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HID report descriptor format library

This project utilizes C++20 language features (notably constexpr) to implement a unified standalone library for creating and parsing HID report descriptors. It's designed to ease the HID report protocol handling on both the HID device and host side.

Features

  • Easy to use C++ syntax (no macros) to define and reuse HID report descriptors and reports (or their building blocks)
  • HID usage tables code generator support, with extension possibilities
  • Base hid::rdf::parser design for implementing any custom descriptor parsing logic, for both compile and runtime
  • HID report descriptors are validated for common errors at compile time by hid::report_protocol 1

Getting started

Common samples

The hid-rp/hid/app folder contains definitions for the most common HID applications, such as a keyboard or a mouse. They take an optional report ID template parameter, so they can either be standalone, or easily combined into a multiple TLC protocol.

stm32-i2c-hid

HID over I2C demonstration using a generic STM32 devkit, tested with Raspberry Pi as the host.

Motivation

The HID report descriptor format (HID RDF) is a unique descriptor format that was standardized in the USB HID class specification (pdf). An HID peripheral device uses this descriptor to explain the internal layout of its messages to the host system. This descriptor is therefore fixed at design time on the peripheral device, while the host system has to parse it to understand the purpose(s) of the peripheral and its messages (known as reports).

As the format is designed to consume the least amount of resources (non-volatile memory), it is condensed, meaning that each item's size can vary between 1 and 5 bytes, depending on the size of the value carried in it. This property makes it complicated for the descriptor - that is stored as a raw array of bytes - to be created from a variable amount of variable size items in a structured way.

Therefore the conventional way to define these descriptors has been to calculate the items by hand/script and write the resulting raw bytes into the source code:

const unsigned char mouse_report_desc[] = {
    0x05, 0x01,    // USAGE_PAGE (Generic Desktop)
    0x09, 0x02,    // USAGE (Mouse)
    0xa1, 0x01,    // COLLECTION (Application)
    0x09, 0x01,    //   USAGE (Pointer)
    0xa1, 0x00,    //   COLLECTION (Physical)
    0x05, 0x09,    //     USAGE_PAGE (Buttons)
    0x19, 0x01,    //     USAGE_MINIMUM (Button 1)
    0x29, 0x03,    //     USAGE_MAXIMUM (Button 3)
    0x15, 0x00,    //     LOGICAL_MINIMUM (0)
    0x25, 0x01,    //     LOGICAL_MAXIMUM (1)
    0x95, 0x03,    //     REPORT_COUNT (3)
    0x75, 0x01,    //     REPORT_SIZE (1)
    0x81, 0x02,    //     INPUT (Data,Var,Abs)
    0x95, 0x01,    //     REPORT_COUNT (1)
    0x75, 0x05,    //     REPORT_SIZE (5)
    0x81, 0x03,    //     INPUT (Cnst,Var,Abs)
    0x05, 0x01,    //     USAGE_PAGE (Generic Desktop)
    0x09, 0x30,    //     USAGE (X)
    0x09, 0x31,    //     USAGE (Y)
    0x15, 0x81,    //     LOGICAL_MINIMUM (-127)
    0x25, 0x7f,    //     LOGICAL_MAXIMUM (127)
    0x75, 0x08,    //     REPORT_SIZE (8)
    0x95, 0x02,    //     REPORT_COUNT (2)
    0x81, 0x06,    //     INPUT (Data,Var,Rel)
    0xc0,          //   END_COLLECTION
    0xc0           // END_COLLECTION
};

And while this certainly can be improved by clever use of macros, the result could be vastly improved by using the C++ compiler instead of the preprocessor.

Taking into consideration the more and more powerful constexpr capabilities of C++, we can create a design that isn't only simpler to code, but that can perform compile-time verification and extract relevant properties of the resulting descriptor.

Design

Descriptor definition

The current implementation allows us to rewrite the above descriptor to this:

#include "hid/rdf/descriptor.h"
#include "hid/page/generic_desktop.h"
#include "hid/page/button.h"

using namespace hid::rdf;
using namespace hid::page;

constexpr auto mouse_report_desc = descriptor(
    usage_page<generic_desktop>(),
    usage(generic_desktop::MOUSE),
    collection::application(
        usage(generic_desktop::POINTER),
        collection::physical(
            usage_extended_limits(button(1), button(3)),
            logical_limits(0, 1), // _limits combine _min and _max
            report_count(3),
            report_size(1),
            input::absolute_variable(),
            input::padding(5), // combines report_count(1), report_size(param), and input()
            usage(generic_desktop::X),
            usage(generic_desktop::Y),
            logical_limits(-127, 127),
            report_count(2),
            report_size(8),
            input::relative_variable()
        )
    )
);

Note that mouse_report_desc is actually an std::array, with the size figured out by the compiler from the parameters. It is clear that this descriptor is much more expressive. We can create combined items such as logical_limits(0, 1) instead of having a minimum and maximum in separate lines. Some item groups can be coded in more expressive way, such as input::padding(5). No COLLECTION will be left without a terminating END_COLLECTION item, and it's obvious, which items belong to which collection.

The benefits don't stop here. Developers can create their own complex application descriptor templates, and parameterize them depending on the application/device variant, instead of having to copy-paste and modify raw bytes.

Descriptor parsing

Parsing the report descriptor is a lot more complicated, that's why it was delegated to be performed by the host operating system. In practice it's done in iterations, the higher levels only determining the application type, then looking up the appropriate subdriver for it (that's also when a peripheral with multiple top-level applications gets split).

This library implements two types of descriptor views, one for runtime (descriptor_view) and one for constexpr compile-time (ce_descriptor_view), which offer iterating item-by-item. A generic hid::rdf::parser class is implemented that serves as a base for any kind of descriptor parsing logic. Being able to parse the descriptor at compile-time and using the compiler for descriptor error checking greatly reduces the development time of report descriptors.

Report protocol

The hid::report_protocol builds on top of the descriptor parser, and extracts information from the report descriptor that is relevant for the various transport layers of the HID device. It collects the maximum length of reports, and the maximum used report ID as well (of each type of report).

Footnotes

  1. This feature requires C++ exceptions to be enabled, therefore in embedded software you need a separate compilation step with added exception support flag. ↩