multimedia and ecommerce professor kleist april 21, 2003
TRANSCRIPT
Multimedia and Ecommerce
Professor Kleist
April 21, 2003
Introduction to Multimedia
Simple multimedia applicationsGraphic designNew mediaVisual CultureProgramming environment: MayaProgramming environments: Macromedia MX platform suite Programming environments: .net as a playerFlash, Dreamweaver
Simple Multimedia Apps (Deitel et al., 2001)
Sound and video on the desktopDVD platformPerformance intensiveLarge filesStreaming vs. full downloadBGSOUND element, IMG element’s DYNSRC property, Windows Media Player ActiveX control as simplistic approaches to adding Multimedia to HTML pages
BGSOUND<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN”>
<HTML>
<HEAD><TITLE>The BGSOUND Element</TITLE>
<BGSOUND ID = “audio” SRC = “jazzgos.mid” LOOP = “1”></BGSOUND>
Calls an audio clip called jazzgos.mid, and specifies that it should loop exactly once, and because it does not include a BALANCE and VOLUME attribute, each defaults to 0, which indicates maximum volume.
Using Windows Media Player ActiveX control
Can use a prebuilt Microsoft ActiveX control called Media Player Active X into the web page. Can use either EMBED or OBJECT that calls either a video player or audio player to play a video
Use the EMBED element to play videos because the Windows media player is embedded into web pages<BODY>
<H1>Displaying a Video via the EMBED Element</H1> <H2>Earth Fly By</H2>
<TABLE><TR> <TD><EMBED SRC = “approach_1_337.mpeg” LOOP = “false”></EMBED>
Graphic Design (Helfand 2001)
Screens are our primary source of info, they are ubiquitousImportant to designersApply classic principles of designNew media is dynamic, interactive and screen basedCan guide visual communicationAudiences are global, fractal, constantly on the move
Cyberspace over the Long Run
Avatars, or abstract electronic form for human perceptionCyberspace as merely “new wine in old bottles” (O’Donnell, 1998)Life of the mind, intellectual life possible in cyberspaceCyberspace may impact geographic communities, internet as substitute, especially as new media creates space, sense of place (Dodge and Kitchin, 2001)Landscapes of informationThree dimensional spaces mimic NYSE
New Media (Krueger, 1977, Heller, ed, 2001, Maeda,
2000)
Responsive environmentReal time interaction between man and machinesArtificial realities simulate real worldPsychic space, videoplace, new technologyNonlinear, not chronological, interleaved, formlessness
Maya Software
From Alias Wavefront3D software “inspired by the film and video artists, computer game developers and design professionals who use it daily to create engaging digital imagery, animation and visual effects.”Used in Spiderman, Lord of the Rings, Perfect StormCan download software version to explore with from Maya, http://www.aliaswavefront.com/en/products/maya/ple/index.shtml
Macromedia MX from Computerworld, April
30, 2002
Family of products that interact with each otherflagship Web animation and interactivity runtime application Flash MXIncludes Dreamweaver MX for web page development, Fireworks MX, Studio MXColdFusion is changing “from a proprietary application server to one that works with Java 2 Enterprise Edition application servers, and makes it easier to develop Web applications and services”
Macromedia MX, cont.
Macromedia products all related, http://www.macromedia.com/software/Divide product line into design side, server side, information content managers and playersContribute is web site content management software for firms, do not need to know HTMLAuthorware allows the development of training tutorials and elearning tools, including measurement and student interaction
Macromedia, cont.
Director MX is used to create fixed multimedia content, and works with Flash MXFireworks MX fits with the Flash and Dreamweaver platforms, and gives bitmap editing support, allows the design of special graphics like buttons, images and rollovers, plus other graphics applicationsAll can import and export with each other, and there is a product called MX Workspace to allow tight integration
ASP
Active Server Pages create interactive server pages that are processed in response to client browser request
Uses a scripting engine, and processes components just before sending a page to the client, often processing little pieces of code called ActiveX controls
ActiveX controls have prewritten types such as adrotator, clock, session tracking, cookies, etc.
ASP resides on the server, is server side scripting, more flexible for accessing databases.
ActiveX controls allow the server to figure out types of browser, counters, rotate content, etc., and set up branching
.net
Microsoft development architecture to integrate across development tools and platforms for end to end web page development
New platform for web development that is an attempt to unify and simplify web services
Uses .net platform, but includes ASP.net, ActiveX, Forms, xml based web services
Allows developers to inherit from their own components, from other developers, from .net framework
More interchangeable
Powerful, xml productivity without xml hassles, steep learning curve, hard to know when to migrate from ASP
.net, cont.
Some firms are migrating from ASP to .net, but these can coexist, even though they have totally different processing engines
ASP worked well with VB and Jscript, .net will run more languages
New features with .net that allow working with data better, including XML to integrate to any data source like Microsoft SQL or Oracle databases
ASP is more complex to mix with Ultradev, but .net is supposed to work with Ultradev, perhaps not right away
Ultradev writes in the ASP code for you, so it is easier than .net, but .net is supposed to support Ultradev long term
Dreamweaver
Web layout tool, does HTML development in an intuitive wayIntegrates well with the other Macromedia tools like Flash, FireworksDoes clean HTMLHas a button called quick tags to show HTML elementsPart of larger Macromedia suite called Ultradev (creates ASP), Coldfusion
Flash
Macromedia application for creating interactive, animated moviesImportant advancement for MultimediaFlash movies have small size files compared to other types of multimediaUses a function called tweening, which takes the first and last frames of an animation, and automatically generates everything in betweenAnimation files are called “movies”