What is Dokan? (1 Viewer)

[onewithtom]

Hi, I've been looking through the MPII source and would love to have a go at building and experimenting with it as the whole archetecture and design looks so cool.

I did however have one question about Dokan as I'm not 100% sure what it is. I've read the documentation on the website about it being some filesystem driver. Does this mean it's an entirely different filesystem to windows? Can I still view/edit/delete these files with windows explorer? and could it affect my system performance by installing another driver? Does this mean that any File I/O on the system will do through this filesystem driver or just the MPII stuff.

Many Thanks

Tom

 

[Albert]

AW: What is Dokan?

Dokan is a driver which allows us to show media items, which can be located all over the system (other computer, inside an archive or iso, etc.), as if they were located in the local file system.
If you know Daemon Tools, it is very similar.

Dokan hooks into the Windows filesystem and provides an additional drive (in our case, by default R. If you choose a media item which is located at another computer, for example, MP 2 opens a network connection to that computer, loads the media item on-the-fly down and provides it through a path in that R: drive. When the playback ends, the virtual path to that item is automatically removed by our system.

The driver affects the system's performance not noticeable, if at all. If you open the virtual drive in the explorer, for example, MediaPortal answers all those requests. So the browsing in R: is not so fast as if you're browsing your local HDD.

 

[onewithtom]

Thanks for your response Albert, I understand it now, it a makes a lot of sense.

Thanks

 

[matejdro]

Can someone please send me setup for Dokan? Their site won't load for me.

mail is matejdro@gmail.com

 

[maphix]

Let me follow up on the original question and ask why does MediaPortal need to create new system drives? Why is it unable to access the resources without creating new system drive? I don't think it is correct for an application for viewing multimedia like MediaPortal to make such OS-level changes. The resources user gives MediaPortal access to should be accessible by MediaPortal only but this way MediaPortal makes it available to everything running on the system.
Thanks for clarification,
M.

 

[Albert]

AW: Re: What is Dokan?

Let me follow up on the original question and ask why does MediaPortal need to create new system drives? Why is it unable to access the resources without creating new system drive? I don't think it is correct for an application for viewing multimedia like MediaPortal to make such OS-level changes. The resources user gives MediaPortal access to should be accessible by MediaPortal only but this way MediaPortal makes it available to everything running on the system.
Thanks for clarification,
M.

The reason which makes it necessary to have an own filesystem driver is that we want to show media resources from heterogenous locations via heterogenous protocols. For example, in MP2, you can play music files which are located inside a RAR archive. Or you can play a DVD located in an ISO image. Or you can play media which is located at another MP2 client or server.

To make those resources available to the media source filters, which are part of the codec, it is sometimes necessary to provide a file path. In an ideal world, codecs would just need a data stream, but we often need to provide a file path.

 

[Coranth]

I don't like it. I installed and played around with MediaPortal II Tenth Anniversary, then uninstalled it only to find a while later some process called mounter32.exe; it was part of Dokan. I thought it was some kind of MALWARE. I've never liked the idea of 'hidden' third party "junk" or "drivers" being put on a user's system without their knowledge. If you use this Dokan thing - whatever it is or it's for - you need to state somewhere explicitly in the documentation for Mediaportal 2 that "we use x driver; here's what it's for."

"Dokan hooks into the Windows filesystem..."

Uh, no. Seriously. No. I don't like the idea of anything "hooking" into the windows filesystem thank you very much; it stinks of Malware, Virus, and Rootkit.

Dokan does not get uninstalled when Mediaportal 2 gets removed.

I don't know if I uninstalled Mediaportal 2 correctly; I did it via the MSI. But still, this is rather worrying. As far as I am concerned, I run a very clean system, and I don't like the idea of things being sneakily installed without my knowledge.

 

[mm1352000]

...then uninstalled it only to find a while later some process called mounter32.exe; it was part of Dokan.

How about raising that in a bug report where it might actually get noticed and fixed? This is a 2+ year old thread...
Here might be more appropriate:
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/mp2-uninstaller.122099/

I've never liked the idea of 'hidden' third party "junk" or "drivers" being put on a user's system without their knowledge. If you use this Dokan thing - whatever it is or it's for - you need to state somewhere explicitly in the documentation for Mediaportal 2 that "we use x driver; here's what it's for."

I get that you have had a bit of a shock. However, please believe me when I say nobody is trying to hide anything. Use of Dokan is explicitly stated and explained in the documentation as requested:
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/2_MEDIAPORTAL_2/8_Contribute/Development/Installer/Dokan
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/2_MEDIAPORTAL_2/6_Support/FAQ/Why_Dokan_???

If there is something more that you expected then by all means let us know.

Uh, no. Seriously. No. I don't like the idea of anything "hooking" into the windows filesystem thank you very much; it stinks of Malware, Virus, and Rootkit.

Constructive criticism would work much better for everyone I think.
MP2 tries to improve and simplify the experience of importing and accessing your media. Part of that simplification requires Dokan. If you don't like that design choice and would prefer to have more control over what is installed (maybe at the cost of slightly more complex configuration or a less powerful solution) then you're free to use other software. Not that I want you to do that. Just saying the option is on the table. Alternatively, by all means please feel free to suggest an alternative solution for what Dokan gives us. I know the team would actually really like to minimise or remove the dependency on Dokan as it is no longer actively developed...

Dokan does not get uninstalled when Mediaportal 2 gets removed.

As above: please file a bug report.
I note that it is possible that people may have installed Dokan for themselves, so blindly uninstalling Dokan when MP2 is uninstalled is not necessarily the best solution either.

As far as I am concerned, I run a very clean system, and I don't like the idea of things being sneakily installed without my knowledge.

I get that. As above, I'm sorry you've had a bad experience. Truly nobody is trying to hide anything and constructive criticism to help use know how we could have made it more obvious to you what is installed or suggestions for Dokan replacements with equivalent functionality would be appreciated.

Regards,
mm

 

[mrj]

Hi
There are already some jira issues about installing/uninstalling.
https://issues.team-mediaportal.com/i#browse/MP2-175

Among others, an issue to add the possibility to remove Dokan during uninstall.
https://issues.team-mediaportal.com/i#browse/MP2-170
/mrj