Streaming Video
March 13, 2007 12:00 AM
Getting “Events” to work with .wmv Streamed Videos Many thanks to Peter Sorenson over at Lextensions.com for research on this solution.Background: Currently, if you wish to utilize “markers” or “events” tied to a .wmv, you can add the “scripts” (details have been outlined earlier in this post by me). However, the caveat is that the “EVENTS” tab shows up with blanks if you link to the video via an URL entry hosted on a Streaming Server.Objective:Therefore, the desire was to be able to take a .wmv file, add the text SCRIPTS with the Windows Media/Utilities/Windows Media File Editor and then utilize those Scripts under the Events tab when accessing the video via a STREAMING SERVER within Lectora.Work Around: Windows Media File Editor1. Add the Scripts to the .wmv as outlined previously in this thread.2. In Windows Media File Editor, click on the File menu tab and select: Move Scripts to Header.3. Save .wmv file and or copy to your Streaming ServerLectora: Import Video 1. Create your course as if you were NOT streaming the course. a. This means when you are inserting the .wmv video (the one you saved the Scripts to Header and placed on your streaming server)2. On your Lectora page, import video. When selecting video, click the IMPORT button and navigate to a LOCAL copy of the video (a copy of the one on the Streaming Server that has been placed in the Lectora Project folder).a. DO NOT USE THE DROP DOWN AND SELECT STREAMING SERVER and enter a URL3. Once imported, click on the EVENTS tab of the video properties and confirm the Scripts you added earlier appear. 4. Make any mappings necessary you want with the Events that show up.5. I need to test if you can remove the local copy of the .wmv you added to your Lectora Project. But only do so after you complete all of the steps outlined below… Lectora: Publish to HTML (Yes, this is the only way!)1. Publish the course to HTML2. Navigate to the .html page in the published folder that contains the video you imported, e.g., a001_video_stream_markersinheader.html3. Edit this page with Notepad.exe 4. Search the file for “.wmv”. There will be two instances, close to each other.Your search results (example) will return two instances of .wmv (assuming only one video on page) and it will look something like this (look for the ******.wmv parts):…video1451 = new ObjInline('video1451','DIV017V_300k-nomarkers.wmv',254,134,387,330,1,13,null,'div')video1451.addParm( "" )video1451.build()…5. Change both instances of the .wmv location to reflect the URL of the .wmv on your Streaming Server. So it should look like this:…video1451 = new ObjInline('video1451',' http://media.xxxxx.com/videos/drop_by_drop/DIV_300k-markers. wmv' 254,134,387,330,1,13,null,'div')video1451.addParm( "" )video1451.build()…6. Lastly, change both URL’s to begin with mms:// NOT http://7. Recheck your work and check you did #6 too!8. Resave the .html file9. Launch the .html file:a. your video should be working and the Scripts you created with Windows Media File Editor, that appeared as Events on the video, will function and trigger the Actions you made for them.10. If it works, you did it right.It was explained to me that because Lectora, when utilizing a video you linked to on a Streaming Server, basically utilizes an EMBED command in the HTML, and that for the most part strips out the EVENT functions that were associated with the .wmv file. However, if Lectora used the OBJECT function, maybe those associated scripts would be preserved. So this tricks Lectora into not using an EMBED command for the video and you are simply redirecting the video reference in the HTML after the HTML code was written - Genius actually!Therefore, this work around, simply allows Lectora to handle the video in a state where it believed it was put there locally, and therefore, preserves the markers / scripts.If you have questions, please feel free to post / ask.Again many thanks to Peter (aka Lex Tensions) for his awesome support.PLEASE POST YOUR SUCCESSES TO THIS THREAD FOR OTHERS TO BENEFIT FROM.
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