PSA: cricket::MediaChannel is going away

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Harald Alvestrand

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Mar 1, 2023, 9:49:43 AM3/1/23

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If you don’t use cricket::MediaChannel, cricket::VideoMediaChannel or cricket::VoiceMediaChannel, you can stop reading now.

The class “cricket::MediaChannel” has been identified as a significant barrier to refactoring of the WebRTC codebase. The intent is to remove this interface entirely; as a first step, we are splitting the MediaChannel into two different objects, one for sending and one for receiving.

This means that the VideoMediaChannel and VoiceMediaChannel classes will be similarly affected; the constructors for these objects have received a temporary update to indicate the role for which a channel is created (send, receive or both).

Long term action required

Stop using the MediaChannel and its derived interfaces.

Switch to using the supported APIs “RtpTransceiver”, “RtpSender” and “RtpReceiver”. If there is functionality that you are dependent on that isn’t available on these interfaces, contact the WebRTC team.

Short term action needed

If you depend on these interfaces, you can temporarily go on using them by passing a “role” parameter to the relevant Create calls. If you only send, you should use the role “kSend”; if you only receive, you should use the role “kReceive”. If you cannot disentangle the two immediately, use “kBoth”, and put a note in the tracking bug.