Edit

Registry Keys and Entries for a Type 1 Online Store

  • Article

[The feature associated with this page, Windows Media Player SDK, is a legacy feature. It has been superseded by MediaPlayer. MediaPlayer has been optimized for Windows 10 and Windows 11. Microsoft strongly recommends that new code use MediaPlayer instead of Windows Media Player SDK, when possible. Microsoft suggests that existing code that uses the legacy APIs be rewritten to use the new APIs if possible.]

To make a type 1 online store available in Windows Media Player, the online store provider must create the following registry subkeys and entries on the user's computer.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Subscriptions\keyName]
"Capabilities"=dword:flags
"SubscriptionObjectGUID"=clsid
"FriendlyName"=friendlyName

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AppID\appid]
@=pluginName
"DllSurrogate"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\clsid]
@=className
"AppID"="appid"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\clsid\InprocServer32]
@=moduleName
"ThreadingModel"="threading"

Note

Setting the value of DllSurrogate to the empty string indicates that the COM runtime will load the online store's plug-in into the default DLL surrogate, dllhost.exe.

In the preceding registry syntax, the symbols in italic are placeholders for names and globally unique identifiers (GUIDs) that are specific to the online store. The following table describes those placeholders.

Placeholder Description
keyName A string agreed upon between Microsoft and the online store. This string uniquely identifies the online store.Example: "Proseware"
flags A bitwise OR of one or more plug-in capability flags These flags specify whether Windows Media Player should call particular methods of IWMPContentPartner. For information about supported flags, see the table of plug-in capability flags that follows this table.Example: 00000058
clsid A GUID that is the class identifier (CLSID) for the class that implements IWMPContentPartner in the online store's plug-in. This GUID must be in registry format, complete with the curly braces.Format: {xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}
friendlyname A friendly name for the online store.Example: "Proseware Music Service"
appid A GUID that is the application identifier (AppID) for the online store's plug-in. This GUID must be in registry format, complete with the curly braces.Format: {xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}
pluginName A name for the online store's plug-in.Example: "Proseware Content Partner Plug-in"
className The name of the class that implements IWMPContentpartner in the online store's plug-in.Example: "CProsewarePartner"
moduleName The fully qualified path to the DLL that implements the online store's plug-in.Example: "C:\Program Files\Proseware\ProsewarePartner.dll"
threading The type of apartment the plug-in runs in. "ThreadingModel"="Apartment" indicates that the plug-in runs in a single-threaded apartment (STA). "ThreadingModel"="Free" indicates that the plug-in runs in the multithreaded apartment (MTA).

The following table describes the plug-in capability flags.

Flag Value Description
SUBSCRIPTION_CAP_BACKGROUNDPROCESSING 0x8 Windows Media Player should call IWMPContentPartner::Notify to inform the plug-in when it should start and stop background processing.
SUBSCRIPTION_CAP_DEVICEAVAILABLE 0x10 Windows Media Player should call IWMPContentPartner::UpdateDevice.
SUBSCRIPTION_CAP_IS_CONTENTPARTNER 0x40 Informs Windows Media Player that the plug-in implements the IWMPContentPartner interface. All type 1 online store plug-ins must set this flag.
SUBSCRIPTION_CAP_ALTLOGIN 0x80 Informs Windows Media Player that the plug-in supports an alternate login. If the plug-in supports an alternate login, Windows Media Player retrieves the alternate login URL and caption by calling IWMPContentPartner::GetItemInfo.

Registry Entries for Development and Testing

When you begin developing your online store, Microsoft provides you with two keys: a test key and a production key. During the development and testing phase, your online store will appear in Windows Media Player only if your test key or your production key is in the registry on the user's computer. For more information about the test and production keys, see Test and Production Keys for a Type 1 Online Store.

Place your test or production key in the following location in the registry.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Services]
"TestParameter" = "key1;key2;...;keyN"

Note that the value of the TestParameter registry entry can specify multiple test or production keys. For example, suppose that Proseware has a test key of "1234" and Contoso has a test key of "2345". The following registry entry specifies that the test stores for Proseware and Contoso will appear in Windows Media Player.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Services]
"TestParameter" = "1234;2345"

ActiveService Registry Entry

When the user activates an online store, Windows Media Player writes information in the registry that identifies the active online store. Windows Media Player places the information in the following location in the registry on the user's computer.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Subscriptions]
"ActiveService"=serviceInfo

In the preceding registry syntax, serviceInfo is a placeholder for a string that contains descriptive information about the active online store.

Reference for Type 1 Online Stores