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/*!
    \page qtcanbus-backends.html
    \title Qt CAN Bus

    \brief Implemented Qt CAN Bus.

    A Controller Area Network (CAN) is a vehicle bus standard designed to allow microcontrollers
    and devices to communicate with each other in applications without a host computer.

    \section1 Overview

    It is a message-based protocol, designed originally for multiplex electrical wiring within
    automobiles, but is also used in many other contexts.

    The CAN Bus API provides some common API to access the CAN devices:

    \list
        \li QCanBusDevice provides an API for direct access to the CAN device.
        \li QCanBusFrame defines a CAN frame that can be written and read from QCanBusDevice.
    \endlist

    Multiple vendors provide CAN devices with varying APIs for access. The QtSerialBus module
    supports the following sets of CAN bus backends:

    \table
        \header
            \li Vendor
            \li Backend (key)
            \li Brief description
        \row
            \li CAN over Linux sockets
            \li \l {Using SocketCAN Backend}{SocketCAN} (\c socketcan)
            \li CAN bus backend using Linux sockets and open source drivers.
        \row
            \li PEAK-System
            \li \l {Using PeakCAN Backend}{PeakCAN} (\c peakcan)
            \li CAN bus backend using the PEAK CAN adapters.
        \row
            \li MHS Elektronik
            \li \l {Using TinyCAN Backend}{TinyCAN} (\c tinycan)
            \li CAN bus backend using the MHS CAN adapters.
    \endtable

    \section1 Implementing a Custom CAN Plugin

    If the plugins provided by Qt are not suitable for the required target platform,
    a custom CAN bus plugin can be implemented. The implementation follows the standard
    way of implementing Qt plug-ins. The custom plugin must be deployed
    to \c {$QTDIR/plugins/canbus}.

    Each plugin must define a key, which is used to load the plugin. This is done via a small json
    file. For example, the socketcan plugin uses the following \c {plugin.json}:

    \code
    {
        "Key": "socketcan"
    }
    \endcode

    This key must be passed to \l {QCanBus::createDevice()} together with the interface name of
    the CAN bus adapter. QCanBus loads and instantiates the plugin using the QCanBusFactory
    interface which each plugin must implement as central entry point. The interface acts as
    a factory and its sole purpose is to return a \l QCanBusDevice instance. The above mentioned
    interface name is passed on via the factory's \l QCanBusFactory::createDevice() method.
    The following is the factory implementation of the \e socketcan plugin:

    \snippet main.cpp SocketCanFactory

    The next step is to provide an implementation of QCanBusDevice. At the very least, the
    following pure virtual functions must be implemented:

    \list
        \li \l QCanBusDevice::open()
        \li \l QCanBusDevice::close()
        \li \l QCanBusDevice::writeFrame()
        \li \l QCanBusDevice::interpretErrorFrame()
    \endlist

    The \l {QCanBusDevice::open()}{open()} and \l {QCanBusDevice::close()}{close()}
    methods are used in conjuntion with \l QCanBusDevice::connectDevice() and
    \l QCanBusDevice::disconnectDevice() respectively. Check the
    function documentation for implementation details.

    \l QCanBusDevice::writeFrame() is responsible for sanity checks such as the validity
    of the \l QCanBusFrame and that the device is still connected. Provided
    that the checks passed, it writes the frame to the CAN bus. Upon success it emits
    the \l QCanBusDevice::framesWritten() signal; otherwise \l QCanBusDevice::setError() is
    called with an appropriate error message. This function may also be used to implement
    an asynchronous write operation. It is the plugin implementors responsibility to emit
    the appropriate signals at the appropriate time.

    Last but not least, \l QCanBusDevice::interpretErrorFrame provides a convenient way
    to translate the content of an CAN bus error frame to a human-readable error string.
 */
