Helper Methods

Every ONVIF service provides four essential helper methods to improve the development experience and make working with ONVIF operations more intuitive:

Info

These helper methods are available on all ONVIF services (devicemgmt(), media(), ptz(), events(), imaging(), analytics(), etc.) (via ONVIFService class inheritance) and provide a consistent API for exploring and using ONVIF capabilities across different device types and manufacturers.

type(type_name)

Creates and returns an instance of the specified ONVIF type for building complex request parameters (applied at >=v0.1.9).

Parameters:

Name	Type	Required	Description
type_name	str	✅ Yes	Name of the type to create (e.g., 'SetHostname', 'SetIPAddressFilter')

Returns:

Type	Description
Any	Type instance that can be populated with data

Usage:

device = client.devicemgmt()

# Create a new user object
new_user = device.type('CreateUsers')
new_user.User.append({
    "Username": 'new_user', 
    "Password": 'new_password', 
    "UserLevel": 'User'
})
device.CreateUsers(new_user)

# Set hostname
hostname = device.type('SetHostname')
hostname.Name = 'NewHostname'
device.SetHostname(hostname)

# Configure system time
time_params = device.type('SetSystemDateAndTime')
time_params.DateTimeType = 'NTP'
time_params.DaylightSavings = True
time_params.TimeZone.TZ = 'UTC+02:00'
now = datetime.now()
time_params.UTCDateTime.Date.Year = now.year
time_params.UTCDateTime.Date.Month = now.month
time_params.UTCDateTime.Date.Day = now.day
time_params.UTCDateTime.Time.Hour = now.hour
time_params.UTCDateTime.Time.Minute = now.minute
time_params.UTCDateTime.Time.Second = now.second
device.SetSystemDateAndTime(time_params)

operations()

Lists all available operations for the current service (applied at >=v0.2.0).

Returns:

Type	Description
list[str] | list	List of operation names that can be called on the service

Usage:

device = client.devicemgmt()
media = client.media()
ptz = client.ptz()

# List all available operations for each service
print("Device Management Operations:")
for op in device.operations():
    print(f"  - {op}")

print("\nMedia Operations:")
for op in media.operations():
    print(f"  - {op}")

print("\nPTZ Operations:")
for op in ptz.operations():
    print(f"  - {op}")

# Check if specific operation is supported
if 'ContinuousMove' in ptz.operations():
    print("PTZ continuous movement is supported")

desc(method_name)

Provides comprehensive documentation and parameter information for any ONVIF operation (applied at >=v0.2.0).

Parameters:

Name	Type	Required	Description
method_name	str	✅ Yes	Name of the method to describe (e.g., 'GetDeviceInformation', 'SetHostname')

Returns:

Type	Description
dict	Operation documentation dictionary

Documentation dict

Key	Type	Description
doc	str | None	Method documentation from WSDL.
required	list[str]	List of required parameter names; empty if none are available.
optional	list[str]	List of optional parameter names; empty if none are available.
method_name	str	The method name.
service_name	str	The service name.

Usage:

device = client.devicemgmt()

# Get detailed information about a method
info = device.desc('GetDeviceInformation')
print(info['doc'])
print("Required params:", info['required'])
print("Optional params:", info['optional'])

# Explore available methods first
methods = device.operations()
for method in methods[:5]:  # Show first 5 methods
    info = device.desc(method)
    print(
        f"{method}: {len(info['required'])} required, "
        f"{len(info['optional'])} optional"
    )

to_dict(zeep_object)

Converts a Zeep object (zeep.objects) (the raw result returned from ONVIF operations) into a native Python dictionary that is easy to serialize, inspect, and manipulate (applied at >=v0.2.9).

Parameters:

Name	Type	Required	Description
zeep_object	Any	✅ Yes	The zeep object returned from ONVIF operations

Returns:

Type	Description
dict	Python dict representation of the Zeep object. Returns an empty dict {} if zeep_object is None or if conversion fails for any reason.

Usage:

device = client.devicemgmt()
media = client.media()
ptz = client.ptz()

# Convert device information result to dictionary
info = device.GetDeviceInformation()
info_dict = device.to_dict(info)
print("Manufacturer:", info_dict["Manufacturer"])
print("Model:", info_dict["Model"])
print("FirmwareVersion:", info_dict["FirmwareVersion"])

# Convert media profiles (usually a list of complex objects)
profiles = media.GetProfiles()
profiles_dict = media.to_dict(profiles)
for profile in profiles_dict:
    print(
        f"Profile: {profile.get('Name')} (token={profile.get('token')})"
    )

# Convert PTZ configuration
configs = ptz.GetConfigurations()
configs_dict = ptz.to_dict(configs)
print(f"Found {len(configs_dict)} PTZ configurations")

# Safe handling of None results
empty_result = None
safe_dict = device.to_dict(empty_result)  # Returns {}
assert safe_dict == {}