Inserting Media

To insert a media component:

In the Design Structure Window of the desired file, locate the node in which you wish to insert a media component.
In the Component Palette, select Simple Components from the dropdown list, and then drag and drop the media component to the parent node of your choice.
The media node is inserted and highlighted under the expanded parent node.
In the Property Inspector, set the following attributes for the media component:
- source - Enter the URI that specifies the location of the media resource. This is required. If no contentType is specified, the contentType will be inferred from the extension of the source attribute.
- standbyText - Enter the message to display in the media player while the media resource is loading.
- autoStart - Select true to load and play the media resource automatically without user initiation. Default is false.
- contentType - Enter the MIME type of the media content returned by the source URI. Use this attribute as a hint when determining which player to pick, how the controls of the player are to be configured, and the default size of the media player. If contentType isn't specified, the contentType will be inferred from the extension of the source URI.
- controls - Select the set of controls to be made available to the user for controlling the media playback. The actual set of controls displayed for the same value may differ between players. Likewise, the amount of space occupied by the controls will differ from media player to media player. This can cause problems if the size of the media control has been specified by the "width" and "height" attributes rather than "innerWidth" and "innerHeight" attributes. Supported values are:
  - none - Don't show any controls for the media player and don't allow control access through alternate means such as context menus. This value is typically only used in kiosk-type applications where no user control over the playing of the media is allowed. It is typically used in conjunction with setting the "autostart" attribute to "true", and the "playCount" attribute to "0" to cause the media to play immediately and then loop.
  - noneVisible - Don't show any controls for the media player but allow control access through alternate means such as context menus. This value is typically only used in applications where user control over the playing of the media is allowed, but not encouraged. It is typically used in conjunction with setting the "autostart" attribute to "true", and the "playCount" attribute to "0" to cause the media to play immediately and then loop.
  - minimal - Show a minimal set of controls for playing media on the media player. This value gives users control over the most important media playing controls, while occupying the least amount of additional space on the user agent.
  - typical - Default. Show the typical set of controls for playing media on the media player. This value gives users control over the most common media playing controls, without occupying an inordinate amount of extra space on the user agent.
  - all - Show all available controls for playing media on the media player. Using this setting can cause a large amount of additional space to be required, depending on the media player used.
- height - Enter the height in pixels to reserve for the media player plus its content. As the extra height needed for the media player controls can vary from media player to media player and depend on the controls displayed in the media player, it is recommended that the "innerHeight" attribute be used in preference to this attribute. If both the "height" and "innerHeight" attributes are specified, the "height" attribute will be used. If no height is specified, the height of the media control is determined by calculating the "innerHeight" and adding any extra height necessary to display the media player controls.
- inlineStyle - Enter the inline CSS style for the standby text of this element. In the right column, click the icon to open a dialog, then click New to enter the CSS property values. The property element defines a single name/value pair. The name is defined by the Name attribute, and the Value by the plain-text contents of the element. For example, you can enter 'color' for Name, and 'red' for Value. In the Advanced tab, you can enter an EL syntax data binding expression or use the Bind to Data dialog to select a data source for this complex attribute.
- innerHeight - Enter the height in pixels to reserve for the media player content. This will typically be set to the pixel height of the media resource to display. If no "innerHeight" is specified, the "innerHeight" will be defaulted based on the content type of the media resource to play. If both the "height" and "innerHeight" attributes are specified, the "height" attribute will be used.
- innerWidth - Enter the width in pixels to reserve for the media player content. This will typically be set to the pixel width of the media resource to display. If no "innerWidth" is specified, the "innerWidth" will be defaulted based on the content type of the media resource to play. If both the "width" and "innerWidth" attributes are specified, the "width" attribute will be used.
- playCount - Enter the number of times the media resource will play. If set to "0", the resource will loop until the user stops the playing.
- player - Select the media player to use to play the media resource. If possible, the media control will accomodate this request. However, if the requested player is not available on the user agent, or does not support playing the media resource, an alternate player will be used instead. In all cases, the "link" player is used if no other player is available, or if the requested player fails for some reason. Supported values are:
  - link - Use a link in the user agent page to launch the playing of the media resource. This player setting uses the least amount of space on the page and uses the user agent's built-in content type mapping to determine how to display the media resource.
  - quicktime - Use the Apple QuickTime player.
  - windows - Use the Windows Media Player.
  - real - Use the RealPlayer.
- width - Enter the width in pixels to reserve for the media player plus its content. As the extra width needed for the media player controls can vary from media player to media player and depend on the controls displayed in the media player, it is recommended that the "innerWidth" attribute be used in preference to this attribute. If both the "width" and "innerWidth" attributes are specified, the "width" attribute will be used. If no width is specified, the width of the media control is determined by calculating the "innerWidth" and adding any extra width necessary to display the media player controls.

Note: To use data binding, see Data Binding a Component Attribute.

Examples (UIX XML)


...
<media source="house.wma" />
...
<media source="house.wma"
       controls="minimal"
       shortDesc="Bad House Music" 
       standyText="I wish I wasn't loading this..."/>
...
<media source="seattle.wmv"
       innerWidth="160"
       innerHeight="112" 
       autostart="true" 
       controls="all" />
...