Advanced Search

Log In | Not a Member?

Contact ADC

< Previous PageNext Page > Hide TOC

New XML Exporter

QuickTime 6 introduces a new XML exporter––Export to QuickTime Media Link––which creates a small XML file that contains the URL of a movie. The file may also contain additional user settings.

XML exporters create various kinds of XML files based on the contents of a movie. The XML file created may also contain information specific that is to the exporter or to user settings obtained through a dialog.

The XML file created by the exporter can be treated as a QuickTime movie. When the file is opened by QuickTime, QuickTime parses the XML, attempts to open the movie specified in the src field, then play it using the specified settings.

In this section:

How It Works
Media Link Exporter Settings
Using the Media Link Exporter
Default Settings

How It Works

The QuickTime media link exporter creates an XML file of type "application/x-quicktime-media-link". This is a .qtl file of MIME type "application/x-quicktimeplayer". Note that the XML type and the MIME type are not the same. The MIME type and file extension are used by browsers and operating systems to determine what application or plug-in should be used to handle a file. The XML type tells QuickTime what kind of data the file contains.

You can rename a QuickTime media link file by changing the file extension from .qtl to .mov. This changes the MIME and file types, but not the XML type.

For more information about .qtl files, see “What’s New in QuickTime 5” available at

http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/quicktime/qtdevdocs/REF/whatsnewqt5/Max.htm

and “New QuickTime Media Links XML Importer” at

http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/quicktime/qtdevdocs/REF/whatsnewqt5/Max.2b.htm#pgfId=93760.

Media Link Exporter Settings

The QuickTime media link exporter includes the following settings:

• src (movie URL or path and filename)

• movie name

• movie ID

• sound volume

• full-screen mode

• looping

• autoplay

• play every frame

• kiosk mode (disallow saving)

• controller

• quit when done (exits QuickTime Player)

• qtnext (the movie to play next)

• href (URL to open if a user clicks the movie)

Using the Media Link Exporter

You can access the media link exporter by choosing Export from the File menu in QuickTime Player, then choosing Movie to QuickTime Media Link. You can either click Save, which creates an XML file with the default settings, or click the Options button to specify the settings yourself. (Note that Export from QuickTime Player requires QuickTime Pro.)

The QuickTime Media Link Settings dialog is shown in Figure 1-15.

Figure 1-15  The QuickTime Media Link Settings dialog in QuickTime Player

• URL field. You can change the URL if you plan to put the movie on a different server or if you want the XML file to specify a different movie.

• Type field. This allows you to override the XML type. You might do this if you were writing your own XML importer, but ordinarily this field should be left blank.

• Name and ID fields. These allow you to specify a movie name and movie id. Note that the movie name is not the filename of the movie.

• Volume slider. This allows you to set the movie sound volume, from 0 to 100%.

• Fullscreen. This pop-up menu lets you set any of the full-screen modes: half, normal, double, current, and full.

• Loop. This pop-up menu lets you set the looping mode.

There are checkboxes for Autoplay, Play every frame, Kiosk mode, Controller, and Quit when done.

You can enter URLs in the text fields provided for QT Next (the movie to play after this one) and HREF (the URL to load if a user clicks the movie).

URLs are relative to the movie specified in the src field.

The Output Defaults checkbox writes the values of all settings to the XML file, even if they are the same as the system defaults. In most cases, however, this has no effect, because not specifying a setting results in the system default.

The notable exception is the autoplay setting. A movie with no autoplay setting may or may not autoplay, depending on the user selection in the QuickTime Settings panel. If you want to be sure that a movie will never autoplay, you should select Output Defaults so that autoplay="false" will be set explicitly in the XML file. If you set autoplay="true" it will be set in the XML file regardless of the Output Defaults setting.

Default Settings

By default the src field is set to either the URL or the path and filename of the current movie. If you open a movie using a URL data reference (“Open URL” in QuickTime Player), the XML file contains the movie URL. If you open a movie using a file data reference (“Open” in QuickTime Player), the URL contains a path and filename.

The XML user settings default to the settings currently stored in the movie, which may not correspond to the current selections in a running application. An application may maintain user settings in transient memory, storing them in the movie only when saving. For example, changing the loop setting in QuickTime Player will not change the exported loop setting unless you save the movie before exporting.

Applications developers may want to copy all user settings into the movie’s user data atom before performing an export. All the settings except qtnext can be set by applications using the QuickTime API. See The QuickTime File Format for additional information about Movie User Data, available at

http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/quicktime/qtdevdocs/QTFF/qtff.html

Some settings can also be stored using QuickTime Player (volume, loop, autoplay, and play every frame).

By default, the XML file contains only user settings that have a value different from QuickTime’s defaults. For example, a movie with no specified user settings has a controller and a volume of 100%. By default, settings matching these defaults are not included in the XML file. The XML file would specify the controller only if it were false and volume only if it were not 100%.

By default, the following settings are not included in the XML file if their values are as shown:

autoplay="false"

controller="true"

kioskmode="false"

loop="false"

playeveryframe="false"

quitwhendone=false"

volume="100"

< Previous PageNext Page > Hide TOC

Did this document help you? Yes: Tell us what works for you. It’s good, but: Report typos, inaccuracies, and so forth. It wasn’t helpful: Tell us what would have helped.

	Get information on Apple products. Visit the Apple Store online or at retail locations. 1-800-MY-APPLE Copyright © 2007 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. | Terms of use | Privacy Notice