The QuickTime for Java API

If you're a Java or QuickTime programmer and want to harness the power of QuickTime's multimedia engine, you'll find a number of important advantages to using the QuickTime for Java API. A C Quicktime API also exists. But we focus only on the Java API in this course.

For one thing, the API lets you access QuickTime's native runtime libraries and, additionally, provides you with a feature rich Application Framework that enables you to integrate QuickTime capabilities into Java software.

Aside from representation in Java, QuickTime for Java also provides a set of packages that forms the basis for the Application Framework found in the quicktime.app group. The focus of these packages is to present different kinds of media. The framework uses the interfaces in the quicktime.app packages to abstract and express common functionality that exists between different QuickTime objects.

As such, the services that the QuickTime for Java Application Framework renders to the developer can be viewed as belonging to the following categories:

• creation of objects that present different forms of media, using QTFactory. makeDrawable() methods
• various utilities (classes and methods) for dealing with single images as well as groups of related images
• spaces and controllers architecture, which enables you to deal with complex data generation or presentation requirements
• composition services that allow the complex layering and blending of different image sources
• timing services that enable you to schedule and control time-related activities
• video and audio media capture from external sources
• exposure of the QuickTime visual effects architecture

All of these are built on top of the services that QuickTime provides. They provided interfaces and classes in the quicktime.app packages can be used as a basis for developers to build on and extend in new ways, not just as a set of utility classes you can use.