Lodi Way of Learning

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Clients and Servers

By Felipe Lodi

Document Editors are available for many tasks. In the past they were used just for the exercise of typing, saving and printing. Lately, the latter functionally, though yet present, has been giving place to publishing in many different ways. Such extended functionality makes possible to publish multimedia content directly from the editor to countless destinations.

Amongst services that are ready to receive multimedia content from editors are Twitter, Blogger, Google Plus, Facebook and most known email services on the Web. Whereas not every editor will have out-of-the-box integration with such services, APIs and SDKs are available for development and customization. (Facebook, 2012) Current versions of Microsoft Office and Windows Live suite enable easy publishing of multimedia content as Blog Posts. A feature that is embedded and accepts some of the well-known blog services on the Internet.

This introduced connectivity with the Internet and available Applications as Services make Document Editors client of many servers. Yet about Microsoft Word and its capabilities, the current version optionally “sends” the multimedia content, which can be just an image and its descriptive text, to SkyDrive, Microsoft SharePoint and it can publishes as Blog Post. Hence one client, three servers.

There are in fact many ways of Blogging nowadays. For recording and publishing to the world a group of thoughts, the candidate author just need a Mobile Phone actually. Even though it might be difficult to type too many attractive words on it, it is technically possible. Using a computer or maybe a tablet, the author would be more comfortable but regardless, he/she would also use the very same concepts of the Client-Server architecture presented in all these examples.

Such architecture achieves a great level of scalability and compatibility as multimedia content generated in Microsoft Word (the client) can be published online on Blogger from Google (the server) and again be retrieved in another editor on the Mobile Phone for example (another client) and again be saved to another Blog Service on the Web (another server). What do we have here? Should we change the architecture definition to Client(s)-Server(s) then?

I am very optimistic since we are experiencing good compatibility and exchange of data between different vendors and platforms. I can see small limitations though when developing complex multimedia content that might require video and audio to be streamed from another Source. Back to the example of the Blog Authoring, even though Microsoft Word would satisfy most of the expectations for deployment, a proper tool such as the Windows Live Writer (Microsoft, 2012) has options from attaching external content from YouTube to the post. This is again great evidence of connectivity and compatibility between concurrent corporations.

REFERENCES LIST

Facebook, 2012. SDKs. [Online] Available at: http://developers.facebook.com/docs/sdks/ [Accessed 28 July 2012].

Microsoft, 2012. Windows Live Essentials: Other Programs. [Online] Available at: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-live/essentials-other-programs [Accessed 28 July 2012].

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It Feels Like it Should

By Felipe Lodi

Two advents lead me to think that Virtual Reality on the Web is possible in the next years: 3D images and touching. Both improve the way we use Computer Systems, more specifically the Web, and the way we see content. Both are making us getting closer to how we manipulate objects for real.

Books, Newspapers and Magazines with their digital version for Tablets consider that the user will scroll and flick the page the same way we do on the paper versions but what if in the future they are able to put us actually living the News about a conflict on the street as if we were there? They will have a button “send me there” and magically we are transported to the event. We can hear the screams, we can even shout along. We will feel like if we were in a dream.

Shopping experience will change too by providing the ability to smell fragrances of the newest perfumes as we touch on the cap of the 3D bottle in our computer screen. Car dealerships will make we test-drive the latest model. As per our request they will send us in advance special Glasses and a Wheel where we will wirelessly attach to the web-connected computer. We will feel like shopping for real.

A good definition of Virtual Reality that fits into this context, amongst many others is that “Virtual reality is a form of technology which creates computer generated worlds or immersive environments which people can explore and in many cases, interact with”. (Virtual Reality Organization, 2009). Somehow computer systems, the Web, bandwidth and devices will have to evolve much and in some cases like the smelling experience, be invented in order for that to happen.

Not only Browsers will have to evolve to provide such experience but devices maybe connected to our bodies will have to be designed and produced. There are already robots that have prosthetic hands with sensors and finger prints on them, that are able to identify textures and other materials as we do. (Rundle, 2012) This really makes me wonder if they will help on the identification of objects in remote places such as Mars or even deeper in the space.

I cannot see such advanced technology in a near future but I do believe that we will be interacting with the Web much different than we do, soon. It might be that we will be sort of hybrid humans with microchips in our skin for making telephone calls for instance. Isn’t that magical already that we can actually make calls?

We will have the microchip and as it listens, that telephone agenda will be accessed by speech as we go on the way to work and another microchip on our ears makes possible the hearing and talking. Going even deeper, another device, maybe a glass, will be able to show the half-body 3D image of the person on the other side of the connection. We will feel like if we were in a real conversation.

REFERENCES LIST

Rundle, M., 2012. Robot Finger 'More Accurate At Feeling Texture Than Humans' (VIDEO). [Online] Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/06/19/robot-finger-more-accurate_n_1608339.html [Accessed 21 July 2012].

Virtual Reality Organization, 2009. Virtual Reality. [Online] Available at: http://www.vrs.org.uk/#virtual-reality [Accessed 21 July 2012].

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Web Criteria

By Felipe Lodi

One of the considerations when developing a Website is the target audience. A choice that starts even when registering the domain name as the extension will indicate whether for instance it is commercial intended (.com, .biz), non-profit (.gov), personal portfolio (.me) and adult content (.xxx). The extension will also help Browsers and Systems to categorize the content based on that and helps users to avoid undesirable content.

The target audience for a Website will also establish whether there will be accessibility. There are many initiatives on the Web that enable people with disabilities and the elderly to navigate and interact with Web pages. Turn a Website into accessible is not an easy task and requires the developers and designers to accomplish several strict rules on the source code. (W3C, 2011)

Whereas accessibility helps the disabled it might be difficult for some of them to identify a great layout. Nowadays designers have the challenge to build not only accessible layouts prevailing navigation and the information but layouts that are easy to use in different devices such as Mobile Phones, Tablets and Multi-Touch Screen Computers.

Known pointers are becoming obsolete so what are we supposed to do with Websites that have small words to be clicked, drop down menus and mouse hover information? Designers and Developers have now to change existing layouts to accommodate navigation to the tip of our fingers instead. Therefore the way the audience will navigate is now more important than ever.

Navigation is also changing as frequent visits of the same user to the same Website will evolve and tailor the content. Buttons, Images, Messages and Options are offering different destination to the user at the click of the mouse (or would that be at the touch of the finger?). Tailored Content is as important as the navigation because the users are captivated by attractive components on the page.

As part of this audience, I navigate the Web focused in what I am looking for. I use it more intuitively when I am using Websites in my bookmarks, checking my mails or so. I pay more attention when I am researching something new or entering an unknown Website. The point is that the above criteria is intrinsically applied when using the Web in either way and what can make me leave the page, bookmark it or just like it, is a matter of how satisfactory is my navigation.

Websites from Microsoft have taking my attention lately as the endeavors for launching their new Metro style have changed (and standardized) all layouts across their pages and some of their applications. It is clear to me how navigation became easier and suitable for mobile devices. However there are many other aspects where the chosen page www.msdn.com needs to be evaluated.

Criteria

Evaluation

Domain Name

It is intuitive for a user to look for the Company’s Website by typing their name followed by the .com suffix. To Microsoft this would not be different but another aspect is important and not many people use that.

There is usually a way we can reach a determined area, service or product of a Company by using its subdomain name. The chosen Website though it has a proper Domain Name, can also be reached like this msdn.microsoft.com which is very intuitive in my point of view.

Microsoft has also several subdomains as listed by the Minimalite Website. (Admin, 2011)

Accessibility

The WAVE Website tests the accessibility of any other Website by pointing its URL. (WAVE, 2012) They identify lack of attributes on XHTML tags that are used by Screen Readers and others applications used by the disabled.

WAVE has found two errors when evaluating the proposed Website which I believe it is a very good outcome.

Layout

The buttons are so big that you fell like touching them. The major changes and improvements on this Website are both compatible with the new Metro style Microsoft is proposing and compatible with Mobile navigation.

By testing this very same page in two other devices (one HTC Phone running Android and a Multimedia Computer Multi-Touch Screen) the navigation runs seamlessly even better on the latter where the keyboard was not used at all.

Navigation

The lack of drop down menus and as mentioned before, the large buttons eases the navigation by requiring the user few interactions to find useful content.

With only three touches I could reach the download of the Windows Azure SDK and I also was able to easily read the descriptions of the same by flicking the screen.

The Website still has hints on mouse hover though that could only be visible when using the pointer which is a negative point.

Tailored Content

The content has not changed regardless whether I was logged in or not. As .NET developer I was expecting the Website somehow offering me related downloads and general contents. This has not happened and even though the navigation was very easy to perform, it could be even easier in this sense.

I have been downloaded many things for long that could indicate in my profile the type of technology I would be seeking. Tailored Content could also help by offering trends in my related technology of development which could indicate to me what is next to .NET development.

REFERENCES LIST

Admin, 2011. Microsoft.com Subdomains List. [Online] Available at: http://minimalite.com/2011/02/microsoft-windows/windows-tutorials/microsoft-com-subdomains-list/ [Accessed 21 July 2012].

W3C, 2011. Introduction to Web Accessibility. [Online] Available at: http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/accessibility.php/ [Accessed 21 July 2012].

WAVE, 2012. Welcome to WAVE. [Online] Available at: http://wave.webaim.org/ [Accessed 21 July 2012].

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The Transition Language

By Felipe Lodi

Exiting technologies we use and love will die someday. In the Web and technology in general everything that is new, will be used for a certain amount of time and one day will die or at least live just for a few. Many technologies are attempts of patterns creation and when they are not able to “be” a standard, they start to become discredited until the day something newer and better overlaps what once was great and amazing.

This is what is happening with devices such as laptops and desktop computers being replaced in a daily basis by incredible mobility advents. This is what is happening with technologies such as Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight being replaced by simpler technologies and standards like HTML5 and JavaScript.

One of the reasons they may actually die is on the dependency on software that needs to be on the client side that despite the fact they may be there already when you buy your new computer or system, they will eventually crash and/or require you to update its client side piece of software, which is not productive or intuitive.

Another reason is on the technologies that are obscurely linked together. Isn’t that curious that the lack of popularity on some hardware devices nowadays happens on the same time as some applications are also becoming less popular? Flash and Silverlight were developed to a Web that depended on devices with better local processing and larger storage than the mobiles.

New trends still consider processing on the client side but in a lighter way. There will be no dependency on third party software for Browser oriented applications regardless of the type of device you are using. I also wonder about the future of the Java Platform we also need to download and keep updated in order to run plenty of software on the Browser. With the new trend in using HTML5, business applications, games, mobile applications or just ordinary web sites will gain in productivity, mobility, security, scalability and since a there will be no dependency on client side technologies, simplicity.

For developers, HTML5 brings the latest revision of the HTML markup language, the latest revision of CSS (the third version) and several JavaScript APIs that combined, enable the developer to create applications as rich as the desktop applications. (HTML5Rocks, 2012) Developers also ever wanted to target their applications to several platforms at the same time and HTML5 provides that. It eases the task of developing for a determined type of device and facilitates the deployment for as many users as you have and sometimes they will not even notice that the application has been fixed or upgraded.

HTML5 provides local file access such perk not presented on previous versions because of all maliciously on the Web. Because of those bad guys we paid for long but now, we are able to safely access the user’s file system and for instance build applications that validate the content of files before uploading them to the Web.

Presentation is everything on the new version of HTML. I have seen lately the nicest Web sites built up in HTML5 and intuitively I right click on the content to find out that the amazing “look and feel” I am experiencing is not Flash nor Silverlight. Fonts can be accessed on local systems and this enriches the presentation. Rounded corners, shadowing, gradients and 3D cool stuff are now available minimizing even further the dependency on third party proprietary software. For HTML5 clicking is a technology of the past century. Meaning that other ways of user’s interactivity embraces multi-touch, device orientation and geo location.

In a world where the mobility and communication are becoming essential for us to work, play and entertain, new devices are emerging and some technologies are dying. (Mims, 2011) To accommodate all this transition in the software level, a new vanguard language compatible with all this evolution needed to be unveiled. Perhaps one day we will be using just one programming language instead of mastering a few to deploy to the Web but one thing it is true: HTML5 is the transition language now.

REFERENCES LIST

HTML5Rocks, 2012. WHY HTML5 ROCKS. [Online] Available at: http://www.html5rocks.com/en/why [Accessed 14 July 2012].

Mims, C., 2011. HTML5 Triumphant: Silverlight, Flash Discontinuing. [Online] Available at: http://www.technologyreview.com/view/426083/html5-triumphant-silverlight-flash-discontinuing/ [Accessed 14 July 2012].

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Degrees of Separation

By Felipe Lodi

The Cereal box shows several ingredient names in Dutch that I have no clue about them. For an instant, I wished to have a way to touch with my finger on them to see their meaning and translation. I wished that for many things we have seen around us, everywhere. So what if the Web was even further interconnected and every piece of information in a page could be linked to a description?

The description per se would contain other words where some would be meaningless and these words would be again clickable targeting further descriptions and so. Like a Neural Network working pretty much like our minds. Apart of the whole complexity this subject brings, we remember things based on things we are thinking and seeing at the moment. Then we remember people related to the thoughts we are having and this would happen for a while.

The Web already work similar to this if we do the exercise of starting clicking on links in a page and eventually these links will bring different Web sites, different links and you just go keeping going deeper and deeper into the Web. Somehow, we could say that all Websites (on the Web and not in local networks) are connected.

And there is this theory of six degrees of separation that states that everyone is away of everyone in the planet at a maximum of six people. It is like Dalai Lama is only at the maximum of six people away from you, from me and everyone else. (Smith, 2009) It is quite feasible therefore that this happens also for all Web sites in the World.

However if we imagine a Web site where all the written words are links? Despite the layout confusion this might cause, this could represent a window to several other Web sites with not much effort. Imagining then that the destination Web sites also used this practice, in a matter of few degrees of navigation, much of the human’s knowledge published as Web content could be reached.

The practice is valid to me but not as links as we know them. There are different ways to link content. As user, I use Browser capabilities to translate and define content as I highlight the unknown term in a page. I also have options to show me on the map another highlighted address without having to click on that. At the click of the mouse, I much like to search on Google from within the page and the selected term.

The content is all there and there is no need for polluted Web pages full of links to everywhere. Perhaps by doing this practice however, we would be able to know the degree of separation of all pages of the Web. Redundancies would become clearer, wrong definitions and misunderstood concepts would be evident and people would be even more connected.

REFERENCES LIST

Smith, D., 2009. Proof! Just six degrees of separation between us. [Online] Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/aug/03/internet.email [Accessed 14 July 2012].

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Audio Formats

By Felipe Lodi

This experiment has started by researching source of audio in raw format on the Web. I was amazed how there is a whole world of trading of audio samples of huge variety of rhythms, tastes and for every kind of production. It seems that by the price audio packages are sold, much professional work is done with these loops, which makes me satisfied with few free samples in WAV format that I could download to start my experiment with.

The WAV Format has been created and developed by Microsoft and IBM and despite their rather loosely definition of the format, it has been copied and working properly for many years. They are commonly uncompressed and can become very big (Waters, 2009) Also my choice for these samples in this format is because since they are used professionally, they would not be compacted hence I would be able to start with full quality audio samples.

About the chosen audio sample, here it is its original (before compressing) properties:

Filename

03 PadGtr Chorus.wav

Format

Wave

File size

4.10 MB

Duration

16s 0ms

Overall bit rate mode

Constant

Overall bit rate

2 151 Kbps

Producer

Logic Pro

Format

PCM

Channel(s)

2 channels

Bit depth

24 bits

Sampling rate

44.1 KHz

Stream size

4.04 MB (98%)

The Web site Media.io (Burkard, n.d.) avails conversion of audio to predefined formats and predefined qualities. The fact that I would not have to purchase any tool to convert audio as well as fixed configurations the service online had, attracted me to use it in order to convert the original audio into MP3, OGG and WMA by using Extreme (256 kbit/s), High (192 kbit/s), Normal (128 kbit/s) and Lower (96 kbit/s) quality levels.

The conversion time, given that the original file had to be uploaded to the site for every conversion, was very acceptable and in average of 15 seconds (including upload time), therefore my first conclusion is that if there is a difference of time in converting in one format or another, this is imperceptible. Another tool embedded on the Codec Package enabled me to snapshot information about the media with extended parameters. The most important values were taken and compared as shown below.

The Lower conversion quality had the outcome below:

Format

File Size

Bit Rate

Compression Mode

Stream Size

MP3 (MPEG Audio)

232 KB

96 kbps

Lossy

188 KiB (100%)

OGG (Vorbis)

121 KB

96 kbps

Lossy

188 KiB

WMA (MPEG Audio)

217 KB

96 kbps

Lossy

188 KiB (87%)

The Normal conversion quality had the outcome below:

Format

File Size

Bit Rate

Compression Mode

Stream Size

MP3 (MPEG Audio)

252 KB

128 kbps

Lossy

250 KiB (100%)

OGG (Vorbis)

164 KB

128 kbps

Lossy

250 KiB

WMA (MPEG Audio)

276 KB

128 kbps

Lossy

250 KiB (91%)

The High conversion quality had the outcome below:

Format

File Size

Bit Rate

Compression Mode

Stream Size

MP3 (MPEG Audio)

285 KB

192 kbps

Lossy

284 KiB (100%)

OGG (Vorbis)

232 KB

192 kbps

Lossy

375 KiB

WMA (MPEG Audio)

482 KB

192 kbps

Lossy

375 KiB (78%)

The Extreme conversion quality had the outcome below:

Format

File Size

Bit Rate

Compression Mode

Stream Size

MP3 (MPEG Audio)

366 KB

256 kbps

Lossy

365 KiB (100%)

OGG (Vorbis)

290 KB

256 kbps

Lossy

500 KiB

WMA (MPEG Audio)

642 KB

256 kbps

Lossy

500 KiB (78%)

The Compression Mode is relevant information that states that the original WAV file in fact has lost data when compressed. The Bit Rate is kept for all formats and only changes depending on the quality level chosen. The smallest file in all cases is the OGG format that even though uses the same Bit Rate as the MP3 and WMA it shows that its compression algorithm is more efficient than others.

By listening to these samples there is no identified loss to my ears but I did have to download additional Codecs in order to be able to play the OGG format which makes me think that despite its smaller file size, general compatibility is an issue for its popularity. Such popularity achieved by the MP3 format in another hand, is also difficult to beat since this also has a very good compression algorithm that was able to reduce the original size on its “extreme” quality to approximately 11%.

REFERENCES LIST

Burkard, J., n.d. Online Audio Converter. [Online] Available at: http://media.io/ [Accessed 7 July 2012].

Waters, D., 2009. Intro to Audio Programming, Part 2: Demystifying the WAV Format. [Online] Available at: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dawate/archive/2009/06/23/intro-to-audio-programming-part-2-demystifying-the-wav-format.aspx [Accessed 7 July 2012].

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The Art in Developing Web Applications

By Felipe Lodi

The magic of Web Application development starts with many discussions about technologies and tools to be used by the team. There is always the artistic side of development when Designers are defining colors, images and fonts to be used based on specific criteria and their common sense. There are the Database and Infrastructure people, who usually do not care about whether to use "black or white". There are Analysts, Architects and Management crew responsible for deliveries, deadlines as they glue every package of work together. There are the "Coders" from which every role above depends on to make the magic happening.

And there is also the loner developer in his/her dark room at Friday night discovering new technologies, creating new concepts, enhancing something already good, developing an application or hacking someone's site. Web development is a democratic practice as those above and can be done the same way by both corporative task-force and by the self-sufficient developer.

But what makes Web Development so achievable lately? The major reason I can see is in the open formats and the acceptance of them by the market. This is the biggest prove that because of well-established definitions for Web development, there are countless tools to design, draw, research, develop, deploy, host, test and use. For all kind of tastes and size of pockets, Web applications can be made costly or totally for free.

To become a Blogger for instance, you just need to choose the best place to host your texts. Do not be afraid if you do not know anything about HTML or programming in general. Be sure that your Blogging Service Application will have a WYSIWYG Editor (What you see is what you get) available for you (Webopedia, n.d.). There, when writing your text, you will be able to select the desired font, size and color and attach a few pictures without writing a line of code.

These editors are also very common in Content Management Systems (CMS) where you are also able to create complete Websites in hours. In this case, not only blog posts have the editor tool but complete pages can be built by using them. Web Development tools, either free or paid, are even better example of such technique of editing with more complex options and functionality.

The concept behind of these kinds of editors is that you are able to see how your content will be deployed as you go and you can correct what you want, anytime. Everything visually made will be accordingly converted to code afterwards. In more complete editors such as Microsoft Visual Studio and Adobe Dreamweaver, Web Services and Database connectivity can be made dropping components on the screen. (MSDN, 2012) Extended graphic modifications are automatically integrated with style sheets attached and despite that in this case those may require a bit of technical knowledge, there may be no code involved.

Advanced editors go even further helping to code that some say that they can code for you. Intellisense and Code Completition are amazing features that are embedded in the editors but they work directly on the code however. Developers can produce HTML code using the visual interface for components that would take longer than the drag and drop and go further customize the code in another view. (MSDN, 2012)

By coding HTML, these two functionalities can identify unclosed tags, they can close tags for you and they can list suggested attributes. By manually producing XML code, the Intellisense will list at the cursor, parameters and values established on the Schema. By coding events, JavaScript and SQL, they will indent the code, they will throw a whole statement such as the foreach, and they will show compilation and syntax errors without compiling.

In Web Development, there is also the concern about the Web Standards and readiness for different types of Browsers and Search Engines. To assure you are completing required attributes of HTML tags is a good start. The developer must remember that there are several "obsolete" commands that are kept for backwards compatibility which does not mean they are recommended by the W3C. (W3C, 2012) Therefore good editors will help on the task of validating the best practices implemented on the code by embedding connectivity with validators on the Web.

The developer may always opt to use the Notepad (and remember to save the file on the right format) and he/she will be able to deliver the very same result in the end. It will be just a matter of time that the developer will notice that he/she is losing in performance. Web Development indeed is democratic but the production achieved with different tools will be extremely different. As developer, I already have my preferred editor, I know its flaws and they are quite few. It is a complete solution for Professional Web Development in just one tool and accepts several languages. It nearly codes for me: Microsoft Visual Studio.

REFERENCES LIST

MSDN, 2012. How to: Connect to Data in a Database. [Online] Available at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fxk9yw1t.aspx [Accessed 6 July 2012].

MSDN, 2012. Using IntelliSense. [Online] Available at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hcw1s69b(v=vs.71).aspx [Accessed 6 July 2012].

W3C, 2012. Standards. [Online] Available at: http://www.w3.org/standards/ [Accessed 6 July 2012].

Webopedia, n.d.. WYSIWYG. [Online] Available at: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/W/WYSIWYG.html [Accessed 6 July 2012].

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Videos of this Century

By Felipe Lodi

After researching and studying about multimedia, it is so clear to me now that the audience is what matters the most. Whether this audience is accessing multimedia content over the Web or broadcasted by a television channel, the way these people are reached makes all difference to media and multimedia producers.

It is good to know that we are totally able to decide what to watch and when. In my case at home, I do not have a cable television subscription. Instead, I have a very good broadband (and a very good monthly bandwidth allowance) and everything that I watch comes from the Web. Movies and TV Series pay-as-you-go, news and sports directly on the Browser or on applications embed on multimedia players and devices. I am very happy with the content available and so far and almost no advertisement is shown to me.

However this change is still at the beginning of this big revolution. Content producers have huge challenges to either make presentations to the whole world or otherwise, to prevent them to be broadcasted in ways how they were not supposed to. Apart of technical specifications, one criteria to be taken into account is whether the content is licensed to play everywhere in the world. There is no technical way to embed into the video file, constraints for countries, IP addresses or any other cultural and commercial aspect.

In case of publishing in a physical media, there are ways however to code the media to be played in a determined region only, considering that the licensing rights are paid by the purchase of the content within the media. But the author then needs to know that if he plans to broadcast the multimedia presentation in a Web site, the constraints need to be placed along the source code within the pages, probably at server-side.

Such constraints are easier to apply when the content is produced only to multimedia devices as Home Theaters and Video-Game Consoles are becoming options. Another very important aspect the author will have to mind in this sense is the Codecs. Compression and Decompression help making large video files viewable over the Web by shrinking each bitmapped image of each frame or storing only the differences between them. (Chapman & Chapman, 2011)

As we have the opportunity to see, videos made to the Web in their majority are produced to be compacted by assuming that when played, the algorithm responsible for compressing the video will also be used to decompress the same. Therefore when producing compressed content to be played on the Web, the right Codec will have to be present. If this content is available for download or in Multimedia CD, the Codec will have then to be present on the client device in order to be able to play it. Popular Codecs will compact the video with a better quality and to smaller files and furthermore, the author decreases the chance of incompatibilities issues.

And finally there is the video streaming, my preferred choice of broadcast as you do not own the file, you do not even know the size of the file as you do not have to store it in order to play it. This way of delivering “resembles broadcast television” (Chapman & Chapman, 2011) and in practice may or may not bring advertisement and scheduled programs because of that. For the multimedia producer point of view this alternative brings different challenges than others.

The multimedia producer will need to know that streaming is not an easy option for multimedia CD and DVDs although there is always a way to make reference to external content in multimedia Web pages or applications. This presentation in this case would also count on Internet (or network) connectivity depending on where the external video content is located.

Bandwidth is also the challenge when deploying streaming video to the Web. As video quality and performance (basically whether the video is watchable) will be restricted to the quality and performance of the network connectivity, authors will have to consider options of progressive download or HTTP Streaming (Chapman & Chapman, 2011) that will store the video on the client side for the sake of performance.

As we can see, many options and constraints need to be discussed before producing the multimedia presentation. Aspects inherent to the content, special effects, storyboard, photography and soundtrack are very important indeed but as the same way the targeted audience is fully considered during production, aspects related to the Web, player devices and compatibility have the same importance to this audience and whether or not they will be able to consume.

REFERENCES LIST

Chapman, N. & Chapman, J., 2011. Video Compression. In Digital Multimedia. 3rd ed. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. pp.210, 236.

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The Art and the HTML5

By Felipe Lodi

The differences between Vector and Bitmapped Graphics are huge as well as their usage. For any person willing to work with Graphic design, Electronic art, Photographic and the Web of course, it is very important to establish the boundaries and the purpose of each category of graphics. It is clear to me though that both types of graphic are used for the Web whether during the design and creation of pages or on their final deployed result.

To design Web pages, the author (or a team of them) has to use many tools to achieve the final result. Regardless of data connectivity and business rules, there is usually too much work on the graphical design of a Web project, and this work starts in a sketch or in a wireframe of what will become the Web pages later. There are the vector graphics already.

In order to define the major areas of a page and its components inside, vector graphics are more useful than Bitmaps as many times, areas need to be defined by aligning sides or distributing components inside by doing math calculations. In case areas need to be redefined, components inside need to proportionally adapt.

Amongst these mentioned components are the buttons that change significantly during design. Whether they have solid colors or gradients, vectors are ready to do the job as well. “Gradients consist of continuously smooth color transitions along a vector from one color to another, possibly followed by additional transitions along the same vector to other colors.” (W3C Recommendation, 2011)

And there is the amazing HTML5 that brings the SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) to the arena. SVG’s have the advantage over bitmapped images as they can be scaled without degradation of the image. These types of graphics can also be searched as they are made up by source code (Allison, 2010) which really turns some graphics more attractive to the developers from the point of view of dynamic creation.

I wonder when software such as Adobe Illustrator, great with vector graphics, will be able to render HTML5 syntax for rendering graphics on the client side discarding the burden of rasterizing and transmit images over the Web. However, it is impossible to discard bitmapped images on the Web as the approach they have cannot be reproduced with vector graphics at all. Whereas vector graphics are used during the design of Web pages and their components and HTML5 is bringing vectors to the browsers, bitmapped graphics are the only ones that can reproduce countless color variances and tones presented in photos and more complex images.

What we are about to see in Web design for the next years is a mixed of bitmapped and vector graphics in Web pages. Content and design being generated dynamically will replace technologies such as Flash and Silverlight very soon I must say. The collateral effect of this regarding to bandwidth saving against client-side processing is another aspect to be considered as a big change too.

But it is always important to highlight that because of the new era of vector graphics and HTML5 we are not turning to a squared-shaped Web with opaque images and designs. We will depend more and more on the fined tuned colored backgrounds and we will be further delighted with the transparency presented on dragged and dropped objects that only bitmapped graphics can provide. Then the art will be on the combination of both types of graphics.

REFERENCES LIST

Allison, S., 2010. HOW TO USE SCALABLE VECTOR GRAPHICS IN HTML5. [Online] Available at: http://www.ubelly.com/2010/09/how-to-use-scalable-vector-graphics-in-html5/ [Accessed 23 June 2012].

W3C Recommendation, 2011. 13 Gradients and Patterns. [Online] Available at: http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG/pservers.html [Accessed 23 June 2012].

[lodiwayoflearning]

Selective Saturation and Black and White Filters

By Felipe Lodi

The idea of Black and White photography is very exciting to me. This type of photography can transmit different ideas in many ways and in many cases the technique to modify a photo to its Black and White version may save the final result for its colorful version.

Black and White photography at first glance may transmit the idea the photo was taken several years ago. Black and White photography is well commonly used in portraits where face close-ups better show their deficiencies and imperfections. And last, it is a good way to prevail moody skies, sea water glares and metallic rocks and sand.

The first idea that I bring here is the modification of one original colored photo to its Black and White filters of Infrared, Green and Blue. On the second example, I bring also original another colored photo where after the desaturation of chosen colors, the result amazingly highlights the subject of the photo. (It is worth to say that the photos were taken by me and the filters applied by using Photoshop Lightroom)

    Photos taken in Back and White have all the colors replaced by series of grays from black to white along mid tones with a certain percentage of grey. (Anonymous, 2003) This experiment shows therefore, how applying different filters may highlight parts of the photo as well as make it less attractive.

The first transformed photo, applies Infrared filter to the original colored one. This effect blocks visible light and only lets infrared light to pass. We can also notice less contrast on this image by making the neck of the bird almost the same as the sky in the scene.

The second modified photo, applies Green filter which affects green and blue turning them lighter. Green filter also darkens orange and red tones which can be noticeable on the gig and eye contours of the bird. A good contrast has been achieved in this one.

The third one, the Blue filter has a similar though stronger effect than the green one. It also turns green and blue tones even lighter (noticeable on the lighter sky) and darkens even further orange and red tones, which brings a nice effect to the photo by disabling the red stain the bird has on the bottom of the gig.

Therefore the conclusion is that first changing the original photo to Black and White, the bird loses his colors but gains in contrast. The different filters change the grey tones to a point that the bird even gets dangerous on the last one.

  An object in a determined color absorbs every color but the color we can see. White objects for instance, reflect every color as black objects absorb all and do not reflect any. Saturation is the amount of color being reflected. On the second experiment above, the original photograph has been modified to have the saturation removed from all colors but the red. (Pivnick, n.d.)

It is noticeable that even though the goal of highlighting the Japanese-style Bridge has been achieved, the red present on both photos are different. The modified photo loses some shadow and contours as removed colors were present on them. The effect of completely removing the saturation of the colors Orange, Yellow, Green, Aqua, Blue, Purple and Magenta only could be done as the whole scene had no visible red.

The conclusion is that by using this technique, the photo gained in creativity and there is no way to lead the audience to another subject in the scene. It also seems that bridge has been manually painted given the clarity of the original red with no other tones mixed.

REFERENCES LIST

Anonymous, 2003. Using coloured filters with black & white film. [Online] Available at: http://www.ephotozine.com/article/using-coloured-filters-with-black---white-film-4828 [Accessed 23 June 2012].

Pivnick, P., n.d. Color Saturation in Photography. [Online] Available at: http://www.starephotography.com/articles/colorsaturation/index.php [Accessed 23 June 2012].

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A Map to the Images

By Felipe Lodi

The need of images in multimedia comes from the need to provide better understand to the multimedia itself. As a text along its explanatory image may provide a description to an event but it may also lead the audience to rethink the drawn fact differently, image authors have the challenge to transmit the message in the way that the dependency on other media components is minimized. We need images telling us the messages as we are lazy to read.

In all cases, our dependency on images has been built on the cereal boxes we have on the breakfast every morning, on the magazine we read on the doctor’s waiting room, on the advertisement we see on the side of the downtown buses. Furthermore we use images to calm down our children, we use advanced 3D models to introduce a new car design to our managers and we use photography to save our memories forever. How amazing is the ability we have today to save in a disk, frames of we have seen and that we have not been able to remember?

For all this technology to be put in practice there are several technologies to be used. Depending on the type of multimedia to be produced and more specifically, for the usage of the image media component, there are conditions and particularities that will affect the final result, the producing cost, the storage method and more important, how the audience will be affected.

Cartoons use still images for backgrounds and moving images in characters and other living stuff. Whether they are aimed to children or adults, the usage of complex shadowing drawings and well-defined lines may be limited. To achieve the final video multimedia product, the source images need to be identified as a drawing package or a paint package. (Laureate Online Education, 2008)

Before, cartoons had every single illustration made by hand. Today the process is not less artistic as the characters and moving objects as well as the backgrounds need to be made by hand so later they can be scanned (digitalized) to a computer. By using advanced tools, the animators finally can create vector images to the moving objects and bitmaps to the backgrounds. (Anononymous, n.d.) Such grid of pixels is the right choice for static objects the background layer presents and the moving objects (vector graphics) are overridden as front layers, producing the final animation result.

There are several types of file formats that would be able to store animation such as .gif (Graphics Interchange Format) but the right choice is the ones able to store vectors. By using vectors, the animators are able to rescale the image as well as to give movement to some parts of the image only. Formats such as .wmf (Windows Metafile) and .plt (AutoCAD Plotter Document) are capable of such task.

Vector graphics are very important for designing 3D models too. The same capabilities are considered in this case as the animators and designers use advanced tools that will be able to render the images in different angles, with different lighting and textures. Mathematic complex calculations are used on the very first line of a graphic vector and these calculations are able to render with no distortion the same line in a different screen resolution.

This flexibility makes vector graphics the choice for 3D models (would be there another one?). However the size of produced graphics might be enormous and sometimes they need to be converted to a more suitable size. A process called rasterizing will render a 3D model as bitmap. (Chastain, n.d.) The specific output resolution is set and file saving formats are the ones best known for the Web such as .jpeg, .png or even the .gif again.

The multimedia author in this case might have to perform this additional step in order to convert 3D models for a presentation on the Web where performance might be limited to the audience’s bandwidth and processing power. Whereas for a multimedia presentation, considering that processing power and the right client software is available, the right choice might be keeping the 3D model as a vector graphic so the presenter can have the benefits of it and improve the presentation by turning around the object, changing the light source, recoloring textures and so.

Vector graphics are great but they are not able to reproduce “continuous subtle tones of a photograph” (Chastain, n.d.) Even though some of the more advanced tools are now able to apply bitmapped textures and transparency to vector graphic objects, detailed images with several variances of colors are more suitable for bitmaps.

That is why the right choice for rendering photographs and paintings lays on bitmapped formats. Bitmaps use 24 bits for colors in every pixel in a horizontally and vertically oriented grid of those pixels. The resolution of the bitmaps, and of the final resulted image, is the number of the pixels per inch. Certain tools and formats will limit or reduce the resolution or compact the bitmap storage. This will therefore reduce the bitmap file size and create a more suitable format for the Web for example. In another hand, RAW formats such as .tiff that provides no compressing of the bitmap stores the file byte after byte, row after row and will therefore be larger and more loyal to the original photograph or painting. (Bourke, 1993)

REFERENCES LIST

Anononymous, n.d. How Cartoons are Made. [Online] Available at: http://necromanc.blogspot.be/2007/07/how-cartoons-are-made.html [Accessed 16 June 2012].

Bourke, P., 1993. A Beginners Guide to Bitmaps. [Online] Available at: http://local.wasp.uwa.edu.au/~pbourke/dataformats/bitmaps/ [Accessed 16 June 2012].

Chastain, S., n.d. Vector and Bitmap Images. [Online] Available at: http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/aboutgraphics/a/bitmapvector_2.htm [Accessed 16 June 2012].

Laureate Online Education, 2008. Introduction to Computer graphics and Vector graphics. Module: MSC MD (INTMMT), p.4.

[lodiwayoflearning]

Communication and Interactivity

By Felipe Lodi

The important concept of Media is the information being available for communication and in some cases, interacted. Communication and interactivity enable media components to be seen, listened, read and touched. Multimedia is therefore the combination of two or more communication channels not necessarily just audio and video as many people think.

When we talk about Multimedia typically people think of vision and sound together like movies for example but it is more than that, it includes all the senses so Multimedia is the whole experience. (Marshall, 2012) Multimedia systems of all times have similar features. Whether they are just images and text and do not provide any type of interactivity or multi-touch devices that enhance the user experience at amazing levels. They are everywhere in our houses, offices, cars, public services and transportation, hospitals and so on.

Media components have each limitations and particularities. The audience for those Medias also has limitations and preferences and media producers must know that the same multimedia system may affect the same audience differently. When the multimedia system provides interactivity it may not be suitable for some people. When the multimedia system brings cutting-edge technology it may not be affordable by some people either. “It is for the audience that the Media are constructing and conveying information, and, if it were not for the audiences, the Media would not exist.” (Hanes, 2000)

Characteristics such as content creation will determine how the audience will be reached and the right chosen media to the right public. The variances of media raw components need to be explored at maximum too. Let me take as example the Audio media component that can be used in a multimedia system as music, narrative, sound alerts and the amazing speech recognition.

Distribution and Management Rights will also play an important role for multimedia systems as commercial barriers may prevent a system (or a television show, for instance) to be delivered in a particular region or so. Technical aspects such as media compression will limit the devices and computer systems able to reproduce such multimedia system.

The major feature of a multimedia system in my opinion is when the combined Medias can reach a larger audience and provide the better interactivity with them. Such interactivity is to provide better feedback to media producers who are to enhance such systems. A new time of interactive multimedia systems is coming. People are still being used to touch and speak to their devices as well as some videogames provide body controlling. (xBox, 2012) By using our senses in a way never seen, multimedia systems are to provide even better acceptance by their users and better tools for their communication, which is inherent to multimedia systems, is to be improved.

REFERENCES LIST

Hanes, P.J., 2000. The Advantages and Limitations of a Focus on Audience in Media Studies. [Online] Available at: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/pph9701.html [Accessed 9 June 2012].

Marshall, J., 2012. Multimedia Systems: What is Multimedia? [Online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wnm7sv2A4Cg [Accessed 9 June 2012].

xBox, 2012. Introducing Kinect for Xbox 360. [Online] Available at: http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/kinect [Accessed 9 June 2012].

[lodiwayoflearning]

Way of Communicating

By Felipe Lodi

Multimedia elements are part of our lives for long now. Most of us have been using not only electronics intended to display and transmit multimedia data but textbooks, newspapers, maps, brochures, restaurant menus, billboards, advertisement and traffic signs are also part of this human need to communicate.

Lucky of us that we have realized that images do better than text but texts in another hand can go deeper into the message to be transmitted than images. Audio can deliver the same meaningful message the texts do with the benefit to reach a greater audience if we consider blind people, children and people who unfortunately have not had the opportunity to learn. Videos are even more complete, more attractive and also have the capability to embed complementary audio, text and image, such format that we can see in news television shows, stock market programs and some cartoons for children for instance.

The combination of media elements achieves its higher usage on Web sites that are able to accommodate these four elements even though it can be quite confusing to the audience navigating in a page with too many information. Web sites are also the evolution of many types of multimedia systems. Printed press has become almost real-time and interactive by accepting readers' comments and further discussions and some Web sites even make possible to the reader to upload and design a breaking new when the reader is able to photograph or film something important happening around.

By comparing ordinary mail with e-mail, instant messaging, blog and micro-blog , the saved time, the response time, the accuracy and the ability to attach different multimedia elements, we notice that the difference is huge. I believe though that old-style multimedia systems such as printed press and mail are still in use for the same reason the modern ones are: the human need for communicate is so big that there is audience for every combination of media elements, regardless of its age. (Carr, n.d.)

An episode that proves my theory above, I just saw in a train last week a young girl reading her textbook accompanied from her (probably) grandmother reading her book in an Amazon Kindle. I kept myself thinking about this controversial change of roles but there are many reasons why this was happening. Maybe the grandmother needs to increase the text font at her discretion instead using her big glasses and maybe she does not like to carry on few titles on her bag either. The young girl maybe knows her interest for books is reduced and one title is enough and maybe textbooks are still a cheaper option for her.

It also proves that there are other aspects for deciding the best multimedia system and the definition of modern multimedia system can be quite complex to be made. Interactivity is not present in all multimedia systems neither nor computers and the Internet are integrally used on them. What about the concept of modern in this case, if newspapers for example have also upgraded to a more dynamic and better layout? Have not the News Web sites copied the paper layout enough?

Since few systems survived and readapted, I believe they can also be called as modern. Some of them even changed their status of "monomedia" to multimedia, as radios now are able not only to broadcast audio but to also show the name of the station on the dial. Phones are computers now and once they worked just like walkie-talkies. Are not they modern?

The best description of a modern multimedia system should not include "modern" as a feature nor indicate that computers and interactivity are inherent of this. (Marshall, 2001) The best description should indeed keep the relationship between the types of existing media (multimedia) and yet indicate that multimedia system is a way of communicating, it does not matter how.

REFERENCES LIST

Carr, D., n.d.. A Way of Communicating. [Online] Available at: http://www.geoffreycarr.net/communicationadobe.pdf [Accessed 08 June 2012].

Marshall, D., 2001. Characteristics of a Multimedia System. [Online] Available at: http://www.cs.cf.ac.uk/Dave/Multimedia/node13.html#SECTION01231000000000000000 [Accessed 08 June 2012].

[lodiwayoflearning]

Private Semantic

By Felipe Lodi

I always believed that big part of the success of the Web is on the Search Engines. It is not a capacity of the content of the Web to go to the audience, unless defined by the user, the content does not just “go” to the user when he needs information. Therefore the Search Engines provide “virtual shelves of contents” to pick our choices from and in the end we are all happy with what we got. Not long time ago, encyclopedias and textbooks were populating these shelves (not virtual though) but the access to them was either difficult or expensive. Huge part of the population had no privileged information and the challenges to spreading knowledge were many.

In the past, I wondered for a while how such results could be given so fast and so broadly. You search for a line, put some operators as well as quotes that let the engine understand a combination of words so the results are satisfactory. But despite the fact that thousands of results pages are provided when searching, only a share of the whole Web content is being researched. An immense amount of data is being left out as they are unreachable, inside private databases, confidential, authenticated, digitalized in formats other than text,  or just configured to do not be indexed. (Cohen, 2012)

The Deep Web indexing is one of the challenges for improving search results. But what is going to really happen if all content is available on the Web? Considering that the current searchable and visible Web is properly indexed, will the Search Engines still be able to bring satisfactory results?

I work currently helping developing a project that will have a very advanced private Search Engine. For obvious reasons I cannot disclose much about the initiative but I can say that the results as we know them are far from the goals of the project. This Search Engine will have to “understand” the search parameters as we do. Companies’ names and individuals are to be confronted in an intelligent way so evidences of relationships are to be identified.

The Semantic Search this project needs to achieve is also the next challenge to the existing Search Engines as more and more tailored results will need to be provided in the next years. The current size of the indexed Web (and remember that this not include the Deep Web), is 7.74 billion of pages (WorldWideWebSize, 2012) and growing as I write this article.

One of the reasons in my opinion is that the Web content will be so large, that it will be impossible to provide broad results for any single search terms. Search Engines will have to be more and more accurate in trying to “think” as the human doing the search. The Resource Description Framework will help on that by translating and summarizing the content of Web sites into machine readable resources. (W3C, 2012) Content is cross-referenced by their links and for instance, the example above about relationship between Companies and individuals and the need of identifying this, is to be addressed.

However, there is another very important trend in this initiative to bring smarter results to the users. Currently the lack of privacy when navigating on the Web has good benefits in this sense. Search Engines such as Google (yes, I have tried to do not mention them until the last paragraph) keeps track of the user’s searching parameters and navigation. When using their browser Chrome depending on the configuration you have there, the privacy is even more invaded and not only the searched pages can be tracked but the links clicked within these pages.

Your frequent searches, the place where you live, the places you want to go, things you want to buy, artists and movies you like, your interests tracked will also bring smarter results (and advertisements too). This is another way to the Search Engines to get the semantic of your searches when knowing your interests by giving less importance to results that do not match them. Maybe more effective than RDF, at least this is already happening.

REFERENCES LIST

Cohen, L.B., 2012. The Deep Web. [Online] Available at: http://www.internettutorials.net/deepweb.asp [Accessed 26 May 2012].

W3C, 2012. Resource Description Framework (RDF). [Online] Available at: http://www.w3.org/RDF/ [Accessed 26 May 2012].

WorldWideWebSize, 2012. The size of the World Wide Web (The Internet). [Online] Available at: http://www.worldwidewebsize.com/ [Accessed 26 May 2012].

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Beyond Semantic Web

By Felipe Lodi

The Web is full of attractive content. For every taste there is a Web site that sometimes seems to be created especially for you. In my case, I much appreciate the Web stores, the prices are better, nobody comes to you to bother and even though you do not take what you got when you pay for, the approach is different and way better.

But what if you had the ability to tell the advertiser that you already had purchased what you were looking for? Well, I kept researching and researching this camera for weeks and it seemed that every Ad in the world was showing me sources to buy from. Even when I was outside that scope, working or studying, the Ads were there, and funny thing, I had already bought the camera.

I wish the Ads were aware of my purchase or of what I am doing at the moment and then moved on to other things rather than showing me the owned camera. Anyway, somehow, I think the Semantic Web will help on that too when dynamically creating links between resources, the camera, me and the store, so the Ads can take advantage of the RDF XML file stored somewhere and then “understand” that I have procured the thing. At least this is technically viable.

Semantic Web can therefore also help Web Portals with more and more tailored content. Fixing the outdated Ad is a good start too. Some good Web-Portals-Stores such as Amazon will bring categorized suggestions based on your internal searches and purchases. This is indication of taste evaluation and an understanding of consumer interests, if this cannot be called Semantic Web, I would call as Semantic Web Site. Amazon is a good example of a good portal, dynamically created content and self-oriented Ads and offers.

A way to extend this technology to the broad Web is the challenge. I just cannot see how the whole existing content of the Web will now be interlinked in Resource files in order to provide logical connectivity between entities, interests and things. A solution could be exactly what Web Portals like Amazon and Search Engines such as Google do: they track and track. (JBAT, 2006)

And by tracking, the whole Web, regardless of the Web Site you are, the Search Engine or Web Store you are using, should monitor and automatically create the Resource files. Maybe this would be a task to the Browsers then, or maybe to a new advanced version of HTML, who knows?

So imagining in a future where somewhere several hundreds of Resource files are linked to your own IPv6 address (yes, your identity on the Web) and when you open your Browser, based on the time of the day you are in, the suggested sites will be different. And when going into these Websites, the News and Ads will be also tailored and as you click (or not click) on them, RDF Files will be updated so the experience will be different next time. (Schroder, 2006)

I access the University Web Site, log in, find my Course, the week I am in and finally get the content I need. What if somewhere, my navigation is also being saved and I would not to reproduce these steps every time? Again, this is technically viable and more than understanding what you like, this would also understand what you do on the Web.

To a step beyond Semantic Web, bringing the technology from Web Portals, Stores and Search Engines to local systems and RDF might increase capability of tailored navigation that includes searching and improve technology. The Web is being fully populated with content created by us; it is time to have it back.

REFERENCES LIST

JBAT, 2006. WHAT INFO DOES GOOGLE KEEP? [Online] Available at: http://battellemedia.com/archives/2006/01/what_info_does_google_keep.php [Accessed 26 May 2012].

Schroder, C., 2006. Understand IPv6 Addresses. [Online] Available at: http://www.enterprisenetworkingplanet.com/netsp/article.php/3633211/Understand-IPv6-Addresses.htm [Accessed 26 May 2012].

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Web Services Directory

By Felipe Lodi

XML Standards have been emerging in the past few years. As discussed before, XML provides a very flexible way to exchange data and therefore it is being used in simple file trading as well as in complex protocols. Amongst these initiatives are the WDDX (Allaire Corp's Web Distributed Data eXchange), XML-RPC (XML Remote Procedure Call) and the SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol).

The number of protocols being made considering XML as technology is so many that W3C has created a XML Protocol Working Group for keeping up-to-date endeavors and tracking known issues too. (Mahan & Lafon, 2009) That shows the trend for protocols continuing to use XML.

Another huge initiative is providing a way of list available Web Services to the world as a directory. It is known that in order to peers communicating via Web Services, usually a mutual need for the provided data exists. One peer offers the data, another is fed. The relation happens at least one to one.

Even though the Web Service may be available fully documented, a WSDL document with descriptions of methods and their parameters, one of the peers needs at least to tell the other the Web address of the Web Service, there is no guessing on that. This standard online directory is to minimize the need of conversation between parts (companies, organizations) then if a company wants for any reason to offer a Web Service to the world, it just has to deploy on the standard directory.

A few standards from different companies are available to avail this working. UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration) is one of those and one of the descriptions of the W3Schools Web site states that UDDI is a directory of web service interfaces described by WSDL as well as that communicates via SOAP. (W3Schools, 2012) The dependency on the WSDL document is made clear in the case of this platform-independent framework.

Another Company that is working hard in improvements of SOAP is Microsoft. They have developed the SCL (SOAP Contract Language) which is an online system for service descriptions. SLC is also based on the WSDL document and also provides a framework to access the online directory. (Thongsongkrit, n.d.) And finally IBM has the NASSL (Network Accessible Service Specification Language) also fully dependent on the WSDL and uses the same principles.

Big part of the Web Services is using SOAP and Web Services are becoming everyday self-describable by advanced WSDL documents. Online directories are playing an important role for their better availability and applications are attaching code to these frameworks. The chain is evident.

REFERENCES LIST

Mahan, M. & Lafon, Y., 2009. XML Protocol Working Group. [Online] Available at: http://www.w3.org/2000/xp/Group/ [Accessed 16 May 2012].

Thongsongkrit, W., n.d. Web Services Description Language (WSDL). [Online] Available at: http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~kena/classes/7818/f06/lectures/WSDL.pdf [Accessed 16 May 2012].

W3Schools, 2012. WSDL and UDDI. [Online] Available at: http://www.w3schools.com/wsdl/wsdl_uddi.asp [Accessed 16 May 2012].

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WSDL Dialect

By Felipe Lodi

The development of multi-tier applications considers the development of a layer between the data repository and the presentation. Once, applications were developed by connecting the presentation layer directly to the database. Even though this practice is very obsolete, the developer and team mates still may decide by having functionality written on the database in ways of Stored Procedure and Stored Functions and among presentation code.

That old practice can extremely increase the maintenance of the source code as well as bring loss of flexibility and scalability to the same. A change request on the screen, a new button for instance would affect functionality behind that button as well as changes on the stored code on the database, such challenge to work like this on either small or large teams.

That "Functionality" often mentioned is basically the source code between the data repository and the user interface. By having a layer between them, the developer can specify what "has to be done with the data" when the user "does or wants something" and better, the developer can connect this implementation to the button as well as to the Stored Procedure later, in many ways. A change request would in this case, be made only on the "right layer" not on the whole application. The code is kept more modularized and easily shared between data and visual components.

That is what we call Object Model, Framework, Business or Logical Layer, well there are many names and after many years developing (most of them by using multi-tier), I still do not know how should I call it. The Object Model (That's how I call it) is the repository of classes (that not necessarily represent database tables) their methods and properties, also interfaces are useful when sharing methods between classes.

All these paragraphs were written to understand the need of this important XML document which is the WSDL Document. It is being said that Web Services are exposed classes. Technically that is the way it happens: an internal class that has methods to "do something" needs to be exposed as Web Service so other applications (the methods are not a perk of the buttons) can connect to it. When connecting to a Web Service, somehow the developer needs to know what parameters will be requested by the Web Service methods and the type and format the data will be delivered back. (Evjen, et al., 2012)

The developer will not expect to see what the method does within the class exposed by the Web Service but given the creators of the Web Service are good keepers of standards, methods will have very suggestive names as well as their parameters. Some good development tools are capable to describe in much detail what the Web Service offers before implementing connectivity with it. The author of the Web Service always has the ability to use the element "" and enclose any additional info the may be necessary. (Evjen, et al., 2012)

The available method "getUserList()" will provide, with no parameters to be given, a list of users (the suggestive name helps too). Keep also in mind that the very same method is probably being used internally by the source application. What the developer did was just to expose (and share) this method to the world (by the way, the Web Service has been written in a different language than .Net).

The WSDL document noticeable on the Web Service URL is bringing all this information nicely displayed by Visual Studio. However, the XML file, the WSDL document could be parsed in a different way and developers are able to capture their own Web Service description. Imagining an entire application being exposed via Web Services, WSDL documents would provide details of not only few methods but the modeling of the whole application, or just the Design View.

WSDL, as example of cross-platform Web Services, has all the tools to enable applications to self-code from its description. WSDL has the schema which would let the robot-code to understand the boundaries of the Web Service description. WSDL has the methods with well-defined parameters and their data types. Some researchers say that WSDL is on the way to provide a dialect where code could be built from graphical tools the same way UML does. (Lane, 2002).

REFERENCES LIST

Evjen, B. et al., 2012. SOAP and WSDL. In: Professional XML. s.l.:Wiley Publishing, Inc., pp. 633, 647.

Lane, E., 2002. Is WSDL the indispensable API?. [Online] Available at: http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-05-2002/jw-0524-wsdl.html?page=2 [Accessed 17 May 2012].

Microsoft, 2012. Visual Studio 2010 Products. [Online] Available at: http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/2010-editions [Accessed 17 May 2012].