Standard version: 2.0

Major Change

Private data is parameter data a plugin keeps in its own data structures. These are for large or complex data types that can't be represented with the current parameter set. For example a custom roto-spline parameter. For persistance, and possibly animation, private data needs to be synced back into a plugin's actual parameter set at some point so the host can deal with the data appropriately. Syncing is currently done by serialisation into a string param (or in the future, a binary blob param). 

Note that private data should not be used to cache intermediate computations (such as motion vectors). We need a separate cache suite for that.

There is an action, kOfxActionSyncPrivateData, which a host calls when it needs the plugin to serialise its private data into OFX parameters. Currently the documentation of how to manage private data and how to sync that data to persistent parameters is unclear.

Furthermore, when a host needs to calculate a cache signature, the host application needs the plugin to sync it's private data into the parameter set. This is potentially expensive and could lead to a noticable decrease in performance, eg: a point on our custom roto spline being dragged interactively would make the entire (possibly large) spline set be synced back at every pointer move before a render, just to calculate a hash.

Better documentation of the private data syncing mechanism would help alot.

To minimise the number of private param synchronisation events we need to have the plugin generate a signature for the private data on behalf of the host application. This will require…

• a new parameter property kOfxParamPropPrivateDataParam, which is used to indicate that private data will be saved into that param during a kOfxActionSyncPrivateData. When constructing a signature for the parameter, the host this param and let the plugin sign any data behind it,
• a new action kOfxActionSignPrivateData which the host uses to have the plugin signing all the private data without serialising, this gets put into the outargs property...
• kOfxParamPropPrivateDataSignature, which is the signature for all private data in the param set. The host should use this instead of any hash from params flaged with kOfxParamPropPrivateDataParam