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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!--
Copyright (C) 2006-2024 Oracle and/or its affiliates.
This file is part of VirtualBox base platform packages, as
available from https://www.virtualbox.org.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
as published by the Free Software Foundation, in version 3 of the
License.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses>.
SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-only
-->
<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd"[
<!ENTITY % all.entities SYSTEM "all-entities.ent">
%all.entities;
]>
<book>
<bookinfo>
<title>&VBOX_PRODUCT;</title>
<subtitle>Programming Guide and Reference</subtitle>
<edition>Version &VBOX_VERSION_STRING;</edition>
<corpauthor>&VBOX_VENDOR;</corpauthor>
<address>http://www.virtualbox.org</address>
<copyright>
<year>2004-&VBOX_C_YEAR;</year>
<holder>&VBOX_VENDOR;</holder>
</copyright>
</bookinfo>
<chapter>
<title>Introduction</title>
<para>VirtualBox comes with comprehensive support for third-party
developers. This Software Development Kit (SDK) contains all the
documentation and interface files that are needed to write code that
interacts with VirtualBox.</para>
<sect1>
<title>Modularity: the building blocks of VirtualBox</title>
<para>VirtualBox is cleanly separated into several layers, which can be
visualized like in the picture below:</para>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata align="center" fileref="images/vbox-components.png"
width="12cm"/>
</imageobject>
</mediaobject>
<para>The orange area represents code that runs in kernel mode, the blue
area represents userspace code.</para>
<para>At the bottom of the stack resides the hypervisor -- the core of
the virtualization engine, controlling execution of the virtual machines
and making sure they do not conflict with each other or with whatever else
the host computer is doing.</para>
<para>On top of the hypervisor, additional internal modules provide
extra functionality. For example, the RDP server, which can deliver the
graphical output of a VM remotely to an RDP client, is a separate module
that is only loosely tacked onto the virtual graphics device.</para>
<para>What is primarily of interest for purposes of the SDK is the API
layer block that sits on top of all the previously mentioned blocks.
This API, which we call the <emphasis role="bold">"Main API"</emphasis>,
exposes the entire feature set of the virtualization engine below. It is
completely documented in this SDK Reference -- see <xref
linkend="sdkref_classes"/> and <xref linkend="sdkref_enums"/> -- and
available to anyone who wishes to control VirtualBox programmatically.
We chose the name "Main API" to differentiate it from other programming
interfaces of VirtualBox that may be publicly accessible.</para>
<para>With the Main API, you can create, configure, start, stop and
delete virtual machines, retrieve performance statistics about running
VMs, configure the VirtualBox installation in general, and more. In
fact, internally, the front-end programs
<computeroutput>VirtualBox</computeroutput> and
<computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> use nothing but this API as
well -- there are no hidden backdoors into the virtualization engine for
our own front-ends. This ensures the entire Main API is both
well-documented and well-tested. (The same applies to
<computeroutput>VBoxHeadless</computeroutput>, which is not shown in the
image.)</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="webservice-or-com">
<title>Two guises of the same "Main API": the web service or
COM/XPCOM</title>
<para>There are several ways in which the Main API can be called by
other code:<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>VirtualBox comes with a <emphasis role="bold">web
service</emphasis> that maps nearly the entire Main API. The web
service ships in a stand-alone executable
(<computeroutput>vboxwebsrv</computeroutput>) that, when running,
acts as an HTTP server, accepts SOAP connections and processes
them.</para>
<para>Since the entire web service API is publicly described in a
web service description file (in WSDL format), you can write
client programs that call the web service in any language with a
toolkit that understands WSDL. These days, that includes most
programming languages that are available: Java, C++, .NET, PHP,
Python, Perl and probably many more.</para>
<para>All of this is explained in detail in subsequent chapters of
this book.</para>
<para>There are two ways in which you can write client code that
uses the web service:<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>For Java as well as Python, the SDK contains
easy-to-use classes that allow you to use the web service in
an object-oriented, straightforward manner. We shall refer
to this as the <emphasis role="bold">"object-oriented web
service (OOWS)"</emphasis>.</para>
<para>The OO bindings for Java are described in <xref
linkend="javaapi"/>, those for Python in <xref
linkend="glue-python-ws"/>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Alternatively, you can use the web service directly,
without the object-oriented client layer. We shall refer to
this as the <emphasis role="bold">"raw web
service"</emphasis>.</para>
<para>You will then have neither native object orientation
nor full type safety, since web services are neither
object-oriented nor stateful. However, in this way, you can
write client code even in languages for which we do not ship
object-oriented client code; all you need is a programming
language with a toolkit that can parse WSDL and generate
client wrapper code from it.</para>
<para>We describe this further in <xref
linkend="raw-webservice"/>, with samples for Java and
Perl.</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Internally, for portability and easier maintenance, the Main
API is implemented using the <emphasis role="bold">Component
Object Model (COM), </emphasis> an interprocess mechanism for
software components originally introduced by Microsoft for
Microsoft Windows. On a Windows host, VirtualBox will use
Microsoft COM; on other hosts where COM is not present, VirtualBox
ships with XPCOM, a free software implementation of COM originally
created by the Mozilla project for their browsers.</para>
<para>So if you are familiar with COM and the C++ programming
language (or with any other programming language that can handle
COM/XPCOM objects, such as Java, Visual Basic or C#), then you can
use the COM/XPCOM API directly. VirtualBox comes with all the
necessary files and documentation to build fully functional COM
applications. For an introduction, please see <xref
linkend="api_com"/> below.</para>
<para>The VirtualBox front-ends (the graphical user interfaces as
well as the command line), which are all written in C++, use
COM/XPCOM to call the Main API. Technically, the web service is
another front-end to this COM API, mapping almost all of it to
SOAP clients.</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist></para>
<para>If you are wondering which approach to choose, here are a few
comparisons:<table>
<title>Comparison web service vs. COM/XPCOM</title>
<tgroup cols="2">
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Web service</emphasis></entry>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">COM/XPCOM</emphasis></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Pro:</emphasis> Easy to use with
Java and Python with the object-oriented web service;
extensive support even with other languages (C++, .NET, PHP,
Perl and others)</entry>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Con:</emphasis> Usable from
languages where COM bridge available (most languages on
Windows platform, Python and C++ on other hosts)</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Pro:</emphasis> Client can be on
remote machine</entry>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Con: </emphasis>Client must be on
the same host where virtual machine is executed</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Con: </emphasis>Significant
overhead due to XML marshalling over the wire for each method
call</entry>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Pro: </emphasis>Relatively low
invocation overhead</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table></para>
<para>In the following chapters, we will describe the different ways in
which to program VirtualBox, starting with the method that is easiest to
use and then increasing in complexity as we go along.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="api_soap_intro">
<title>About web services in general</title>
<para>Web services are a particular type of programming interface.
Whereas, with "normal" programming, a program calls an application
programming interface (API) defined by another program or the operating
system and both sides of the interface have to agree on the calling
convention and, in most cases, use the same programming language, web
services use Internet standards such as HTTP and XML to
communicate.<footnote>
<para>In some ways, web services promise to deliver the same thing
as CORBA and DCOM did years ago. However, while these previous
technologies relied on specific binary protocols and thus proved to
be difficult to use between diverging platforms, web services
circumvent these incompatibilities by using text-only standards like
HTTP and XML. On the downside (and, one could say, typical of things
related to XML), a lot of standards are involved before a web
service can be implemented. Many of the standards invented around
XML are used one way or another. As a result, web services are slow
and verbose, and the details can be incredibly messy. The relevant
standards here are called SOAP and WSDL, where SOAP describes the
format of the messages that are exchanged (an XML document wrapped
in an HTTP header), and WSDL is an XML format that describes a
complete API provided by a web service. WSDL in turn uses XML Schema
to describe types, which is not exactly terse either. However, as
you will see from the samples provided in this chapter, the
VirtualBox web service shields you from these details and is easy to
use.</para>
</footnote></para>
<para>In order to successfully use a web service, a number of things are
required -- primarily, a web service accepting connections; service
descriptions; and a client that connects to that web service. Connections
to the VirtualBox web service are governed by the SOAP standard, which
describes how messages are to be exchanged between a service and its
clients; the service descriptions are governed by WSDL.</para>
<para>In the case of VirtualBox, this translates into the following
three components:<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>The VirtualBox web service (the "server"): this is the
<computeroutput>vboxwebsrv</computeroutput> executable shipped
with VirtualBox. Once you start this executable (which acts as an
HTTP server on a specific TCP/IP port), clients can connect to the
web service and thus control a VirtualBox installation.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>VirtualBox also comes with WSDL files that describe the
services provided by the web service. You can find these files in
the <computeroutput>sdk/bindings/webservice/</computeroutput>
directory. These files are understood by the web service toolkits
that are shipped with most programming languages and enable you to
easily access a web service even if you don't use our
object-oriented client layers. VirtualBox is shipped with
pre-generated web service glue code for several languages (Python,
Perl, Java).</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>A client that connects to the web service in order to
control the VirtualBox installation.</para>
<para>Unless you use some of the samples shipped with
VirtualBox, this needs to be written by you.</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist></para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="runvboxwebsrv">
<title>Running the web service</title>
<para>The web service ships in a stand-alone executable,
<computeroutput>vboxwebsrv</computeroutput>, that, when running, acts as
an HTTP server, accepts SOAP connections, remotely or from the same machine,
and processes them.<note>
<para>The web service executable is not delivered with the
VirtualBox SDK, but instead ships with the standard VirtualBox
binary package for your specific platform. The SDK contains only
platform-independent text files and documentation so thus the vboxwebsrv
binary is shipped with the platform-specific packages. Therefore the
information on how to run vboxwebsrv as a service is included in the
VirtualBox documentation and not the SDK.</para>
</note></para>
<para>The <computeroutput>vboxwebsrv</computeroutput> program, which
implements the web service, is a text-mode (console) program which,
after being started, simply runs until it is interrupted with Ctrl-C or
a kill command.</para>
<para>Once the web service is started, it acts as a front-end to the
VirtualBox installation of the user account that it is running under. In
other words, if the web service is run under the user account of
<computeroutput>user1</computeroutput>, it will see and manipulate the
virtual machines and other data represented by the VirtualBox data of
that user (for example, on a Linux machine, under
<computeroutput>/home/user1/.config/VirtualBox</computeroutput>; see the
VirtualBox User Guide for details on where this data is stored).</para>
<sect2 id="vboxwebsrv-ref">
<title>Command line options of vboxwebsrv</title>
<para>The web service supports the following command line
options:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>--help</computeroutput> (or
<computeroutput>-h</computeroutput>): print a brief summary of
command line options.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>--background</computeroutput> (or
<computeroutput>-b</computeroutput>): run the web service as a
background daemon. This option is not supported on Windows
hosts.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>--host</computeroutput> (or
<computeroutput>-H</computeroutput>): This specifies the host to
bind to and defaults to "localhost".</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>--port</computeroutput> (or
<computeroutput>-p</computeroutput>): This specifies which port to
bind to on the host and defaults to 18083.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>--ssl</computeroutput> (or
<computeroutput>-s</computeroutput>): This enables SSL
support.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>--keyfile</computeroutput> (or
<computeroutput>-K</computeroutput>): This specifies the file name
containing the server private key and the certificate. This is a
mandatory parameter if SSL is enabled.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>--passwordfile</computeroutput> (or
<computeroutput>-a</computeroutput>): This specifies the file name
containing the password for the server private key. If unspecified
or an empty string is specified this is interpreted as an empty
password (i.e. the private key is not protected by a password). If
the file name <computeroutput>-</computeroutput> is specified then
then the password is read from the standard input stream, otherwise
from the specified file. The user is responsible for appropriate
access rights to protect the confidential password.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>--cacert</computeroutput> (or
<computeroutput>-c</computeroutput>): This specifies the file name
containing the CA certificate appropriate for the server
certificate.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>--capath</computeroutput> (or
<computeroutput>-C</computeroutput>): This specifies the directory
containing several CA certificates appropriate for the server
certificate.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>--dhfile</computeroutput> (or
<computeroutput>-D</computeroutput>): This specifies the file name
containing the DH key. Alternatively it can contain the number of
bits of the DH key to generate. If left empty, RSA is used.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>--randfile</computeroutput> (or
<computeroutput>-r</computeroutput>): This specifies the file name
containing the seed for the random number generator. If left empty,
an operating system specific source of the seed.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>--timeout</computeroutput> (or
<computeroutput>-t</computeroutput>): This specifies the session
timeout, in seconds, and defaults to 300 (five minutes). A web
service client that has logged on but makes no calls to the web
service will automatically be disconnected after the number of
seconds specified here, as if it had called the
<computeroutput>IWebSessionManager::logoff()</computeroutput>
method provided by the web service itself.</para>
<para>It is normally vital that each web service client call this
method, as the web service can accumulate large amounts of memory
when running, especially if a web service client does not properly
release managed object references. As a result, this timeout value
should not be set too high, especially on machines with a high
load on the web service, or the web service may eventually deny
service.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>--check-interval</computeroutput> (or
<computeroutput>-i</computeroutput>): This specifies the interval
in which the web service checks for timed-out clients, in seconds,
and defaults to 5. This normally does not need to be
changed.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>--threads</computeroutput> (or
<computeroutput>-T</computeroutput>): This specifies the maximum
number or worker threads, and defaults to 100. This normally does
not need to be changed.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>--keepalive</computeroutput> (or
<computeroutput>-k</computeroutput>): This specifies the maximum
number of requests which can be sent in one web service connection,
and defaults to 100. This normally does not need to be
changed.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>--authentication</computeroutput> (or
<computeroutput>-A</computeroutput>): This specifies the desired
web service authentication method. If the parameter is not
specified or the empty string is specified it does not change the
authentication method, otherwise it is set to the specified value.
Using this parameter is a good measure against accidental
misconfiguration, as the web service ensures periodically that it
isn't changed.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>--verbose</computeroutput> (or
<computeroutput>-v</computeroutput>): Normally, the web service
outputs only brief messages to the console each time a request is
served. With this option, the web service prints much more detailed
data about every request and the COM methods that those requests
are mapped to internally, which can be useful for debugging client
programs.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>--pidfile</computeroutput> (or
<computeroutput>-P</computeroutput>): Name of the PID file which is
created when the daemon was started.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>--logfile</computeroutput> (or
<computeroutput>-F</computeroutput>)
<computeroutput>&lt;file&gt;</computeroutput>: If this is
specified, the web service not only prints its output to the
console, but also writes it to the specified file. The file is
created if it does not exist; if it does exist, new output is
appended to it. This is useful if you run the web service
unattended and need to debug problems after they have
occurred.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>--logrotate</computeroutput> (or
<computeroutput>-R</computeroutput>): Number of old log files to
keep, defaults to 10. Log rotation is disabled if set to 0.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>--logsize</computeroutput> (or
<computeroutput>-S</computeroutput>): Maximum size of log file in
bytes, defaults to 100MB. Log rotation is triggered if the file
grows beyond this limit.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>--loginterval</computeroutput> (or
<computeroutput>-I</computeroutput>): Maximum time interval to be
put in a log file before rotation is triggered, in seconds, and
defaults to one day.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="websrv_authenticate">
<title>Authenticating at web service logon</title>
<para>As opposed to the COM/XPCOM variant of the Main API, a client
that wants to use the web service must first log on by calling the
<link linkend="IWebsessionManager__logon">IWebsessionManager::logon()</link>
API that is specific to the
web service. Logon is necessary for the web service to be stateful;
internally, it maintains a session for each client that connects to
it.</para>
<para>The <computeroutput>IWebsessionManager::logon()</computeroutput>
API takes a user name and a password as arguments, which the web
service then passes to a customizable authentication plugin that
performs the actual authentication.</para>
<para>For testing purposes, it is recommended that you first disable
authentication with the command:
<screen>VBoxManage setproperty websrvauthlibrary null</screen></para>
<para><warning>
<para>This will cause all logons to succeed, regardless of user
name or password. This should of course not be used in a
production environment.</para>
</warning>Generally, the mechanism by which clients are
authenticated is configurable by way of the
<computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> command:</para>
<para><screen>VBoxManage setproperty websrvauthlibrary default|null|&lt;library&gt;</screen></para>
<para>This way you can specify any shared object/dynamic link module
that conforms with the specifications for VirtualBox external
authentication modules as laid out in section <emphasis
role="bold">VRDE authentication</emphasis> of the VirtualBox User
Guide; the web service uses the same kind of modules as the
VirtualBox VRDE server. For technical details on VirtualBox external
authentication modules see <xref linkend="vbox-auth"/></para>
<para>By default, after installation, the web service uses the
VBoxAuth module that ships with VirtualBox. This module uses PAM on
FreeBSD, Linux, and Solaris hosts to authenticate users. Any valid
username/password combination is accepted, it does not have to be the
username and password of the user running the web service daemon. If
<computeroutput>vboxwebsrv</computeroutput> doesn't run as root PAM
authentication can fail, because the
<computeroutput>/etc/shadow</computeroutput> file, which is used by PAM,
is only readable by root. On most Linux distributions PAM uses a suid
root helper internally, so make sure you test this before deploying it.
One can override authentication failures due to lack of read privileges
of the shadow password file by setting the environment variable
<computeroutput>VBOX_PAM_ALLOW_INACTIVE</computeroutput>.
Please use this variable carefully and only if you fully understand what
you're doing.</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
</chapter>
<chapter>
<title>Environment-specific notes</title>
<para>The Main API described in <xref linkend="sdkref_classes"/> and
<xref linkend="sdkref_enums"/> is mostly identical in all the supported
programming environments which have been briefly mentioned in the
introduction of this book. As a result, the Main API's general concepts
described in <xref linkend="concepts"/> are the same whether you use the
object-oriented web service (OOWS) for JAX-WS or a raw web service
connection via, say, Perl, or whether you use C++ COM bindings.</para>
<para>Some things are different depending on your environment, however.
These differences are explained in this chapter.</para>
<sect1 id="glue">
<title>Using the object-oriented web service (OOWS)</title>
<para>As explained in <xref linkend="webservice-or-com"/>, VirtualBox
ships with client-side libraries for Java, Python and PHP that allow you
to use the VirtualBox web service in an intuitive, object-oriented way.
These libraries shield you from the client-side complications of managed
object references and other implementation details that come with the
VirtualBox web service. (If you are interested in these complications,
have a look at <xref linkend="raw-webservice"/>).</para>
<para>We recommend that you start your experiments with the VirtualBox
web service by using our object-oriented client libraries for JAX-WS, a
web service toolkit for Java, which enables you to write code to
interact with VirtualBox in the simplest manner possible.</para>
<para>As "interfaces", "attributes" and "methods" are COM concepts,
please read the documentation in <xref linkend="sdkref_classes"/> and
<xref linkend="sdkref_enums"/> with the following notes in mind.</para>
<para>The OOWS bindings attempt to map the Main API as closely as
possible to the Java, Python and PHP languages. In other words, objects
are objects, interfaces become classes, and you can call methods on
objects as you would on local objects.</para>
<para>The main difference remains with attributes: to read an attribute,
call a "getXXX" method, with "XXX" being the attribute name with a
capitalized first letter. So when the Main API Reference says that
<computeroutput>IMachine</computeroutput> has a "name" attribute (see
<link linkend="IMachine__name">IMachine::name</link>), call
<computeroutput>getName()</computeroutput> on an IMachine object to
obtain a machine's name. Unless the attribute is marked as read-only in
the documentation, there will also be a corresponding "set"
method.</para>
<sect2 id="glue-jax-ws">
<title>The object-oriented web service for JAX-WS</title>
<para>JAX-WS is a powerful toolkit by Sun Microsystems to build both
server and client code with Java. It is part of Java 6 (JDK 1.6), but
can also be obtained separately for Java 5 (JDK 1.5). The VirtualBox
SDK comes with precompiled OOWS bindings working with both Java 5 and
6.</para>
<para>The following sections explain how to get the JAX-WS sample code
running and explain a few common practices when using the JAX-WS
object-oriented web service.</para>
<sect3>
<title>Preparations</title>
<para>Since JAX-WS is already integrated into Java 6, no additional
preparations are needed for Java 6.</para>
<para>If you are using Java 5 (JDK 1.5.x), you will first need to
download and install an external JAX-WS implementation, as Java 5
does not support JAX-WS out of the box; for example, you can
download one from here: <ulink
url="https://jax-ws.dev.java.net/2.1.4/JAXWS2.1.4-20080502.jar">https://jax-ws.dev.java.net/2.1.4/JAXWS2.1.4-20080502.jar</ulink>.
Then perform the installation (<computeroutput>java -jar
JAXWS2.1.4-20080502.jar</computeroutput>).</para>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>Getting started: running the sample code</title>
<para>To run the OOWS for JAX-WS samples that we ship with the SDK,
perform the following steps: <orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Open a terminal and change to the directory where the
JAX-WS samples reside.<footnote>
<para>In
<computeroutput>sdk/bindings/glue/java/</computeroutput>.</para>
</footnote> Examine the header of
<computeroutput>Makefile</computeroutput> to see if the
supplied variables (Java compiler, Java executable) and a few
other details match your system settings.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>To start the VirtualBox web service, open a second
terminal and change to the directory where the VirtualBox
executables are located. Then type:
<screen>./vboxwebsrv -v</screen></para>
<para>The web service now waits for connections and will run
until you press Ctrl+C in this second terminal. The -v
argument causes it to log all connections to the terminal.
(See <xref linkend="runvboxwebsrv"/> for details on how
to run the web service.)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Back in the first terminal and still in the samples
directory, to start a simple client example just type:
<screen>make run16</screen></para>
<para>if you're on a Java 6 system; on a Java 5 system, run
<computeroutput>make run15</computeroutput> instead.</para>
<para>This should work on all Unix-like systems such as Linux
and Solaris. For Windows systems, use commands similar to what
is used in the Makefile.</para>
<para>This will compile the
<computeroutput>clienttest.java</computeroutput> code on the
first call and then execute the resulting
<computeroutput>clienttest</computeroutput> class to show the
locally installed VMs (see below).</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist></para>
<para>The <computeroutput>clienttest</computeroutput> sample
imitates a few typical command line tasks that
<computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput>, VirtualBox's regular
command-line front-end, would provide (see the VirtualBox User
Guide for details). In particular, you can run:<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>java clienttest show
vms</computeroutput>: show the virtual machines that are
registered locally.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>java clienttest list
hostinfo</computeroutput>: show various information about the
host this VirtualBox installation runs on.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>java clienttest startvm
&lt;vmname|uuid&gt;</computeroutput>: start the given virtual
machine.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist></para>
<para>The <computeroutput>clienttest.java</computeroutput> sample
code illustrates common basic practices how to use the VirtualBox
OOWS for JAX-WS, which we will explain in more detail in the
following chapters.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>Logging on to the web service</title>
<para>Before a web service client can do anything useful, two
objects need to be created, as can be seen in the
<computeroutput>clienttest</computeroutput> constructor:<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>An instance of
<link linkend="IWebsessionManager">IWebsessionManager</link>,
which is an interface provided by the web service to manage
"web sessions" -- that is, stateful connections to the web
service with persistent objects upon which methods can be
invoked.</para>
<para>In the OOWS for JAX-WS, the IWebsessionManager class
must be constructed explicitly, and a URL must be provided in
the constructor that specifies where the web service (the
server) awaits connections. The code in
<computeroutput>clienttest.java</computeroutput> connects to
"http://localhost:18083/", which is the default.</para>
<para>The port number, by default 18083, must match the port
number given to the
<computeroutput>vboxwebsrv</computeroutput> command line; see
<xref linkend="vboxwebsrv-ref"/>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>After that, the code calls
<link linkend="IWebsessionManager__logon">IWebsessionManager::logon()</link>,
which is the first call that actually communicates with the
server. This authenticates the client with the web service and
returns an instance of
<link linkend="IVirtualBox">IVirtualBox</link>,
the most fundamental interface of the VirtualBox web service,
from which all other functionality can be derived.</para>
<para>If logon doesn't work, please take another look at <xref
linkend="websrv_authenticate"/>.</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist></para>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>Object management</title>
<para>The current OOWS for JAX-WS has certain memory management
related limitations. When you no longer need an object, call its
<link linkend="IManagedObjectRef__release">IManagedObjectRef::release()</link>
method explicitly, which
frees appropriate managed reference, as is required by the raw
web service; see <xref linkend="managed-object-references"/> for
details. This limitation may be reconsidered in a future version of
the VirtualBox SDK.</para>
</sect3>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="glue-python-ws">
<title>The object-oriented web service for Python</title>
<para>VirtualBox comes with two flavors of a Python API: one for web
service, discussed here, and one for the COM/XPCOM API discussed in
<xref linkend="pycom"/>. The client code is mostly similar, except
for the initialization part, so it is up to the application developer
to choose the appropriate technology. Moreover, a common Python glue
layer exists, abstracting out concrete platform access details, see
<xref linkend="glue-python"/>.</para>
<para>The minimum supported Python version is 2.6.</para>
<para>As indicated in <xref linkend="webservice-or-com"/>, the
COM/XPCOM API gives better performance without the SOAP overhead, and
does not require a web server to be running. On the other hand, the
COM/XPCOM Python API requires a suitable Python bridge for your Python
installation (VirtualBox ships the most important ones for each
platform<footnote>
<para>On Mac OS X only the Python versions bundled with the OS
are officially supported.</para>
</footnote>). On Windows, you can use the Main API from Python if the
Win32 extensions package for Python<footnote>
<para>See <ulink
url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=78018">http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=78018</ulink>.</para>
</footnote> is installed. Versions of Python Win32 extensions earlier
than 2.16 are known to have bugs, leading to issues with VirtualBox
Python bindings, so please make sure to use latest available Python
and Win32 extensions.</para>
<para>The VirtualBox OOWS for Python relies on the Python ZSI SOAP
implementation (see <ulink
url="http://pywebsvcs.sourceforge.net/zsi.html">http://pywebsvcs.sourceforge.net/zsi.html</ulink>),
which you will need to install locally before trying the examples.
Most Linux distributions come with a package for ZSI, such as
<computeroutput>python-zsi</computeroutput> in Ubuntu.</para>
<para>To get started, open a terminal and change to the
<computeroutput>sdk/bindings/glue/python/sample</computeroutput>
directory, which contains an example of a simple interactive shell
able to control a VirtualBox instance. The shell is written using the
API layer, thereby hiding different implementation details, so it is
actually an example of code shared among XPCOM, MSCOM and web services.
If you are interested in how to interact with the web services layer
directly, have a look at
<computeroutput>install/vboxapi/__init__.py</computeroutput> which
contains the glue layer for all target platforms (i.e. XPCOM, MSCOM
and web services).</para>
<para>To start the shell, run the following commands:
<screen>/opt/VirtualBox/vboxwebsrv -t 0 # start web service with object autocollection disabled
export VBOX_PROGRAM_PATH=/opt/VirtualBox # your VirtualBox installation directory
export VBOX_SDK_PATH=/home/youruser/vbox-sdk # where you've extracted the SDK
./vboxshell.py -w </screen>
See <xref linkend="vboxshell"/> for more
details on the shell's functionality. For you, as a VirtualBox
application developer, the vboxshell sample could be interesting as an
example of how to write code targeting both local and remote cases
(COM/XPCOM and SOAP). The common part of the shell is the same -- the
only difference is how it interacts with the invocation layer. You can
use the <computeroutput>connect</computeroutput> shell command to
connect to remote VirtualBox servers; in this case you can skip
starting the local web server.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>The object-oriented web service for PHP</title>
<para>VirtualBox also comes with object-oriented web service (OOWS)
wrappers for PHP5. These wrappers rely on the PHP SOAP
Extension<footnote>
<para>See
<ulink url="https://www.php.net/soap">https://www.php.net/soap</ulink>.</para>
</footnote>, which can be installed by configuring PHP with
<computeroutput>--enable-soap</computeroutput>.</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="raw-webservice">
<title>Using the raw web service with any language</title>
<para>The following examples show you how to use the raw web service,
without the object-oriented client-side code that was described in the
previous chapter.</para>
<para>Due to the limitations of SOAP and WSDL outlined in
<xref linkend="rawws-conventions"/>, keep the following notes in
mind when reading the documentation in <xref linkend="sdkref_classes"/>
and <xref linkend="sdkref_enums"/>:</para>
<para><orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Any COM method call becomes a <emphasis role="bold">plain
function call</emphasis> in the raw web service, with the object
as an additional first parameter (before the "real" parameters
listed in the documentation). So when the documentation says that
the <computeroutput>IVirtualBox</computeroutput> interface
supports the <computeroutput>createMachine()</computeroutput>
method (see
<link linkend="IVirtualBox__createMachine">IVirtualBox::createMachine()</link>),
the web service operation is
<computeroutput>IVirtualBox_createMachine(...)</computeroutput>,
and a managed object reference to an
<computeroutput>IVirtualBox</computeroutput> object must be passed
as the first argument.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>For <emphasis role="bold">attributes</emphasis> in
interfaces, there will be at least one "get" function; there will
also be a "set" function, unless the attribute is "readonly". The
attribute name will be appended to the "get" or "set" prefix, with
a capitalized first letter. So, the "version" readonly attribute
of the <computeroutput>IVirtualBox</computeroutput> interface can
be retrieved by calling
<computeroutput>IVirtualBox_getVersion(vbox)</computeroutput>,
with <computeroutput>vbox</computeroutput> being the VirtualBox
object.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Whenever the API documentation says that a method (or an
attribute getter) returns an <emphasis
role="bold">object</emphasis>, it will returned a managed object
reference in the web service instead. As said above, managed
object references should be released if the web service client
does not log off again immediately!</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist></para>
<para></para>
<sect2 id="webservice-java-sample">
<title>Raw web service example for Java with Axis</title>
<para>Axis is an older web service toolkit created by the Apache
foundation. If your distribution does not have it installed, you can
get a binary from <ulink
url="http://axis.apache.org">http://axis.apache.org</ulink>. The
following examples assume that you have Axis 1.4 installed.</para>
<para>The VirtualBox SDK ships with an example for Axis that, again,
is called <computeroutput>clienttest.java</computeroutput> and that
imitates a few <computeroutput>VBoxManage</computeroutput> commands
and sends them to the VirtualBox web service.</para>
<para>To try out the raw web service with Axis complete the following
steps:<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Create a working directory somewhere. Under your
VirtualBox installation directory, find the
<computeroutput>sdk/webservice/samples/java/axis/</computeroutput>
directory and copy the file
<computeroutput>clienttest.java</computeroutput> to your working
directory.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Open a terminal in your working directory. Execute the
following command:
<screen>java org.apache.axis.wsdl.WSDL2Java /path/to/vboxwebService.wsdl</screen></para>
<para>The <computeroutput>vboxwebService.wsdl</computeroutput>
file should be located in the
<computeroutput>sdk/webservice/</computeroutput>
directory.</para>
<para>If this fails, your Apache Axis may not be located on your
system classpath, and you may have to adjust the CLASSPATH
environment variable. Something like this:
<screen>export CLASSPATH="/path-to-axis-1_4/lib/*":$CLASSPATH</screen></para>
<para>Use the directory where the Axis JAR files are located.
Mind the quotes so that your shell passes the "*" character to
the java executable without expanding. Alternatively, add a
corresponding <computeroutput>-classpath</computeroutput>
argument to the "java" call above.</para>
<para>If the command executes successfully, you should see an
"org" directory with subdirectories containing Java source files
in your working directory. These classes represent the
interfaces that the VirtualBox web service offers, as described
by the WSDL file.</para>
<para>This is the bit that makes using web services so
attractive to client developers: if a language's toolkit
understands WSDL, it can generate large amounts of support code
automatically. Clients can then easily use this support code and
can be done with just a few lines of code.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Next, compile the
<computeroutput>clienttest.java</computeroutput>
source:<screen>javac clienttest.java </screen></para>
<para>This should yield a "clienttest.class" file.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>To start the VirtualBox web service, open a second
terminal and change to the directory where the VirtualBox
executables are located. Then type:
<screen>./vboxwebsrv -v</screen></para>
<para>The web service now waits for connections and will run
until you press Ctrl+C in this second terminal. The -v argument
causes it to log all connections to the terminal. (See <xref
linkend="runvboxwebsrv"/> for details on how to run the
web service.)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Back in the original terminal where you compiled the Java
source, run the resulting binary, which will then connect to the
web service:<screen>java clienttest</screen></para>
<para>The client sample will connect to the web service (on
localhost, but the code could be changed to connect remotely if
the web service was running on a different machine) and make a
number of method calls. It will output the version number of
your VirtualBox installation and a list of all virtual machines
that are currently registered (with a bit of seemingly random
data, which will be explained later).</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist></para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="raw-webservice-perl">
<title>Raw web service example for Perl</title>
<para>We also ship a small sample for Perl. It uses the SOAP::Lite
perl module to communicate with the VirtualBox web service.</para>
<para>The
<computeroutput>sdk/bindings/webservice/perl/lib/</computeroutput>
directory contains a pre-generated Perl module that allows for
communicating with the web service from Perl. You can generate such a
module yourself using the "stubmaker" tool that comes with SOAP::Lite,
but since that tool is slow as well as sometimes unreliable, we ship a
working module with the SDK for your convenience.</para>
<para>Perform the following steps:<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>If SOAP::Lite is not yet installed on your system, you
will need to install the package first. On Debian-based systems,
the package is called
<computeroutput>libsoap-lite-perl</computeroutput>; on Gentoo,
it's <computeroutput>dev-perl/SOAP-Lite</computeroutput>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Open a terminal in the
<computeroutput>sdk/bindings/webservice/perl/samples/</computeroutput>
directory.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>To start the VirtualBox web service, open a second
terminal and change to the directory where the VirtualBox
executables are located. Then type:
<screen>./vboxwebsrv -v</screen></para>
<para>The web service now waits for connections and will run
until you press Ctrl+C in this second terminal. The -v argument
causes it to log all connections to the terminal. (See <xref
linkend="runvboxwebsrv"/> for details on how to run the
web service.)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>In the first terminal with the Perl sample, run the
clienttest.pl script:
<screen>perl -I ../lib clienttest.pl</screen></para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist></para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Programming considerations for the raw web service</title>
<para>If you use the raw web service, you need to keep a number of
things in mind, or you will sooner or later run into issues that are
not immediately obvious. By contrast, the object-oriented client-side
libraries described in <xref linkend="glue"/> take care of these
things automatically and thus greatly simplify using the web
service.</para>
<sect3 id="rawws-conventions">
<title>Fundamental conventions</title>
<para>If you are familiar with other web services, you may find that the
VirtualBox web service behaves a bit differently to accommodate
for the fact that the VirtualBox web service more or less maps the
VirtualBox Main COM API. The primary challenges in mapping the VirtualBox
Main COM API to the web service are as follows:<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Web services, as expressed by WSDL, are not
object-oriented. Even worse, they are normally stateless (or,
in web services terminology, "loosely coupled"). Web service
operations are entirely procedural, and one cannot normally
make assumptions about the state of a web service between
function calls.</para>
<para>In particular, this normally means that you cannot work
on objects in one method call that were created by another
call.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>By contrast, the VirtualBox Main API, being expressed in
COM, is object-oriented and works entirely on objects, which
are grouped into public interfaces, which in turn have
attributes and methods associated with them.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist> For the VirtualBox web service, this results in
three fundamental conventions:<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>All <emphasis role="bold">function names</emphasis> in
the VirtualBox web service consist of an interface name and a
method name, joined together by an underscore. This is because
there are only functions ("operations") in WSDL, but no
classes, interfaces, or methods.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>All calls to the VirtualBox web service (except for logon, see
below) take a <emphasis role="bold">managed object reference</emphasis>
as the first argument, representing the object upon which the underlying
method is invoked. (Managed object references are explained in detail
below; see <xref linkend="managed-object-references"/>.)</para>
<para>So, when one would normally code, in the pseudo-code of
an object-oriented language, to invoke a method upon an
object:<screen>IMachine machine;
result = machine.getName();</screen></para>
<para>In the VirtualBox web service, this looks something like
this (again, pseudo-code):<screen>IMachineRef machine;
result = IMachine_getName(machine);</screen></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>To make the web service stateful, and objects persistent
between method calls, the VirtualBox web service introduces a
<emphasis role="bold">session manager</emphasis> (by way of the
<link linkend="IWebsessionManager">IWebsessionManager</link>
interface), which manages object references. Any client wishing
to interact with the web service must first log on to the
session manager and in turn receives a managed object reference
to an object that supports the
<link linkend="IVirtualBox">IVirtualBox</link>
interface (the basic interface in the Main API).</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist></para>
<para>In other words, as opposed to other web services, <emphasis
role="bold">the VirtualBox web service is both object-oriented and
stateful.</emphasis></para>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>Example: A typical web service client session</title>
<para>A typical short web service session to retrieve the version
number of the VirtualBox web service (to be precise, the underlying
Main API version number) looks like this:<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>A client logs on to the web service by calling
<link linkend="IWebsessionManager__logon">IWebsessionManager::logon()</link>
with a valid user name and password. See
<xref linkend="websrv_authenticate"/>
for details about how authentication works.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>On the server side,
<computeroutput>vboxwebsrv</computeroutput> creates a session,
which persists until the client calls
<link linkend="IWebsessionManager__logoff">IWebsessionManager::logoff()</link>
or the session times out after a configurable period of
inactivity (see <xref linkend="vboxwebsrv-ref"/>).</para>
<para>For the new session, the web service creates an instance
of <link linkend="IVirtualBox">IVirtualBox</link>.
This interface is the most central one in the Main API and
allows access to all other interfaces, either through
attributes or method calls. For example, IVirtualBox contains
a list of all virtual machines that are currently registered
(as they would be listed on the left side of the VirtualBox
main program).</para>
<para>The web service then creates a managed object reference
for this instance of IVirtualBox and returns it to the calling
client, which receives it as the return value of the logon
call. Something like this:</para>
<screen>string oVirtualBox;
oVirtualBox = webservice.IWebsessionManager_logon("user", "pass");</screen>
<para>(The managed object reference "oVirtualBox" is just a
string consisting of digits and dashes. However, it is a
string with a meaning and will be checked by the web service.
For details, see below. As hinted above,
<link linkend="IWebsessionManager__logon">IWebsessionManager::logon()</link>
is the <emphasis>only</emphasis> operation provided by the web
service which does not take a managed object reference as the
first argument!)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The VirtualBox Main API documentation explains that the
<computeroutput>IVirtualBox</computeroutput> interface has a
<link linkend="IVirtualBox__version">version</link>
attribute, which is a string. For each attribute, there is a
"get" and a "set" method in COM, which maps to the corresponding
operations in the web service. So, to retrieve the "version"
attribute of this <computeroutput>IVirtualBox</computeroutput>
object, the web service client does this:
<screen>string version;
version = webservice.IVirtualBox_getVersion(oVirtualBox);
print version;</screen></para>
<para>And it will print
"&VBOX_VERSION_MAJOR;.&VBOX_VERSION_MINOR;.&VBOX_VERSION_BUILD;".</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The web service client calls
<link linkend="IWebsessionManager__logoff">IWebsessionManager::logoff()</link>
with the VirtualBox managed object reference. This will clean
up all allocated resources.</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist></para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="managed-object-references">
<title>Managed object references</title>
<para>To a web service client, a managed object reference looks like
a string: two 64-bit hex numbers separated by a dash. This string,
however, represents a COM object that "lives" in the web service
process. The two 64-bit numbers encoded in the managed object
reference represent a session ID (which is the same for all objects
in the same web service session, i.e. for all objects after one
logon) and a unique object ID within that session.</para>
<para>Managed object references are created in two
situations:<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>When a client logs on, by calling
<link linkend="IWebsessionManager__logon">IWebsessionManager::logon()</link>.</para>
<para>Upon logon, the websession manager creates one instance
of <link linkend="IVirtualBox">IVirtualBox</link>,
which can be used for directly performing calls to its
methods, or used as a parameter for calling some methods of
<link linkend="IWebsessionManager">IWebsessionManager</link>.
Creating Main API session objects is performed using
<link linkend="IWebsessionManager__getSessionObject">IWebsessionManager::getSessionObject()</link>.</para>
<para>(Technically, there is always only one
<link linkend="IVirtualBox">IVirtualBox</link> object, which
is shared between all websessions and clients, as it is a COM
singleton. However, each session receives its own managed
object reference to it.)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Whenever a web service clients invokes an operation
whose COM implementation creates COM objects.</para>
<para>For example,
<link linkend="IVirtualBox__createMachine">IVirtualBox::createMachine()</link>
creates a new instance of
<link linkend="IMachine">IMachine</link>;
the COM object returned by the COM method call is then wrapped
into a managed object reference by the web server, and this
reference is returned to the web service client.</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist></para>
<para>Internally, in the web service process, each managed object
reference is simply a small data structure, containing a COM pointer
to the "real" COM object, the web session ID and the object ID. This
structure is allocated on creation and stored efficiently in hashes,
so that the web service can look up the COM object quickly whenever
a web service client wishes to make a method call. The random
session ID also ensures that one web service client cannot intercept
the objects of another.</para>
<para>Managed object references are not destroyed automatically and
must be released by explicitly calling
<link linkend="IManagedObjectRef__release">IManagedObjectRef::release()</link>.
This is important, as
otherwise hundreds or thousands of managed object references (and
corresponding COM objects, which can consume much more memory!) can
pile up in the web service process and eventually cause it to deny
service.</para>
<para>To reiterate: The underlying COM object, which the reference
points to, is only freed if the managed object reference is
released. It is therefore vital that web service clients properly
clean up after the managed object references that are returned to
them.</para>
<para>When a web service client calls
<link linkend="IWebsessionManager__logoff">IWebsessionManager::logoff()</link>,
all managed object references created during the session are
automatically freed. For short-lived sessions that do not create a
lot of objects, logging off may therefore be sufficient, although it
is certainly not "best practice".</para>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>Some more detail about web service operation</title>
<sect4 id="soap">
<title>SOAP messages</title>
<para>Whenever a client makes a call to a web service, this
involves a complicated procedure internally. These calls are
remote procedure calls. Each such procedure call typically
consists of two "message" being passed, where each message is a
plain-text HTTP request with a standard HTTP header and a special
XML document following. This XML document encodes the name of the
procedure to call and the argument names and values passed to
it.</para>
<para>To give you an idea of what such a message looks like,
assuming that a web service provides a procedure called
"SayHello", which takes a string "name" as an argument and returns
"Hello" with a space and that name appended, the request message
could look like this:</para>
<para><screen>&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
&lt;SOAP-ENV:Envelope
xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"
xmlns:SOAP-ENC="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:test="http://test/"&gt;
&lt;SOAP-ENV:Body&gt;
&lt;test:SayHello&gt;
&lt;name&gt;Peter&lt;/name&gt;
&lt;/test:SayHello&gt;
&lt;/SOAP-ENV:Body&gt;
&lt;/SOAP-ENV:Envelope&gt;</screen>A similar message -- the "response" message
-- would be sent back from the web service to the client,
containing the return value "Hello Peter".</para>
<para>Most programming languages provide automatic support to
generate such messages whenever code in that programming language
makes such a request. In other words, these programming languages
allow for writing something like this (in pseudo-C++ code):</para>
<para><screen>webServiceClass service("localhost", 18083); // server and port
string result = service.SayHello("Peter"); // invoke remote procedure</screen>
and would, for these two pseudo-lines, automatically perform these
steps:</para>
<para><orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Prepare a connection to the web service running on port
18083 of "localhost".</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Generate a SOAP message similar to the above example for the
<computeroutput>SayHello()</computeroutput> function of the web service
by encoding all arguments of the remote procedure call (which could
involve all kinds of type conversions and complex marshalling for arrays
and structures).</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Connect to the web service via HTTP and then send that
message.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Wait for the web service to send a response message.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Decode that response message and put the return value
of the remote procedure into the "result" variable.</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist></para>
</sect4>
<sect4 id="wsdl">
<title>Service descriptions in WSDL</title>
<para>In the above explanations about SOAP, it wasn't explained how
the programming language learns about how to translate function
calls in its own syntax into proper SOAP messages. In other words,
the programming language needs to know what operations the web
service supports and what types of arguments are required for the
operation's data in order to be able to properly serialize and
deserialize the data to and from the web service. For example, if
a web service operation expects a number in "double" floating
point format for a particular parameter, the programming language
cannot send it a string instead.</para>
<para>For this, the Web Service Definition Language (WSDL) was
invented, another XML substandard that describes exactly what
operations the web service supports and, for each operation, which
parameters and types are needed with each request and response
message. WSDL descriptions can be incredibly verbose, and one of
the few good things that can be said about this standard is that
it is indeed supported by most programming languages.</para>
<para>So, if it is said that a programming language "supports" web
services, this typically means that a programming language has
support for parsing WSDL files and somehow integrating the remote
procedure calls into the native language syntax -- for example, as
shown in the Java sample in <xref
linkend="webservice-java-sample"/>.</para>
<para>For details about how programming languages support web
services, please refer to the documentation that comes with the
individual language. Here are a few pointers:</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>For <emphasis role="bold">C++, </emphasis> among many
others, the gSOAP toolkit is a good option. Parts of gSOAP are
also used in VirtualBox to implement the VirtualBox web
service.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>For <emphasis role="bold">Java, </emphasis> there are
several implementations already described in this document
(see <xref linkend="glue-jax-ws"/> and <xref
linkend="webservice-java-sample"/>).</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis role="bold">Perl</emphasis> supports WSDL via
the SOAP::Lite package. This in turn comes with a tool called
<computeroutput>stubmaker.pl</computeroutput> that allows you
to turn any WSDL file into a Perl package that you can import.
(You can also import any WSDL file "live" by having it parsed
every time the script runs, but that can take a while.) You
can then code (again, assuming the above example):
<screen>my $result = servicename-&gt;sayHello("Peter");</screen>
</para>
<para>A sample that uses SOAP::Lite was described in <xref
linkend="raw-webservice-perl"/>.</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
</sect4>
</sect3>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="api_com">
<title>Using COM/XPCOM directly</title>
<para>If you do not require <emphasis>remote</emphasis> procedure calls
such as those offered by the VirtualBox web service, and if you know
Python or C++ as well as COM, you might find it preferable to program
VirtualBox's Main API directly via COM.</para>
<para>COM stands for "Component Object Model" and is a standard
originally introduced by Microsoft in the 1990s for Microsoft Windows.
It allows for organizing software in an object-oriented way and across
processes; code in one process may access objects that live in another
process.</para>
<para>COM has several advantages: it is language-neutral, meaning that
even though all of VirtualBox is internally written in C++, programs
written in other languages can communicate with it. COM also cleanly
separates interface from implementation, so that external programs do
not need to know anything about the messy and complicated details of
VirtualBox internals.</para>
<para>On a Windows host, all parts of VirtualBox will use the COM
functionality that is native to Windows. On other hosts (including
Linux), VirtualBox comes with a built-in implementation of XPCOM, as
originally created by the Mozilla project, which we have enhanced to
support interprocess communication on a level comparable to Microsoft
COM. Internally, VirtualBox has an abstraction layer that allows the
same VirtualBox code to work both with native COM as well as our XPCOM
implementation.</para>
<sect2 id="pycom">
<title>Python COM API</title>
<para>On Windows, Python scripts can use COM and VirtualBox interfaces
to control almost all aspects of virtual machine execution. For example,
you can use the following commands to instantiate the VirtualBox object
and start a VM: <screen>
vbox = win32com.client.Dispatch("VirtualBox.VirtualBox")
session = win32com.client.Dispatch("VirtualBox.Session")
mach = vbox.findMachine("uuid or name of machine to start")
progress = mach.launchVMProcess(session, "gui", "")
progress.waitForCompletion(-1)
</screen> Also, see
<computeroutput>sdk/bindings/glue/python/samples/vboxshell.py</computeroutput>
for more advanced usage scenarious. However, unless you have specific
requirements, we strongly recommend that you use the generic glue layer
described in the next section to access MS COM objects.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="glue-python">
<title>Common Python bindings layer</title>
<para>As different wrappers ultimately provide access to the same
underlying API, and to simplify porting and development of Python
applications using the VirtualBox Main API, we developed a common glue
layer that abstracts out most platform-specific details from the
application and allows the developer to focus on application logic.
The VirtualBox installer automatically sets up this glue layer for the
system default Python installation.</para>
<para>See <xref linkend="glue-python-setup"/> for details on how to
set up the glue layer if you want to use a different Python installation,
or if the VirtualBox installer failed to detect and set it up accordingly.</para>
<para>The minimum supported Python version is 2.6.</para>
<para>In this layer, the class
<computeroutput>VirtualBoxManager</computeroutput> hides most
platform-specific details. It can be used to access both the local
(COM) and the web service based API. The following code can be used by
an application to use the glue layer.</para>
<screen># This code assumes vboxapi.py from VirtualBox distribution
# being in PYTHONPATH, or installed system-wide
from vboxapi import VirtualBoxManager
# This code initializes VirtualBox manager with default style
# and parameters
virtualBoxManager = VirtualBoxManager(None, None)
# Alternatively, one can be more verbose, and initialize
# glue with web service backend, and provide authentication
# information
virtualBoxManager = VirtualBoxManager("WEBSERVICE",
{'url':'http://myhost.com::18083/',
'user':'me',
'password':'secret'}) </screen>
<para>We supply the <computeroutput>VirtualBoxManager</computeroutput>
constructor with 2 arguments: style and parameters. Style defines
which bindings style to use (could be "MSCOM", "XPCOM" or
"WEBSERVICE"), and if set to <computeroutput>None</computeroutput>
defaults to usable platform bindings (MS COM on Windows, XPCOM on
other platforms). The second argument defines parameters, passed to
the platform-specific module, as we do in the second example, where we
pass a username and password to be used to authenticate against the web
service.</para>
<para>After obtaining the
<computeroutput>VirtualBoxManager</computeroutput> instance, one can
perform operations on the IVirtualBox class. For example, the
following code will a start virtual machine by name or ID:</para>
<screen>from vboxapi import VirtualBoxManager
mgr = VirtualBoxManager(None, None)
vbox = mgr.getVirtualBox()
name = "Linux"
mach = vbox.findMachine(name)
session = mgr.getSessionObject(vbox)
progress = mach.launchVMProcess(session, "gui", "")
progress.waitForCompletion(-1)
mgr.closeMachineSession(session)
</screen>
<para>
The following code will print all registered machines and their log
folders:
</para>
<screen>from vboxapi import VirtualBoxManager
mgr = VirtualBoxManager(None, None)
vbox = mgr.getVirtualBox()
for m in mgr.getArray(vbox, 'machines'):
print "Machine '%s' logs in '%s'" %(m.name, m.logFolder)
</screen>
<para>The code above demonstrates cross-platform access to array
properties (certain limitations prevent one from using
<computeroutput>vbox.machines</computeroutput> to access a list of
available virtual machines in the case of XPCOM), and a mechanism for
uniform session creation and closure
(<computeroutput>mgr.getSessionObject()</computeroutput>).</para>
<sect3 id="glue-python-setup">
<title>Manual or subsequent setup</title>
<para>If you want to use the glue layer with a different Python
installation or the installer failed to set it up, then use these steps
in a shell to install the necessary files:</para>
<screen> # cd VBOX_INSTALL_PATH/sdk/installer
# python vboxapisetup.py install</screen>
<note> <para>On Windows hosts, a Python distribution along with the
win32api bindings package need to be installed as a prerequisite. </para></note>
</sect3>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="cppcom">
<title>C++ COM API</title>
<para>C++ is the language that VirtualBox itself is written in, so C++
is the most direct way to use the Main API -- but it is not
necessarily the easiest, as using COM and XPCOM has its own set of
complications.</para>
<para>VirtualBox ships with sample programs that demonstrate how to
use the Main API to implement a number of tasks on your host platform.
These samples can be found in the
<computeroutput>sdk/bindings/xpcom/samples</computeroutput> directory for
Linux, Mac OS X and Solaris and
<computeroutput>sdk/bindings/mscom/samples</computeroutput> for Windows.
The two samples are actually different, because the one for Windows
uses native COM, whereas the other uses our XPCOM implementation, as
described above.</para>
<para>Since COM and XPCOM are conceptually very similar but vary in
the implementation details, we have created a "glue" layer that
shields COM client code from these differences. All VirtualBox uses is
this glue layer, so the same code written once works on both Windows
hosts (with native COM) as well as on other hosts (with our XPCOM
implementation). It is recommended to always use this glue code
instead of using the COM and XPCOM APIs directly, as it is very easy
to make your code completely independent from the platform it is
running on.<!-- A third sample,
<computeroutput>tstVBoxAPIGlue.cpp</computeroutput>, illustrates how to
use the glue layer.
--></para>
<para>In order to encapsulate platform differences between Microsoft
COM and XPCOM, the following items should be kept in mind when using
the glue layer:</para>
<para><orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis role="bold">Attribute getters and
setters.</emphasis> COM has the notion of "attributes" in
interfaces, which roughly compare to C++ member variables in
classes. The difference is that for each attribute declared in
an interface, COM automatically provides a "get" method to
return the attribute's value. Unless the attribute has been
marked as "readonly", a "set" attribute is also provided.</para>
<para>To illustrate, the IVirtualBox interface has a "version"
attribute, which is read-only and of the "wstring" type (the
standard string type in COM). As a result, you can call the
"get" method for this attribute to retrieve the version number
of VirtualBox.</para>
<para>Unfortunately, the implementation differs between COM and
XPCOM. Microsoft COM names the "get" method like this:
<computeroutput>get_Attribute()</computeroutput>, whereas XPCOM
uses this syntax:
<computeroutput>GetAttribute()</computeroutput> (and accordingly
for "set" methods). To hide these differences, the VirtualBox
glue code provides the
<computeroutput>COMGETTER(attrib)</computeroutput> and
<computeroutput>COMSETTER(attrib)</computeroutput> macros. So,
<computeroutput>COMGETTER(version)()</computeroutput> (note, two
pairs of brackets) expands to
<computeroutput>get_Version()</computeroutput> on Windows and
<computeroutput>GetVersion()</computeroutput> on other
platforms.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis role="bold">Unicode conversions.</emphasis>
While the rest of the modern world has pretty much settled on
encoding strings in UTF-8, COM, unfortunately, uses UCS-16
encoding. This requires a lot of conversions, in particular
between the VirtualBox Main API and the Qt GUI, which, like the
rest of Qt, likes to use UTF-8.</para>
<para>To facilitate these conversions, VirtualBox provides the
<computeroutput>com::Bstr</computeroutput> and
<computeroutput>com::Utf8Str</computeroutput> classes, which
support all kinds of conversions back and forth.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis role="bold">COM autopointers.</emphasis>
Possibly the greatest pain of using COM -- reference counting --
is alleviated by the
<computeroutput>ComPtr&lt;&gt;</computeroutput> template
provided by the <computeroutput>ptr.h</computeroutput> file in
the glue layer.</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist></para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="event-queue">
<title>Event queue processing</title>
<para>Both VirtualBox client programs and front-ends should
periodically perform processing of the main event queue, and do that
on the application's main thread. In the case of a typical GUI
Windows/Mac OS application this happens automatically in the GUI's
dispatch loop. However, for CLI only application, the appropriate actions
have to be taken. For C++ applications, the VirtualBox SDK provided glue
method
<screen>
int EventQueue::processEventQueue(uint32_t cMsTimeout)
</screen> can be used for both blocking and non-blocking operations.
For the Python bindings, a common layer provides the method <screen>
VirtualBoxManager.waitForEvents(ms)
</screen> with similar semantics.</para>
<para>Things get somewhat more complicated for situations where an
application using VirtualBox cannot directly control the main event
loop and the main event queue is separated from the event queue of the
programming library (for example in case of Qt on Unix platforms). In
such a case, the application developer is advised to use a
platform/toolkit specific event injection mechanism to force event
queue checks either based on periodic timer events delivered to the
main thread, or by using custom platform messages to notify the main
thread when events are available. See the Qt (VirtualBox) front-end as
an example.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="vbcom">
<title>Visual Basic and Visual Basic Script (VBS) on Windows
hosts</title>
<para>On Windows hosts, one can control some of the VirtualBox Main
API functionality from VBS scripts, and pretty much everything from
Visual Basic programs.<footnote>
<para>The difference results from the way VBS treats COM
safearrays, which are used to keep lists in the Main API. VBS
expects every array element to be a
<computeroutput>VARIANT</computeroutput>, which is too strict a
limitation for any high performance API. We may lift this
restriction for interface APIs in a future version, or
alternatively provide conversion APIs.</para>
</footnote></para>
<para>VBS is a scripting language available in any recent Windows
environment. As an example, the following VBS code will print the
VirtualBox version: <screen>
set vb = CreateObject("VirtualBox.VirtualBox")
Wscript.Echo "VirtualBox version " &amp; vb.version
</screen> See
<computeroutput>sdk/bindings/mscom/vbs/sample/vboxinfo.vbs</computeroutput>
for the complete sample.</para>
<para>Visual Basic is a popular high level language capable of
accessing COM objects. The following VB code will iterate over all
available virtual machines:<screen>
Dim vb As VirtualBox.IVirtualBox
vb = CreateObject("VirtualBox.VirtualBox")
machines = ""
For Each m In vb.Machines
m = m &amp; " " &amp; m.Name
Next
</screen> See
<computeroutput>sdk/bindings/mscom/vb/sample/vboxinfo.vb</computeroutput>
for the complete sample.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="cbinding">
<title>C bindings to the VirtualBox API</title>
<para>The VirtualBox API was originally designed to be object oriented
and leverages XPCOM or COM as the middleware to natively map the API to
C++. This means that in order to use the VirtualBox API from C there
needs to be some helper code to bridge the language differences and
reduce the differences between platforms.</para>
<sect3 id="capi_glue">
<title>Cross-platform C bindings to the VirtualBox API</title>
<para>Starting with version 4.3, VirtualBox offers C bindings
which allows using the same C client sources for all platforms,
covering Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and Solaris. It is the
preferred way to write API clients, even though the old style
is still available.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="c-gettingstarted">
<title>Getting started</title>
<para>The following sections describe how to use the VirtualBox API
in a C program. The necessary files are included in the SDK, in the
directories <computeroutput>sdk/bindings/c/include</computeroutput>
and <computeroutput>sdk/bindings/c/glue</computeroutput>.</para>
<para>As part of the SDK, a sample program
<computeroutput>tstCAPIGlue.c</computeroutput> is provided in the
directory <computeroutput>sdk/bindings/c/samples</computeroutput>
which demonstrates
using the C bindings to initialize the API, get handles for
VirtualBox and Session objects, make calls to list and start virtual
machines, monitor events, and uninitialize resources when done. The
sample program is trying to illustrate all relevant concepts, so it
is a great source of detail information. Among many other generally
useful code sequences it contains a function which shows how to
retrieve error details in C code if they are available from the API
call.</para>
<para>The sample program <computeroutput>tstCAPIGlue</computeroutput>
can be built using the provided
<computeroutput>Makefile</computeroutput> and can be run without
arguments.</para>
<para>It uses the VBoxCAPIGlue library (source code is in directory
<computeroutput>sdk/bindings/c/glue</computeroutput>, to be used in
your API client code) to open the C binding layer during runtime,
which is preferred to other means as it isolates the code which
locates the necessary dynamic library, using a known working way
which works on all platforms. If you encounter problems with this
glue code in <computeroutput>VBoxCAPIGlue.c</computeroutput>, let the
VirtualBox developers know, rather than inventing incompatible
solutions.</para>
<para>The following sections document the important concepts needed
to correctly use the C bindings, as it is vital for developing API
client code which manages memory correctly, updates the reference
counters correctly, and avoids crashes and memory leaks. Often API
clients need to handle events, so the C API specifics are also
described below.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="c-initialization">
<title>VirtualBox C API initialization</title>
<para>Just like in C++, the API and the underlying middleware needs
to be initialized before it can be used. The
<computeroutput>VBoxCAPI_v&VBOX_VERSION_MAJOR;_&VBOX_VERSION_MINOR;.h</computeroutput>
header file provides the interface to the C bindings, but you can
alternatively and more conveniently just include
<computeroutput>VBoxCAPIGlue.h</computeroutput>,
as this avoids the VirtualBox version dependent header file name and
makes sure that the global variable <code>g_pVBoxFuncs</code> contains a
pointer to the structure which contains the helper function pointers.
Here's how to initialize the C API:<screen>#include "VBoxCAPIGlue.h"
...
IVirtualBoxClient *vboxclient = NULL;
/*
* VBoxCGlueInit() loads the necessary dynamic library, handles errors
* (producing an error message hinting what went wrong) and gives you
* the pointer to the function table (g_pVBoxFuncs).
*
* Once you get the function table, then how and which functions
* to use is explained below.
*
* g_pVBoxFuncs-&gt;pfnClientInitialize does all the necessary startup
* action and provides us with pointers to an IVirtualBoxClient instance.
* It should be matched by a call to g_pVBoxFuncs-&gt;pfnClientUninitialize()
* when done.
*/
if (VBoxCGlueInit())
{
fprintf(stderr, "s: FATAL: VBoxCGlueInit failed: %s\n",
argv[0], g_szVBoxErrMsg);
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
g_pVBoxFuncs-&gt;pfnClientInitialize(NULL, &amp;vboxclient);
if (!vboxclient)
{
fprintf(stderr, "%s: FATAL: could not get VirtualBoxClient reference\n",
argv[0]);
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}</screen></para>
<para>If <computeroutput>vboxclient</computeroutput> is still
<computeroutput>NULL</computeroutput> this means the initializationi
failed and the VirtualBox C API cannot be used.</para>
<para>It is possible to write C applications using multiple threads
which all use the VirtualBox API, as long as you're initializing
the C API in each thread which your application creates. This is done
with <code>g_pVBoxFuncs->pfnClientThreadInitialize()</code> and
likewise before the thread is terminated the API must be
uninitialized with
<code>g_pVBoxFuncs->pfnClientThreadUninitialize()</code>. You don't
have to use these functions in worker threads created by COM/XPCOM
(which you might utilize if your code uses active event handling),
since everything is initialized correctly already. On Windows the C
bindings create a marshaller which supports a wide range of COM
threading models, from Single-Threaded Apartments (STA) to
Multithreaded Apartments (MTA), so you don't have to worry about
these details unless you plan to use active event handlers. See
the sample code for how to get this to work reliably (in other words
think twice if passive event handling isn't the better solution after
you looked at the sample code).</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="c-invocation">
<title>C API attribute and method invocation</title>
<para>Method invocation is straightforward. It looks very similar
to the C++ mechanism since it also uses a macro which internally
accesses the vtable and additionally needs to be passed a pointer to the
object as the first argument to serve as the
<computeroutput>this</computeroutput> pointer.</para>
<para>Using the C bindings all method invocations return a numeric
result code of type <code>HRESULT</code> (with a few exceptions
which normally are not relevant).</para>
<para>If an interface is specified as returning an object, a pointer
to a pointer to the appropriate object must be passed as the last
argument. The method will then store an object pointer in that
location.</para>
<para>Likewise, attributes (properties) can be queried or set using
method invocations, using specially named methods. For each
attribute there exists a getter method, the name of which is composed
of <computeroutput>get_</computeroutput> followed by the capitalized
attribute name. Unless the attribute is read-only, an analogous
<computeroutput>set_</computeroutput> method exists. Let's apply
these rules to get the <computeroutput>IVirtualBox</computeroutput>
reference, an <computeroutput>ISession</computeroutput> instance
reference and read the
<link linkend="IVirtualBox__revision">IVirtualBox::revision</link>
attribute:
<screen>
IVirtualBox *vbox = NULL;
ISession *session = NULL;
HRESULT rc;
ULONG revision;
rc = IVirtualBoxClient_get_VirtualBox(vboxclient, &amp;vbox);
if (FAILED(rc) || !vbox)
{
PrintErrorInfo(argv[0], "FATAL: could not get VirtualBox reference", rc);
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
rc = IVirtualBoxClient_get_Session(vboxclient, &amp;session);
if (FAILED(rc) || !session)
{
PrintErrorInfo(argv[0], "FATAL: could not get Session reference", rc);
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
rc = IVirtualBox_get_Revision(vbox, &amp;revision);
if (SUCCEEDED(rc))
{
printf("Revision: %u\n", revision);
}</screen></para>
<para>The convenience macros for calling a method are named by prepending
the method name with the interface name (using <code>_</code> as the
separator).</para>
<para>So far only attribute getters were illustrated, but generic
method calls are straightforward, too:
<screen>IMachine *machine = NULL;
BSTR vmname = ...;
...
/*
* Calling IMachine::findMachine(...)
*/
rc = IVirtualBox_FindMachine(vbox, vmname, &amp;machine);</screen></para>
<para>As a more complicated example of a method invocation, let's
call
<link linkend="IMachine__launchVMProcess">IMachine::launchVMProcess</link>
which returns an IProgress object. Note again that the method name is
capitalized:
<screen>IProgress *progress;
...
rc = IMachine_LaunchVMProcess(
machine, /* this */
session, /* arg 1 */
sessionType, /* arg 2 */
env, /* arg 3 */
&amp;progress /* Out */
);</screen></para>
<para>All objects with their methods and attributes are documented
in <xref linkend="sdkref_classes"/>.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="c-string-handling">
<title>String handling</title>
<para>When dealing with strings you have to be aware of a string's
encoding and ownership.</para>
<para>Internally, the API uses UTF-16 encoded strings. A set of
conversion functions is provided to convert other encodings to and
from UTF-16. The type of a UTF-16 character is
<computeroutput>BSTR</computeroutput> (or its constant counterpart
<computeroutput>CBSTR</computeroutput>), which is an array type,
represented by a pointer to the start of the zero-terminated string.
There are functions for converting between UTF-8 and UTF-16 strings
available through <code>g_pVBoxFuncs</code>:
<screen>int (*pfnUtf16ToUtf8)(CBSTR pwszString, char **ppszString);
int (*pfnUtf8ToUtf16)(const char *pszString, BSTR *ppwszString);</screen></para>
<para>The ownership of a string determines who is responsible for
releasing resources associated with the string. Whenever the API
creates a string (essentially for output parameters), ownership is
transferred to the caller. To avoid resource leaks, the caller
should release resources once the string is no longer needed.
There are plenty of examples in the sample code.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="c-safearray">
<title>Array handling</title>
<para>Arrays are handled somewhat similarly to strings, with the
additional information of the number of elements in the array. The
exact details of string passing depends on the platform middleware
(COM/XPCOM), and therefore the C binding offers helper functions to
gloss over these differences.</para>
<para>Passing arrays as input parameters to API methods is usually
done by the following sequence, calling a hypothetical
<code>IArrayDemo_PassArray</code> API method:
<screen>static const ULONG aElements[] = { 1, 2, 3, 4 };
ULONG cElements = sizeof(aElements) / sizeof(aElements[0]);
SAFEARRAY *psa = NULL;
psa = g_pVBoxFuncs->pfnSafeArrayCreateVector(VT_I4, 0, cElements);
g_pVBoxFuncs->pfnSafeArrayCopyInParamHelper(psa, aElements, sizeof(aElements));
IArrayDemo_PassArray(pThis, ComSafeArrayAsInParam(psa));
g_pVBoxFuncs->pfnSafeArrayDestroy(psa);</screen></para>
<para>Likewise, getting arrays results from output parameters is done
using helper functions which manage memory allocations as part of
their other functionality:
<screen>SAFEARRAY *psa = g_pVBoxFuncs->pfnSafeArrayOutParamAlloc();
ULONG *pData;
ULONG cElements;
IArrayDemo_ReturnArray(pThis, ComSafeArrayAsOutTypeParam(psa, ULONG));
g_pVBoxFuncs->pfnSafeArrayCopyOutParamHelper((void **)&amp;pData, &amp;cElements, VT_I4, psa);
g_pVBoxFuncs->pfnSafeArrayDestroy(psa);</screen></para>
<para>This covers the necessary functionality for all array element
types except interface references. These need special helpers to
manage the reference counting correctly. The following code snippet
gets the list of VMs, and passes the first IMachine reference to
another API function (assuming that there is at least one element
in the array, to simplify the example):
<screen>SAFEARRAY psa = g_pVBoxFuncs->pfnSafeArrayOutParamAlloc();
IMachine **machines = NULL;
ULONG machineCnt = 0;
ULONG i;
IVirtualBox_get_Machines(virtualBox, ComSafeArrayAsOutIfaceParam(machinesSA, IMachine *));
g_pVBoxFuncs->pfnSafeArrayCopyOutIfaceParamHelper((IUnknown ***)&amp;machines, &amp;machineCnt, machinesSA);
g_pVBoxFuncs->pfnSafeArrayDestroy(machinesSA);
/* Now "machines" contains the IMachine references, and machineCnt the
* number of elements in the array. */
...
SAFEARRAY *psa = g_pVBoxFuncs->pfnSafeArrayCreateVector(VT_IUNKNOWN, 0, 1);
g_pVBoxFuncs->pfnSafeArrayCopyInParamHelper(psa, (void *)&amp;machines[0], sizeof(machines[0]));
IVirtualBox_GetMachineStates(ComSafeArrayAsInParam(psa), ...);
...
g_pVBoxFuncs->pfnSafeArrayDestroy(psa);
for (i = 0; i &lt; machineCnt; ++i)
{
IMachine *machine = machines[i];
IMachine_Release(machine);
}
free(machines);</screen></para>
<para>Handling output parameters needs more special handling than
input parameters, thus only for the former are there special helpers
while the latter is handled through the generic array support.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="c-eventhandling">
<title>Event handling</title>
<para>The VirtualBox API offers two types of event handling, active
and passive, and consequently there is support for both with the
C API binding. Active event handling (based on asynchronous
callback invocation for event delivery) is more difficult, as it
requires the construction of valid C++ objects in C, which is
inherently platform and compiler dependent. Passive event handling
is much simpler, it relies on an event loop, fetching events and
triggering the necessary handlers explicitly in the API client code.
Both approaches depend on an event loop to make sure that events
get delivered in a timely manner but otherwise differ in what
else is required to implement the respective event handler type.</para>
<para>The C API sample contains code for both event handling styles,
and one has to modify the appropriate <code>#define</code> to select
which style is actually used by the compiled program. It allows a
good comparison between the two variants and the code sequences are
probably worth reusing without much change in other API clients
with only minor adaptions.</para>
<para>Active event handling needs to ensure that the following helper
function is called frequently enough in the primary thread:
<screen>g_pVBoxFuncs->pfnProcessEventQueue(cTimeoutMS);</screen></para>
<para>The actual event handler implementation is quite tedious, as
it has to implement a complete API interface. Especially on Windows
it is a lot of work to implement the complicated
<code>IDispatch</code> interface, requiring loading COM type
information and using it in the <code>IDispatch</code> method
implementation. Overall this is quite tedious compared to passive
event handling.</para>
<para>Passive event handling uses a similar event loop structure,
which requires calling the following function in a loop, and
processing the returned event appropriately:
<screen>rc = IEventSource_GetEvent(pEventSource, pListener, cTimeoutMS, &amp;pEvent);</screen></para>
<para>After processing the event it needs to be marked as processed
with the following method call:
<screen>rc = IEventSource_EventProcessed(pEventSource, pListener, pEvent);</screen></para>
<para>This is vital for vetoable events, as they would be stuck
otherwise, waiting on whether the veto comes or not. It does not do any
harm for other event types, and in the end is cheaper than checking
if the event at hand is vetoable or not.</para>
<para>The general event handling concepts are described in the API
specification (see <xref linkend="events"/>), including how to
aggregate multiple event sources for processing in one event loop.
As mentioned, the sample illustrates the practical aspects of how to
use both types of event handling, active and passive, from a C
application. Additional hints are in the comments documenting
the helper methods in
<computeroutput>VBoxCAPI_v&VBOX_VERSION_MAJOR;_&VBOX_VERSION_MINOR;.h</computeroutput>.
The code complexity of active event handling (and its inherently
platform/compiler specific aspects) should be motivation to use passive
event handling wherever possible.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="c-uninitialization">
<title>C API uninitialization</title>
<para>Uninitialization is performed by
<computeroutput>g_pVBoxFuncs-&gt;pfnClientUninitialize().</computeroutput>
If your program can exit in more than one place, it is a good idea
to install this function as an exit handler using the C library function
<computeroutput>atexit()</computeroutput> just after calling
<computeroutput>g_pVBoxFuncs-&gt;pfnClientInitialize()</computeroutput>
, e.g. <screen>#include &lt;stdlib.h&gt;
#include &lt;stdio.h&gt;
...
/*
* Make sure g_pVBoxFuncs-&gt;pfnClientUninitialize() is called at exit, no
* matter if we return from the initial call to main or call exit()
* somewhere else. Note that atexit registered functions are not
* called upon abnormal termination, i.e. when calling abort() or
* signal().
*/
if (atexit(g_pVBoxFuncs-&gt;pfnClientUninitialize()) != 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "failed to register g_pVBoxFuncs-&gt;pfnClientUninitialize()\n");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}</screen></para>
<para>Another idea would be to write your own <computeroutput>void
myexit(int status)</computeroutput> function, calling
<computeroutput>g_pVBoxFuncs-&gt;pfnClientUninitialize()</computeroutput>
followed by the real <computeroutput>exit()</computeroutput>, and
use it instead of <computeroutput>exit()</computeroutput> throughout
your program and at the end of
<computeroutput>main.</computeroutput></para>
<para>If you expect your program to be terminated by a signal (e.g. a
user types CTRL-C sending SIGINT) you might want to install a signal
handler setting a flag noting that a signal was sent and then
calling
<computeroutput>g_pVBoxFuncs-&gt;pfnClientUninitialize()</computeroutput>
later on, <emphasis>not</emphasis> from the handler itself.</para>
<para>That said, if a client program forgets to call
<computeroutput>g_pVBoxFuncs-&gt;pfnClientUninitialize()</computeroutput>
before it terminates, there is a mechanism in place which will
eventually release references held by the client. On Windows it can
take quite a while, on the order of 6-7 minutes.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="c-linking">
<title>Compiling and linking</title>
<para>A program using the C binding has to open the library during
runtime using the help of the glue code provided and as shown in the
example <computeroutput>tstCAPIGlue.c</computeroutput>.
Compilation and linking can be achieved with a makefile fragment
similar to:<screen># Where is the SDK directory?
PATH_SDK = ../../..
CAPI_INC = -I$(PATH_SDK)/bindings/c/include
ifdef ProgramFiles
PLATFORM_INC = -I$(PATH_SDK)/bindings/mscom/include
PLATFORM_LIB = $(PATH_SDK)/bindings/mscom/lib
else
PLATFORM_INC = -I$(PATH_SDK)/bindings/xpcom/include
PLATFORM_LIB = $(PATH_SDK)/bindings/xpcom/lib
endif
GLUE_DIR = $(PATH_SDK)/bindings/c/glue
GLUE_INC = -I$(GLUE_DIR)
# Compile Glue Library
VBoxCAPIGlue.o: $(GLUE_DIR)/VBoxCAPIGlue.c
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(CAPI_INC) $(PLATFORM_INC) $(GLUE_INC) -o $@ -c $&lt;
# Compile interface ID list
VirtualBox_i.o: $(PLATFORM_LIB)/VirtualBox_i.c
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(CAPI_INC) $(PLATFORM_INC) $(GLUE_INC) -o $@ -c $&lt;
# Compile program code
program.o: program.c
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(CAPI_INC) $(PLATFORM_INC) $(GLUE_INC) -o $@ -c $&lt;
# Link program.
program: program.o VBoxCAPICGlue.o VirtualBox_i.o
$(CC) -o $@ $^ -ldl -lpthread</screen></para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="capi_conversion">
<title>Conversion of code using legacy C bindings</title>
<para>This section aims to make the task of converting code using the
legacy C bindings to the new style a breeze by following these key
steps.</para>
<para>One necessary change is adjusting your Makefile to reflect the
different include paths. As shown in the makefile fragment above, there
are now three relevant include directories. The XPCOM include directory
is still relevant for platforms where the XPCOM middleware is used but
most of its include files live elsewhere now so it's good to have it
last. Additionally the <computeroutput>VirtualBox_i.c</computeroutput>
file needs to be compiled and linked to the program since it contains
the interface IDs (IIDs) relevant for the VirtualBox API, making sure
they are not replicated endlessly if the code refers to them
frequently.</para>
<para>The C API client code should include
<computeroutput>VBoxCAPIGlue.h</computeroutput> instead of
<computeroutput>VBoxXPCOMCGlue.h</computeroutput> or
<computeroutput>VBoxCAPI_v&VBOX_VERSION_MAJOR;_&VBOX_VERSION_MINOR;.h</computeroutput>,
as this makes sure the correct macros and internal translations are
selected.</para>
<para>All API method calls (anything mentioning <code>vtbl</code>)
should be rewritten using the convenience macros for calling methods,
as these hide the internal details, are generally easier to
use, and are shorter to type. You should remove as many as possible
<code>(nsISupports **)</code> or similar typecasts, as the new style
should use the correct type in most places, increasing the type
safety in case of an error in the source code.</para>
<para>To gloss over the platform differences, API client code should
no longer rely on XPCOM specific interface names such as
<code>nsISupports</code>, <code>nsIException</code> and
<code>nsIEventQueue</code>, and replace them by the platform
independent interface names <code>IUnknown</code> and
<code>IErrorInfo</code> for the first two respectively. Event queue
handling should be replaced by using the platform independent way
described in <xref linkend="c-eventhandling"/>.</para>
<para>Finally adjust the string and array handling to use the new
helpers, as these make sure the code works without changes with
both COM and XPCOM, which are significantly different in this area.
The code should be double checked to see that it uses the correct way to
manage memory and is freeing it only after the last use.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="xpcom_cbinding">
<title>Legacy C bindings to VirtualBox API for XPCOM</title>
<note>
<para>This section applies to Linux, Mac OS X and Solaris
hosts only and describes deprecated use of the API from C.</para>
</note>
<para>Starting with version 2.2, VirtualBox offers C bindings for
its API which works only on platforms using XPCOM. Refer to the
old SDK documentation (included in the SDK packages for version 4.3.6
or earlier) since it still applies unchanged. The fundamental concepts
are similar (but the syntactical details are quite different) to the
newer cross-platform C bindings which should be used for all new code,
as the support for the old C bindings will go away in a major release
after version 4.3.</para>
</sect3>
</sect2>
</sect1>
</chapter>
<chapter id="concepts">
<title>Basic VirtualBox concepts; some examples</title>
<para>The following explains some basic VirtualBox concepts such as the
VirtualBox object, sessions and how virtual machines are manipulated and
launched using the Main API. The coding examples use a pseudo-code style
closely related to the object-oriented web service (OOWS) for JAX-WS.
Depending on which environment you are using, you will need to adjust the
examples.</para>
<sect1>
<title>Obtaining basic machine information. Reading attributes</title>
<para>Any program using the Main API will first need access to the
global VirtualBox object (see
<link linkend="IVirtualBox">IVirtualBox</link>), from which all other
functionality of the API is derived. With the OOWS for JAX-WS, this is
returned from the
<link linkend="IWebsessionManager__logon">IWebsessionManager::logon()</link>
call.</para>
<para>To enumerate virtual machines, one would look at the "machines"
array attribute in the VirtualBox object (see
<link linkend="IVirtualBox__machines">IVirtualBox::machines</link>).
This array contains all virtual machines currently registered with the
host, each of them being an instance of
<link linkend="IMachine">IMachine</link>.
From each such instance, one can query additional information, such as
the UUID, the name, memory, operating system and more by looking at the
attributes; see the attributes list in
<link linkend="IMachine">IMachine</link> documentation.</para>
<para>As mentioned in the preceding chapters, depending on your
programming environment, attributes are mapped to corresponding "get"
and (if the attribute is not read-only) "set" methods. So when the
documentation says that IMachine has a
"<link linkend="IMachine__name">name</link>" attribute, this means you
need to code something
like the following to get the machine's name:
<screen>IMachine machine = ...;
String name = machine.getName();</screen>
Boolean attribute getters can sometimes be called
<computeroutput>isAttribute()</computeroutput> due to JAX-WS naming
conventions.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Changing machine settings: Sessions</title>
<para>As described in the previous section, to read a machine's attribute,
one invokes the corresponding "get" method. One would think that to
change settings of a machine, it would suffice to call the corresponding
"set" method -- for example, to set a VM's memory to 1024 MB, one would
call <computeroutput>setMemorySize(1024)</computeroutput>. Try that, and
you will get an error: "The machine is not mutable."</para>
<para>So unfortunately, things are not that easy. VirtualBox is a
complicated environment in which multiple processes compete for possibly
the same resources, especially machine settings. As a result, machines
must be "locked" before they can either be modified or started. This is
to prevent multiple processes from making conflicting changes to a
machine: it should, for example, not be allowed to change the memory
size of a virtual machine while it is running. (You can't add more
memory to a real computer while it is running either, at least not to an
ordinary PC.) Also, two processes must not change settings at the same
time, or start a machine at the same time.</para>
<para>These requirements are implemented in the Main API by way of
"sessions", in particular, the <link linkend="ISession">ISession</link>
interface. Each process which talks to
VirtualBox needs its own instance of ISession. In the web service, you
can request the creation of such an object by calling
<link linkend="IWebsessionManager__getSessionObject">IWebsessionManager::getSessionObject()</link>.
More complex management tasks might need multiple instances of ISession,
and each call returns a new one.</para>
<para>This session object must then be used like a mutex semaphore in
common programming environments. Before you can change machine settings,
you must write-lock the machine by calling
<link linkend="IMachine__lockMachine">IMachine::lockMachine()</link>
with your process's session object.</para>
<para>After the machine has been locked, the
<link linkend="ISession__machine">ISession::machine</link> attribute
contains a copy of the original IMachine object upon which the session
was opened, but this copy is "mutable": you can invoke "set" methods on
it.</para>
<para>When done making the changes to the machine, you must call
<link linkend="IMachine__saveSettings">IMachine::saveSettings()</link>,
which will copy the changes you have made from your "mutable" machine
back to the real machine and write them out to the machine settings XML
file. This will make your changes permanent.</para>
<para>Finally, it is important to always unlock the machine again, by
calling
<link linkend="ISession__unlockMachine">ISession::unlockMachine()</link>.
Otherwise, when the calling process exits, the machine will be moved to the
"aborted" state, which can lead to loss of data.</para>
<para>So, as an example, the sequence to change a machine's memory to
1024 MB is something like this:<screen>IWebsessionManager mgr ...;
IVirtualBox vbox = mgr.logon(user, pass);
...
IMachine machine = ...; // read-only machine
ISession session = mgr.getSessionObject();
machine.lockMachine(session, LockType.Write); // machine is now locked for writing
IMachine mutable = session.getMachine(); // obtain the mutable machine copy
mutable.setMemorySize(1024);
mutable.saveSettings(); // write settings to XML
session.unlockMachine();</screen></para>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Launching virtual machines</title>
<para>To launch a virtual machine, you call
<link linkend="IMachine__launchVMProcess">IMachine::launchVMProcess()</link>.
This instructs the VirtualBox engine to start a new process containing the
virtual machine. The host system sees each virtual machine as a single
process, even if the virtual machine has hundreds of its own processes
running inside it. (This new VM process in turn obtains a write lock on
the machine, as described above, to prevent conflicting changes from
other processes; this is why opening another session will fail while the
VM is running.)</para>
<para>Starting a machine looks something like this:
<screen>IWebsessionManager mgr ...;
IVirtualBox vbox = mgr.logon(user, pass);
...
IMachine machine = ...; // read-only machine
ISession session = mgr.getSessionObject();
IProgress prog = machine.launchVMProcess(session,
"gui", // session type
""); // possibly environment setting
prog.waitForCompletion(10000); // give the process 10 secs
if (prog.getResultCode() != 0) // check success
System.out.println("Cannot launch VM!")</screen></para>
<para>The caller's session object can then be used as a sort of remote
control to the VM process that was launched. It contains a "console"
object (see <link linkend="ISession__console">ISession::console</link>)
with which the VM can be paused,
stopped, snapshotted or other things.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="events">
<title>VirtualBox events</title>
<para>In VirtualBox, "events" provide a uniform mechanism to register
for and consume specific events. A VirtualBox client can register an
"event listener" (represented by the
<link linkend="IEventListener">IEventListener</link> interface), which
will then get notified by the server when an event (represented by the
<link linkend="IEvent">IEvent</link> interface) happens.</para>
<para>The IEvent interface is an abstract parent interface for all
events that can occur in VirtualBox. The actual events that the server
sends out belong to one of the specific subclasses, for example
<link linkend="IMachineStateChangedEvent">IMachineStateChangedEvent</link>
or
<link linkend="IMediumChangedEvent">IMediumChangedEvent</link>.</para>
<para>As an example, the VirtualBox GUI waits for machine events so it can
update its display when the machine state changes or machine settings are
modified, even if this happens in another client. This is how the GUI can
automatically refresh its display even if you manipulate a machine from
a different client such as VBoxManage.</para>
<para>To register an event listener to listen for events, you would use code
similar to the following:<screen>EventSource es = console.getEventSource();
IEventListener listener = es.createListener();
VBoxEventType aTypes[] = (VBoxEventType.OnMachineStateChanged);
// list of event types to listen for
es.registerListener(listener, aTypes, false /* active */);
// register passive listener
IEvent ev = es.getEvent(listener, 1000);
// wait up to one second for event to happen
if (ev != null)
{
// downcast to specific event interface (in this case we have only registered
// for one type, otherwise IEvent::type would tell us)
IMachineStateChangedEvent mcse = IMachineStateChangedEvent.queryInterface(ev);
... // inspect and do something
es.eventProcessed(listener, ev);
}
...
es.unregisterListener(listener); </screen></para>
<para>A graphical user interface application would most likely want to start
its own thread to wait for events and then process these in a loop.</para>
<para>The events mechanism was introduced with VirtualBox 3.3 and
replaces various callback interfaces which were called for each event in
the interface. The callback mechanism was not compatible with scripting
languages, local Java bindings, and remote web services as they do not
support callbacks. The new mechanism with events and event listeners
works with all of these.</para>
<para>To simplify development of applications using events, the concept of
an event aggregator was introduced. Essentially it's a mechanism to
aggregate multiple event sources into one single event source, and then work
with this single aggregated event source instead of the original sources. As
an example, one can try out the VirtualBox Python shell's
<computeroutput>recordDemo</computeroutput> option which records mouse and
keyboard events using an event aggregator and displays them as separate event
sources. The VirtualBox Python shell (vboxshell.py) is shipped with the SDK.
The <computeroutput>recordDemo</computeroutput> code is essentially:<screen>
listener = console.eventSource.createListener()
agg = console.eventSource.createAggregator([console.keyboard.eventSource, console.mouse.eventSource])
agg.registerListener(listener, [ctx['global'].constants.VBoxEventType_Any], False)
registered = True
end = time.time() + dur
while time.time() &lt; end:
ev = agg.getEvent(listener, 1000)
processEent(ev)
agg.unregisterListener(listener)</screen> Without using aggregators
consumers would have to either poll on both sources or start multiple
threads to block on those sources.</para>
</sect1>
</chapter>
<chapter id="vboxshell">
<title>The VirtualBox shell</title>
<para>VirtualBox comes with an extensible shell which allows you to
control your virtual machines from the command line. It is also a
non-trivial example of how to use the VirtualBox APIs from Python for all
three styles of the API (COM/XPCOM/WS).</para>
<para>You can easily extend this shell with your own commands. Simply create
a subdirectory named
<computeroutput>.config/VirtualBox/shexts</computeroutput> in your home
directory (<computeroutput>.VirtualBox/shexts</computeroutput>
on Windows systems and
<computeroutput>Library/VirtualBox/shexts</computeroutput> on macOS systems)
and put a Python file implementing your shell extension commands in this
directory. This file must have an array named
<computeroutput>commands</computeroutput> which contains your command
definitions: <screen>
commands = {
'cmd1': ['Command cmd1 help', cmd1],
'cmd2': ['Command cmd2 help', cmd2]
}
</screen> For example, to create a command for creating hard drive
images, the following code can be used: <screen>
def createHdd(ctx,args):
# Show some meaningful error message on wrong input
if (len(args) &lt; 3):
print "usage: createHdd sizeM location type"
return 0
# Get arguments
size = int(args[1])
loc = args[2]
if len(args) &gt; 3:
format = args[3]
else:
# And provide some meaningful defaults
format = "vdi"
# Call VirtualBox API, using context's fields
hdd = ctx['vb'].createMedium(format, loc, ctx['global'].constants.AccessMode_ReadWrite, \
ctx['global'].constants.DeviceType_HardDisk)
# Access constants using ctx['global'].constants
progress = hdd.createBaseStorage(size, (ctx['global'].constants.MediumVariant_Standard, ))
# use standard progress bar mechanism
ctx['progressBar'](progress)
# Report errors
if not hdd.id:
print "cannot create disk (file %s exist?)" %(loc)
return 0
# Give user some feedback on success too
print "created HDD with id: %s" %(hdd.id)
# 0 means continue execution, other values mean exit from the interpreter
return 0
commands = {
'myCreateHDD': ['Create virtual HDD, createHdd size location type', createHdd]
}
</screen> Just store the above text in a file named
<computeroutput>createHdd</computeroutput> (or any other meaningful name)
in the <computeroutput>shexts</computeroutput> directory located as
described above and then start the VirtualBox shell or just issue the
<computeroutput>reloadExts</computeroutput> command if the shell is
already running. Your new command will now be available.</para>
</chapter>
<chapter id="vboxarm">
<title>Main API changes to support the ARM64 architecture</title>
<para>VirtualBox 7.1 introduces support for running virtual machines on
hosts containing an ARM CPU. Since VirtualBox has been designed and
developed for virtualizing x86 hardware since its inception adding
support for ARM CPUs required a variety of changes to the Main API to
accommodate two different CPU architectures.</para>
<sect1>
<title>Overview of the Changes to the Main API</title>
<para>In order to support two different types of processor architecture
in the VirtualBox Main API the key abstraction was the addition of a new
interface named <link linkend="IPlatform">IPlatform</link> which contains
the details which relate to the operating environment of a VM. The
<link linkend="IPlatform">IPlatform</link> interface is distinct from the
VM itself (the <link linkend="IMachine">IMachine</link> interface), the VM
management interfaces (<link linkend="IVirtualBox">IVirtualBox</link> and
<link linkend="IConsole">IConsole</link>), as well as the global properties of
the VM (the <link linkend="ISystemProperties">ISystemProperties</link> interface).
The contents of the <link linkend="IPlatform">IPlatform</link> interface can be
broken down into three different categories:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>properties relating to the VM which are CPU architecture-neutral (<link linkend="IPlatformProperties">IPlatformProperties</link>)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>properties which are CPU architecture-specific (<link linkend="IPlatformX86">IPlatformX86</link> or <link linkend="IPlatformARM">IPlatformARM</link>)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>attributes of the VM which are CPU architecture-neutral such as:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>the architecture of the VM (<link linkend="IPlatform__architecture">IPlatform::architecture</link>)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>the type of chipset used by the VM (<link linkend="IPlatform__chipsetType">IPlatform::chipsetType</link>)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>the type of IOMMU used by the VM (<link linkend="IPlatform__iommuType">IPlatform::iommuType</link>).</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>The <link linkend="IPlatform">IPlatform</link> interface can be retrieved from
the <link linkend="IMachine">IMachine</link> interface via the new
<link linkend="IMachine__platform">IMachine::platform</link> attribute. The
<link linkend="IPlatform__architecture">IPlatform::architecture</link> attribute
returns the <emphasis>architecture</emphasis> type in a new enumeration named
<link linkend="PlatformArchitecture">PlatformArchitecture</link>. This enumeration value
can be used to determine which CPU-specific properties to query, for example:
<screen>
IPlatform platform;
result = machine.getPlatform(platform);
PlatformArchitecture_T platformArch;
result = platform.getArchitecture(platformArch);
if (platformArch == x86)
IPlatformX86 platformX86;
result = platform.getX86(platformX86);
else if (platformArch == ARM)
IPlatformARM platformARM;
result = platform.getARM(platformARM);
else
error;
</screen>
The value of the <link linkend="PlatformArchitecture">PlatformArchitecture</link> enumeration
can also be used when creating a new VM using <link linkend="IVirtualBox__createMachine">IVirtualBox::createMachine</link>.
</para>
<para>The CPU architecture-neutral properties in (<link linkend="IPlatformProperties">IPlatformProperties</link>)
can be found in several places:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>They can be retrieved from the <link linkend="IPlatform__properties">IPlatform::properties</link>
attribute.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>They can be retrieved from the <link linkend="ISystemProperties__platform">ISystemProperties::platform</link>
attribute.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>They can retrieved from the <link linkend="IVirtualBox">IVirtualBox</link> interface
using the new <link linkend="IVirtualBox__getPlatformProperties">IVirtualBox::getPlatformProperties</link> method.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>The attributes and methods contained in <link linkend="IPlatformProperties">IPlatformProperties</link>
were moved from the <link linkend="ISystemProperties">ISystemProperties</link> interface as they
can vary based on the platform of the VM:</para>
<table>
<title>IPlatformProperties Attributes</title>
<tgroup cols="2" style="verywide">
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Original Attribute</emphasis></entry>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">New Attribute</emphasis></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPlatformProperties::rawModeSupported</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformProperties__rawModeSupported">IPlatformProperties::rawModeSupported</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPlatformProperties::exclusiveHwVirt</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformProperties__exclusiveHwVirt">IPlatformProperties::exclusiveHwVirt</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPlatformProperties::serialPortCount</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformProperties__serialPortCount">IPlatformProperties::serialPortCount</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPlatformProperties::parallelPortCount</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformProperties__parallelPortCount">IPlatformProperties::parallelPortCount</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPlatformProperties::maxBootPosition</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformProperties__maxBootPosition">IPlatformProperties::maxBootPosition</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPlatformProperties::supportedParavirtProviders[]</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformProperties__supportedParavirtProviders">IPlatformProperties::supportedParavirtProviders[]</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPlatformProperties::supportedFirmwareTypes[]</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformProperties__supportedFirmwareTypes">IPlatformProperties::supportedFirmwareTypes[]</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPlatformProperties::supportedGuestOSTypes[]</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformProperties__supportedGuestOSTypes">IPlatformProperties::supportedGuestOSTypes[]</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPlatformProperties::getSupportedGfxControllerTypes[]</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformProperties__supportedGfxControllerTypes">IPlatformProperties::getSupportedGfxControllerTypes[]</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPlatformProperties::supportedNetAdpPromiscModePols[]</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformProperties__supportedNetAdpPromiscModePols">IPlatformProperties::supportedNetAdpPromiscModePols[]</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPlatformProperties::supportedNetworkAdapterTypes[]</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformProperties__supportedNetworkAdapterTypes">IPlatformProperties::supportedNetworkAdapterTypes[]</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPlatformProperties::supportedUartTypes[]</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformProperties__supportedUartTypes">IPlatformProperties::supportedUartTypes[]</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPlatformProperties::supportedUSBControllerTypes[]</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformProperties__supportedUSBControllerTypes">IPlatformProperties::supportedUSBControllerTypes[]</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPlatformProperties::supportedAudioControllerTypes[]</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformProperties__supportedAudioControllerTypes">IPlatformProperties::supportedAudioControllerTypes[]</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPlatformProperties::supportedBootDevices[]</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformProperties__supportedBootDevices">IPlatformProperties::supportedBootDevices[]</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPlatformProperties::supportedStorageBuses[]</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformProperties__supportedStorageBuses">IPlatformProperties::supportedStorageBuses[]</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPlatformProperties::supportedStorageControllerTypes[]</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformProperties__supportedStorageControllerTypes">IPlatformProperties::supportedStorageControllerTypes[]</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPlatformProperties::supportedChipsetTypes[]</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformProperties__supportedChipsetTypes">IPlatformProperties::supportedChipsetTypes[]</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPlatformProperties::supportedIommuTypes[]</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformProperties__supportedIommuTypes">IPlatformProperties::supportedIommuTypes[]</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPlatformProperties::supportedTpmTypes[]</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformProperties__supportedTpmTypes">IPlatformProperties::supportedTpmTypes[]</link></entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
<table>
<title>IPlatformProperties Attributes</title>
<tgroup cols="2" style="verywide">
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Original Method</emphasis></entry>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">New Method</emphasis></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPlatformProperties::getDeviceTypesForStorageBus</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformProperties__getDeviceTypesForStorageBus">IPlatformProperties::getDeviceTypesForStorageBus</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPlatformProperties::getMaxDevicesPerPortForStorageBus</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformProperties__getMaxDevicesPerPortForStorageBus">IPlatformProperties::getMaxDevicesPerPortForStorageBus</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPlatformProperties::getMaxInstancesOfStorageBus</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformProperties__getMaxInstancesOfStorageBus">IPlatformProperties::getMaxInstancesOfStorageBus</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPlatformProperties::getMaxInstancesOfUSBControllerType</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformProperties__getMaxInstancesOfUSBControllerType">IPlatformProperties::getMaxInstancesOfUSBControllerType</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPlatformProperties::getMaxNetworkAdapters</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformProperties__getMaxNetworkAdapters">IPlatformProperties::getMaxNetworkAdapters</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPlatformProperties::getMaxNetworkAdaptersOfType</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformProperties__getMaxNetworkAdaptersOfType">IPlatformProperties::getMaxNetworkAdaptersOfType</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPlatformProperties::getMaxPortCountForStorageBus</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformProperties__getMaxPortCountForStorageBus">IPlatformProperties::getMaxPortCountForStorageBus</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPlatformProperties::getMinPortCountForStorageBus</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformProperties__getMinPortCountForStorageBus">IPlatformProperties::getMinPortCountForStorageBus</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPlatformProperties::getStorageBusForControllerType</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformProperties__getStorageBusForControllerType">IPlatformProperties::getStorageBusForControllerType</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPlatformProperties::getStorageControllerHotplugCapable</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformProperties__getStorageControllerHotplugCapable">IPlatformProperties::getStorageControllerHotplugCapable</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPlatformProperties::getStorageControllerTypesForBus</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformProperties__getStorageControllerTypesForBus">IPlatformProperties::getStorageControllerTypesForBus</link></entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
<para>The single attribute and all of the properties contained in the new
<link linkend="IPlatformX86">IPlatformX86</link> interface were moved from the
<link linkend="IMachine">IMachine</link> interface as they are specific to the x86
CPU architecture:</para>
<table>
<title>IPlatformX86 Attribute</title>
<tgroup cols="2">
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Original Attribute</emphasis></entry>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">New Attribute</emphasis></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IMachine::HPETEnabled</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformX86__HPETEnabled">IPlatformX86::HPETEnabled</link></entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
<table>
<title>IPlatformX86 Methods</title>
<tgroup cols="2">
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Original Method</emphasis></entry>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">New Method</emphasis></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IMachine::getCPUIDLeaf</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformX86__getCPUIDLeaf">IPlatformX86::getCPUIDLeaf</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IMachine::getCPUIDLeafByOrdinal</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformX86__getCPUIDLeafByOrdinal">IPlatformX86::getCPUIDLeafByOrdinal</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IMachine::getCPUProperty</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformX86__getCPUProperty">IPlatformX86::getCPUProperty</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IMachine::getHWVirtExProperty</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformX86__getHWVirtExProperty">IPlatformX86::getHWVirtExProperty</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IMachine::removeAllCPUIDLeaves</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformX86__removeAllCPUIDLeaves">IPlatformX86::removeAllCPUIDLeaves</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IMachine::removeCPUIDLeaf</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformX86__removeCPUIDLeaf">IPlatformX86::removeCPUIDLeaf</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IMachine::setCPUIDLeaf</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformX86__setCPUIDLeaf">IPlatformX86::setCPUIDLeaf</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IMachine::setCPUProperty</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformX86__setCPUProperty">IPlatformX86::setCPUProperty</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IMachine::setHWVirtExProperty</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPlatformX86__setHWVirtExProperty">IPlatformX86::setHWVirtExProperty</link></entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
<para>An itemized breakdown of the changes made to the Main API for ARM64 support is described below.</para>
<sect2>
<title>Changes to Classes (Interfaces)</title>
<sect3>
<title>New Classes (Interfaces) Added</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IPlatform">IPlatform</link></para>
<para>An umbrella-like interface containing a collection of properties and attributes
of the software environment of the VM.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IPlatformX86">IPlatformX86</link></para>
<para>An interface containing the x86-specific properties of the software
environment of the VM.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IPlatformARM">IPlatformARM</link></para>
<para>An interface containing the ARM-specific properties of the software
environment of the VM.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IPlatformProperties">IPlatformProperties</link></para>
<para>An interface containing the properties specific to the platform of the VM.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IHostX86">IHostX86</link></para>
<para>An interface which provides further classification of the x86-specific
properties of the physical host machine.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>Classes (Interfaces) Renamed</title>
<table>
<title>Classes (Interfaces) Renamed</title>
<tgroup cols="2" style="verywide">
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Original Class Name</emphasis></entry>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">New Class Name</emphasis></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IBIOSSettings</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IFirmwareSettings">IFirmwareSettings</link></entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
<para>The IBIOSSettings interface has been renamed to the more platform-neutral IFirmwareSettings.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>New Methods Added to Classes (Interfaces)</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><link
linkend="IPlatformProperties">IPlatformProperties</link> <link linkend="IVirtualBox__getPlatformProperties">IVirtualBox::getPlatformProperties</link></para>
<para>The new IVirtualBox::getPlatformProperties method returns
an IPlatformProperties object which contains the platform-specific
properties of a VM as described above.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IGraphicsAdapter__isFeatureEnabled">IGraphicsAdapter::isFeatureEnabled</link></para>
<para>The new IGraphicsAdapter::isFeatureEnabled method returns
whether a graphics feature is enabled for a specific adapter or not.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IGraphicsAdapter__setFeature">IGraphicsAdapter::setFeature</link></para>
<para>The new IGraphicsAdapter::setFeature enables or disables a graphics feature
for a specific adapter.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>New Attributes Added to Classes (Interfaces)</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IPlatformProperties">IPlatformProperties</link><link linkend="ISystemProperties__platform">
ISystemProperties::platform</link></para>
<para>The ISystemProperties interface gets a new <emphasis>platform</emphasis>
attribute which returns an IPlatformProperties object which contains the
platform-specific properties of a VM as described above.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="FirmwareType">FirmwareType</link> <link linkend="IFirmwareSettings__firmwareType">IFirmwareSettings::firmwareType</link></para>
<para>The new IFirmwareSettings interface (renamed from IBIOSSettings) gets a new
<emphasis>firmwareType</emphasis> attribute which returns a FirmwareType enumeration which
contains the VM's firmware type.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="PlatformArchitecture">PlatformArchitecture</link> <link linkend="IHost__architecture">IHost::architecture</link></para>
<para>The IHost interface gets a new <emphasis>architecture</emphasis>
attribute which returns a PlatformArchitecture enumeration which contains the
platform's architecture.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IHostX86">IHostX86</link> <link linkend="IHost__x86">IHost::x86</link></para>
<para>The IHost interface gets a new <emphasis>x86</emphasis>
attribute which returns an IHostX86 object which contains the
x86-specific properties of the physical host machine.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IPlatform">IPlatform</link> <link linkend="IMachine__platform">IMachine::platform</link></para>
<para>The IMachine interface gets a new <emphasis>platform</emphasis>
attribute which returns an IPlatform object which contains the
properties related to the platform of the VM.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IFirmwareSettings">IFirmwareSettings</link> <link linkend="IMachine__firmwareSettings">IMachine::firmwareSettings</link></para>
<para>The IMachine interface gets a new <emphasis>firmwareSettings</emphasis>
attribute which returns an IFirmWareSettings object which contains the
properties related to the platform of the VM.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>Class (Interface) Attribute Changes</title>
<table>
<title>Classes Renamed</title>
<tgroup cols="2" style="verywide">
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Original Class Name</emphasis></entry>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">New Class Name</emphasis></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>BIOSBootMenuMode IBIOSSettings::bootMenuMode</entry>
<entry><link linkend="FirmwareBootMenuMode">FirmwareBootMenuMode</link><link linkend="IFirmwareSettings__bootMenuMode"> IFirmwareSettings::bootMenuMode</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IGraphicsAdapter::accelerate3DEnabled</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IGraphicsAdapter__setFeature"> IGraphicsAdapter::setFeature</link> and
<link linkend="IGraphicsAdapter__isFeatureEnabled"> IGraphicsAdapter::isFeatureEnabled</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IGraphicsAdapter::accelerate2DVideoEnabled</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IGraphicsAdapter__setFeature"> IGraphicsAdapter::setFeature</link> and
<link linkend="IGraphicsAdapter__isFeatureEnabled"> IGraphicsAdapter::isFeatureEnabled</link></entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
<para>The IBIOSSettings::bootMenuMode attribute has been moved to the new
IFirmwareSettings interface and now returns the firmware boot menu mode in
the new <link linkend="FirmwareBootMenuMode">FirmwareBootMenuMode</link> enumeration.</para>
<table>
<title>Classes Renamed</title>
<tgroup cols="2" style="verywide">
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Original Class Name</emphasis></entry>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">New Class Name</emphasis></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>unsigned long ISerialPort::IOBase</entry>
<entry>unsigned long <link linkend="ISerialPort__IOAddress">ISerialPort::IOAddress</link></entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
<para>The ISerialPort::IOBase attribute has been renamed to ISerialPort::IOAddress.</para>
</sect3>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Changes to Enumerations</title>
<sect3>
<title>New Enumerations Added</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="PlatformArchitecture">PlatformArchitecture</link></para>
<para>The new PlatformArchitecture enumeration contains the CPU
architecture type of the VM.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="GraphicsFeature">GraphicsFeature</link></para>
<para>The new GraphicsFeature enumeration contains graphics features to be
used with the host and / or virtual graphics controller.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>New Enumerations Values</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="CPUArchitecture">CPUArchitecture</link>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para><link linkend="CPUArchitecture__ARMv8_32">ARMv8_32</link></para></listitem>
<listitem><para><link linkend="CPUArchitecture__ARMv8_64">ARMv8_64</link></para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
<para>The CPUArchitecture enumeration gets two new additions corresponding
to 32-bit and 64-bit ARMv8 CPUs respectively.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="AudioControllerType">AudioControllerType</link>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para><link linkend="AudioControllerType__VirtioSound">VirtioSound</link></para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
<para>The AudioControllerType enumeration gets a new value named <emphasis>VirtioSound</emphasis>.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="ChipsetType">ChipsetType</link>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para><link linkend="ChipsetType__ARMv8Virtual">ARMv8Virtual</link></para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
<para>The ChipsetType enumeration gets a new value named <emphasis>ARMv8Virtual</emphasis>.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>Enumerations Renamed</title>
<table>
<title>Enumerations Renamed</title>
<tgroup cols="2" style="verywide">
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Original Enumeration Name</emphasis></entry>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">New Enumeration Name</emphasis></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>CPUPropertyType</entry>
<entry><link linkend="CPUPropertyTypeX86">CPUPropertyTypeX86</link></entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
<para>The CPUPropertyType enumeration has been renamed to CPUPropertyTypeX86.</para>
<table>
<title>Enumerations Renamed</title>
<tgroup cols="2" style="verywide">
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Original Enumeration Name</emphasis></entry>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">New Enumeration Name</emphasis></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>BIOSBootMenuMode</entry>
<entry><link linkend="FirmwareBootMenuMode">FirmwareBootMenuMode</link></entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
<para>The BIOSBootMenuMode enumeration has been renamed to FirmwareBootMenuMode.</para>
</sect3>
</sect2>
</sect1>
</chapter>
<xi:include href="SDKRef_apiref.xml" xpointer="xpointer(/book/*)"
xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" />
<chapter id="cloud">
<title>Working with the Cloud</title>
<para>VirtualBox supports and goes towards the Oracle tendencies like "move to the Cloud".</para>
<sect1>
<title>OCI features</title>
<para>VirtualBox supports the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). See the interfaces:
<link linkend="ICloudClient">ICloudClient</link>,
<link linkend="ICloudProvider">ICloudProvider</link>,
<link linkend="ICloudProfile">ICloudProfile</link>,
<link linkend="ICloudProviderManager">ICloudProviderManager</link>.
</para>
<para>Each cloud interface has own implementation to support OCI features. There are everal functions in the implementation
which should be explained in details because OCI requires some special data or settings.
</para>
<para>
Also see the enumeration <link linkend="VirtualSystemDescriptionType">VirtualSystemDescriptionType</link> for the possible values.
</para>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Function ICloudClient::exportVM</title>
<para>
See the <link linkend="ICloudClient__exportVM">ICloudClient::exportVM</link>.
The function exports an existing virtual machine into OCI. The final result of this operation is creation a custom image
from the bootable image of VM. The Id of created image is returned in the parameter "description" (which is
<link linkend="IVirtualSystemDescription">IVirtualSystemDescription</link>) as an entry with the type
VirtualSystemDescriptionType::CloudImageId. The standard steps here are:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Upload VBox image to OCI Object Storage.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Create OCI custom image from the uploaded object.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
Parameter "description" must contain all information and settings needed for creation a custom image in OCI.
At least next entries must be presented there before the call:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>VirtualSystemDescriptionType::Name - Name of new instance in OCI.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>VirtualSystemDescriptionType::HardDiskImage - The local path or id of bootable VM image.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>VirtualSystemDescriptionType::CloudBucket - A cloud bucket name where the exported image is uploaded.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>VirtualSystemDescriptionType::CloudImageDisplayName - A name which is assigned to a new custom image in the OCI.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>VirtualSystemDescriptionType::CloudKeepObject - Whether keep or delete an uploaded object after its usage.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>VirtualSystemDescriptionType::CloudLaunchInstance - Whether launch or not a new instance.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Function ICloudClient::launchVM</title>
<para>
See the <link linkend="ICloudClient__launchVM">ICloudClient::launchVM</link>.
The function launches a new instance in OCI with a bootable volume previously created from a custom image in OCI or
as the source may be used an existing bootable volume which shouldn't be attached to any instance.
For launching instance from a custom image use the parameter VirtualSystemDescriptionType::CloudImageId.
For launching instance from a bootable volume use the parameter VirtualSystemDescriptionType::CloudBootVolumeId.
Only one of them must be presented otherwise the error will occur.
The final result of this operation is a running instance. The id of created instance is returned
in the parameter "description" (which is <link linkend="IVirtualSystemDescription">IVirtualSystemDescription</link>)
as an entry with the type VirtualSystemDescriptionType::CloudInstanceId. Parameter "description" must contain all information
and settings needed for creation a new instance in OCI. At least next entries must be presented there before the call:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>VirtualSystemDescriptionType::Name - Name of new instance in OCI.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>VirtualSystemDescriptionType::CloudOCISubnet - OCID of existing subnet in OCI which will be used by the instance.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Use VirtualSystemDescriptionType::CloudImageId - OCID of custom image used as a bootable image for the instance
or
VirtualSystemDescriptionType::CloudBootVolumeId - OCID of existing and non-attached bootable volume used as a bootable volume for the instance.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Add VirtualSystemDescriptionType::CloudBootDiskSize - The size of instance bootable volume in GB,
If you use VirtualSystemDescriptionType::CloudImageId.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>VirtualSystemDescriptionType::CloudInstanceShape - The shape of instance according to OCI documentation,
defines the number of CPUs and RAM memory.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>VirtualSystemDescriptionType::CloudLaunchInstance - Whether launch or not a new instance.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>VirtualSystemDescriptionType::CloudDomain - Availability domain in OCI where new instance is created.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>VirtualSystemDescriptionType::CloudPublicIP - Whether the instance will have a public IP or not.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>VirtualSystemDescriptionType::CloudPublicSSHKey - Public SSH key which is used to connect to an instance via SSH.
It may be one or more records with the type VirtualSystemDescriptionType::CloudPublicSSHKey in the VirtualSystemDescription.
But at least one should be presented otherwise user won't be able to connect to the instance via SSH.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Function ICloudClient::getInstanceInfo</title>
<para>
See the <link linkend="ICloudClient__getInstanceInfo">ICloudClient::getInstanceInfo</link>.
The function takes an instance id (parameter "uid"), finds the requested instance in OCI and gets back information
about the found instance in the parameter "description" (which is <link linkend="IVirtualSystemDescription">IVirtualSystemDescription</link>)
The entries with next types will be presented in the object:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>VirtualSystemDescriptionType::Name - Displayed name of the instance.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>VirtualSystemDescriptionType::CloudDomain - Availability domain in OCI.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>VirtualSystemDescriptionType::CloudImageId - Name of custom image used for creation this instance.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>VirtualSystemDescriptionType::CloudInstanceId - The OCID of the instance.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>VirtualSystemDescriptionType::OS - Guest OS type of the instance.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>VirtualSystemDescriptionType::CloudBootDiskSize - Size of instance bootable image.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>VirtualSystemDescriptionType::CloudInstanceState - The instance state according to OCI documentation.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>VirtualSystemDescriptionType::CloudInstanceShape - The instance shape according to OCI documentation</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>VirtualSystemDescriptionType::Memory - RAM memory in GB allocated for the instance.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>VirtualSystemDescriptionType::CPU - Number of virtual CPUs allocated for the instance.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Function ICloudClient::importInstance</title>
<para>
See the <link linkend="ICloudClient__importInstance">ICloudClient::importInstance</link>.
The API function imports an existing instance from the OCI to the local host.
The standard steps here are:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Create a custom image from an existing OCI instance.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Export the custom image to OCI object (the object is created in the OCI Object Storage).</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Download the OCI object to the local host.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
As the result of operation user will have a file with the suffix ".oci" on the local host. This file is a TAR archive which
contains a bootable instance image in QCOW2 format and a JSON file with some metadata related to
the imported instance. The function takes the parameter "description"
(which is <link linkend="IVirtualSystemDescription">IVirtualSystemDescription</link>)
Parameter "description" must contain all information and settings needed for successful operation result.
At least next entries must be presented there before the call:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>VirtualSystemDescriptionType::Name is used for the several purposes:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>As a custom image name. A custom image is created from an instance.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>As OCI object name. An object is a file in OCI Object Storage. The object is created from the custom image.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Name of imported instance on the local host. Because the result of import is a file, the file will have this
name and extension ".oci".</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>VirtualSystemDescriptionType::CloudInstanceId - The OCID of the existing instance.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>VirtualSystemDescriptionType::CloudBucket - a cloud bucket name in OCI Object Storage where created an OCI object
from a custom image.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
</sect1>
</chapter>
<chapter id="hgcm">
<title>Host-Guest Communication Manager</title>
<para>The VirtualBox Host-Guest Communication Manager (HGCM) allows a
guest application or a guest driver to call a host shared library. The
following features of VirtualBox are implemented using HGCM: <itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Shared Folders</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Shared Clipboard</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Guest configuration interface</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist></para>
<para>The shared library on the host contains a so called HGCM service.
The guest HGCM client establishes a connection to the HGCM service on the
host in order to call that HGCM service's entry point. When calling an
HGCM service the client supplies a function code, the number of parameters
for the function, and an array of the parameter arguments.</para>
<sect1>
<title>Virtual hardware implementation</title>
<para>HGCM uses the Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) virtual PCI device to
exchange data between the guest and the host. The guest always acts as an
initiator of requests. A request is constructed in the guest's physical
memory which must be locked by the guest. The physical address is passed
to the VMM device using a 32-bit
<computeroutput>out edx, eax</computeroutput>
instruction. The physical memory must be allocated below 4GB on 64-bit
guests.</para>
<para>The host parses the request header and data and queues the request
for the corresponding host HGCM service type. The guest continues
execution and usually waits on an HGCM event semaphore.</para>
<para>When the request has been processed by the HGCM service, the VMM
device sets the completion flag in the request header, sets the HGCM
event and raises an IRQ for the guest. The IRQ handler signals the HGCM
event semaphore and all HGCM callers check the completion flag in the
corresponding request header. If the flag is set, the request is
considered completed.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Protocol specification</title>
<para>The HGCM protocol definitions are contained in the
<computeroutput>VBox/VBoxGuest.h</computeroutput> header file.</para>
<sect2>
<title>Request header</title>
<para>HGCM request structures contains a generic header
(VMMDevHGCMRequestHeader): <table>
<title>HGCM Request Generic Header</title>
<tgroup cols="2">
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Name</emphasis></entry>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Description</emphasis></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>size</entry>
<entry>Size of the entire request.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>version</entry>
<entry>Version of the header, must be set to
<computeroutput>0x10001</computeroutput>.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>type</entry>
<entry>Type of the request.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>rc</entry>
<entry>HGCM return code, which will be set by the VMM
device.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>reserved1</entry>
<entry>A reserved field 1.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>reserved2</entry>
<entry>A reserved field 2.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>flags</entry>
<entry>HGCM flags, set by the VMM device.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>result</entry>
<entry>The HGCM result code, set by the VMM device.</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table> <note>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>All fields are 32-bit.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Fields from <computeroutput>size</computeroutput> to
<computeroutput>reserved2</computeroutput> are a standard VMM
device request header, which is used for other interfaces as
well.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</note></para>
<para>The <emphasis role="bold">type</emphasis> field indicates the
type of the HGCM request: <table>
<title>Request Types</title>
<tgroup cols="2">
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Name (decimal
value)</emphasis></entry>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Description</emphasis></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>VMMDevReq_HGCMConnect
(<computeroutput>60</computeroutput>)</entry>
<entry>Connect to an HGCM service.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>VMMDevReq_HGCMDisconnect
(<computeroutput>61</computeroutput>)</entry>
<entry>Disconnect from the service.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>VMMDevReq_HGCMCall32
(<computeroutput>62</computeroutput>)</entry>
<entry>Call an HGCM function using the 32-bit
interface.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>VMMDevReq_HGCMCall64
(<computeroutput>63</computeroutput>)</entry>
<entry>Call an HGCM function using the 64-bit
interface.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>VMMDevReq_HGCMCancel
(<computeroutput>64</computeroutput>)</entry>
<entry>Cancel an HGCM request currently being processed by a
host HGCM service.</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table></para>
<para>The <emphasis role="bold">flags</emphasis> field may contain:
<table>
<title>Flags</title>
<tgroup cols="2">
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Name (hexadecimal
value)</emphasis></entry>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Description</emphasis></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>VBOX_HGCM_REQ_DONE
(<computeroutput>0x00000001</computeroutput>)</entry>
<entry>The request has been processed by the host
service.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>VBOX_HGCM_REQ_CANCELLED
(<computeroutput>0x00000002</computeroutput>)</entry>
<entry>This request was cancelled.</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table></para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Connect</title>
<para>The connection request must be issued by the guest HGCM client
before it can call the HGCM service (VMMDevHGCMConnect): <table>
<title>Connect request</title>
<tgroup cols="2">
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Name</emphasis></entry>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Description</emphasis></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>header</entry>
<entry>The generic HGCM request header with type equal to
VMMDevReq_HGCMConnect
(<computeroutput>60</computeroutput>).</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>type</entry>
<entry>The type of the service location information (32
bit).</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>location</entry>
<entry>The service location information (128 bytes).</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>clientId</entry>
<entry>The client identifier assigned to the connecting
client by the HGCM subsystem (32-bit).</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table> The <emphasis role="bold">type</emphasis> field tells the
HGCM how to look for the requested service: <table>
<title>Location Information Types</title>
<tgroup cols="2">
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Name (hexadecimal
value)</emphasis></entry>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Description</emphasis></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>VMMDevHGCMLoc_LocalHost
(<computeroutput>0x1</computeroutput>)</entry>
<entry>The requested service is a shared library located on
the host and the location information contains the library
name.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>VMMDevHGCMLoc_LocalHost_Existing
(<computeroutput>0x2</computeroutput>)</entry>
<entry>The requested service is a preloaded one and the
location information contains the service name.</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table> <note>
<para>Currently preloaded HGCM services are hard-coded in
VirtualBox: <itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>VBoxSharedFolders</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>VBoxSharedClipboard</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>VBoxGuestPropSvc</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>VBoxSharedOpenGL</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist></para>
</note> There is no difference between both types of HGCM services,
only the location mechanism is different.</para>
<para>The client identifier is returned by the host and must be used
in all subsequent requests by the client.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Disconnect</title>
<para>This request disconnects the client and makes the client
identifier invalid (VMMDevHGCMDisconnect): <table>
<title>Disconnect request</title>
<tgroup cols="2">
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Name</emphasis></entry>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Description</emphasis></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>header</entry>
<entry>The generic HGCM request header with type equal to
VMMDevReq_HGCMDisconnect
(<computeroutput>61</computeroutput>).</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>clientId</entry>
<entry>The client identifier previously returned by the
connect request (32-bit).</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table></para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Call32 and Call64</title>
<para>Calls the HGCM service entry point (VMMDevHGCMCall) using 32-bit
or 64-bit addresses: <table>
<title>Call request</title>
<tgroup cols="2">
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Name</emphasis></entry>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Description</emphasis></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>header</entry>
<entry>The generic HGCM request header with type equal to
either VMMDevReq_HGCMCall32
(<computeroutput>62</computeroutput>) or
VMMDevReq_HGCMCall64
(<computeroutput>63</computeroutput>).</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>clientId</entry>
<entry>The client identifier previously returned by the
connect request (32-bit).</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>function</entry>
<entry>The function code to be processed by the service (32
bit).</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>cParms</entry>
<entry>The number of following parameters (32-bit). This
value is 0 if the function requires no parameters.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>parms</entry>
<entry>An array of parameter description structures
(HGCMFunctionParameter32 or
HGCMFunctionParameter64).</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table></para>
<para>The 32-bit parameter description (HGCMFunctionParameter32)
consists of a 32-bit type field and 8 bytes of an opaque value, so 12
bytes in total. The 64-bit variant (HGCMFunctionParameter64) consists
of the 32-bit type and 12 bytes of a value, so 16 bytes in total.</para>
<para><table>
<title>Parameter types</title>
<tgroup cols="2">
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Type</emphasis></entry>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Format of the
value</emphasis></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>VMMDevHGCMParmType_32bit (1)</entry>
<entry>A 32-bit value.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>VMMDevHGCMParmType_64bit (2)</entry>
<entry>A 64-bit value.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>VMMDevHGCMParmType_PhysAddr (3)</entry>
<entry>A 32-bit size followed by a 32-bit or 64-bit guest
physical address.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>VMMDevHGCMParmType_LinAddr (4)</entry>
<entry>A 32-bit size followed by a 32-bit or 64-bit guest
linear address. The buffer is used both for guest to host
and for host to guest data.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>VMMDevHGCMParmType_LinAddr_In (5)</entry>
<entry>Same as VMMDevHGCMParmType_LinAddr but the buffer is
used only for host to guest data.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>VMMDevHGCMParmType_LinAddr_Out (6)</entry>
<entry>Same as VMMDevHGCMParmType_LinAddr but the buffer is
used only for guest to host data.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>VMMDevHGCMParmType_LinAddr_Locked (7)</entry>
<entry>Same as VMMDevHGCMParmType_LinAddr but the buffer is
already locked by the guest.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>VMMDevHGCMParmType_LinAddr_Locked_In (1)</entry>
<entry>Same as VMMDevHGCMParmType_LinAddr_In but the buffer
is already locked by the guest.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>VMMDevHGCMParmType_LinAddr_Locked_Out (1)</entry>
<entry>Same as VMMDevHGCMParmType_LinAddr_Out but the buffer
is already locked by the guest.</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table></para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Cancel</title>
<para>This request cancels a call request (VMMDevHGCMCancel): <table>
<title>Cancel request</title>
<tgroup cols="2">
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Name</emphasis></entry>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Description</emphasis></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>header</entry>
<entry>The generic HGCM request header with type equal to
VMMDevReq_HGCMCancel
(<computeroutput>64</computeroutput>).</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table></para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Guest software interface</title>
<para>Guest HGCM clients can call HGCM services from both drivers
and applications.</para>
<sect2>
<title>The guest driver interface</title>
<para>The driver interface is implemented in the VirtualBox guest
additions driver (VBoxGuest) which works with the VMM virtual device.
Drivers must use the VBox Guest Library (VBGL) which provides an API
for HGCM clients (<computeroutput>VBox/VBoxGuestLib.h</computeroutput>
and <computeroutput>VBox/VBoxGuest.h</computeroutput>). The key VBGL API
routines are as follows:</para>
<para><screen>
DECLR0VBGL(int) VbglR0HGCMConnect(VBGLHGCMHANDLE *pHandle, const char *pszServiceName, HGCMCLIENTID *pidClient);
</screen> VbglR0HGCMConnect() connects to the HGCM service on the host. An
example of a guest driver connecting to the VirtualBox Shared Folder
HGCM service follows:<screen>
VBoxGuestHGCMConnectInfo data;
memset(&amp;data, sizeof(VBoxGuestHGCMConnectInfo));
data.result = VINF_SUCCESS;
data.Loc.type = VMMDevHGCMLoc_LocalHost_Existing;
strcpy(data.Loc.u.host.achName, "VBoxSharedFolders");
rc = VbglR0HGCMConnect(&amp;handle, "VBoxSharedFolders"&amp;, data);
if (RT_SUCCESS(rc))
{
rc = data.result;
}
if (RT_SUCCESS(rc))
{
/* Get the assigned client identifier. */
ulClientID = data.u32ClientID;
}
</screen></para>
<para><screen>
DECLVBGL(int) VbglR0HGCMDisconnect(VBGLHGCMHANDLE handle, VBoxGuestHGCMDisconnectInfo *pData);
</screen> VbglR0HGCMDisconnect() disconnects from the HGCM service on the
host. An example of a guest driver disconnecting from an HGCM service
using the client identifier from an earlier call to VbglR0HGCMConnect()
follows:<screen>
VBoxGuestHGCMDisconnectInfo data;
RtlZeroMemory(&amp;data, sizeof (VBoxGuestHGCMDisconnectInfo));
data.result = VINF_SUCCESS;
data.u32ClientID = ulClientID;
rc = VbglR0HGCMDisconnect(handle, &amp;data);
</screen></para>
<para><screen>
DECLVBGL(int) VbglR0HGCMCall(VBGLHGCMHANDLE handle, VBoxGuestHGCMCallInfo *pData, uint32_t cbData);
</screen> VbglR0HGCMCall() calls a function specified in the
VBoxGuestHGCMCallInfo argument in the HGCM service on the host. An
example of a guest driver calling the Shared Folders HGCM service to
issue a read of an object in a shared folder follows:<screen>
typedef struct _VBoxSFRead
{
VBoxGuestHGCMCallInfo callInfo;
/** pointer, in: SHFLROOT
* Root handle of the mapping which name is queried.
*/
HGCMFunctionParameter root;
/** value64, in:
* SHFLHANDLE of object to read from.
*/
HGCMFunctionParameter handle;
/** value64, in:
* Offset to read from.
*/
HGCMFunctionParameter offset;
/** value64, in/out:
* Bytes to read/How many were read.
*/
HGCMFunctionParameter cb;
/** pointer, out:
* Buffer to place data to.
*/
HGCMFunctionParameter buffer;
} VBoxSFRead;
/** Number of parameters */
#define SHFL_CPARMS_READ (5)
...
VBoxSFRead data;
/* The call information. */
data.callInfo.result = VINF_SUCCESS; /* Will be returned by HGCM. */
data.callInfo.u32ClientID = ulClientID; /* Client identifier. */
data.callInfo.u32Function = SHFL_FN_READ; /* The function code. */
data.callInfo.cParms = SHFL_CPARMS_READ; /* Number of parameters. */
/* Initialize parameters. */
data.root.type = VMMDevHGCMParmType_32bit;
data.root.u.value32 = pMap-&gt;root;
data.handle.type = VMMDevHGCMParmType_64bit;
data.handle.u.value64 = hFile;
data.offset.type = VMMDevHGCMParmType_64bit;
data.offset.u.value64 = offset;
data.cb.type = VMMDevHGCMParmType_32bit;
data.cb.u.value32 = *pcbBuffer;
data.buffer.type = VMMDevHGCMParmType_LinAddr_Out;
data.buffer.u.Pointer.size = *pcbBuffer;
data.buffer.u.Pointer.u.linearAddr = (uintptr_t)pBuffer;
rc = VbglR0HGCMCall(handle, &amp;data.callInfo, sizeof (data));
if (RT_SUCCESS(rc))
{
rc = data.callInfo.result;
*pcbBuffer = data.cb.u.value32; /* This is returned by the HGCM service. */
}
</screen></para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Guest application interface</title>
<para>Applications call the VirtualBox Guest Additions driver to
utilize the HGCM interface. The following IOCTLs correspond to the
<computeroutput>VbglR0HGCM*</computeroutput> functions listed above:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>VBGL_IOCTL_HGCM_CONNECT =>
VbglR0HGCMConnect()</computeroutput></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>VBGL_IOCTL_HGCM_DISCONNECT =>
VbglR0HGCMDisconnect()</computeroutput></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>VBGL_IOCTL_HGCM_CALL =>
VbglR0HGCMCall()</computeroutput></para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist></para>
<para>These IOCTLs get the same input buffer as the
<computeroutput>VbglR0HGCM*</computeroutput> functions and the output
buffer has the same format as the input buffer. The same address can
be used for both the input and output buffers.</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>HGCM Service Implementation</title>
<para>The HGCM service is a shared library with a specific set of entry
points. The library must export the
<computeroutput>VBoxHGCMSvcLoad</computeroutput> entry point: <screen>
extern "C" DECLCALLBACK(DECLEXPORT(int)) VBoxHGCMSvcLoad(VBOXHGCMSVCFNTABLE *ptable)
</screen></para>
<para>The service must check the
<computeroutput>ptable-&gt;cbSize</computeroutput> and
<computeroutput>ptable-&gt;u32Version</computeroutput> fields of the
input structure and fill in the remaining fields with function pointers of
service entry points (listed below) and the size of the required client
buffer size.</para>
<para>The HGCM service gets a dedicated thread which calls service
entry points synchronously, thus the service entry point will only be called
again once a previous call has returned. However, the guest calls can be
processed asynchronously. Therefore the service must call a completion
callback when the operation is actually completed. The callback can be
issued from another thread as well.</para>
<para>Service entry points are listed in the
<computeroutput>VBox/hgcmsvc.h</computeroutput> in the
<computeroutput>VBOXHGCMSVCFNTABLE</computeroutput> structure. <table>
<title>Service entry points</title>
<tgroup cols="2">
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Entry Point</emphasis></entry>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Description</emphasis></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>int pfnUnload(void *pvService)</entry>
<entry>The service is being unloaded.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>int pfnConnect(void *pvService, uint32_t u32ClientID, void *pvClient,
uint32_t fRequestor, bool fRestoring)</entry>
<entry>A client <computeroutput>u32ClientID</computeroutput>
is connected to the service. The
<computeroutput>pvClient</computeroutput> parameter points to
an allocated memory buffer which can be used by the service to
store the client information.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>int pfnDisconnect(void *pvService, uint32_t u32ClientID,
void *pvClient)</entry>
<entry>A client is being disconnected.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>void pfnCall(void *pvService, VBOXHGCMCALLHANDLE callHandle,
uint32_t u32ClientID, void *pvClient, uint32_t function,
uint32_t cParms, VBOXHGCMSVCPARM paParms[],
uint64_t tsArrival)</entry>
<entry>A guest client calls a service function. The
<computeroutput>callHandle</computeroutput> must be used in
the VBOXHGCMSVCHELPERS::pfnCallComplete callback when the call
has been processed.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>int pfnHostCall(void *pvService, uint32_t function, uint32_t cParms,
VBOXHGCMSVCPARM paParms[])</entry>
<entry>Called by the VirtualBox host components to perform
functions which should be not accessible by the guest. Usually
this entry point is used by VirtualBox to configure the
service.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>int pfnSaveState(void *pvService, uint32_t u32ClientID, void *pvClient,
PSSMHANDLE pSSM, PCVMMR3VTABLE pVMM)</entry>
<entry>The VM state is being saved and the service must save
relevant information using the SSM API
(<computeroutput>VBox/ssm.h</computeroutput>).</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>int pfnLoadState(void *pvService, uint32_t u32ClientID, void *pvClient,
PSSMHANDLE pSSM, PCVMMR3VTABLE pVMM, uint32_t uVersion)</entry>
<entry>The VM is being restored from the saved state and the
service must load the saved information and be able to
continue operations from the saved state.</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table></para>
</sect1>
</chapter>
<chapter id="rdpweb">
<title>RDP Web Control</title>
<para>The VirtualBox <emphasis>RDP Web Control</emphasis> (RDPWeb)
provides remote access to a running VM. RDPWeb is an RDP (Remote Desktop
Protocol) client based on Flash technology and can be used from a Web
browser with a Flash plugin.</para>
<sect1>
<title>RDPWeb features</title>
<para>RDPWeb is embedded into a Web page and connects to a VRDP server
in order to display the remote VM screen and pass keyboard and mouse events
to the VM.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>RDPWeb reference</title>
<para>RDPWeb consists of two required components:<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Flash movie file
<computeroutput>RDPClientUI.swf</computeroutput></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>JavaScript helpers contained in
<computeroutput>webclient.js</computeroutput></para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist></para>
<para>The VirtualBox SDK contains sample HTML code
including:<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>A JavaScript library for embedding Flash content:
<computeroutput>SWFObject.js</computeroutput></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>A sample HTML page:
<computeroutput>webclient3.html</computeroutput></para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist></para>
<sect2>
<title>RDPWeb functions</title>
<para><computeroutput>RDPClientUI.swf</computeroutput> and
<computeroutput>webclient.js</computeroutput> work together to provide the
RDP Web Control functionality. The JavaScript code is responsible for
proper Flash initialization, delivering mouse events to the Flash object,
and processing resize requests from the Flash object. On the other hand,
the SWF file contains a few JavaScript callable methods, which are used
both from <computeroutput>webclient.js</computeroutput> and the user HTML
page.</para>
<sect3>
<title>JavaScript functions</title>
<para>The <computeroutput>webclient.js</computeroutput> file contains
several helper JavaScript functions. In the following table ElementId
refers to an HTML element name or attribute, and Element to the HTML
element itself.
The HTML code<programlisting>
&lt;div id="FlashRDP"&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
</programlisting> would have ElementId equal to FlashRDP and Element equal to
the div element.</para>
<para><itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<programlisting>RDPWebClient.embedSWF(SWFFileName, ElementId)</programlisting>
<para>Uses the open-source SWFObject library to replace the HTML
element with the Flash movie.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<programlisting>RDPWebClient.isRDPWebControlById(ElementId)</programlisting>
<para>Returns true if the given ElementId refers to an RDPWeb
Flash element.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<programlisting>RDPWebClient.isRDPWebControlByElement(Element)</programlisting>
<para>Returns true if the given Element is an RDPWeb Flash
element.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<programlisting>RDPWebClient.getFlashById(ElementId)</programlisting>
<para>Returns an element, which is referenced by the given
ElementId. This function will try to resolve any element, even if
it is not a Flash movie.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist></para>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>Flash methods callable from JavaScript</title>
<para>The <computeroutput>RDPWebClienUI.swf</computeroutput> methods can
be called directly from JavaScript code on an HTML page:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>getProperty(Name)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>setProperty(Name)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>connect()</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>disconnect()</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>keyboardSendCAD()</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>Flash JavaScript callbacks</title>
<para><computeroutput>RDPWebClienUI.swf</computeroutput> calls
JavaScript functions provided by the HTML page.</para>
</sect3>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Embedding RDPWeb in an HTML page</title>
<para>It is necessary to include the
<computeroutput>webclient.js</computeroutput> helper script. If
the SWFObject library is used, the
<computeroutput>swfobject.js</computeroutput> must also be included.
Using the SWFObject library allows RDPWeb flash content to be embedded in
a Web page using dynamic HTML. The HTML must include a "placeholder",
which consists of 2 <computeroutput>div</computeroutput> elements.</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>RDPWeb change log</title>
<sect2>
<title>Version 1.2.28</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>keyboardLayout</computeroutput>,
<computeroutput>keyboardLayouts</computeroutput>,
<computeroutput>UUID</computeroutput> properties.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Support for German keyboard layout on the client.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Rebranding to Oracle.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Version 1.1.26</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>webclient.js</computeroutput> is a part of
the distribution package.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>lastError</computeroutput> property.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>keyboardSendScancodes</computeroutput> and
<computeroutput>keyboardSendCAD</computeroutput> methods.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Version 1.0.24</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Initial release.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect2>
</sect1>
</chapter>
<chapter id="dnd">
<title>Drag and Drop</title>
<para>As of VirtualBox 4.2 it's possible to transfer files from the host to
Linux, Solaris, and macOS guests by dragging files, directories, or text
from the host into the guest's screen. This is called <emphasis>drag and drop
(DnD)</emphasis>.</para>
<para>VirtualBox 5.0 added support for Windows guests as well as the ability
to transfer data in the opposite direction, that is, from the guest to the
host.</para>
<note><para>Currently only the VirtualBox Manager front-end supports drag and
drop.</para></note>
<para>This chapter will show how to use the required interfaces provided
by VirtualBox for adding drag and drop functionality to third-party
front-ends.</para>
<sect1>
<title>Basic concepts</title>
<para>In order to use the interfaces provided by VirtualBox, some basic
concepts need to be understood first: a drag and drop operation logically
contains both a <emphasis>source</emphasis> and a
<emphasis>target</emphasis>:</para>
<para>The <emphasis>source</emphasis> provides the data, i.e., it is the
origin of data. This data can be stored within the source directly or it can
be retrieved on-demand by the source itself.</para>
<para>The <emphasis>target</emphasis> on the other hand provides a visual
representation to the source where the user can drop the data the source
offers. This representation can be a window (or just a certain part of
it), for example.</para>
<para>The source and the target have abstract interfaces called
<link linkend="IDnDSource">IDnDSource</link> and
<link linkend="IDnDTarget">IDnDTarget</link>. VirtualBox also
provides implementations of both interfaces, called
<link linkend="IGuestDnDSource">IGuestDnDSource</link> and
<link linkend="IGuestDnDTarget">IGuestDnDTarget</link>. Both
implementations are used in the VirtualBox Manager front-end.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Supported formats</title>
<para>As the target needs to perform specific actions depending on the
data the source provided, the target first needs to know what type of
data it is actually going to retrieve. It might be that the source offers
data the target cannot (or intentionally does not want to)
support.</para>
<para>VirtualBox describes the data types using
<emphasis>MIME types</emphasis> -- which were originally defined in
<ulink url="https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2046">RFC 2046</ulink> and
are also called <emphasis>Content-types</emphasis> or
<emphasis>media types</emphasis>.
<link linkend="IGuestDnDSource">IGuestDnDSource</link> and
<link linkend="IGuestDnDTarget">IGuestDnDTarget</link> support
the following MIME types by default:<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis role="bold">text/uri-list</emphasis> - A list of
URIs (Uniform Resource Identifier, see
<ulink url="https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986">RFC 3986</ulink>)
pointing to the file and/or directory paths already transferred
from the source to the target.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis role="bold">text/plain;charset=utf-8</emphasis> and
<emphasis role="bold">UTF8_STRING</emphasis> - text in UTF-8
format.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis role="bold">text/plain, TEXT</emphasis>
and <emphasis role="bold">STRING</emphasis> - plain ASCII text,
depending on the source's active ANSI page (if any).</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
<para>If, for whatever reason, a certain default format should not be
supported or a new format should be registered,
<link linkend="IDnDSource">IDnDSource</link> and
<link linkend="IDnDTarget">IDnDTarget</link> have methods derived from
<link linkend="IDnDBase">IDnDBase</link> which provide adding,
removing and enumerating specific formats.
<note><para>Registering new or removing default formats on the guest side
is not currently implemented.</para></note></para>
</sect1>
</chapter>
<chapter id="vbox-auth">
<title>VirtualBox external authentication modules</title>
<para>VirtualBox supports arbitrary external modules to perform
authentication. External authentication modules are used for remote
desktop access to a VM when the VRDE authentication type is set to
"external". VRDE authentication will then use the authentication module
which was specified with
<computeroutput>VBoxManage setproperty vrdeauthlibrary</computeroutput>.
The web service will use the external authentication module specified with
<computeroutput>VBoxManage setproperty websrvauthlibrary</computeroutput>.
</para>
<para>This library will be loaded by the VM or web service process on
demand, i.e. when the first remote desktop connection is made by a client
or when a client that wants to use the web service logs on.</para>
<para>External authentication is the most flexible authentication type
since the external handler can choose to both grant access to everyone
(like the "null" authentication method) as well as delegate the request to
the guest authentication component. When delegating the request to the guest
component the external handler will still be called afterwards with the
option to override the result.</para>
<para>An authentication library is required to implement exactly one entry
point:</para>
<screen>#include "VBoxAuth.h"
/**
* Authentication library entry point.
*
* Parameters:
*
* szCaller The name of the component which calls the library (UTF8).
* pUuid Pointer to the UUID of the accessed virtual machine. Can be NULL.
* guestJudgement Result of the guest authentication.
* szUser User name passed in by the client (UTF8).
* szPassword Password passed in by the client (UTF8).
* szDomain Domain passed in by the client (UTF8).
* fLogon Boolean flag. Indicates whether the entry point is called
* for a client logon or the client disconnect.
* clientId Server side unique identifier of the client.
*
* Return code:
*
* AuthResultAccessDenied Client access has been denied.
* AuthResultAccessGranted Client has the right to use the
* virtual machine.
* AuthResultDelegateToGuest Guest operating system must
* authenticate the client and the
* library must be called again with
* the result of the guest
* authentication.
*
* Note: When 'fLogon' is 0, only pszCaller, pUuid and clientId are valid and the return
* code is ignored.
*/
AuthResult AUTHCALL AuthEntry(
const char *szCaller,
PAUTHUUID pUuid,
AuthGuestJudgement guestJudgement,
const char *szUser,
const char *szPassword
const char *szDomain
int fLogon,
unsigned clientId)
{
/* Process request against your authentication source of choice. */
// if (authSucceeded(...))
// return AuthResultAccessGranted;
return AuthResultAccessDenied;
}</screen>
<para>A note regarding the UUID implementation of the
<computeroutput>pUuid</computeroutput> argument: VirtualBox uses a
consistent binary representation of UUIDs on all platforms. For this
reason the integer fields comprising the UUID are stored as little endian
values. If you want to pass such UUIDs to code which assumes that
integer fields are big endian (often also called network byte order), you
need to adjust the contents of the UUID to achieve the same string
representation. The required changes are:<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>reverse the order of bytes 0, 1, 2 and 3</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>reverse the order of bytes 4 and 5</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>reverse the order of bytes 6 and 7.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>Using this conversion you will get identical results when
converting the binary UUID to the string representation.</para>
<para>The <computeroutput>guestJudgement</computeroutput> argument
contains information about the guest authentication status. For the first
call, it is always set to
<computeroutput>AuthGuestNotAsked</computeroutput>. If the
<computeroutput>AuthEntry</computeroutput> function returns
<computeroutput>AuthResultDelegateToGuest</computeroutput>, a guest
authentication will be attempted and another call to the
<computeroutput>AuthEntry</computeroutput> is made with its result. The
guest authentication can return either granted, denied, or no judgement
(the guest component chose for whatever reason to not make a decision).
In case there is a problem with the guest authentication module (e.g. the
Guest Additions are not installed or not running or the guest did not
respond within a timeout), the "not reacted" status will be returned.</para>
</chapter>
<chapter id="javaapi">
<title>Using the Java API</title>
<sect1>
<title>Introduction</title>
<para>VirtualBox can be controlled by a Java API, both locally using
COM/XPCOM and remotely using SOAP. As with the Python bindings,
a generic glue layer tries to hide all platform differences, allowing
for source and binary compatibility on different platforms.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Requirements</title>
<para>To use the Java bindings, there are certain requirements depending
on the platform. First of all, you need JDK 1.5 (Java 5) or later. Also
please make sure that the version of the VirtualBox API .jar file
exactly matches the version of VirtualBox in use. To avoid confusion,
the VirtualBox API provides versioning in the Java package name, e.g.
the package is named <computeroutput>org.virtualbox_3_2</computeroutput>
for VirtualBox version 3.2. <itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis role="bold">XPCOM</emphasis> - for all platforms
except Microsoft Windows. A Java bridge based on JavaXPCOM is shipped
with VirtualBox. The classpath must contain
<computeroutput>vboxjxpcom.jar</computeroutput> and the
<computeroutput>vbox.home</computeroutput> property must be set to the
location where the VirtualBox binaries are. Please make sure that
the JVM bitness matches the bitness of VirtualBox in use as the XPCOM
bridge relies on native libraries.</para>
<para>Start your application like this: <programlisting>
java -cp vboxjxpcom.jar -Dvbox.home=/opt/virtualbox MyProgram
</programlisting></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis role="bold">COM</emphasis> - for Microsoft
Windows. We rely on <computeroutput>Jacob</computeroutput> - a
generic Java to COM bridge - which has to be installed separately.
See <ulink
url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/jacob-project/">http://sourceforge.net/projects/jacob-project/</ulink>
for installation instructions. Also, the VirtualBox provided
<computeroutput>vboxjmscom.jar</computeroutput> file must be in the
class path.</para>
<para>Start your application like this:
<programlisting>java -cp vboxjmscom.jar;c:\jacob\jacob.jar -Djava.library.path=c:\jacob MyProgram</programlisting></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis role="bold">SOAP</emphasis> - all platforms. Java
6 is required as it comes with built-in support for SOAP via the
JAX-WS library. Also, the VirtualBox provided
<computeroutput>vbojws.jar</computeroutput> must be in the class
path. In the SOAP case it's possible to create several
VirtualBoxManager instances to communicate with multiple
VirtualBox hosts.</para>
<para>Start your application like this: <programlisting>
java -cp vboxjws.jar MyProgram
</programlisting></para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist></para>
<para>Exception handling is also generalized by the generic glue layer,
so that all methods can throw
<computeroutput>VBoxException</computeroutput> containing a human-readable
text message (see <computeroutput>getMessage()</computeroutput> method)
along with the wrapped original exception (see
<computeroutput>getWrapped()</computeroutput> method).</para>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Example</title>
<para>This example shows a simple use case of the Java API. Differences
for SOAP vs. local execution are minimal and limited to the connection
setup phase (see <computeroutput>ws</computeroutput> variable). In the
SOAP case it's possible to create several VirtualBoxManager instances to
communicate with multiple VirtualBox hosts. <programlisting>
import org.virtualbox_4_3.*;
....
VirtualBoxManager mgr = VirtualBoxManager.createInstance(null);
boolean ws = false; // or true, if we need the SOAP version
if (ws)
{
String url = "http://myhost:18034";
String user = "test";
String passwd = "test";
mgr.connect(url, user, passwd);
}
IVirtualBox vbox = mgr.getVBox();
System.out.println("VirtualBox version: " + vbox.getVersion() + "\n");
// get first VM name
String m = vbox.getMachines().get(0).getName();
System.out.println("\nAttempting to start VM '" + m + "'");
// start it
mgr.startVm(m, null, 7000);
if (ws)
mgr.disconnect();
mgr.cleanup();
</programlisting> For a more complete example, see
<computeroutput>TestVBox.java</computeroutput>, shipped with the
SDK. It contains exception handling and error printing code which
is important for reliable larger scale projects.</para>
<para>It is good practice in long-running API clients to process the
system events every now and then in the main thread (this does not work
in other threads). As a rule of thumb it makes sense to process them
every few 100msec to every few seconds). This is done by
calling<programlisting>
mgr.waitForEvents(0);
</programlisting>
This helps prevent a large number of system events from accumulating which
can need a significant amount of memory, and as they also play a role in
object cleanup it helps freeing additional memory in a timely manner
which is used by the API implementation itself. Java's garbage collection
approach already needs more memory due to the delayed freeing of memory
used by no longer accessible objects and not processing the system
events exacerbates the memory usage. The
<computeroutput>TestVBox.java</computeroutput> example code sprinkles
such lines over the code to achieve the desired effect. In multi-threaded
applications it can be called from the main thread periodically.
Sometimes it's possible to use the non-zero timeout variant of the
method, which then waits the specified number of milliseconds for
events, processing them immediately as they arrive. It achieves better
runtime behavior than separate sleeping/processing.</para>
</sect1>
</chapter>
<chapter>
<title>License information</title>
<para>The sample code files shipped with the SDK are generally licensed
liberally to make it easy for anyone to use this code for their own
application code.</para>
<para>The Java files under
<computeroutput>sdk/bindings/webservice/java/jax-ws/</computeroutput> (library
files for the object-oriented web service) are, by contrast, licensed
under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) V2.1.</para>
<para>See
<computeroutput>sdk/bindings/webservice/java/jax-ws/src/COPYING.LIB</computeroutput>
for the full text of the LGPL 2.1.</para>
<para>When in doubt, please refer to the individual source code files
shipped with this SDK.</para>
</chapter>
<chapter>
<title>Main API change log</title>
<para>Generally, VirtualBox will maintain API compatibility within a major
release; a major release occurs when the first or the second of the three
version components of VirtualBox change (that is, in the x.y.z scheme, a
major release is one where x or y change, but not when only z
changes).</para>
<para>In other words, updates like those from 2.0.0 to 2.0.2 will not come
with API breakages.</para>
<para>Migration between major releases most likely will lead to API
breakage, so please make sure you updated code accordingly. The OOWS Java
wrappers enforce that mechanism by putting VirtualBox classes into
version-specific packages such as
<computeroutput>org.virtualbox_2_2</computeroutput>. This approach allows
for connecting to multiple VirtualBox versions simultaneously from the
same Java application.</para>
<para>The following sections list incompatible changes that the Main API
underwent since the original release of this SDK Reference with VirtualBox
2.0. A change is deemed "incompatible" only if it breaks existing client
code (e.g. changes in method parameter lists, renamed or removed
interfaces and similar). In other words, the list does not contain new
interfaces, methods or attributes or other changes that do not affect
existing client code.</para>
<sect1>
<title>Incompatible API changes with version 7.1</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>Review the Main API changes made for the ARM64 CPU architecture <link linkend="vboxarm">here</link>
for incompatible changes to interfaces, methods, and attributes.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>The Python API bindings for Python 2.x is now marked as being deprecated and will
be removed in a future version. Please upgrade your code to use Python 3.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>The Python API bindings now live in a separate <computeroutput>python</computeroutput>
sub directory and also now support installing via the pip package manager
(e.g. <computeroutput>pip -v install ./vboxapi</computeroutput>). This also allows installing into
Python virtual environments.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>The Windows host installer now uses the sub directory <computeroutput>installer</computeroutput>
instead of <computeroutput>install</computeroutput> for housing the bindings installers. This now matches
the directory layout for the other platforms. Please adapt your scripts if needed.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>Guest process creation requires a new parameter for specifying the current working directory for the new
guest process. This is optional and can be empty.
See <link linkend="IGuestSession__processCreate">IGuestSession::processCreate</link> and
<link linkend="IGuestSession__processCreateEx">IGuestSession::processCreateEx</link> for more information.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>The APIs <link linkend="IGuestSession__fsQueryInfo">IGuestSession::fsQueryInfo</link> and
<link linkend="IGuestSession__fsQueryFreeSpace">IGuestSession::fsQueryFreeSpace</link> are now implemented.
See <link linkend="IGuestSession__fsQueryInfo">IGuestSession::fsQueryInfo</link> and
<link linkend="IGuestSession__fsQueryFreeSpace">IGuestSession::fsQueryFreeSpace</link> for more information.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>The APIs <link linkend="IGuestSession__waitFor">IGuestSession::waitFor</link> and
<link linkend="IProcess__waitFor">IProcess::waitFor</link> are now marked
as being deprecated. Use <link linkend="IGuestSession__waitForArray">IGuestSession::waitForArray</link>
and <link linkend="IProcess__waitForArray">IProcess::waitForArray</link> instead.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>The attribute <link linkend="IGuestSession__mountPoints">IGuestSession::mountPoints</link> has been
added. This requires 7.1 (or newer) Guest Additions to be installed on the guest.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>The attribute IHost::acceleration3DAvailable has been removed. Use
<link linkend="ISystemProperties__supportedGraphicsFeatures">ISystempProperties::supportedGraphicsFeatures</link>
instead.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>Starting a recording now has to be done via the newly introduced method
<link linkend="IRecordingSettings__start">IRecordingSettings::start</link>. This method also will return
a recording progress object on success, which also can be retrieved at a later time via the new attribute
<link linkend="IRecordingSettings__progress">IRecordingSettings::progress</link>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>The recording settings attribute
<link linkend="IRecordingSettings__enabled">IRecordingSettings::enabled</link> does not implicitly start or stop
a recording anymore, but only will indicate that recording for a VM is enabled or disabled.
This attribute also will be used to determine if recording will be started automatically on VM start or restore.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>The recording settings now expose a progress object attribute via
<link linkend="IRecordingSettings__progress">IRecordingSettings::progress</link>, which can be used to stop an
ongoing recording, track the recording progress or getting notified of recording errors.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Incompatible API changes with version 7.0</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>The machine's audio adapter has been moved into the new IAudioSettings interface, which in turn
takes care of of all audio settings of a virtual machine.
See <link linkend="IMachine__audioSettings">IMachine::audioSettings</link> and
<link linkend="IAudioSettings">IAudioSettings</link> for more information.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>The <link linkend="IVirtualBox__openMachine">IVirtualBox::openMachine</link> call now
requires an additional password parameter. If the machine is not encrypted the parameter is ignored.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>When a new VM is being created, the default audio driver will be now
<link linkend="AudioDriverType__Default">AudioDriverType_Default</link>. This driver
type will automatically choose the best audio driver (backend) for the host OS &VBOX_PRODUCT;
currently is running on.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>The host update functionality at IHost::update has been refactored into
<link linkend="IHost__updateHost">IHost::updateHost</link>, which in turn uses the new
<link linkend="IHostUpdateAgent">IHostUpdateAgent</link> interface, derived from the new
<link linkend="IUpdateAgent">IUpdateAgent</link> interface.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para><link linkend="IGuestSession__directoryCopyFromGuest">IGuestSession::directoryCopyFromGuest()</link> and
<link linkend="IGuestSession__directoryCopyToGuest">IGuestSession::directoryCopyToGuest()</link> no longer implicitly
copy recursively and follow symbolic links -- for this to continue working, the newly introduced flags
<link linkend="DirectoryCopyFlag__Recursive">DirectoryCopyFlag::Recursive</link> and/or
<link linkend="DirectoryCopyFlag__FollowLinks">DirectoryCopyFlag::FollowLinks</link> have to be used.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>VBoxEventType_Last has been renamed to <link linkend="VBoxEventType__End">VBoxEventType_End</link>
for consistency.</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Incompatible API changes with version 6.1</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>Split off the graphics adapter part of
<link linkend="IMachine">IMachine</link> into
<link linkend="IGraphicsAdapter">IGraphicsAdapter</link>.
This moved 5 attributes.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Incompatible API changes with version 6.0</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>Video recording APIs were changed as follows:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>All attributes which were living in <link linkend="IMachine">IMachine</link> before
have been moved to an own, dedicated interface named <link linkend="IRecordingSettings">IRecordingSettings</link>.
This new interface can be accessed via the new <link linkend="IMachine__recordingSettings">IMachine::recordingSettings</link>
attribute. This should emphasize that recording is not limited to video capturing as such.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>For further flexibility all specific per-VM-screen settings have been moved to a new interface
called <link linkend="IRecordingScreenSettings">IRecordingScreenSettings</link>. Such settings now exist per configured
VM display and can be retrieved via the <link linkend="IRecordingSettings__screens">IRecordingSettings::screens</link>
attribute or the <link linkend="IRecordingSettings__getScreenSettings">IRecordingSettings::getScreenSettings</link>
method.
<note><para>For now all screen settings will share the same settings, e.g. different settings on a per-screen basis
is not implemented yet.</para></note>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>The event <computeroutput>IVideoCaptureChangedEvent</computeroutput> was renamed into
<computeroutput>IRecordingChangedEvent</computeroutput>.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Guest Control APIs were changed as follows:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para><link linkend="IGuest__createSession">IGuest::createSession()</link>,
<link linkend="IGuestSession__processCreate">IGuestSession::processCreate()</link>,
<link linkend="IGuestSession__processCreateEx">IGuestSession::processCreateEx()</link>,
<link linkend="IGuestSession__directoryOpen">IGuestSession::directoryOpen()</link> and
<link linkend="IGuestSession__fileOpen">IGuestSession::fileOpen()</link> now will
return the new error code VBOX_E_MAXIMUM_REACHED if the limit for the according object
group has been reached.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>The enumerations FileOpenExFlags, FsObjMoveFlags and DirectoryCopyFlags have
been renamed to <link linkend="FileOpenExFlag">FileOpenExFlag</link>,
<link linkend="FsObjMoveFlag">FsObjMoveFlag</link> and <link linkend="DirectoryCopyFlag">DirectoryCopyFlag</link>
accordingly to match the rest of the API.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The following methods have been implemented:
<computeroutput>IGuestSession::directoryCopyFromGuest()</computeroutput> and
<computeroutput>IGuestSession::directoryCopyToGuest()</computeroutput>.
</para>
<para>The following attributes have been implemented:
<computeroutput>IGuestFsObjInfo::accessTime</computeroutput>,
<computeroutput>IGuestFsObjInfo::birthTime</computeroutput>,
<computeroutput>IGuestFsObjInfo::changeTime</computeroutput> and
<computeroutput>IGuestFsObjInfo::modificationTime</computeroutput>.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>The webservice version of the <link linkend="ISharedFolder">ISharedFolder</link>
interface was changed from a struct to a managed object. This causes incompatibilities on the
protocol level as the shared folder attributes are not returned in the responses of
<link linkend="IVirtualBox__sharedFolders">IVirtualBox::getSharedFolders</link> and
<link linkend="IMachine__sharedFolders">IMachine::getSharedFolders</link> anymore. They
return object UUIDs instead which need be wrapped by stub objects. The change is not visible when
using the appropriate client bindings from the most recent VirtualBox SDK.
</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Incompatible API changes with version 5.x</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>ProcessCreateFlag::NoProfile has been renamed to
<link linkend="ProcessCreateFlag__Profile">ProcessCreateFlag::Profile</link>,
and the semantics have also been changed: ProcessCreateFlag::NoProfile
explicitly <emphasis role="bold">did not</emphasis> utilize the guest user's profile data
whereas <link linkend="ProcessCreateFlag__Profile">ProcessCreateFlag::Profile</link>
explicitly <emphasis role="bold">does</emphasis> utilize the guest
user’s profile data.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Incompatible API changes with version 5.1.28</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>The Host-Guest Communication Manager (HGCM) guest driver
interfaces were renamed:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>VbglHGCMConnect() was renamed to VbglR0HGCMConnect()
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>VbglHGCMDisconnect() was renamed to VbglR0HGCMDisconnect()
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>VbglHGCMCall() was renamed to VbglR0HGCMCall()
</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>The Host-Guest Communication Manager (HGCM) guest
application interface IOCTLs were renamed:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>VBOXGUEST_IOCTL_HGCM_CONNECT was renamed to
VBGL_IOCTL_HGCM_CONNECT
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>VBOXGUEST_IOCTL_HGCM_DISCONNECT was renamed to
VBGL_IOCTL_HGCM_DISCONNECT
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>VBOXGUEST_IOCTL_HGCM_CALL was renamed to
VBGL_IOCTL_HGCM_CALL
</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Incompatible API changes with version 5.0</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>The methods for saving state, adopting a saved state file,
discarding a saved state, taking a snapshot, restoring
a snapshot and deleting a snapshot have been moved from
<computeroutput>IConsole</computeroutput> to
<computeroutput>IMachine</computeroutput>. This straightens out the
logical placement of methods and was necessary to resolve a
long-standing issue, preventing 32-bit API clients from invoking
those operations in the case where no VM is running.
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para><link linkend="IMachine__saveState">IMachine::saveState()</link>
replaces
<computeroutput>IConsole::saveState()</computeroutput></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IMachine__adoptSavedState">IMachine::adoptSavedState()</link>
replaces
<computeroutput>IConsole::adoptSavedState()</computeroutput></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IMachine__discardSavedState">IMachine::discardSavedState()</link>
replaces
<computeroutput>IConsole::discardSavedState()</computeroutput></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IMachine__takeSnapshot">IMachine::takeSnapshot()</link>
replaces
<computeroutput>IConsole::takeSnapshot()</computeroutput></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IMachine__deleteSnapshot">IMachine::deleteSnapshot()</link>
replaces
<computeroutput>IConsole::deleteSnapshot()</computeroutput></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IMachine__deleteSnapshotAndAllChildren">IMachine::deleteSnapshotAndAllChildren()</link>
replaces
<computeroutput>IConsole::deleteSnapshotAndAllChildren()</computeroutput></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IMachine__deleteSnapshotRange">IMachine::deleteSnapshotRange()</link>
replaces
<computeroutput>IConsole::deleteSnapshotRange()</computeroutput></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IMachine__restoreSnapshot">IMachine::restoreSnapshot()</link>
replaces
<computeroutput>IConsole::restoreSnapshot()</computeroutput></para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
Small adjustments to the parameter lists have been made to reduce
the number of API calls when taking online snapshots (no longer
needs explicit pausing), and taking a snapshot also returns now
the snapshot id (useful for finding the right snapshot if there
are non-unique snapshot names).</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Two new machine states have been introduced to allow proper
distinction between saving state and taking a snapshot.
<link linkend="MachineState__Saving">MachineState::Saving</link>
now is used exclusively while the VM's state is being saved, without
any overlaps with snapshot functionality. The new state
<link linkend="MachineState__Snapshotting">MachineState::Snapshotting</link>
is used when an offline snapshot is taken and likewise the new state
<link linkend="MachineState__OnlineSnapshotting">MachineState::OnlineSnapshotting</link>
is used when an online snapshot is taken.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>A new event has been introduced, which signals when a snapshot
has been restored:
<link linkend="ISnapshotRestoredEvent">ISnapshotRestoredEvent</link>.
Previously the event
<link linkend="ISnapshotDeletedEvent">ISnapshotDeletedEvent</link>
was signalled, which isn't logical (but could be distinguished from
actual deletion by the fact that the snapshot was still
there).</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The method
<link linkend="IVirtualBox__createMedium">IVirtualBox::createMedium()</link>
replaces
<computeroutput>VirtualBox::createHardDisk()</computeroutput>.
Adjusting existing code needs adding two parameters with
value <computeroutput>AccessMode_ReadWrite</computeroutput>
and <computeroutput>DeviceType_HardDisk</computeroutput>
respectively. The new method supports creating floppy and
DVD images, and (less obviously) further API functionality
such as cloning floppy images.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The method
<link linkend="IMachine__getStorageControllerByInstance">IMachine::getStorageControllerByInstance()</link>
now has an additional parameter (first parameter), for specifying the
storage bus which the storage controller must be using. The method
was not useful before, as the instance numbers are only unique for a
specfic storage bus.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The attribute
<computeroutput>IMachine::sessionType</computeroutput> has been
renamed to
<link linkend="IMachine__sessionName">IMachine::sessionName()</link>.
This cleans up the confusing terminology (as the session type is
something different).</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The attribute
<computeroutput>IMachine::guestPropertyNotificationPatterns</computeroutput>
has been removed. In practice it was not usable because it is too
global and didn't distinguish between API clients.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>Drag and drop APIs were changed as follows:<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Methods for providing host to guest drag and drop
functionality, such as
<computeroutput>IGuest::dragHGEnter</computeroutput>,
<computeroutput>IGuest::dragHGMove()</computeroutput>,
<computeroutput>IGuest::dragHGLeave()</computeroutput>,
<computeroutput>IGuest::dragHGDrop()</computeroutput> and
<computeroutput>IGuest::dragHGPutData()</computeroutput>,
have been moved to an abstract base class called
<link linkend="IDnDTarget">IDnDTarget</link>.
VirtualBox implements this base class in the
<link linkend="IGuestDnDTarget">IGuestDnDTarget</link>
interface. The implementation can be used by using the
<link linkend="IGuest__dnDTarget">IGuest::dnDTarget()</link>
method.</para>
<para>Methods for providing guest to host drag and drop
functionality, such as
<computeroutput>IGuest::dragGHPending()</computeroutput>,
<computeroutput>IGuest::dragGHDropped()</computeroutput> and
<computeroutput>IGuest::dragGHGetData()</computeroutput>,
have been moved to an abstract base class called
<link linkend="IDnDSource">IDnDSource</link>.
VirtualBox implements this base class in the
<link linkend="IGuestDnDSource">IGuestDnDSource</link>
interface. The implementation can be used by using the
<link linkend="IGuest__dnDSource">IGuest::dnDSource()</link>
method.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The <computeroutput>DragAndDropAction</computeroutput>
enumeration has been renamed to
<link linkend="DnDAction">DnDAction</link>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The <computeroutput>DragAndDropMode</computeroutput>
enumeration has been renamed to
<link linkend="DnDMode">DnDMode</link>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The attribute
<computeroutput>IMachine::dragAndDropMode</computeroutput>
has been renamed to
<link linkend="IMachine__dnDMode">IMachine::dnDMode()</link>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The event
<computeroutput>IDragAndDropModeChangedEvent</computeroutput>
has been renamed to
<link linkend="IDnDModeChangedEvent">IDnDModeChangedEvent</link>.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist></para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>IDisplay and IFramebuffer interfaces were changed to
allow IFramebuffer object to reside in a separate front-end
process:<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>
IDisplay::ResizeCompleted() has been removed, because the
IFramebuffer object does not provide the screen memory anymore.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
IDisplay::SetFramebuffer() has been replaced with
IDisplay::AttachFramebuffer() and IDisplay::DetachFramebuffer().
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
IDisplay::GetFramebuffer() has been replaced with
IDisplay::QueryFramebuffer().
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
IDisplay::GetScreenResolution() has a new output parameter
<computeroutput>guestMonitorStatus</computeroutput>
which tells whether the monitor is enabled in the guest.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
IDisplay::TakeScreenShot() and IDisplay::TakeScreenShotToArray()
have a new parameter
<computeroutput>bitmapFormat</computeroutput>. As a consequence of
this, IDisplay::TakeScreenShotPNGToArray() has been removed.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
IFramebuffer::RequestResize() has been replaced with
IFramebuffer::NotifyChange().
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
IFramebuffer::NotifyUpdateImage() added to support IFramebuffer
objects in a different process.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
IFramebuffer::Lock(), IFramebuffer::Unlock(),
IFramebuffer::Address(), IFramebuffer::UsesGuestVRAM() have been
removed because the IFramebuffer object does not provide the screen
memory anymore.
</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist></para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>IGuestSession, IGuestFile and IGuestProcess interfaces
were changed as follows:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Replaced IGuestSession::directoryQueryInfo and
IGuestSession::fileQueryInfo with a new
<link linkend="IGuestSession__fsObjQueryInfo">IGuestSession::fsObjQueryInfo</link>
method that works on any type of file system object.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Replaced IGuestSession::fileRemove,
IGuestSession::symlinkRemoveDirectory and
IGuestSession::symlinkRemoveFile with a new
<link linkend="IGuestSession__fsObjRemove">IGuestSession::fsObjRemove</link>
method that works on any type of file system object except
directories. (fileRemove also worked on any type of object
too, though that was not the intent of the method.)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Replaced IGuestSession::directoryRename and
IGuestSession::directoryRename with a new
<link linkend="IGuestSession__fsObjRename">IGuestSession::fsObjRename</link>
method that works on any type of file system object.
(directoryRename and fileRename may already have worked for
any kind of object, but that was never the intent of the
methods.)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Replaced the unimplemented IGuestSession::directorySetACL
and IGuestSession::fileSetACL with a new
<link linkend="IGuestSession__fsObjSetACL">IGuestSession::fsObjSetACL</link>
method that works on all type of file system object. Also
added a UNIX-style mode parameter as an alternative to the
ACL.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Replaced IGuestSession::fileRemove,
IGuestSession::symlinkRemoveDirectory and
IGuestSession::symlinkRemoveFile with a new
<link linkend="IGuestSession__fsObjRemove">IGuestSession::fsObjRemove</link>
method that works on any type of file system object except
directories (fileRemove also worked on any type of object,
though that was not the intent of the method.)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Renamed IGuestSession::copyTo to
<link linkend="IGuestSession__fileCopyToGuest">IGuestSession::fileCopyToGuest</link>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Renamed IGuestSession::copyFrom to
<link linkend="IGuestSession__fileCopyFromGuest">IGuestSession::fileCopyFromGuest</link>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Renamed the CopyFileFlag enum to
<link linkend="FileCopyFlag">FileCopyFlag</link>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Renamed the IGuestSession::environment attribute to
<link linkend="IGuestSession__environmentChanges">IGuestSession::environmentChanges</link>
to better reflect what it does.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Changed the
<link linkend="IProcess__environment">IGuestProcess::environment</link>
to a stub returning E_NOTIMPL since it wasn't doing what was
advertised (returned changes, not the actual environment).</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Renamed IGuestSession::environmentSet to
<link linkend="IGuestSession__environmentScheduleSet">IGuestSession::environmentScheduleSet</link>
to better reflect what it does.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Renamed IGuestSession::environmentUnset to
<link linkend="IGuestSession__environmentScheduleUnset">IGuestSession::environmentScheduleUnset</link>
to better reflect what it does.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Removed IGuestSession::environmentGet it was only getting
changes while giving the impression it was actual environment
variables, and it did not represent scheduled unset
operations.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Removed IGuestSession::environmentClear as it duplicates
assigning an empty array to the
<link linkend="IGuestSession__environmentChanges">IGuestSession::environmentChanges</link>
(formerly known as IGuestSession::environment).</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Changed the
<link linkend="IGuestSession__processCreate">IGuestSession::processCreate</link>
and
<link linkend="IGuestSession__processCreateEx">IGuestSession::processCreateEx</link>
methods to accept arguments starting with argument zero (argv[0])
instead of argument one (argv[1]). (Not yet implemented on the
guest additions side, so argv[0] will probably be ignored for a
short while.)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Added a followSymlink parameter to the following methods:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para><link linkend="IGuestSession__directoryExists">IGuestSession::directoryExists</link></para></listitem>
<listitem><para><link linkend="IGuestSession__fileExists">IGuestSession::fileExists</link></para></listitem>
<listitem><para><link linkend="IGuestSession__fileQuerySize">IGuestSession::fileQuerySize</link></para></listitem>
</itemizedlist></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The parameters to the
<link linkend="IGuestSession__fileOpen">IGuestSession::fileOpen</link>
and
<link linkend="IGuestSession__fileOpenEx">IGuestSession::fileOpenEx</link>
methods were altered:<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>The openMode string parameter was replaced by
the enum
<link linkend="FileAccessMode">FileAccessMode</link>
and renamed to accessMode.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>The disposition string parameter was replaced
by the enum
<link linkend="FileOpenAction">FileOpenAction</link>
and renamed to openAction.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>The unimplemented sharingMode string parameter
was replaced by the enum
<link linkend="FileSharingMode">FileSharingMode</link>
(fileOpenEx only).</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Added a flags parameter taking a list of
<link linkend="FileOpenExFlag">FileOpenExFlag</link> values
(fileOpenEx only).</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Removed the offset parameter (fileOpenEx
only).</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IFile__seek">IGuestFile::seek</link> now
returns the new offset.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Renamed the FileSeekType enum used by
<link linkend="IFile__seek">IGuestFile::seek</link>
to <link linkend="FileSeekOrigin">FileSeekOrigin</link> and
added the missing End value and renaming the Set to
Begin.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Extended the unimplemented
<link linkend="IFile__setACL">IGuestFile::setACL</link>
method with a UNIX-style mode parameter as an alternative to
the ACL.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Renamed the IFile::openMode attribute to
<link linkend="IFile__accessMode">IFile::accessMode</link>
and change the type from string to
<link linkend="FileAccessMode">FileAccessMode</link> to reflect
the changes to the fileOpen methods.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Renamed the IGuestFile::disposition attribute to
<link linkend="IFile__openAction">IFile::openAction</link> and
change the type from string to
<link linkend="FileOpenAction">FileOpenAction</link> to reflect
the changes to the fileOpen methods.</para>
</listitem>
<!-- Non-incompatible things worth mentioning (stubbed methods/attrs aren't worth it). -->
<listitem>
<para>Added
<link linkend="IGuestSession__pathStyle">IGuestSession::pathStyle</link>
attribute.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Added
<link linkend="IGuestSession__fsObjExists">IGuestSession::fsObjExists</link>
attribute.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>
IConsole::GetDeviceActivity() returns information about multiple
devices.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
IMachine::ReadSavedThumbnailToArray() has a new parameter
<computeroutput>bitmapFormat</computeroutput>. As a consequence of
this, IMachine::ReadSavedThumbnailPNGToArray() has been removed.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
IMachine::QuerySavedScreenshotPNGSize() has been renamed to
IMachine::QuerySavedScreenshotInfo() which also returns
an array of available screenshot formats.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
IMachine::ReadSavedScreenshotPNGToArray() has been renamed to
IMachine::ReadSavedScreenshotToArray() which has a new parameter
<computeroutput>bitmapFormat</computeroutput>.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
IMachine::QuerySavedThumbnailSize() has been removed.
</para></listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The method
<link linkend="IWebsessionManager__getSessionObject">IWebsessionManager::getSessionObject()</link>
now returns a new <link linkend="ISession">ISession</link> instance
for every invocation. This puts the behavior in line with other
binding styles, which never forced the equivalent of establishing
another connection and logging in again to get another
instance.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Incompatible API changes with version 4.3</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>The explicit medium locking methods
<link linkend="IMedium__lockRead">IMedium::lockRead()</link>
and <link linkend="IMedium__lockWrite">IMedium::lockWrite()</link>
have been redesigned. They return a lock token object reference
now, and calling the
<link linkend="IToken__abandon">IToken::abandon()</link> method (or
letting the reference count to this object drop to 0) will unlock
it. This eliminates the rather common problem that an API client
crash left behind locks, and also improves the safety (API clients
can't release locks they didn't obtain).</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The parameter list of
<link linkend="IAppliance__write">IAppliance::write()</link>
has been changed slightly, to allow multiple flags to be
passed.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>IMachine::delete</computeroutput>
has been renamed to
<link linkend="IMachine__deleteConfig">IMachine::deleteConfig()</link>,
to improve API client binding compatibility.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>IMachine::export</computeroutput>
has been renamed to
<link linkend="IMachine__exportTo">IMachine::exportTo()</link>,
to improve API client binding compatibility.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>For
<link linkend="IMachine__launchVMProcess">IMachine::launchVMProcess()</link>
the meaning of the <computeroutput>type</computeroutput> parameter
has changed slightly. Empty string now means that the per-VM or
global default front-end is launched. Most callers of this method
should use the empty string now, unless they really want to override
the default and launch a particular front-end.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Medium management APIs were changed as follows:<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>The type of attribute
<link linkend="IMedium__variant">IMedium::variant()</link>
changed from <computeroutput>unsigned long</computeroutput>
to <computeroutput>safe-array MediumVariant</computeroutput>.
It is an array of flags instead of a set of flags which were
stored inside one variable.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The parameter list for
<link linkend="IMedium__cloneTo">IMedium::cloneTo()</link>
was modified. The type of parameter variant was changed from
unsigned long to safe-array MediumVariant.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The parameter list for
<link linkend="IMedium__createBaseStorage">IMedium::createBaseStorage()</link>
was modified. The type of parameter variant was changed from
unsigned long to safe-array MediumVariant.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The parameter list for
<link linkend="IMedium__createDiffStorage">IMedium::createDiffStorage()</link>
was modified. The type of parameter variant was changed from
unsigned long to safe-array MediumVariant.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The parameter list for
<link linkend="IMedium__cloneToBase">IMedium::cloneToBase()</link>
was modified. The type of parameter variant was changed from
unsigned long to safe-array MediumVariant.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The type of attribute
<link linkend="IMediumFormat__capabilities">IMediumFormat::capabilities()</link>
changed from <computeroutput>unsigned long</computeroutput> to
<computeroutput>safe-array MediumFormatCapabilities</computeroutput>.
It is an array of flags instead of a set of flags which were stored
inside one variable.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The attribute
<link linkend="IMedium__logicalSize">IMedium::logicalSize()</link>
now returns the logical size of exactly this medium object (whether
it is a base or diff image). The old behavior was no longer
acceptable, as each image can have a different capacity.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Guest control APIs - such as
<link linkend="IGuest">IGuest</link>,
<link linkend="IGuestSession">IGuestSession</link>,
<link linkend="IGuestProcess">IGuestProcess</link> and so on - now
emit own events to provide clients much finer control and the ability
to write own front-ends for guest operations. The event
<link linkend="IGuestSessionEvent">IGuestSessionEvent</link> acts as
an abstract base class for all guest control events. Certain guest
events contain a
<link linkend="IVirtualBoxErrorInfo">IVirtualBoxErrorInfo</link>
member to provide more information in case of an error happened on
the guest side.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Guest control sessions on the guest started by
<link linkend="IGuest__createSession">IGuest::createSession()</link>
now are dedicated guest processes to provide more safety and
performance for certain operations. Also, the
<link linkend="IGuest__createSession">IGuest::createSession()</link>
call does not wait for the guest session being created anymore due
to the dedicated guest session processes just mentioned. This also
will enable webservice clients to handle guest session creation
more gracefully. To wait for a guest session being started, use the
newly added attribute
<link linkend="IGuestSession__status">IGuestSession::status()</link>
to query the current guest session status.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The <link linkend="IGuestFile">IGuestFile</link>
APIs are now implemented to provide native guest file access from
the host.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The parameter list for
<link linkend="IGuest__updateGuestAdditions">IMedium::updateGuestAdditions()</link>
was modified. It now supports specifying optional command line
arguments for the Guest Additions installer performing the actual
update on the guest.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>A new event
<link linkend="IGuestUserStateChangedEvent">IGuestUserStateChangedEvent</link>
was introduced to provide guest user status updates to the host via
event listeners. To use this event there needs to be at least the 4.3
Guest Additions installed on the guest. At the moment only the states
"Idle" and "InUse" of the
<link linkend="GuestUserState">GuestUserState</link> enumeration arei
supported on Windows guests, starting at Windows 2000 SP2.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
The attribute
<link linkend="IGuestSession__protocolVersion">IGuestSession::protocolVersion</link>
was added to provide a convenient way to lookup the guest session's
protocol version it uses to communicate with the installed Guest
Additions on the guest. Older Guest Additions will set the protocol
version to 1, whereas Guest Additions 4.3 will set the protocol
version to 2. This might change in the future as new features
arise.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>IDisplay::getScreenResolution</computeroutput>
has been extended to return the display position in the guest.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
The <link linkend="IUSBController">IUSBController</link>
class is not a singleton of
<link linkend="IMachine">IMachine</link> anymore but
<link linkend="IMachine">IMachine</link> contains a list of USB
controllers present in the VM. The USB device filter handling was
moved to
<link linkend="IUSBDeviceFilters">IUSBDeviceFilters</link>.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Incompatible API changes with version 4.2</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Guest control APIs for executing guest processes, working with
guest files or directories have been moved to the newly introduced
<link linkend="IGuestSession">IGuestSession</link> interface which
can be created by calling
<link linkend="IGuest__createSession">IGuest::createSession()</link>.</para>
<para>A guest session will act as a
guest user's impersonation so that the guest credentials only have to
be provided when creating a new guest session. There can be up to 32
guest sessions at once per VM, each session serving up to 2048 guest
processes running or files opened.</para>
<para>Instead of working with process or directory handles before
version 4.2, there now are the dedicated interfaces
<link linkend="IGuestProcess">IGuestProcess</link>,
<link linkend="IGuestDirectory">IGuestDirectory</link> and
<link linkend="IGuestFile">IGuestFile</link>. To retrieve more
information of a file system object the new interface
<link linkend="IGuestFsObjInfo">IGuestFsObjInfo</link> has been
introduced.</para>
<para>Even though the guest control API was changed it is backwards
compatible so that it can be used with older installed Guest
Additions. However, to use upcoming features like process termination
or waiting for input / output new Guest Additions must be installed
when these features got implemented.</para>
<para>The following limitations apply:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>The <link linkend="IGuestFile">IGuestFile</link>
interface is not fully implemented yet.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>The symbolic link APIs
<link linkend="IGuestSession__symlinkCreate">IGuestSession::symlinkCreate()</link>,
<link linkend="IGuestSession__symlinkExists">IGuestSession::symlinkExists()</link>,
<link linkend="IGuestSession__symlinkRead">IGuestSession::symlinkRead()</link>,
IGuestSession::symlinkRemoveDirectory() and
IGuestSession::symlinkRemoveFile() are not
implemented yet.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>The directory APIs
<link linkend="IGuestSession__directoryRemove">IGuestSession::directoryRemove()</link>,
<link linkend="IGuestSession__directoryRemoveRecursive">IGuestSession::directoryRemoveRecursive()</link>,
IGuestSession::directoryRename() and
IGuestSession::directorySetACL() are not
implemented yet.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>The temporary file creation API
<link linkend="IGuestSession__fileCreateTemp">IGuestSession::fileCreateTemp()</link>
is not implemented yet.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>Guest process termination via
<link linkend="IProcess__terminate">IProcess::terminate()</link>
is not implemented yet.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>Waiting for guest process output via
<link linkend="ProcessWaitForFlag__StdOut">ProcessWaitForFlag::StdOut</link>
and
<link linkend="ProcessWaitForFlag__StdErr">ProcessWaitForFlag::StdErr</link>
is not implemented yet.</para>
<para>To wait for process output,
<link linkend="IProcess__read">IProcess::read()</link> with
appropriate flags still can be used to periodically check for
new output data to arrive. Note that
<link linkend="ProcessCreateFlag__WaitForStdOut">ProcessCreateFlag::WaitForStdOut</link>
and / or
<link linkend="ProcessCreateFlag__WaitForStdErr">ProcessCreateFlag::WaitForStdErr</link>
need to be specified when creating a guest process via
<link linkend="IGuestSession__processCreate">IGuestSession::processCreate()</link>
or
<link linkend="IGuestSession__processCreateEx">IGuestSession::processCreateEx()</link>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>ACL (Access Control List) handling in general is not
implemented yet.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The <link linkend="LockType">LockType</link>
enumeration now has an additional value
<computeroutput>VM</computeroutput> which tells
<link linkend="IMachine__lockMachine">IMachine::lockMachine()</link>
to create a full-blown object structure for running a VM. This was
the previous behavior with <computeroutput>Write</computeroutput>,
which now only creates the minimal object structure to save time and
resources (at the moment the Console object is still created, but all
sub-objects such as Display, Keyboard, Mouse, Guest are not.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Machines can be put in groups (actually an array of groups).
The primary group affects the default placement of files belonging
to a VM.
<link linkend="IVirtualBox__createMachine">IVirtualBox::createMachine()</link>
and
<link linkend="IVirtualBox__composeMachineFilename">IVirtualBox::composeMachineFilename()</link>
have been adjusted accordingly, the former taking an array of groups
as an additional parameter and the latter taking a group as an
additional parameter. The create option handling has been changed for
those two methods, too.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The method IVirtualBox::findMedium() has been removed, since
it provides a subset of the functionality of
<link linkend="IVirtualBox__openMedium">IVirtualBox::openMedium()</link>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The use of acronyms in API enumeration, interface, attribute
and method names has been made much more consistent, previously they
sometimes were lowercase and sometimes mixed case. They are now
consistently all caps:<table>
<title>Renamed identifiers in VirtualBox 4.2</title>
<tgroup cols="2" style="verywide">
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">Old name</emphasis></entry>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">New name</emphasis></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>PointingHidType</entry>
<entry><link linkend="PointingHIDType">PointingHIDType</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>KeyboardHidType</entry>
<entry><link linkend="KeyboardHIDType">KeyboardHIDType</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPciAddress</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPCIAddress">IPCIAddress</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IPciDeviceAttachment</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IPCIDeviceAttachment">IPCIDeviceAttachment</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IMachine::pointingHidType</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IMachine__pointingHIDType">IMachine::pointingHIDType</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IMachine::keyboardHidType</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IMachine__keyboardHIDType">IMachine::keyboardHIDType</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IMachine::hpetEnabled</entry>
<entry>IMachine::HPETEnabled</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IMachine::sessionPid</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IMachine__sessionPID">IMachine::sessionPID</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IMachine::ioCacheEnabled</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IMachine__IOCacheEnabled">IMachine::IOCacheEnabled</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IMachine::ioCacheSize</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IMachine__IOCacheSize">IMachine::IOCacheSize</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IMachine::pciDeviceAssignments</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IMachine__PCIDeviceAssignments">IMachine::PCIDeviceAssignments</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IMachine::attachHostPciDevice()</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IMachine__attachHostPCIDevice">IMachine::attachHostPCIDevice</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IMachine::detachHostPciDevice()</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IMachine__detachHostPCIDevice">IMachine::detachHostPCIDevice()</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IConsole::attachedPciDevices</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IConsole__attachedPCIDevices">IConsole::attachedPCIDevices</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IHostNetworkInterface::dhcpEnabled</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IHostNetworkInterface__DHCPEnabled">IHostNetworkInterface::DHCPEnabled</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IHostNetworkInterface::enableStaticIpConfig()</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IHostNetworkInterface__enableStaticIPConfig">IHostNetworkInterface::enableStaticIPConfig()</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IHostNetworkInterface::enableStaticIpConfigV6()</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IHostNetworkInterface__enableStaticIPConfigV6">IHostNetworkInterface::enableStaticIPConfigV6()</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IHostNetworkInterface::enableDynamicIpConfig()</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IHostNetworkInterface__enableDynamicIPConfig">IHostNetworkInterface::enableDynamicIPConfig()</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IHostNetworkInterface::dhcpRediscover()</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IHostNetworkInterface__DHCPRediscover">IHostNetworkInterface::DHCPRediscover()</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IHost::acceleration3DAvailable</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IGuestOSType::recommendedPae</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IGuestOSType__recommendedPAE">IGuestOSType::recommendedPAE</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IGuestOSType::recommendedDvdStorageController</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IGuestOSType__recommendedDVDStorageController">IGuestOSType::recommendedDVDStorageController</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IGuestOSType::recommendedDvdStorageBus</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IGuestOSType__recommendedDVDStorageBus">IGuestOSType::recommendedDVDStorageBus</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IGuestOSType::recommendedHdStorageController</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IGuestOSType__recommendedHDStorageController">IGuestOSType::recommendedHDStorageController</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IGuestOSType::recommendedHdStorageBus</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IGuestOSType__recommendedHDStorageBus">IGuestOSType::recommendedHDStorageBus</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IGuestOSType::recommendedUsbHid</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IGuestOSType__recommendedUSBHID">IGuestOSType::recommendedUSBHID</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IGuestOSType::recommendedHpet</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IGuestOSType__recommendedHPET">IGuestOSType::recommendedHPET</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IGuestOSType::recommendedUsbTablet</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IGuestOSType__recommendedUSBTablet">IGuestOSType::recommendedUSBTablet</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IGuestOSType::recommendedRtcUseUtc</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IGuestOSType__recommendedRTCUseUTC">IGuestOSType::recommendedRTCUseUTC</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IGuestOSType::recommendedUsb</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IGuestOSType__recommendedUSB">IGuestOSType::recommendedUSB</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>INetworkAdapter::natDriver</entry>
<entry><link linkend="INetworkAdapter__NATEngine">INetworkAdapter::NATEngine</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IUSBController::enabledEhci</entry>
<entry>IUSBController::enabledEHCI"</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>INATEngine::tftpPrefix</entry>
<entry><link linkend="INATEngine__TFTPPrefix">INATEngine::TFTPPrefix</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>INATEngine::tftpBootFile</entry>
<entry><link linkend="INATEngine__TFTPBootFile">INATEngine::TFTPBootFile</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>INATEngine::tftpNextServer</entry>
<entry><link linkend="INATEngine__TFTPNextServer">INATEngine::TFTPNextServer</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>INATEngine::dnsPassDomain</entry>
<entry><link linkend="INATEngine__DNSPassDomain">INATEngine::DNSPassDomain</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>INATEngine::dnsProxy</entry>
<entry><link linkend="INATEngine__DNSProxy">INATEngine::DNSProxy</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>INATEngine::dnsUseHostResolver</entry>
<entry><link linkend="INATEngine__DNSUseHostResolver">INATEngine::DNSUseHostResolver</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>VBoxEventType::OnHostPciDevicePlug</entry>
<entry><link linkend="VBoxEventType__OnHostPCIDevicePlug">VBoxEventType::OnHostPCIDevicePlug</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>ICPUChangedEvent::cpu</entry>
<entry><link linkend="ICPUChangedEvent__CPU">ICPUChangedEvent::CPU</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>INATRedirectEvent::hostIp</entry>
<entry><link linkend="INATRedirectEvent__hostIP">INATRedirectEvent::hostIP</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>INATRedirectEvent::guestIp</entry>
<entry><link linkend="INATRedirectEvent__guestIP">INATRedirectEvent::guestIP</link></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>IHostPciDevicePlugEvent</entry>
<entry><link linkend="IHostPCIDevicePlugEvent">IHostPCIDevicePlugEvent</link></entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup></table></para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Incompatible API changes with version 4.1</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>The method
<link linkend="IAppliance__importMachines">IAppliance::importMachines()</link>
has one more parameter now, which allows to configure the import
process in more detail.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The method
<link linkend="IVirtualBox__openMedium">IVirtualBox::openMedium()</link>
has one more parameter now, which allows resolving duplicate medium
UUIDs without the need for external tools.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The <link linkend="INetworkAdapter">INetworkAdapter</link>
interface has been cleaned up. The various methods to activate an
attachment type have been replaced by the
<link linkend="INetworkAdapter__attachmentType">INetworkAdapter::attachmentType</link>
setter.</para>
<para>Additionally each attachment mode now has its own attribute,
which means that host only networks no longer share the settings with
bridged interfaces.</para>
<para>To allow introducing new network attachment implementations
without making API changes, the concept of a generic network
attachment driver has been introduced, which is configurable through
key/value properties.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>This version introduces the guest facilities concept. A guest
facility either represents a module or feature the guest is running
or offering, which is defined by
<link linkend="AdditionsFacilityType">AdditionsFacilityType</link>.
Each facility is member of a
<link linkend="AdditionsFacilityClass">AdditionsFacilityClass</link>
and has a current status indicated by
<link linkend="AdditionsFacilityStatus">AdditionsFacilityStatus</link>,
together with a timestamp (in ms) of the last status update.</para>
<para>To address the above concept, the following changes were made:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
In the <link linkend="IGuest">IGuest</link> interface, the
following were removed:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>the
<computeroutput>supportsSeamless</computeroutput>
attribute;</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>the
<computeroutput>supportsGraphics</computeroutput>
attribute;</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
The function
<link linkend="IGuest__getFacilityStatus">IGuest::getFacilityStatus()</link>
was added. It quickly provides a facility's status without
the need to get the facility collection with
<link linkend="IGuest__facilities">IGuest::facilities</link>.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
The attribute
<link linkend="IGuest__facilities">IGuest::facilities</link>
was added to provide an easy to access collection of all
currently known guest facilities, that is, it contains all
facilies where at least one status update was made since the
guest was started.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
The interface
<link linkend="IAdditionsFacility">IAdditionsFacility</link>
was added to represent a single facility returned by
<link linkend="IGuest__facilities">IGuest::facilities</link>.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<link linkend="AdditionsFacilityStatus">AdditionsFacilityStatus</link>
was added to represent a facility's overall status.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<link linkend="AdditionsFacilityType">AdditionsFacilityType</link> and
<link linkend="AdditionsFacilityClass">AdditionsFacilityClass</link> were
added to represent the facility's type and class.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Incompatible API changes with version 4.0</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>A new Java glue layer replacing the previous OOWS JAX-WS
bindings was introduced. The new library allows for uniform code
targeting both local (COM/XPCOM) and remote (SOAP) transports. Now,
instead of <computeroutput>IWebsessionManager</computeroutput>, the
new class <computeroutput>VirtualBoxManager</computeroutput> must be
used. See <xref linkend="javaapi"/> for details.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The confusingly named and impractical session APIs were
changed. In existing client code, the following changes need to be
made:<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Replace any
<computeroutput>IVirtualBox::openSession(uuidMachine,
...)</computeroutput> API call with the machine's
<link linkend="IMachine__lockMachine">IMachine::lockMachine()</link>
call and a
<computeroutput>LockType.Write</computeroutput> argument. The
functionality is unchanged, but instead of "opening a direct
session on a machine" all documentation now refers to
"obtaining a write lock on a machine for the client
session".</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Similarly, replace any
<computeroutput>IVirtualBox::openExistingSession(uuidMachine,
...)</computeroutput> call with the machine's
<link linkend="IMachine__lockMachine">IMachine::lockMachine()</link>
call and a <computeroutput>LockType.Shared</computeroutput>
argument. Whereas it was previously impossible to connect a
client session to a running VM process in a race-free manner,
the new API will atomically either write-lock the machine for
the current session or establish a remote link to an existing
session. Existing client code which tried calling both
<computeroutput>openSession()</computeroutput> and
<computeroutput>openExistingSession()</computeroutput> can now
use this one call instead.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Third, replace any
<computeroutput>IVirtualBox::openRemoteSession(uuidMachine,
...)</computeroutput> call with the machine's
<link linkend="IMachine__launchVMProcess">IMachine::launchVMProcess()</link>
call. The functionality is unchanged.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The <link linkend="SessionState">SessionState</link> enum
was adjusted accordingly: "Open" is now "Locked", "Closed" is
now "Unlocked", "Closing" is now "Unlocking".</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Virtual machines created with VirtualBox 4.0 or later no
longer register their media in the global media registry in the
<computeroutput>VirtualBox.xml</computeroutput> file. Instead, such
machines list all their media in their own machine XML files. As a
result, a number of media-related APIs had to be modified again.
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Neither
<computeroutput>IVirtualBox::createHardDisk()</computeroutput>
nor
<link linkend="IVirtualBox__openMedium">IVirtualBox::openMedium()</link>
register media automatically any more.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IMachine__attachDevice">IMachine::attachDevice()</link>
and
<link linkend="IMachine__mountMedium">IMachine::mountMedium()</link>
now take an IMedium object instead of a UUID as an argument. It
is these two calls which add media to a registry now (either a
machine registry for machines created with VirtualBox 4.0 or
later or the global registry otherwise). As a consequence, if a
medium is opened but never attached to a machine, it is no
longer added to any registry any more.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>To reduce code duplication, the APIs
IVirtualBox::findHardDisk(), getHardDisk(), findDVDImage(),
getDVDImage(), findFloppyImage() and getFloppyImage() have all
been merged into IVirtualBox::findMedium(), and
IVirtualBox::openHardDisk(), openDVDImage() and
openFloppyImage() have all been merged into
<link linkend="IVirtualBox__openMedium">IVirtualBox::openMedium()</link>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The rare use case of changing the UUID and parent UUID
of a medium previously handled by
<computeroutput>openHardDisk()</computeroutput> is now in a
separate IMedium::setIDs method.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>ISystemProperties::get/setDefaultHardDiskFolder()</computeroutput>
have been removed since disk images are now by default placed
in each machine's folder.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The
<link linkend="ISystemProperties__infoVDSize">ISystemProperties::infoVDSize</link>
attribute replaces the
<computeroutput>getMaxVDISize()</computeroutput>
API call; this now uses bytes instead of megabytes.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Machine management APIs were enhanced as follows:<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IVirtualBox__createMachine">IVirtualBox::createMachine()</link>
is no longer restricted to creating machines in the default
"Machines" folder, but can now create machines at arbitrary
locations. For this to work, the parameter list had to be
changed.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The long-deprecated
<computeroutput>IVirtualBox::createLegacyMachine()</computeroutput>
API has been removed.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>To reduce code duplication and for consistency with the
aforementioned media APIs,
<computeroutput>IVirtualBox::getMachine()</computeroutput> has
been merged with
<link linkend="IVirtualBox__findMachine">IVirtualBox::findMachine()</link>,
and
<computeroutput>IMachine::getSnapshot()</computeroutput> has
been merged with
<link linkend="IMachine__findSnapshot">IMachine::findSnapshot()</link>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>IVirtualBox::unregisterMachine()</computeroutput>
was replaced with
<link linkend="IMachine__unregister">IMachine::unregister()</link>
with additional functionality for cleaning up machine
files.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>IMachine::deleteSettings</computeroutput>
has been replaced by IMachine::delete, which allows specifying
which disk images are to be deleted as part of the deletion,
and because it can take a while it also returns a
<computeroutput>IProgress</computeroutput> object reference,
so that the completion of the asynchronous activities can be
monitored.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>IConsole::forgetSavedState</computeroutput>
has been renamed to
<computeroutput>IConsole::discardSavedState()</computeroutput>.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>All event callbacks APIs were replaced with a new, generic
event mechanism that can be used both locally (COM, XPCOM) and
remotely (web services). Also, the new mechanism is usable from
scripting languages and a local Java. See
<link linkend="IEvent">events</link> for details. The new concept
will require changes to all clients that used event callbacks.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>additionsActive()</computeroutput> was replaced
with
<link linkend="IGuest__additionsRunLevel">additionsRunLevel()</link>
and
<link linkend="IGuest__getAdditionsStatus">getAdditionsStatus()</link>
in order to support a more detailed status of the current Guest
Additions loading/readiness state.
<link linkend="IGuest__additionsVersion">IGuest::additionsVersion()</link>
no longer returns the Guest Additions interface version but the
installed Guest Additions version and revision in form of
<computeroutput>3.3.0r12345</computeroutput>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>To address shared folders auto-mounting support, the following
APIs were extended to require an additional
<computeroutput>automount</computeroutput> parameter: <itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IVirtualBox__createSharedFolder">IVirtualBox::createSharedFolder()</link></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IMachine__createSharedFolder">IMachine::createSharedFolder()</link></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IConsole__createSharedFolder">IConsole::createSharedFolder()</link></para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist> Also, a new property named
<computeroutput>autoMount</computeroutput> was added to the
<link linkend="ISharedFolder">ISharedFolder</link>
interface.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The appliance (OVF) APIs were enhanced as
follows:<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>IMachine::export</computeroutput>
received an extra parameter
<computeroutput>location</computeroutput>, which is used to
decide for the disk naming.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IAppliance__write">IAppliance::write()</link>
received an extra parameter
<computeroutput>manifest</computeroutput>, which can suppress
creating the manifest file on export.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IVFSExplorer__entryList">IVFSExplorer::entryList()</link>
received two extra parameters
<computeroutput>sizes</computeroutput> and
<computeroutput>modes</computeroutput>, which contains the
sizes (in bytes) and the file access modes (in octal form) of
the returned files.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Support for remote desktop access to virtual machines has been
cleaned up to allow third party implementations of the remote
desktop server. This is called the VirtualBox Remote Desktop
Extension (VRDE) and can be added to VirtualBox by installing the
corresponding extension package; see the VirtualBox User Guide for
details.</para>
<para>The following API changes were made to support the VRDE
interface: <itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>IVRDPServer</computeroutput> has been
renamed to
<link linkend="IVRDEServer">IVRDEServer</link>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>IRemoteDisplayInfo</computeroutput> has
been renamed to
<link linkend="IVRDEServerInfo">IVRDEServerInfo</link>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IMachine__VRDEServer">IMachine::VRDEServer</link>
replaces
<computeroutput>VRDPServer.</computeroutput></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IConsole__VRDEServerInfo">IConsole::VRDEServerInfo</link>
replaces
<computeroutput>RemoteDisplayInfo</computeroutput>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="ISystemProperties__VRDEAuthLibrary">ISystemProperties::VRDEAuthLibrary</link>
replaces
<computeroutput>RemoteDisplayAuthLibrary</computeroutput>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The following methods have been implemented in
<computeroutput>IVRDEServer</computeroutput> to support
generic VRDE properties: <itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IVRDEServer__setVRDEProperty">IVRDEServer::setVRDEProperty</link></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IVRDEServer__getVRDEProperty">IVRDEServer::getVRDEProperty</link></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IVRDEServer__VRDEProperties">IVRDEServer::VRDEProperties</link></para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist></para>
<para>A few implementation-specific attributes of the old
<computeroutput>IVRDPServer</computeroutput> interface have
been removed and replaced with properties: <itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>IVRDPServer::Ports</computeroutput>
has been replaced with the
<computeroutput>"TCP/Ports"</computeroutput> property.
The property value is a string, which contains a
comma-separated list of ports or ranges of ports. Use a
dash between two port numbers to specify a range.
Example:
<computeroutput>"5000,5010-5012"</computeroutput></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>IVRDPServer::NetAddress</computeroutput>
has been replaced with the
<computeroutput>"TCP/Address"</computeroutput> property.
The property value is an IP address string. Example:
<computeroutput>"127.0.0.1"</computeroutput></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>IVRDPServer::VideoChannel</computeroutput>
has been replaced with the
<computeroutput>"VideoChannel/Enabled"</computeroutput>
property. The property value is either
<computeroutput>"true"</computeroutput> or
<computeroutput>"false"</computeroutput></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><computeroutput>IVRDPServer::VideoChannelQuality</computeroutput>
has been replaced with the
<computeroutput>"VideoChannel/Quality"</computeroutput>
property. The property value is a string which contain a
decimal number in range 10..100. Invalid values are
ignored and the quality is set to the default value 75.
Example: <computeroutput>"50"</computeroutput></para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist></para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The VirtualBox external authentication module interface has
been updated and made more generic. Because of that,
<computeroutput>VRDPAuthType</computeroutput> enumeration has been
renamed to <link linkend="AuthType">AuthType</link>.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Incompatible API changes with version 3.2</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>The following interfaces were renamed for consistency:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>IMachine::getCpuProperty() is now IMachine::getCPUProperty();</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>IMachine::setCpuProperty() is now IMachine::setCPUProperty();</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>IMachine::getCpuIdLeaf() is now IMachine::getCPUIDLeaf();</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>IMachine::setCpuIdLeaf() is now IMachine::setCPUIDLeaf();</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>IMachine::removeCpuIdLeaf() is now IMachine::removeCPUIDLeaf();</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>IMachine::removeAllCpuIdLeafs() is now IMachine::removeAllCPUIDLeaves();</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>the CpuPropertyType enum is now CPUPropertyType.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>IVirtualBoxCallback::onSnapshotDiscarded() is now
IVirtualBoxCallback::onSnapshotDeleted.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>When creating a VM configuration with
<link linkend="IVirtualBox__createMachine">IVirtualBox::createMachine()</link>
it is now possible to ignore existing configuration files which would
previously have caused a failure. For this the
<computeroutput>override</computeroutput> parameter was added.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Deleting snapshots via
<computeroutput>IConsole::deleteSnapshot()</computeroutput> is now
possible while the associated VM is running in almost all cases.
The API is unchanged, but client code that verifies machine states
to determine whether snapshots can be deleted may need to be
adjusted.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The IoBackendType enumeration was replaced with a boolean flag
(see
<link linkend="IStorageController__useHostIOCache">IStorageController::useHostIOCache</link>).</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>To address multi-monitor support, the following APIs were
extended to require an additional
<computeroutput>screenId</computeroutput> parameter: <itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>IMachine::querySavedThumbnailSize()</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IMachine__readSavedThumbnailToArray">IMachine::readSavedThumbnailToArray()</link></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IMachine__querySavedScreenshotInfo">IMachine::querySavedScreenshotPNGSize()</link></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IMachine__readSavedScreenshotToArray">IMachine::readSavedScreenshotPNGToArray()</link></para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The <computeroutput>shape</computeroutput> parameter of
IConsoleCallback::onMousePointerShapeChange was changed from a
implementation-specific pointer to a safearray, enabling scripting
languages to process pointer shapes.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Incompatible API changes with version 3.1</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Due to the new flexibility in medium attachments that was
introduced with version 3.1 (in particular, full flexibility with
attaching CD/DVD drives to arbitrary controllers), we seized the
opportunity to rework all interfaces dealing with storage media to
make the API more flexible as well as logical. The
<link linkend="IStorageController">IStorageController</link>,
<link linkend="IMedium">IMedium</link>,
<link linkend="IMediumAttachment">IMediumAttachment</link> and
<link linkend="IMachine">IMachine</link> interfaces were
affected the most. Existing code using them to configure storage and
media needs to be carefully checked.</para>
<para>All media (hard disks, floppies and CDs/DVDs) are now
uniformly handled through the <link linkend="IMedium">IMedium</link>
interface. The device-specific interfaces
(<code>IHardDisk</code>, <code>IDVDImage</code>,
<code>IHostDVDDrive</code>, <code>IFloppyImage</code> and
<code>IHostFloppyDrive</code>) have been merged into IMedium; CD/DVD
and floppy media no longer need special treatment. The device type
of a medium determines in which context it can be used. Some
functionality was moved to the other storage-related
interfaces.</para>
<para><code>IMachine::attachHardDisk</code> and similar methods have
been renamed and generalized to deal with any type of drive and
medium.
<link linkend="IMachine__attachDevice">IMachine::attachDevice()</link>
is the API method for adding any drive to a storage controller. The
floppy and DVD/CD drives are no longer handled specially, and that
means you can have more than one of them. As before, drives can only
be changed while the VM is powered off. Mounting (or unmounting)
removable media at runtime is possible with
<link linkend="IMachine__mountMedium">IMachine::mountMedium()</link>.</para>
<para>Newly created virtual machines have no storage controllers
associated with them. Even the IDE Controller needs to be created
explicitly. The floppy controller is now visible as a separate
controller, with a new storage bus type. For each storage bus type
you can query the device types which can be attached, so that it is
not necessary to hardcode any attachment rules.</para>
<para>This required matching changes e.g. in the callback interfaces
(the medium specific change notification was replaced by a generic
medium change notification) and removing associated enums (e.g.
<code>DriveState</code>). In many places the incorrect use of the
plural form "media" was replaced by "medium", to improve
consistency.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Reading the
<link linkend="IMedium__state">IMedium::state</link> attribute no
longer automatically performs an accessibility check; a new method
<link linkend="IMedium__refreshState">IMedium::refreshState()</link>
does this. The attribute only returns the state now.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>There were substantial changes related to snapshots, triggered
by the "branched snapshots" functionality introduced with version
3.1. IConsole::discardSnapshot was renamed to
<computeroutput>IConsole::deleteSnapshot()</computeroutput>.
IConsole::discardCurrentState and
IConsole::discardCurrentSnapshotAndState were removed; corresponding
new functionality is in
<computeroutput>IConsole::restoreSnapshot()</computeroutput>.
Also, when <computeroutput>IConsole::takeSnapshot()</computeroutput>
is called on a running virtual machine, a live snapshot will be
created. The old behavior was to temporarily pause the virtual
machine while creating an online snapshot.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The <computeroutput>IVRDPServer</computeroutput>,
<computeroutput>IRemoteDisplayInfo"</computeroutput> and
<computeroutput>IConsoleCallback</computeroutput> interfaces were
changed to reflect VRDP server ability to bind to one of available
ports from a list of ports.</para>
<para>The <computeroutput>IVRDPServer::port</computeroutput>
attribute has been replaced with
<computeroutput>IVRDPServer::ports</computeroutput>, which is a
comma-separated list of ports or ranges of ports.</para>
<para>An <computeroutput>IRemoteDisplayInfo::port"</computeroutput>
attribute has been added for querying the actual port VRDP server
listens on.</para>
<para>An IConsoleCallback::onRemoteDisplayInfoChange() notification
callback has been added.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The parameter lists for the following functions were
modified:<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IHost__removeHostOnlyNetworkInterface">IHost::removeHostOnlyNetworkInterface()</link></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IHost__removeUSBDeviceFilter">IHost::removeUSBDeviceFilter()</link></para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>In the OOWS bindings for JAX-WS, the behavior of structures
changed: for one, we implemented natural structures field access so
you can just call a "get" method to obtain a field. Secondly,
setters in structures were disabled as they have no expected effect
and were at best misleading.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Incompatible API changes with version 3.0</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>In the object-oriented web service bindings for JAX-WS, proper
inheritance has been introduced for some classes, so explicit
casting is no longer needed to call methods from a parent class. In
particular, IHardDisk and other classes now properly derive from
<link linkend="IMedium">IMedium</link>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>All object identifiers (machines, snapshots, disks, etc)
switched from GUIDs to strings (now still having string
representation of GUIDs inside). As a result, no particular internal
structure can be assumed for object identifiers; instead, they
should be treated as opaque unique handles. This change mostly
affects Java and C++ programs; for other languages, GUIDs are
transparently converted to strings.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The uses of NULL strings have been changed greatly. All out
parameters now use empty strings to signal a null value. For in
parameters both the old NULL and empty string is allowed. This
change was necessary to support more client bindings, especially
using the web service API. Many of them either have no special NULL
value or have trouble dealing with it correctly in the respective
library code.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Accidentally, the <code>TSBool</code> interface still appeared
in 3.0.0, and was removed in 3.0.2. This is an SDK bug, do not use
the SDK for VirtualBox 3.0.0 for developing clients.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The type of
<link linkend="IVirtualBoxErrorInfo__resultCode">IVirtualBoxErrorInfo::resultCode</link>
changed from
<computeroutput>result</computeroutput> to
<computeroutput>long</computeroutput>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The parameter list of IVirtualBox::openHardDisk was
changed.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The method IConsole::discardSavedState was renamed to
IConsole::forgetSavedState, and a parameter was added.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The method IConsole::powerDownAsync was renamed to
<link linkend="IConsole__powerDown">IConsole::powerDown</link>,
and the previous method with that name was deleted. So effectively a
parameter was added.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>In the
<link linkend="IFramebuffer">IFramebuffer</link> interface, the
following were removed:<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>the <computeroutput>operationSupported</computeroutput>
attribute;</para>
<para>(as a result, the
<computeroutput>FramebufferAccelerationOperation</computeroutput>
enum was no longer needed and removed as well);</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>the <computeroutput>solidFill()</computeroutput>
method;</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>the <computeroutput>copyScreenBits()</computeroutput>
method.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>In the <link linkend="IDisplay">IDisplay</link>
interface, the following were removed:<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>the
<computeroutput>setupInternalFramebuffer()</computeroutput>
method;</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>the <computeroutput>lockFramebuffer()</computeroutput>
method;</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>the <computeroutput>unlockFramebuffer()</computeroutput>
method;</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>the
<computeroutput>registerExternalFramebuffer()</computeroutput>
method.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist></para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Incompatible API changes with version 2.2</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Added explicit version number into JAX-WS Java package names,
such as <computeroutput>org.virtualbox_2_2</computeroutput>,
allowing connect to multiple VirtualBox clients from single Java
application.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The interfaces having a "2" suffix attached to them with
version 2.1 were renamed again to have that suffix removed. This
time around, this change involves only the name, there are no
functional differences.</para>
<para>As a result, IDVDImage2 is now IDVDImage; IHardDisk2 is now
IHardDisk; IHardDisk2Attachment is now IHardDiskAttachment.</para>
<para>Consequentially, all related methods and attributes that had a
"2" suffix have been renamed; for example, IMachine::attachHardDisk2
now becomes IMachine::attachHardDisk().</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>IVirtualBox::openHardDisk has an extra parameter for opening a
disk read/write or read-only.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The remaining collections were replaced by more performant
safe-arrays. This affects the following collections:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>IGuestOSTypeCollection</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>IHostDVDDriveCollection</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>IHostFloppyDriveCollection</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>IHostUSBDeviceCollection</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>IHostUSBDeviceFilterCollection</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>IProgressCollection</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>ISharedFolderCollection</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>ISnapshotCollection</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>IUSBDeviceCollection</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>IUSBDeviceFilterCollection</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Since "Host Interface Networking" was renamed to "bridged
networking" and host-only networking was introduced, all associated
interfaces needed renaming as well. In detail:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>The HostNetworkInterfaceType enum has been renamed to
<link linkend="HostNetworkInterfaceMediumType">HostNetworkInterfaceMediumType</link></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The IHostNetworkInterface::type attribute has been renamed
to
<link linkend="IHostNetworkInterface__mediumType">IHostNetworkInterface::mediumType</link></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>INetworkAdapter::attachToHostInterface() has been renamed
to INetworkAdapter::attachToBridgedInterface</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>In the IHost interface, createHostNetworkInterface() has
been renamed to
<link linkend="IHost__createHostOnlyNetworkInterface">createHostOnlyNetworkInterface()</link></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Similarly, removeHostNetworkInterface() has been renamed
to
<link linkend="IHost__removeHostOnlyNetworkInterface">removeHostOnlyNetworkInterface()</link></para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Incompatible API changes with version 2.1</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>With VirtualBox 2.1, error codes were added to many error
infos that give the caller a machine-readable (numeric) feedback in
addition to the error string that has always been available. This is
an ongoing process, and future versions of this SDK reference will
document the error codes for each method call.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The hard disk and other media interfaces were completely
redesigned. This was necessary to account for the support of VMDK,
VHD and other image types; since backwards compatibility had to be
broken anyway, we seized the moment to redesign the interfaces in a
more logical way.</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Previously, the old IHardDisk interface had several
derivatives called IVirtualDiskImage, IVMDKImage, IVHDImage,
IISCSIHardDisk and ICustomHardDisk for the various disk formats
supported by VirtualBox. The new IHardDisk2 interface that comes
with version 2.1 now supports all hard disk image formats
itself.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>IHardDiskFormat is a new interface to describe the
available back-ends for hard disk images (e.g. VDI, VMDK, VHD or
iSCSI). The IHardDisk2::format attribute can be used to find out
the back-end that is in use for a particular hard disk image.
ISystemProperties::hardDiskFormats[] contains a list of all
back-ends supported by the system.
<link linkend="ISystemProperties__defaultHardDiskFormat">ISystemProperties::defaultHardDiskFormat</link>
contains the default system format.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>In addition, the new
<link linkend="IMedium">IMedium</link> interface is a generic
interface for hard disk, DVD and floppy images that contains the
attributes and methods shared between them. It can be considered
a parent class of the more specific interfaces for those images,
which are now IHardDisk2, IDVDImage2 and IFloppyImage2.</para>
<para>In each case, the "2" versions of these interfaces replace
the earlier versions that did not have the "2" suffix.
Previously, the IDVDImage and IFloppyImage interfaces were
entirely unrelated to IHardDisk.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>As a result, all parts of the API that previously
referenced IHardDisk, IDVDImage or IFloppyImage or any of the
old subclasses are gone and will have replacements that use
IHardDisk2, IDVDImage2 and IFloppyImage2; see, for example,
IMachine::attachHardDisk2.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>In particular, the IVirtualBox::hardDisks2 array replaces
the earlier IVirtualBox::hardDisks collection.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><link linkend="IGuestOSType">IGuestOSType</link> was
extended to group operating systems into families and for 64-bit
support.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The
<link linkend="IHostNetworkInterface">IHostNetworkInterface</link>
interface was completely rewritten to account for the changes in how
Host Interface Networking is now implemented in VirtualBox
2.1.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The IVirtualBox::machines2[] array replaces the former
IVirtualBox::machines collection.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Added
<link linkend="IHost__getProcessorFeature">IHost::getProcessorFeature()</link>
and <link linkend="ProcessorFeature">ProcessorFeature</link>
enumeration.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The parameter list for
<link linkend="IVirtualBox__createMachine">IVirtualBox::createMachine()</link>
was modified.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Added IMachine::pushGuestProperty.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>New attributes in IMachine: accelerate3DEnabled,
HWVirtExVPIDEnabled,
<computeroutput>IMachine::guestPropertyNotificationPatterns</computeroutput>,
<link linkend="IMachine__CPUCount">CPUCount</link>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Added
<link linkend="IConsole__powerUpPaused">IConsole::powerUpPaused()</link>
and
<link linkend="IConsole__getGuestEnteredACPIMode">IConsole::getGuestEnteredACPIMode()</link>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Removed ResourceUsage enumeration.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect1>
</chapter>
</book>
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