QuickTime 3 Reference
This section describes the details of creating a data handler component and includes source code for a simple data handler component. After reading this section, you will understand all of the special requirements of these components. The functional interface that your component must support is described in "Data Handler Components Reference" .
You should consider developing your own data handler component if you are planning to provide a new type of movie container or a container that requires special data handling techniques. For example, if you are planning to develop a networked multimedia server, you would most likely need to develop a new data handler that could support the special protocols required by your server. By encapsulating that protocol support in a data handler, QuickTime applications can access the movie data on your server without having to implement any special support. In this way, your server becomes a seamless part of the user's system.
Before reading this section, you should be familiar with how to create components. See "Component Manager" in Inside Macintosh: More Macintosh Toolbox for a complete description of components, how to use them, and how to create them on the Macintosh. For further information about using the Component Manager with QuickTime for Windows, see Creating Custom Components: QuickTime for Windows.