Multimedia: Making It Work

1
Multimedia Making It Work

• Chapter 13 Tools for the World Wide Web

2
Overview

• Web servers.
• Web browsers.
• Web page makers and site builders.
• Plug-ins and delivery vehicles.
• Beyond HTML.

3
Web Servers

• The functioning of the Web involves communication
  between a server computer and a client computer.
• A Web server is a computer that delivers a file
  when a client computer sends a request.
• Web servers vary in strength and capacity for a
  variety of platforms meeting the HTTP
  requirements.

4
Web Browsers

• Web browsers are applications that run on the
  client side (users PC) on the Internet.
• They provide an interactive graphical interface.
• This interface is used for searching, finding,
  and viewing text documents, sounds, and
  multimedia resources on the Web.
• Web browsers differ in features, performance, and
  cost.
• Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer
  are two of the most popular Web browsers.

5
Web Page Makers and Site Builders

• HTML documents are simple ASCII text files
  without any formatting.
• Active Server Pages, ColdFusion, or PHP are the
  programming environments needed for building
  dynamic sites.
• HTML translators are built into many word
  processing programs.
• HTML translators export a word-processed document
  with its text styles and layout converted into
  HTML tags.
• Many HTML editors and Web page-making
  applications offer to shortcut HTML learning
  curves and working effort.

6
Web Page Makers and Site Builders

• Dedicated editors are usually WYSIWYG (What You
  See Is What You Get) word processors.
• Adobe GoLive and Macromedia Dreamweaver MX are
  WYSIWYG HTML editors.
• GoLive allows a user to create and edit text
  pages, import images, and link to other
  documents.

7
Plug-ins and Delivery Vehicles

• Plug-ins allow end users to view and interact
  with new types of documents and images.
• Helper applications (or players) display or run
  files downloaded from the Internet.

8
Plug-ins and Delivery Vehicles

• Text.
• Images.
• Sound.
• Animation, video, and presentation.

9
Text

• Text and document plug-ins overcome the display
  limitations of HTML and Web browsers.
• Adobe Acrobat provides special fonts and graphic
  images embedded as data into the file.

10
Images

• Most browsers read only bitmapped JPEG, GIF, and
  PNG image files.
• Plug-ins that enable the viewing of vector
  formats (such as Flash) are useful.
• Vector graphics are device-independent. An image
  is displayed at the correct size and with colors
  supported by the computer.

11
Sound

• Digitized sound files in MP3, WAV, AIF, or AU
  formats may be sent and played on a users
  computer from Internet.
• MIDI sound files are more compact, but they
  depend upon the computers MIDI setup for
  quality.
• Speech files can be encoded into a token language
  that is a shorthand description of the speech
  components.
• Sound elements may also be embedded into projects
  made with various authoring tools.
• Some sounds can be multicast to allow multiple
  users to listen to the same data streams without
  duplication.

12
Animation, Video, and Presentation

• The most data-intense multimedia elements are
  video streams containing images and synchronized
  sound.
• Video streams are commonly packaged as Apples
  QuickTime, Microsofts Video for Windows (AVI),
  and as MPEG files.
• The trade-off between bandwidth and quality is
  ever present when designing, developing, and
  delivering animations or motion video for the Web.

13
Beyond HTML

• CGI (Common Gateway Interface) is a standard for
  interfacing external applications with
  information servers.
• Web-enabled 3-D environments promise compelling
  and interactive multimedia experiences.

14
Summary

• A Web server delivers a file when a client
  requests for it.
• Browsers are applications that run on a users PC
  to provide an interface for downloading and
  viewing documents and multimedia.
• Many HTML editors and Web page-making
  applications require less HTML skills and working
  effort.
• Plug-ins allow users to view and interact with
  new types of documents and images.