How-to Guide for Using Shockwave to Deliver Web Multimedia

by Stephen Wilson, Art Dept, SFSU

• What is Shockwave? Shockwave is a technology that allows Web navigators to view Macromedia Director files on the Web as an integrated part of the Web page. Director is a widely used multimedia authoring environment for composing rich interactive computer media events which include image, sound and text. Usually Director events are placed on CD-ROMs to be viewed at local computers. Shockwave is a plug-in that works in conjunction with Web browsers to make the same events available over the Web. It highly compresses the files and omits capabilities that might be dangerous in a network situation.  Shockwave technology also can play Flash files. (This guide focuses only on Director oriented Shockwave.
  
  
• What is necessary for a Web surfer to view Shockwave files? A surfer needs the following: 1. A contemporary Web browser version Navigator 3.0 or Microsoft Explorer 3.0 or later. 2. A Shockwave plug-in placed in the plug-in folder next to the Web browser. (The plug-in can be freely downloaded from Macromedia's Web site. Macromedia: Shockwave Center)  Some late version browsers already contain Shockwave capability  3. Current versions of operating systems and sufficient memory.
  
  
• What is necessary for a Web author to create Shockwave files? An author needs experience using Director to create interactive multimedia events. After the event is created it must be saved in Shockwave format - built into Director 6.

(In Director versions earlier than 6 files had to be processed with Macromedia's Afterburner which compresses the file and otherwise prepares it for Web delivery. Afterburner is an Xtra add-on that works in conjunction with Director 5. (A version is also available for Director 4.0). Afterburner can be freely downloaded at the site listed in previous item.) 


• What is necessary for a server to transmit Shockwave files? The Web server that will host the Shockwave files must be configured to handle that file type. All Web servers must have a mapping of file types via the MIME standard. (You may have seen a similar mapping in your web browsers's preferences for helper applications.) It tells the server how to prepare the file for transmission on the Web. You can find more details about the mapping in my book World Wide Web Design Guide or any other good web authoring book. Confer with your web page provider for details. Usually the configuration involves merely the adding of a few lines of text to their configuration file. Here is an example of a line.

AddType exp=*.dcr type=application/x-director

More details are available at the Macromedia site Macromedia: Shockwave Center

How does bandwidth limit the use of Shockwave? You must address the reality of bandwidth limitations on the Web. Director files can easily grow to megabyte size. Because most viewers will be surfing with 14.4 and 28.8 modems, the waiting time will be untolerable. For example a 800K file will take approximately 13 minutes to download with a 14.4 modem (time would vary somewhat with network conditions). It is essential to limit size in whatever ways possible. For example, make only sparing use of bitmap images. Use vector based draw tools wherever possible. Be sure to get rid of unused cast members. Macromedia's tips and techniques web site listed below provides other techniques.  Here are some hints to minimize the size of your movie.
 

• Minimize Cast members
• Minimize number of frames
• Make images and sounds as low-res as possible
• Use vector shapes instead of bit maps wherever possible
• Use filed text rather than bit mapped text
 
• Streaming:  The latest versions of Shockwave support streaming media.  This means the Director movie will start playing even before it is completely downloaded.  You can specify how many frames should load before it starts to play.
  
  
• Let surfers know what they are getting into. Web etiquette suggests that you make clear the size of the file in your link so the user can decide if they want to access the file. Also alert them that it is a Shockwave file and provide links to where they can download the plug-in.
  
  
• What Director commands and techniques cannot be used with Shockwave? Some Director commands are not available in Shockwave. For example, any commands that read or write files to the local disk or print are prohibited for security reasons. Any commands that make use of linked files cannot be used because the separate files will not automatically delivered via the Web. Quicktime movies are not supported. Be careful not to include endless loops in your files (they will eat up processor time even when surfers are not looking at the part of the page with the Director file visible.) Provide a method for users to stop the animation - for example, a quit button.
  
  
• What html tags are necessary to link to Shockwave file? Use the EMBED tag to create the link to your Shockwave file in conjunction with URL address. The Height and Width in pixels must also be specified. The following line would load and play a director file.  In the Windows environment one can use the <OBJECT> tag

<EMBED SRC="http://netad.com/shockwavedemo.html" HEIGHT=180 WIDTH=240>

• Special Web aware Lingo commands for allowing Shockwave events to link to other Web Pages Shockwave makes available new Lingo commands that can make your multimedia events link to the Web. For example you can make buttons that will cause the web browser to call up other web pages or Shockwave files. These can replace the original Shockwave event or can appear in separate windows or frames. You can also check whether a page is done loading and preload pages into a cache so they will play quicker when accessed. For example here is lingo code to make a button call up a web page:

on mouseUp gotoNetPage "http://netadd.com/shockwave.txt" end

More details are available at the Shockwave site's web page on making net
    movies.


• Links to information about Shockwave
director web XStuff
DirWeb- Shockwave Central
Macromedia - Technotes: Shockwave
Macromedia: Shockwave Center
Macromedia Shockwave: Plug-In Center


• Example shockwave movie You can view a sample shockwave movie that I created to document an art event I created called Memory Map. It is 300K and requires a shockwave plug in. Steve Wilson Memory Map shockwave movie (300K)