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| author | Jordan Wiens <jordan@psifertex.com> | 2021-08-17 11:41:50 -0400 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Jordan Wiens <jordan@psifertex.com> | 2021-08-17 11:41:50 -0400 |
| commit | 401b73b242bc9447bd12215b17ea8ce215c7d6ed (patch) | |
| tree | 58307b57c435d48e17f0b382cf26beb4bde601b4 /docs/dev/api.md | |
| parent | 6312556eede2d80978f7f77ce8757f5290d5a900 (diff) | |
add more general API documentation and numerous other documentation improvements
Diffstat (limited to 'docs/dev/api.md')
| -rw-r--r-- | docs/dev/api.md | 42 |
1 files changed, 42 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/docs/dev/api.md b/docs/dev/api.md index e69de29b..1009bb82 100644 --- a/docs/dev/api.md +++ b/docs/dev/api.md @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ +# Using the Binary Ninja API + +## Language Specific Bindings + +The Binary Ninja API is available through a [Core API](#core-api), through the [C++ API](#c-api), through a [Python API](#python-api), and a [Rust API](#rust-api). + + +### Core API + +The Core API is designed to only be used as a shim from other languages and is not currently intended to be used to build C plugins directly. + + - [Header](https://github.com/Vector35/binaryninja-api/blob/dev/binaryninjacore.h) (used by all other bindings) + +### C++ API + +The C++ API is what the Binary Ninja UI itself is built using so it's a robust and fully feature-complete interface to the core, however, it does not have the same level of detail in the documentation. + + - [C++ Header](https://github.com/Vector35/binaryninja-api/blob/dev/binaryninjaapi.h) (along with the rest of the [repository](https://github.com/Vector35/binaryninja-api) + - [Build Instructions](https://github.com/Vector35/binaryninja-api#building) + - [C++ / UI API Documentation](https://api.binary.ninja/cpp/) + + +### Python API + +The most heavily documented of all of the APIs, the Python API serves as a useful documentation for the other APIs. Here's a list of the most important Python API documentation resources: + + - [Writing Python Plugins](plugins.md) + - [Python API](https://api.binary.ninja/) + - [API Source](https://github.com/Vector35/binaryninja-api/tree/dev/python) + +### Rust API + +The Rust API is still experimental and lacks complete coverage for all core APIs. Instructions on using are available in: + + - [Rust API](https://github.com/Vector35/binaryninja-api/tree/dev/rust) + + +## UI Elements + +There are several ways to create UI elements in Binary Ninja. The first is to use the simplified [interaction](https://api.binary.ninja/binaryninja.interaction-module.html) API which lets you make simple UI elements for use in GUI plugins in Binary Ninja. As an added bonus, they all have fallbacks that will work in headless console-based applications as well. Plugins that use these API include the [angr](https://github.com/Vector35/binaryninja-api/blob/dev/python/examples/angr_plugin.py) and [nampa](https://github.com/kenoph/nampa) plugins. + +The second and more powerful (but more complicated) mechanism is to leverage the _binaryninjaui_ module. Additional documentation is forthcoming, but there are several examples ([1](https://github.com/Vector35/binaryninja-api/tree/dev/python/examples/kaitai), [2](https://github.com/Vector35/binaryninja-api/tree/dev/python/examples/snippets), [3](https://github.com/Vector35/binaryninja-api/tree/dev/python/examples/triage)), and most of the APIs are backed by the [documented C++ headers](https://api.binary.ninja/cpp). Additionally, the generated _binaryninjaui_ module is shipped with each build of binaryninja and the usual python `dir()` instructions are helpful for exploring its capabilities. |
