OTIO Sync Plugin for OpenRV

An OpenRV plugin that synchronises OTIO timeline state between multiple OpenRV instances in real time, using RabbitMQ as the message bus.

Requirements

• OpenRV 2.0.0 or later
• RabbitMQ running locally (default: localhost:5672)
• opentimelineio installed in your Python environment
• pika (vendored into the .rvpkg bundle by makepackage.csh)

Building and Installing

Build the package:

cd rvplugin/ori_sync
./makepackage.csh

Install into OpenRV:

./reinstall.csh

reinstall.csh rebuilds the package, removes any existing installation, and installs + enables the plugin in one step.

Environment Variables

Variable	Type	Description
DEBUG_OTIO_SYNC	any non-empty value	Enables console logging of all sync events. Set to any non-empty string to activate (e.g. export DEBUG_OTIO_SYNC=1).
ORI_SYNC_LOG_FILE	file path	Writes timestamped debug logs to the specified file (e.g. export ORI_SYNC_LOG_FILE=/tmp/otio_sync.log). Independent of DEBUG_OTIO_SYNC — both can be active at the same time.

Both variables are read at plugin load time. Changes made after OpenRV starts will have no effect.

Example

export DEBUG_OTIO_SYNC=1
export ORI_SYNC_LOG_FILE=/tmp/otio_sync.log
open /Applications/OpenRV.app

How it works

On connect the plugin broadcasts a WHO_IS_MASTER discovery message and waits up to 2 seconds for a response. On the Create Session path, no response means this instance promotes itself to master and initialises a fresh OTIO timeline. On the Join Session path, no response means the named session doesn’t exist — the connect fails with a “Session Not Found” warning instead of silently starting an empty one under that name. Subsequent instances that do find a master receive I_AM_MASTER, request a full state snapshot, and then sync incremental deltas (property changes, clip insertions, annotations) as they occur.

The Create/Join dialogs also show the resolved account identity (read-only — the underlying OS/account login, distinct from the editable display-name field below it) so you can confirm which account you’re about to connect as.

Site config file

A JSON file named ori_site_config.json, dropped into this plugin’s folder (alongside plugin.py/utils.py), pre-defines the MQ Host default shown in the connect dialogs:

{
  "host": "mq.example.com",
  "port": 5672
}

Precedence: a value typed into the dialog > the ORI_RMQ_HOST environment variable > this file > the hardcoded 127.0.0.1 fallback. A missing or malformed file is silently ignored.