RE: FLASH: IE 5.5/Flash - Press Release

[.redstar.]

JGL,


"Can someone please explain this snip to me . . ."

(snip not included)


Well I can try, but I bet you've prompted a reply from the 'horses mouth'.

I.E. 5.5 introduces a few novelties. One of them is ViewLink.

Quoting from the Microsoft Platform SDK :

"ViewLink enables encapsulation and rendering of content created in an HTML

Components (HTC) file. Through the use of ViewLink, HTML content created

inside an HTC file can render in the primary HTML document, thereby making

the content of the document fragment visible to the user. ViewLink performs

encapsulation by hiding the structure of the linked document fragment from

the primary document.

Before ViewLink, the only way to create custom controls for use in HTML

documents was through Microsoft� ActiveX� Controls. HTML authors had to use

the OBJECT tag to include ActiveX Controls on their pages. ActiveX Controls

require installation on the client machine before they will render.

ViewLink frees DHTML authors to develop their own controls and other

components in a language they are already familiar with, DHTML. ViewLink

also makes components much easier to use because they are implemented as

custom elements that can be used as simply as any other HTML tag. A ViewLink

component requires no installation on the client machine, because it is

downloaded and rendered as part of the primary document."


Flash movies can be construed so as to be ViewLink components. For some

examples download the Flash enterprise Kit for IE5.5 from the Macromedia

site. This kit includes some examples that show user interaction changing

the Flash movie.

As for Mr Bill Gate's quote  he was referring to the fact that you can have

a generic Flash object (component), for example a pie chart, that you can

then use on any page where you want to display data in pie chart format. You

don't need to know how to create the Flash movie, that would be someone

else's job. You just need to format the data to be displayed in XML format

and ViewLink it to the proper component, the Flash movie.

The examples included in the Flash Enterprise Kit for I.E.5.5 are a good

starting point but I think the real power that ViewLink with Flash can bring

is not truly demonstrated in these samples. I believe that joining ViewLink

and Flash with XML based recordset persistence as made available with

MDAC2.5 will be the true factor that will draw the most attention. Using XML

based recordset persistence or XML formatted recordsets you can have a

ViewLink based page that is capable of including a Flash based element with

content directly drawn from the database and all this without using

Generator ;).

I've been playing with this during the weekend and results are quite good,

now if only this could be done in the other browsers....


.redstar.



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