About This Book

The Web provides a medium through which dynamic content can be easily viewed in Web browsers. HTML and XML enable various computing platforms to exchange information and to display it in two or even three dimensions. However, they do not provide for the use of the fourth dimension: time. Enter SMIL.

SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language) gives website developers the ability to create multimedia presentations that can be viewed in players such as QuickTime Player and RealPlayer. Using SMIL, a page designer can lay out the media objects that make up a presentation not only within the boundaries of the window on which the presentation is shown, but also within the presentation's timeline. For example, they can design a presentation with two video clips that are displayed one after the other in the same region or window area.

WebObjects lets you integrate SMIL presentations in WebObjects applications. You can use elements like WORepetitions and WOConditionals in presentations to expand the capabilities of SMIL.

You should read this book if you want to learn how to create and lay out SMIL presentations that are part of WebObjects applications. SMIL proficiency is not required to follow the examples in the book. However, familiarity with the specification, especially the attributes that can be used with each SMIL tag and their possible values, should help you in using WebObjects's SMIL implementation to its full advantage.

To get the most out of this book, you should be an experienced WebObjects application developer. In particular, you need to know how to create applications using Project Builder and be familiar with the layout of a Project Builder project. You should also know how to design components using WebObjects Builder.

This book includes the following chapters:

Chapter 2, "SMIL in WebObjects", explains how SMIL is implemented in WebObjects and introduces the tools you use to create SMIL components.
Chapter 3, "Creating Presentations", provides step-by-step instructions on creating simple SMIL presentations.
Chapter 4, "SMIL Elements", contains reference information on each of the SMIL elements used in WebObjects to create presentations.

If you need to learn the basics about developing WebObjects applications, you can find that information in the following books:

Inside WebObjects: WebObjects Overview provides you with a survey of WebObjects technologies and capabilities.
Inside WebObjects: Discovering WebObjects for HTML shows you how to develop HTML-based applications.
Inside WebObjects: WebObjects Desktop Applications shows you how to develop applications that leverage the power of desktop workstations as well as centralized servers and databases.
Inside WebObjects: Deploying WebObjects Applications describes how to use WebObjects tools to deploy your applications as standalone entities.

For additional WebObjects documentation and links to other resources, visit http://developer.apple.com/tools/webobjects/.

If you need to learn about SMIL, these websites provide introductory material:

The book QuickTime for the Web (published by Morgan Kaufmann) provides an in-depth introduction to SMIL as well as detailed explanations on how it can be used in QuickTime presentations.

You can find an exhaustive example of a SMIL application in /Developer/Examples/JavaWebObjects/WOSmilExample. It shows how you can use the power of Enterprise Objects and SMIL to create a dynamic multimedia application.