Page 15 - DCAP408_WEB_PROGRAMMING

Unit 1: Internet Fundamentals

Plug-ins are software programs that extend the capabilities of a Web browser in a specific way, Notes
such as the ability to play audio files or view video movies from within Navigator. Web browsers
are often standardized with a small suite of plug-ins. Additional plug-ins may be obtained at the
browser’s Web site, at special download sites on the Web, or from the home pages of the companies
that created the programs. The number of available plug-ins is increasing rapidly.

Example: For example, nearly 200 plug-ins are available for downloading at the Netscape
site.
Once a plug-in is configured to your browser, it will automatically launch when you choose to
access a file type that it uses.
Netscape Communicator can be downloaded with a variety of helper applications and plug-ins
configured to the browser, including:

 Cosmo Player to view 3D sites created with Virtual Reality Modelling Language (VRML)
(file suffixes .wrl, .wrz)

 Netscape Media Player for streaming audio metafiles (file suffix .lam)
 Live Audio for sound files (file suffixes .au, .aiff, .wav, .midi, .la, .lma) QuickTime Player
for video (file suffix .mov)

 NPAI32 Dynamic Link Library for video in Windows (file suffix .avi)
Beyond Plug-Ins — Active X

ActiveX is a technology developed by Microsoft, which may make plug-ins less necessary.
ActiveX offers the opportunity to embed animated objects, data, and computer code on Web
pages. A web browser supporting ActiveX can render most items encountered on a Web page.
For example, Active X allows users to view three-dimensional VRML worlds in a Web browser
without the use of a VRML plug-in. As another example of the power of ActiveX, this technology
can allow you to view and edit PowerPoint presentations directly within your Web browser.
ActiveX is supported by the Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator 4.x browsers.

The Experience of The Web

Today’s World Wide Web(WWW) presents an ever-diversified experience of multimedia,
programming languages, and real-time communication. There is no question that, it is a challenge
to keep up with the rapid pace of developments. The following presents a brief description of
some of the more important trends to watch.

Multimedia

The Web has become a broadcast medium. It is possible to listen to audio and video over the
Web both prerecorded and live. For example, you can visit the sites of various news organisations
and view the same videos shown on the nightly television news. Several plug-ins are available
for viewing these videos. For example, Apple’s Quick Time Player downloads files with the
.mov extension and displays these as “movies” in a small window on your computer screen.
Quick Time files can be quite large, and it may take patience to wait for the entire movie to
download into your computer before you can view it.
The problem of slow downloads times has been answered by a revolutionary development in
multimedia capability: streaming data. In this case, audio or video files are played as they are
downloading, or streaming, into your computer. Only a small wait, called buffering, is necessary

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