Summary
This describes the basic requirements for calling Video Control Center from third party applications.
Third party applications can integrate with VCC using Basic or Advanced Integration:
- Basic Integration is limited in functionality, and software can pass data in to VCC via command line parameters
- Advanced Integration uses SignalR to facilitate communications between VCC and third party automation software.
Requirements
- Up to date installation of Base Video Control Center, and VCC video drivers for the types of cameras you wish to connect to, or the Full Video Control Center containing all video drivers.
- Access to the DevOps BoldGroupNuget artifact
- VideoControlCenter.Models NuGet package
Basic Integration
Basic integration involves calling the Video Control Center executable with command line options indicating the location of a JSON or XML file containing the serialized data from the VideoControlCenter.Models.VccVideoRequest data object.
Basic integration is a stand alone integration, and some functionality (such as fetching and storing reference images, and storing static images and video clips back to automation) are disabled. Communication is one way from the automation software to VCC.
Running Video Control Center for basic integration
Video Control Center takes command line options for passing in required information to view cameras:
-c : File name and path for XML or JSON serialized VccVideoRequest object
-u : Required for stand alone mode
For example, to launch VCC with the JSON file "cameras.json":
C:\Program Files (x86)\Bold Technologies\Manitou\VCC\VideoControlCenter.exe -u -cC:\Temp\cameras.json
Video Control Center can take either XML or JSON serialized files over the command line. Files must have an extension of .XML or .JSON.
See Video Control Center - VCC Data Models for use with Third Party Integrations for details on required fields in the VccVideoRequest object.
Advanced Integration
Advanced integration involves calling the Video Control Center with information about a SignalR server to connect to, and then passing in the required VccVideoRequest object over this connection. VCC acts as a SignalR client, and needs to be given information on the SignalR server it should connect to.
Advanced integration allows two way communication between VCC and the automation software, allowing things such as fetching and storing reference images, transmitting static images or video clips back to automation for integrated storage, and basic activity logging.
Further documentation on advanced integration is pending.
