Shockwave is a technology for converting files created using Macromedia's tools such as Authorware, Director, Flash, Freehand, and xRes into full web-enabled multimedia products for web distribution. It includes compression, and a plug-in for Netscape-compatible browsers and the Shockwave Active-X control for Microsoft Internet Explorer.

The compression engine is a post-processor for Director movies. It compresses your Director movie and prepares your Director movie for faster downloading from a Web server. Once web pages are created, the movie and it's associated web page must be stored on a web server. From the File menu, choose File / Save As / Shockwave Movie…to compres a Director movie by 50% and create a file with the .dcr extension. (Director CompRessed file). Compressed Director movies should be kept to 50-200K.

The second part of this technology is the Shockwave plug-in (for Netscape) and the Shockwave ActiveX control for the Micosoft Browser, Internet Explorer. Both extend the capabilities of the browser to interpret and display shockwave movies distributed using the web. Both interpret the HTML <EMBED> or <OBJECT> tags and display the compressed movie in your browser's window.

The ActiveX control and Netscape plug-in and documentation is available at www.macromedia.com/shockwave. To test whether the plugin is correctly installed, connect to http://www.macromedia.com/shockzone

Overview for Creating a Shockwave Movie:

Director tries to optimize your movie for the web, reordering the elements of the movie to expedite playback and download times. When a Director movie is saved as a Shockwave movie, the Score, all Scripts, and shapes created with the Tool Palette and Cast member information is placed at the beginning of the movie. Next all additional cast members - text, field, shape, and bitmap, are saved to the movie file in the same order in which they appear in the Score. When you play a movie over the web, the elements of the movie are downloaded in the same order in which they are saved…first the Score, followed by scripts, shapes created from the tool palette, and cast member information…next all scripts, shapes, and cast member information from any external cast, followed by any Extras. You can help by placing Cast members in the cast in the order in which they are used.

Streaming refers to the capability of allowing a movie to begin playing before it is fully downloaded. - Prior to Director 6 all Director movies had to download fully before they could be viewed. Starting with Director 6 you can change the Streaming properties of a movie using Modify / Movie / Playback / Use media As Available…before saving the Movie as a Shockwave movie.

Steps for Shocking a Movie:

Create a movie in Director (avoid using features not supported in Shockwave…cf. "Director Authoring Issues and Constraints", in Director 6 Bible, p. 868.) and Control / Recompile All Scripts
Test your movie as usual,
select Modify / Movie / Playback
save the movie using File / Save and Compact
Once the movie is compacted, select File / Save As Shockwave Movie
Embed your Shockwave movie is an HYML document using <EMBED> and <OBJECT> tags. You can also use Javascript to detect which browser is in use, before displaying the Web page with the appropriate tag that best displays your movie. (Cf. Chapter 5)
Place the compressed file and web page in a WWW directory.

Adding a Director Movie to your Web Document

Using the <EMBED> tag: The following is the syntax of the tag…

<EMBED SRC="http://www.shockserver.edu/movies/logo.dcr"

WIDTH=320 HEIGHT=240>

In addition to the required SRC, WIDTH and HEIGHT parameters, the <EMBED> tag accepts three additional parameters:

A. PALETTE:

a. PALETTE=foreground - the window changes to use the movie's color Palette. (Not supported by I.E.) If you do this, you should include a return to the original system palette in the final frame of the movie.

b. PALETTE=background - the movie uses current system palette and the movie's palette isn’t loaded….but be aware that the Mac and PC use different system palettes.

B. NAME:

C. PLUGINSPAGE assist the user in locating the plugin required

a. PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/"

For browsers that do not support the Shockwave movies, you can use the <NOEMBED> to prevent the user from seeing the broken image icon. E.g.

2. Using the <OBJECT> tag:

The HTML <OBJECT> tag includes several additional parameters, most of which can be copied verbatim into your HTML document. Some (WIDTH, HEIGHT, NAME) are identical to parameters used in the EMBED tag. The remaining parameters include CLASSID, CODEBASE, and PARAM NAME.

CLASSID - is very specific and does not change. The identification number identifies the Shockwave ActiveX control.

CLASSID="clsid:166B1BCA-3F9C-11CF-8075-444553540000"

CODEBASE identifies the URL where the user's browser can locate the shockwave ActiveX control if not previously installed.

CODEBASE="http://active.macromedia.com/director/cabs/sw.cab#version=6,0,1,0

<PARAM NAME="SRC" > This parameter identifies the pathname, if needed , of the movie clip, and if the movie is in the same directory as the web page, the pathname can be omitted. VALUE="http://www.saintmarys.edu/~dmandell/movies/ShockedMovie.dcr">

E.G.

<EMBED SRC="http://www.shockedsite.edu/movies/logo.dcr " WIDTH=320

HEIGHT=240 PALETTE=foreground>

</OBJECT>

MIME (Multi-Purpose Internet Mail Extensions) Issues:

The MIME type includes two indetifiers, the content type and sub-content type.

Content types:

Application, audio, image, text, video

For Director, the type is application

Sub-content type - image/GIF, video/QuickTime

For Director the subtype is x-director

Acceptable extensions include .dcr, .dir, and .dxr