SMIL is an XML language for Synchronised Multimedia Integration. Put at its simplest, its a very basic HTML (really XHTML) with time codes built in. As with any good markup language, all you really need to write it is a text editor (although custom programs for the purpose do exist). To demonstrate a little of what it can be used for, take a look at http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/video/barrett/barrett_qt.smil This URL must be entered into a SMIL player. Currently, these are dedicated programs (rather than Web browsers) such as Quicktime Player, RealPlayer or Windows Media player (links for getting these at http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/video/ ) Using Quicktime 4.1 (earlier versions do not work), enter the above URL. You can also try http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/video/barrett/barrett_rp.smil in RealPlayer etc. Since the best way of learning is by example, I include the entire source code below. As with any new technology, there are limitations. Thus early in the Web, chemical MIME types were used to transclude chemical content, and chemical plugins and Java components were developed for the purpose. Media players such as those noted above do NOT support such chemical content. It appears that one cannot gain access to the chemical MIME types by invoking SMIL in a browser either (Quicktime plugin does not appear to support the SMIL media type). The solution here is to use the power of XML: watch this space for a demo shortly. ====================================================== <smil> <head> <meta name="Title" content="Novel Polymers, Novel Linkers and Novel Transformations in Parallel Synthesis" /> <meta name="Author" content="AGM Barrett and HS Rzepa" /> <meta name="Description" content="Combinatorial Chemistry" /> <meta name="Copyright" content="(c) AGM Barrett and HS Rzepa" /> <meta name="Base" content=""/> <layout> <root-layout id="1.smil" width="690" height="360" background-color="black" title="Barrett" /> <region id="movie" left="0" top="0" width="128" height="96" z-index="1" background-color="black" fit="fill" /> <region id="slide" left="150" top="0" width="540" height="360" z-index="1" background-color="black" fit="fill" /> <region id="search" left="0" top="160" width="140" height="50" z-index="1" background-color="black" /> <region id="text" left="0" top="210" width="140" height="300" z-index="1" background-color="black" /> </layout> </head> <body> <par> <img src="images/0.gif" region="slide" begin="1:24m" end="3:03m" /> <img src="images/1.gif" region="slide" begin="3:05m" end="6:10m" /> <img src="images/2.gif" region="slide" begin="6:12m" end="7:52m" /> <img src="images/3.gif" region="slide" begin="7:53m" end="9:35m" /> <img src="images/4.gif" region="slide" begin="9:36m" end="11:12m" /> <img src="images/5.gif" region="slide" begin="11:13m" end="13:46" /> <img src="images/6.gif" region="slide" begin="13:47m" end="17:50m" /> <img src="images/7.gif" region="slide" begin="17:51m" end="18:21m" /> <img src="images/8.gif" region="slide" begin="18:23m" end="19:54m" /> <img src="images/9.gif" region="slide" begin="19:55m" end="20:20m" /> <img src="images/10.gif" region="slide" begin="20:21m" end="20:59m" /> <img src="images/11.gif" region="slide" begin="21:00m" end="21:23m" /> <img src="images/12.gif" region="slide" begin="21:24m" end="21:57m" /> <img src="images/13.gif" region="slide" begin="21:58m" end="22:38m" /> <img src="images/14.gif" region="slide" begin="22:39m" end="23:02m" /> <img src="images/15.gif" region="slide" begin="23:03m" end="23:45m" /> <img src="images/16.gif" region="slide" begin="23:46m" end="25:56m" /> <img src="images/17.gif" region="slide" begin="25:57m" end="27:20m" /> <img src="images/18.gif" region="slide" begin="27:21m" end="29:41m" /> <img src="images/19.gif" region="slide" begin="27:42m" end="30:19m" /> <img src="images/20.gif" region="slide" begin="30:20m" end="32:48m" /> <img src="images/21.gif" region="slide" begin="32:49m" end="34:14m" /> <img src="images/22.gif" region="slide" begin="34:15m" end="35:20m" /> <img src="images/23.gif" region="slide" begin="35:21m" end="36:26m" /> <img src="images/24.gif" region="slide" begin="36:27m" end="37:18m" /> <img src="images/25.gif" region="slide" begin="37:19m" end="38:26m" /> <img src="images/26.gif" region="slide" begin="38:27m" end="38:47m" /> <img src="images/27.gif" region="slide" begin="38:48m" end="39:25m" /> <img src="images/28.gif" region="slide" begin="39:26m" end="40:12m" /> <img src="images/29.gif" region="slide" begin="40:13m" end="42:10m" /> <img src="images/30.gif" region="slide" begin="42:11m" end="42:59m" /> <img src="images/31.gif" region="slide" begin="43:00m" end="44:07m" /> <img src="images/32.gif" region="slide" begin="44:08m" end="45:20m" /> <img src="images/33.gif" region="slide" begin="45:21m" end="45:51m" /> <img src="images/34.gif" region="slide" begin="45:52m" /> <animation src="barrett.mov" region="movie" begin="0:00m" /> <a href="http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/video/barrett/jobjects/qascript.htm" ><text src="2.txt" type="text/plain" region="search" begin="0:00m" /></a> <text src="date.txt" type="text/plain" region="text" begin="0:00m" /> </par> </body> </smil> -- Henry Rzepa. Imperial College, Chemistry Dept. +44 171 594 5774 (Office) +44 171 594 5804 (Fax) 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)