Skip to content
Back to top
View this page

# ScreenCast

## Description

Screen cast portal

The Screen cast portal allows to create screen cast sessions.

This documentation describes version 5 of this interface.

## Properties

### org.freedesktop.portal.ScreenCast:AvailableSourceTypes

    AvailableSourceTypes readable u

A bitmask of available source types. Currently defined types are:

- `1`: MONITOR: Share existing monitors

- `2`: WINDOW: Share application windows

- `4`: VIRTUAL: Extend with new virtual monitor

### org.freedesktop.portal.ScreenCast:AvailableCursorModes

    AvailableCursorModes readable u

A bitmask of available cursor modes.

Available cursor mode values:

- `1`: Hidden. The cursor is not part of the screen cast stream.

- `2`: Embedded: The cursor is embedded as part of the stream buffers.

- `4`: Metadata: The cursor is not part of the screen cast stream, but sent as PipeWire stream metadata.

This property was added in version 2 of this interface.

### org.freedesktop.portal.ScreenCast:version

    version readable u

## Methods

### org.freedesktop.portal.ScreenCast.CreateSession

    CreateSession (
      IN options a{sv},
      OUT handle o
    )

Create a screen cast session. A successfully created session can at any time be closed using org.freedesktop.portal.Session.Close, or may at any time be closed by the portal implementation, which will be signalled via org.freedesktop.portal.Session::Closed.

Supported keys in the `options` vardict include:

- `handle_token` (`s`)

  A string that will be used as the last element of the `handle`. Must be a valid object path element. See the Request documentation for more information about the `handle`.

- `session_handle_token` (`s`)

  A string that will be used as the last element of the session handle. Must be a valid object path element. See the Session documentation for more information about the session handle.

The following results get returned via the org.freedesktop.portal.Request::Response signal:

- `session_handle` (`s`)

  The session handle. An object path for the Session object representing the created session.

  Note

  The `session_handle` is an object path that was erroneously implemented as `s`. For backwards compatibility it will remain this type.

options

  Vardict with optional further information

handle

  Object path for the Request object representing this call

### org.freedesktop.portal.ScreenCast.SelectSources

    SelectSources (
      IN session_handle o,
      IN options a{sv},
      OUT handle o
    )

Configure what the screen cast session should record. This method must be called before starting the session.

Passing invalid input to this method will cause the session to be closed. An application may only attempt to select sources once per session.

Supported keys in the `options` vardict include:

- `handle_token` (`s`)

  A string that will be used as the last element of the `handle`. Must be a valid object path element. See the Request documentation for more information about the `handle`.

- `types` (`u`)

  Bitmask of what types of content to record. Default is MONITOR.

- `multiple` (`b`)

  Whether to allow selecting multiple sources. Default is no.

- `cursor_mode` (`u`)

  Determines how the cursor will be drawn in the screen cast stream. It must be one of the cursor modes advertised in org.freedesktop.portal.ScreenCast:AvailableCursorModes. Setting a cursor mode not advertised will cause the screen cast session to be closed. The default cursor mode is ‘Hidden’.

  This option was added in version 2 of this interface.

- `restore_token` (`s`)

  The token to restore a previous session.

  If the stored session cannot be restored, this value is ignored and the user will be prompted normally. This may happen when, for example, the session contains a monitor or a window that is not available anymore, or when the stored permissions are withdrawn.

  The restore token is invalidated after using it once. To restore the same session again, use the new restore token sent in response to starting this session.

  Setting a restore_token is only allowed for screen cast sessions. Persistent remote desktop screen cast sessions can only be handled via the Remote Desktop interface.

  This option was added in version 4 of this interface.

- `persist_mode` (`u`)

  How this session should persist. Default is 0. Accepted values are:

  - `0`: Do not persist (default)

  - `1`: Permissions persist as long as the application is running

  - `2`: Permissions persist until explicitly revoked

  Setting persist_mode is only allowed for screen cast sessions. Persistent remote desktop screen cast sessions can only be handled via the Remote Desktop interface.

  If the permission for the session to persist is granted, a restore token will be returned via the org.freedesktop.portal.Request::Response signal of the org.freedesktop.portal.ScreenCast.Start method.

  This option was added in version 4 of this interface.

For available source types, see the AvailableSourceTypes property.

session_handle

  Object path for the Session object

options

  Vardict with optional further information

handle

  Object path for the Request object representing this call

### org.freedesktop.portal.ScreenCast.Start

    Start (
      IN session_handle o,
      IN parent_window s,
      IN options a{sv},
      OUT handle o
    )

Start the screen cast session. This will typically result the portal presenting a dialog letting the user do the selection set up by org.freedesktop.portal.ScreenCast.SelectSources. An application can only attempt start a session once.

A screen cast session may only be started after having selected sources using org.freedesktop.portal.ScreenCast.SelectSources.

Supported keys in the `options` vardict include:

- `handle_token` (`s`)

  A string that will be used as the last element of the `handle`. Must be a valid object path element. See the Request documentation for more information about the `handle`.

The following results get returned via the org.freedesktop.portal.Request::Response signal:

- `streams` (`a(ua{sv})`)

  An array of PipeWire streams. Each stream consists of a PipeWire node ID (the first element in the tuple, and a Vardict of properties.

  The array will contain a single stream if ‘multiple’ (see org.freedesktop.portal.ScreenCast.SelectSources) was set to ‘false’, or at least one stream if ‘multiple’ was set to ‘true’ as part of the org.freedesktop.portal.ScreenCast.SelectSources method.

  Each stream contains the following properties:

  - `id` (`s`)

    Opaque identifier. Will be unique for this stream and local to this session. Will persist with future sessions, if they are restored using a restore token. This property was added in version 4 of this interface. Optional.

  - `position` (`(ii)`)

    A tuple consisting of the position (x, y) in the compositor coordinate space. Note that the position may not be equivalent to a position in a pixel coordinate space. Only available for monitor streams. Optional.

  - `size` (`(ii)`)

    A tuple consisting of (width, height). The size represents the size of the stream as it is displayed in the compositor coordinate space. Note that this size may not be equivalent to a size in a pixel coordinate space. The size may differ from the size of the stream. Optional.

  - `source_type` (`u`)

    The type of the content which is being screen casted. For available source types, see the AvailableSourceTypes property. This property was added in version 3 of this interface.

  - `mapping_id` (`s`)

    An optional identifier used to map different aspects of the resource this stream corresponds to.

    When used in a remote desktop session, the mapping_id can be used to match a libei region of absolute libei devices. There may be multiple absolute libei devices, and each device may have multiple regions, but a mapping_id will only match one of these regions per device.

    This property was added in version 5 of this interface.

- `restore_token` (`s`)

  The restore token. This token is a single use token that can later be used to restore a session. See org.freedesktop.portal.ScreenCast.SelectSources for details.

  This response option was added in version 4 of this interface.

session_handle

  Object path for the Session object

parent_window

  Identifier for the application window, see Window Identifiers

options

  Vardict with optional further information

handle

  Object path for the Request object representing this call

### org.freedesktop.portal.ScreenCast.OpenPipeWireRemote

    OpenPipeWireRemote (
      IN session_handle o,
      IN options a{sv},
      OUT fd h
    )

Open a file descriptor to the PipeWire remote where the screen cast streams are available. The file descriptor should be used to create a <classname>pw_core</classname> object, by using <function>pw_context_connect_fd</function>. Only the screen cast stream nodes will be available from this PipeWire node.

session_handle

  Object path for the Session object

options

  Vardict with optional further information

fd

  File descriptor of an open PipeWire remote.