Advanced Internet fundamentals

CHAPTER # 2

Objects, Plug-ins, and Viewers

Objects

• Objects enable web designer to include active components like sound animation or show a video clip.
• Objects are run by web browser.

Java applets

• Java applets are small stand alone programms written in Java.
• Java applets are used to create
  • Inline vedio, changing text, animation
  • Audio - e.g short sound files played when the mouse rolls over.
  • Interaction - e.g games.
  • Real time data feeds - e.g on line stock.

Java script

• Java script is a event driven scripting language called LiveScript, works along with HTML.
• Java scripts are placed along with HTML tags in a web document.
• A Java script interacts when an event occurs ( a mouse click, a page loaded or closed, text entered etc.).

JScript

• Microsoft equivalent for JavaScript.
• Because it is slightly deferent from JavaScript will not perform well in Netscape Navigator.

ActiveX

• Developed by Microsoft.
• ActiveX can be used by the web auther to include
  • Animatiom
  • Audio
  • and Virtual realty.

VBScript

• Microsoft proprietry.
• Derived from Visual Basic
• It can be used to create
  • Standard HTML oblect like a button, checkbox, password etc.
  • ActiveX control.

Personal home Page PHP

• It is a server-side scripting language
• Enables web pages to detect the browser version.
• Currently the third version ie PHP3 is running.
• PHP is an interperted language.
• Can be downloaded free from http://www.php3.net/.

Plug-ins

• Application associated with a puricular platform and browser- like windows 95 and Netscape Navigator.
• It provides integration of multimedia formats with the PC and the browser.
• It helps to play the multimedia files online. No need to download and play on the PC.
• When the browser encounters a multimedia file which it can not play it evokes a plug-in (if it is istalled in the system. other wise an error meassge genarated.). And the plug-in retreives the file to play it on the local system.
• The plug-in retreives the portion of the file stores in a temporory file. Then it delivers just enough info from the temp file to play the suff contiously while dowloading of the rest of the file is in progress - a process called streaming.
• The appearance of the plug-ins can be set with HTML tags.
  • Full screen
  • Embeded - the plug-in visible as a small box in side the web pages.
  • Hidden - the plug-in works on background like a MIDI song.

Real player

• Real player is from RealNetworks
• Provides streaming audio and video online.

Shockwave and Flash

• These are from Macromedia.
• Shockwave provides interactive games, sound, grapgics and streaming video.
• Flash plays flash movies. flash movie file size is small so less download time.

Apple Quick Time

• Can be downloaded from http://www.apple.com/quicktime.
• Another method of storing video and audio files in digital format.
• Available for both Windows and Macitosh.

Apple Quick time VR

• A Virtual Reality offering from Apple
• Plays QTVR movies.
• More info available at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtvr/

VivoActive

• A video plug-in from Vivo Software,Inc

StreamWorks

• A audio/video plug-in similar to Real audio from Xing Technology Corparation.

Cosmo Player

• Plays Virtual Reality Modeling Language.

Viewers

• Viewers are scaled-down versions of applications
• Viewers are required for the file to be viewed.
• Viewers are smaller in size than the full application

Microsof Power Pint Viewer

• Required to view power point presentation.
• This viewer is available free at http://officeuodate.microsoft.com/downloadCatalog/dldPowerPoint.htm.

Acrobat Reader

• To render PDF (Portable document format)
• Acrobat reader is available free for download at http://www.adobe.com/.
• PDF are well suited for web because of their high compression and platform independence.