Lynne Dunckley

Planning inter Media Applications

This chapter is about planning a rich-media application, from the point of gathering the requirements to testing the implemented system. A rich-media application is part of a more complex information system where interoperability of the component parts might be a significant requirement. The chapter describes various techniques to collect the requirements, plan the stages of the implementation, prototype, and test the system. This is a good point to reflect on what is special about rich-media applications so that one can recognize where there would be problems in development.

Introduction to inter Media APIS

This chapter explores inter Media APIs. The chapter helps understanding the way to use inter Media from some APls. More complete and intensive data storage and manipulation are possible. To use inter Media from an Oracle database requires an API that can perform SQL operations, operate on binary database binary large objects (BLOBs), and make use of PL/SQL procedures. To prepare a database for inter Media file operations, the user schema must be assigned the privileges to access files and create files. Before a file can be accessed, a database directory object must be created and access to that directory object must be granted to the database user. Media data stored with inter Media data can easily be accessed and handled in many Microsoft environments. These environments include C# and Visual Basic by using the Oracle Data Provider for .NET (ODP.NET).

inter Media Application Performance

This chapter discusses the inter Media application performance. Performance does not typically fall into one category like response time. Performance may be an issue in many other areas of media database application. To get the best performance from ones inter Media application, it is necessary to consider all aspects of the system. Loading data, backing up data, and application performance are potential targets for tuning. It is important to tune the database with inter Media in mind, but the other layers—such as the application and/or mid-tier layer—should be considered. A database has automated techniques to help tune the database parameters to their optimal values. Tables can be designed to spread I/O over multiple physical disks so that a single physical device does not become a bottleneck.

Media in Object Types

This chapter discusses the basic methods of the ORDSYS object types focusing on the constructor and image-processing methods. These methods allow rich media to be stored in the specialized object types in the ORDSource object type either internally in the database or externally. The chapter illustrates the way in which routine image-processing operations can be carried out with the ORDImage object type without removing the images from the database or using specialized image-processing software. Some image processing can also be carried out with the SI_StillImage object type that is included for interoperability purposes. This constructor allows specifying the image format, height, and width when the specified image is an unsupported image format. It also allows one to specify values for the height and width of images with unsupported formats.

Introduction to Web Delivery of inter Media Multimedia Data

This chapter discusses the Web delivery of inter Media multimedia data. Multimedia data must be delivered to a program that is capable of exhibiting it because this data cannot be exhibited in text. The most used technology for computer-based multimedia data is the Web. The chapter presents various techniques to get ones multimedia onto the Web from a database. The chapter also explains the way multimedia data is handled by standard programs over the Web. Web browsers use Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to communicate with Web servers. This protocol is used to deliver text, multimedia data, and other information to and from a browser on request. HTTP is also used in other programs to obtain data. Multimedia data that are delivered to browsers are referenced by URLs.

Introduction to inter Media Storage

This chapter discusses inter Media storage. Options for storing media within a database are explored in the chapter. This chapter helps learning the way in which a multimedia database using relational and object-relational concepts can be created. A simple information systems case study to illustrate the issues and see the way in which the different approaches could work out in practice is presented in the chapter. The chapter focuses on the storage options for media data that have arisen through the recent developments of object-relational databases and media technologies. The chapter also focuses on the relational approach and the standard data types available for media storage based on large objects (LOBs) and B FILES because these data types are at the basis of the object types and it is important to have a sound grasp of their functions and capabilities.

Streaming Audio and Video

Streaming is used to deliver and simultaneously view time-based media. Time-based media includes video and audio. Other kinds of presentations include play lists of audio or video or perhaps image slide shows expressed in a markup language that specifies when they should be displayed. The alternative to streaming media is download and play. In this style of playing time-based media, the media file is first downloaded and then played. This is suitable for media of short duration and/or small size. For long media, the user would not want to wait 10 minutes for download before watching a 10-minute video. Streaming allows the user to view the media while it is being downloaded.

J2EE/ADF Application Development

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the development of applications using J2EE technologies—such as Java, Java Server Pages (JSP), and Java Server Faces (JSF)—as well as Oracles Application Development Framework (ADF). Oracles ADF is a collection of technologies that can be used to automate the complexities of developing an application using J2EEs model-view-controller (MVC) design paradigm. This allows the developer to concentrate on the business logic. ADF is based on proven J2EE technologies—such as JSF—and business components from previous versions of Oracle JDeveloper. Development of a rich-media application using Java and J2EE technologies is much quicker and easier with the use of an integrated development environment (IDE), such as Jdeveloper. Oracle inter Media provide a rich set of features for the J2EE environment. It has support for servlets, JSPs, and representing database inter Media objects as Java objects. inter Media can also be used effectively with Oracle Jdeveloper as this application development tool can recognize inter Media objects.\

11 – Query Mode

Publisher Summary This chapter explores the ways in which different kinds of multimedia data—audio, image, video, or a combination—can be retrieved from database systems. The chapter identifies the problems in querying multimedia data and studies general approaches adopted for dealing with multimedia data, particularly by using PL/SQL. With image data, it is mainly the semantic nature that is the problem, while video and audio present difficulties in terms of their real-time nature as well. Different approaches taken by interMedia technology to address these problems using technical and text-based metadata and the requirements of different application areas are explored in the chapter. A key approach is based on extracting information from media objects, attaching this information to the media object, and using it for retrieval from the database.

2 – Multimedia Basics

Publisher Summary This chapter explores the format, compression, and delivery requirements for rich media. The standards for interoperability, quality, and metadata are vital. Metadata literally means data about data; it has always been an essential component of databases. There is information about every user and their access rights to data within a database. Therefore, metadata is any data that is required to interpret other data as meaningful information and it is an extremely important aspect of multimedia databases because it is used for retrieving and manipulating data. It can be based on the interpretation of information held within the media or alternatively, it can be based on the interpretation of multiple media and their relationships. In the case of multimedia, metadata deals with the content, structure, and semantics of data.