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March 2002

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Trivial it ain't! More on Quicktime and IE6
by Rzepa, Henry 26 Jun '02

26 Jun '02

This is the official solution for allow plugins (in this case Quicktime) to again be played on MS IE 5.5 SP2 and IE6 XP. One presumes a similar solution will be required for Chime and other Chemical plugins. The example below suggests that an ActiveX control is downloaded from the Internet. I presume a stand alone solution suitable for eg CDROMs will also materialise. Note how the onus is on the content developer to CHANGE their HTML page to make it work. I wonder how many will. (Thanks to Jonathan Brecher for the information!) >Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 15:11:58 -0700 (PDT) >Subject: Important News For Quicktime Developers >From: Apple Developer Connection <noreply(a)wwdr.apple.com> >Reply-To: Apple Developer Connection <noreply(a)wwdr.apple.com> >To: undisclosed-recipients:; > > >Windows Internet Explorer 5.5 SP2 and 6.0 with QuickTime >IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR WEB DEVELOPERS & WEBMASTERS > >Microsoft Internet Explorer for Windows, versions 5.5 SP2 and 6.0 >(soon to be released) no longer support Netscape-style plug-ins, >such as the plug-in installed as part of QuickTime 5.0.2 and earlier >versions. Consequently, Windows customers using these versions of >Explorer who visit your site may be unable to view QuickTime content >in the browser. To mitigate this problem and to ensure a positive >experience for your Web site visitors, you should add to your site >the HTML code that makes available the new ActiveX control for >QuickTime, as described below. > >NOTE: THIS ISSUE AFFECTS ONLY USERS OF INTERNET EXPLORER ON WINDOWS. > >BACKGROUND >QuickTime uses a plug-in mechanism to display movies from your Web >page in the user's browser. Before, you would use an EMBED element >alone to display QuickTime content within the browser, much like in >the example below: > ><EMBED src="sample.mov" width="160" height="144" autoplay="true" >CONTROLLER="false" >PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/"> </EMBED> > >For this mechanism to work, the user must have the QuickTime plug-in >installed on his or her system. If the appropriate QuickTime plug-in >is not installed, when your HTML page with QuickTime content is >loaded into the user's browser, the movie is not visible. Instead, >the browser replaces it with a "broken plug-in icon" and attempts to >assist the user in obtaining the required software. An unfortunate >side effect of this approach is that the user is directed away from >your site and is distracted by the installation process. > >THE ISSUE >Until recently, the plug-in installed as part of QuickTime worked >for both Netscape browsers and Microsoft Internet Explorer on both >Windows and Mac OS. Now Windows users who try to play a QuickTime >movie in Internet Explorer version 5.5 SP2 or later will encounter >the "broken plug-in icon" until they install the new QuickTime >ActiveX control from Apple in addition to the QuickTime plug-in. >Users of other browsers on either Windows or Mac OS are >unaffected--they can continue to use the plug-in installed with >QuickTime and do not need to get the new QuickTime ActiveX control. > >Once users have the new ActiveX control installed, they are also >unaffected; they can also view existing pages. > >THE SOLUTION >When authoring web pages, you can easily prevent this problem by >authoring your HTML to check that the required ActiveX control is >installed wherever you have QuickTime content embedded. This HTML >change will result in web pages compatible with Netscape and >Internet Explorer browsers on both Mac and Windows systems (see >below for more information). > >The required code consists of an HTML OBJECT element with an >enclosed EMBED element as in the following example: > ><OBJECT CLASSID="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B" >width="160" height="144" >CODEBASE="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab"> ><param name="src" value="sample.mov"> ><param name="autoplay" value="true"> ><param name="controller" value="false"> ><embed src="sample.mov" width="160" height="144" autoplay="true" >CONTROLLER="false" >PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/"></EMBED> ></OBJECT> > >CLASSID must always equal: >clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B >CODEBASE must always equal: >http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab >PLUGINSPAGE must always equal: >http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/ > >The other attributes should be customized to your web page. You need >to substitute "sample.mov" (in both SRC attribute elements) with the >URL of the actual movie to be played. You should also change the >HEIGHT and WIDTH parameters to match the height and width of the >movie (in pixels). > >If you already have EMBED elements for the QuickTime plug-in on the >relevant pages, you need to enclose each of them in an OBJECT >element with CLASSID and CODEBASE parameter values as shown above >and with SRC and other parameter values to match those in your >existing EMBED element. The OBJECT element can use any EMBED >attributes QuickTime understands. Visit >http://www.apple.com/quicktime/authoring/embed.html for more >information. > >For existing web pages, it may be sufficient to add such an OBJECT >element to the "front door" page of your site. Once the OBJECT >element on the "front door" page has caused the user to install the >ActiveX control, all subsequent pages with the original EMBED >elements will work properly. In cases where you cannot be certain >that the "front door" page is always visited, then all your pages >should be revised to use these OBJECT elements. > >HOW IT WORKS >The OBJECT element is used by Internet Explorer on Windows >9x/NT/2000/XP platforms and by other browsers that support the >QuickTime ActiveX control. The enclosed EMBED element is used by >Netscape browsers, Internet Explorer for the Mac, and other browsers >that support the "Netscape style" QuickTime plug-in. Browsers that >understand the OBJECT element ignore the EMBED element; those that >don't understand the OBJECT element use the EMBED element. > >Within the OBJECT element, the CLASSID parameter uniquely identifies >which ActiveX control to use. A CLASSID parameter with the value >"clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B" tells Internet Explorer >to use the QuickTime ActiveX control. (You must use exactly this >value; it is the only value that identifies the QuickTime ActiveX >control). If the user does not already have the ActiveX control >installed on his or her system, the CODEBASE parameter tells the >browser where to find it for downloading. Internet Explorer will >automatically offer to download and install the ActiveX control for >the user, after which the movie can be played without restarting the >browser, or, if QuickTime is not already installed, will prompt the >user to download and install QuickTime. You must always use >"http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab" for the CODEBASE URL. >This URL will always have the latest version of the QuickTime >ActiveX control. >Because a browser will use either the OBJECT element or the EMBED >element, but not both, most of the element attributes must be >included in each. Note that in the example above the EMBED element >has autoplay="true" and the OBJECT element has <param >name="autoplay" value="true">, so the movie will begin to play >automatically whether it is loaded with the QuickTime ActiveX >control or the QuickTime plug-in. The only attributes that should >not be duplicated are CLASSID, CODEBASE, and PLUGINSPAGE. CLASSID >and CODEBASE are specific to the OBJECT element. PLUGINSPAGE is >specific to the EMBED element. > >Although Windows Internet Explorer 5.5 SP2 and 6.0 will no longer >use the QuickTime plug-in, once the QuickTime ActiveX control has >been installed on a user's system, these versions of Internet >Explorer will use the installed ActiveX control to satisfy a >properly coded EMBED element. > >ADDITIONAL READING > >For more information on the OBJECT element, see: > * The W3C Web site at > http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/objects.html#edef-OBJECT > >For more information on HTML in general, see: > * HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide 4th Edition, > by Chuck Musciano & Bill Kennedy, published by O'Reilly. > * Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference, by Danny Goodman, > published by O'Reilly. > >For more information about QuickTime on Web sites, see: >QuickTime for the Web, published by Morgan Kaufmann Publishers. ><http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/quicktime/qtdevdocs/QT4WebPage/QT4WebBo…. >htm> > >For more information on Internet development, see: >http://developer.apple.com/internet/ > >Disclaimer: >IMPORTANT: This Apple software is supplied to you by Apple >Computer, Inc. ("Apple") in consideration of your agreement to the >following terms, and your use, installation, modification or >redistribution of this Apple software constitutes acceptance of >these terms. If you do not agree with these terms, please do not >use, install, modify or redistribute this Apple software. >In consideration of your agreement to abide by the following terms, >and subject to these terms, Apple grants you a personal, >non-exclusive license, under Apple's copyrights in this original >Apple software (the "Apple Software"), to use, reproduce, modify and >redistribute the Apple Software, with or without modifications, in >source and/or binary forms; provided that if you redistribute the >Apple Software in its entirety and without modifications, you must >retain this notice and the following text and disclaimers in all >such redistributions of the Apple Software. Neither the name, >trademarks, service marks or logos of Apple Computer, Inc. may be >used to endorse or promote products derived from the Apple Software >without specific prior written permission from Apple. Except as >expressly stated in this notice, no other rights or licenses, >express or implied, are granted by Apple herein, including but not >limited to any patent rights that may be infringed by your >derivative works or by other works in which the Apple Software may >be incorporated. >The Apple Software is provided by Apple on an "AS IS" basis. >APPLE MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT >LIMITATION THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF NON-INFRINGEMENT, >MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, REGARDING THE >APPLE SOFTWARE OR ITS USE AND OPERATION ALONE OR IN COMBINATION WITH >YOUR PRODUCTS. >IN NO EVENT SHALL APPLE BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT, >INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, >PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR >PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE >USE, REPRODUCTION, MODIFICATION AND/OR DISTRIBUTION OF THE APPLE >SOFTWARE, HOWEVER CAUSED AND WHETHER UNDER THEORY OF CONTRACT, TORT >(INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF APPLE >HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. > >---------------------------------------- >--------- ABOUT THIS EMAIL -------- >---------------------------------------- >You are receiving this email because you have agreed to receive >Technical or Marketing information in your Apple Developer >Connection (ADC) Profile. > >If you would prefer not to receive special notices, or the weekly >Apple Developer Connection News in the future, please log on to >http://connect.apple.com, click the "Update Profile" link, and >uncheck the appropriate ADC News box. > >Questions about your ADC Membership: >http://developer.apple.com/contact/programs.html >---------------------------------------- -- Henry Rzepa. +44 (0)20 7594 5774 (Office) +44 (0870) 132-3747 (eFax) Dept. Chemistry, Imperial College, London, SW7 2AY, UK. http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/ chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. To post to list: mailto:chemweb@ic.ac.uk Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; (un)subscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)

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Use of SVG in Chemistry and xml2svg Transformations
by Rzepa, Henry 07 Mar '02

07 Mar '02

Some discussion on another list (the SVG developers) has prompted me (and others) to summarise progress in the "XML" solution to handling and in particular displaying of chemical content. Unlike HTML, which is predominantly a display and text-based format where chemical content has to be included via "legacy" formats such as eg Molfiles, or via images, XML is designed for essentially complete semantic markup of content. Because no browser could easily handle such a broad scope, the concept is that XML documents will be displayed by appropriate transformation of the content into a small set of generic display formats which the browser CAN handle. The pre-eminent XML-based graphical format is SVG (scalable vector graphics) and hence the issue now resolves to how to transform any particular XML component to eg SVG, generically referred to here as xml2svg (although this does not preclude transformation to older non-XML formats such as Molfile and hence use of eg Chime). Listed below are some useful sites which cover issues of handling XML, and converting it to SVG 1. http://www.adobe.com/svg/demos/main.html which has an XSLT-based cml2svg converter 2. http://www.xml-cml.org/jumbo3/jumbo3-JS/ being a JavaScript based dynamic cml2svg converter. The http://www.xml-cml.org/ site has much other information about XML and CML. Also there you will find XACE (eXtensible annotating chemical editor), based on JME, but with "XML" wrappers. Work on XACE Mk II is well under way. 3. The cml2xbl2svg concept, originally part of Croczilla (http://www.croczilla.com/svg/) now part of one of the builds of Mozilla 0.9.8, and expected to be a permanent part of the Mozilla 1.0 release. 4. http://www.schemasoft.com/MathML/ which is a mathml2svg converter based on XSLT 5. See http://www.web3d.org/TaskGroups/source/xj3d.html being an XML version of VRML, and for which a viewer is now available. ( http://www.adobe.com/svg/demos/main.html also does 3D rotations) 6. http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/xml/ where the process of converting cml2svg, and in general then on to PDF using FOP, is described A XSLT stylesheet for the conversion is at http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/xml/fop.html The above article was published as G. V. Gkoutos, P. Murray-Rust, H. S. Rzepa, and M. Wright, Internet J. Chemistry, 2001, article 13. 7. Jiri.Jirat has written a custom CML2SVG converter (XSLT), the results can be viewed at: http://zvon.org/xxl/CML1.0/Output/index.html 8. Marvin outputs SVG, and reads, inter alia, CML http://www.chemaxon.com/marvin/ There is no doubt much more out there. This collection also illustrates one very powerful aspect of XML, which is the re-usability of various generic tools in a chemical context, a phenomenon that is largely new (previously the chemical community had to pretty much write its own tools!). If anyone in their travels comes across other interesting examples of xml2xml (in the generic sense) tools, and interesting examples say from the bio-informatics and other physical sciences, do please let this list know. -- Henry Rzepa. +44 (0870) 132 3747 (eFax) http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/ Dept. Chemistry, Imperial College, London, SW7 2AY, UK. chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. To post to list: mailto:chemweb@ic.ac.uk Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; (un)subscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)

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