Data Pipes

The Data Pipes API allows for passing arbitrary types around the node graph. It works similarly to the existing support for audio and video buffers, and is similar to programming with the existing audio Pipes API. Ports are typed using generics, and only ports of the same type may be connected together. The type shows as the port category in the UI.

Unlike control messages, but like audio and video, data is pulled through the graph from a sink. The Data.Sink type cab be provided with functions for controlling what happens when multiple connections are made to ports. You must pass an object representing the data to the sink process method - the returned object may be the same or different depending on how you configure the processing graph.

eg. to provide a list of PVector geometry to draw (NB. you can cache a list of geometry, but remember that if you change the PVectors inside it, you'll have to reset them - they are not copied by default!)

Example

Component 1 (core:custom)

@Out(1) Data.Out<List<PVector>> out;

public void init() {
    Data.link(
        Data.supply(this::geometry),
        out
    );
}

List<PVector> geometry() {
    // generate geom
    return list;
}

Component 2 (video:gl:p3d)

@AuxIn(1) Data.In<List<PVector>> geom;

@Inject Data.Sink<List<PVector>> sink;

public void setup() {
    Data.link(geom, sink.input());
}

public void draw() {
    // passing empty list means we'll do nothing if not connected
    // to previous component
    for (PVector v : sink.process(Collections.emptyList()) {
        // do something with v
    }
}

In a similar way you can share code from components by passing interfaces, in particular the Java 8+ functional types can be passed and composed.