Onvif - trying to understand how it works

Question

First of all, I have no experience in working with ONVIF at all. I got myself a scholarship at a company and was asked to work with it (to control some cameras and get photos from them), but they don't know how it works either, so no-one can help me much...

I was reading through the specifications available at the ONVIF webpage but I don't really get it. I know I have to use SOAP, C (I was asked to do the app in C), XML and web services. That much I understand but I don't know how am I supposed to use them. I'm not here so that you can do the work for me (that ain't fun) I just would like to know if someone here could guide me a little about what to start learning and in which order. If there's something I forgot to explain I'll add it as soon as I can.

Answer 1

So, you have to start with gSOAP.

Pelco has a guide to get started with gSOAP, it is for windows but it is valid for Linux as well. As you start learning gSOAP, check the last FAQ of gSOAP about the namespaces.

Finally, on the ONVIF website there's an Application Programmers Guide, which is old but still interesting. ONVIF has a forum for all people willing to learn the protocol. It does not require you to be member to access it, you can join it for free and check all the questions there.

Answer 2

A good approach is to study existing code from open source projects. A few of them can be found from an ONVIF challenge top 10 list. Also from the top 7 ONVIF open source projects. Especially it looks the following ones should be a good starting points:

• An ONVIF Service Server - onvif_srvd which runs on a linux machine so that your RTSP cameras will be discoverable by other ONVIF tools or clients.
• An ONVIF server for PI that turns a webcam into an IP Camera.
• An ONVIF client with GUI built-in.