDK

Welcome to the Autodesk Wiretap SDK Developer Guide. This guide describes Wiretap and explains how to use the Wiretap Client API to write client applications and modules that implement typical project/user and media management workflows.

Wiretap is a cross-platform client-server interoperability framework, providing high-performance access to remote media and metadata. Wiretap is used internally by Autodesk applications, and is available to third-party developers by way of the Wiretap client application programming interface (API).

The client API is packaged as a software developer kit (SDK). Its libraries and other tools allow developers to write stand-alone applications that communicate with the remote Wiretap servers in a facility, for the purpose of leveraging the server’s functionality. The particular actions your application can perform depend on the type of Wiretap server being accessed. The following Wiretap server types are available.

Wiretap Server	Description
IFFFS	Exposes the database or clip libraries of Visual Effects and Finishing applications without the need for a running application. Exposed database objects include projects, libraries, clips, and media. Typical uses include creating and setting up new projects, creating users and setting user preferences, adding clips to clip libraries, and others. The SDK also includes a command-line tool for performing media transfer and conversion jobs in the background, moving media onto any machine running Autodesk Stone and Wire.
Gateway	The Wiretap Gateway is a universal media gateway, designed to read image media on standard filesystems, in any supported format, and stream it live as raw RGB to Wiretap clients. It provides client applications with ingest access to supported media. For example, RED REDCODE (.r3d) files on all available devices on the Wiretap network.
Backburner	Exposes the Backburner Manager’s database of jobs, servers, server groups, and others. The Backburner Wiretap server makes it possible to create a client application to submit, monitor and control rendering jobs and I/O on the network.

Wiretap Server

Description

IFFFS

Exposes the database or clip libraries of Visual Effects and Finishing applications without the need for a running application. Exposed database objects include projects, libraries, clips, and media.

Typical uses include creating and setting up new projects, creating users and setting user preferences, adding clips to clip libraries, and others.

The SDK also includes a command-line tool for performing media transfer and conversion jobs in the background, moving media onto any machine running Autodesk Stone and Wire.

Gateway

The Wiretap Gateway is a universal media gateway, designed to read image media on standard filesystems, in any supported format, and stream it live as raw RGB to Wiretap clients. It provides client applications with ingest access to supported media. For example, RED REDCODE (.r3d) files on all available devices on the Wiretap network.

Backburner

Exposes the Backburner Manager’s database of jobs, servers, server groups, and others. The Backburner Wiretap server makes it possible to create a client application to submit, monitor and control rendering jobs and I/O on the network.

A Wiretap server is provided with the following Autodesk applications:

Flame
Flame Assist
Flare
Lustre (Wiretap Gateway only)
Backburner

The Wiretap SDK is available in C++ and Python, and supports Windows, Mac OS X and Linux platforms.

What's New in the 2018 Wiretap SDK

You can now define a user profile through the Wiretap API.

To create in Flame the user MyDemoUser with the Flame keyboard shortcuts profile:

Create the text file /tmp/kbProfile containing the following string:
```
<User><Profile>Flame</Profile></User>
```
Important: <Profile> content is limited to one of the following values: FinalCut, Flame, Lustre, or Smoke.
In a shell, type the following and press Enter:
```
/usr/discreet/wiretap/tools/current/wiretap_create_node -n /users -d MyDemoUser
```
It creates the user MyDemoUser in Flame.
In the same shell, type the following and press Enter:
```
/usr/discreet/wiretap/tools/current/wiretap_set_metadata -n /users/MyDemoUser -s XML -f /tmp/kbProfile
```
It copies the data from the kbProfile text file to MyDemoUser. MyDemoUser is now a user available in Flame, configured to use the Flame keyboard shortcuts.

For more information on user node, see Managing Users and Preferences.