OpenPix includes authoring, server, and viewer components
that work together as a highly integrated system.
OpenPix Authoring Tools |
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The OpenPix authoring system adds new attributes to the standard
HTML image tag. These attributes define the OpenPix image and how
it should be displayed. To create an OpenPix HTML document, you
simply add new tags that include OpenPix attributes or edit old
tags to include the new attributes.
When an OpenPix HTML document is opened in a browser, the
image tag and its attributes invoke the ImageIgniter server. The
server parses the content and replaces the tags with client-specific
viewers that access images. Browsers that cannot take advantage
of the viewers access a flat JPEG image dynamically generated by
the server.
Unlike images in a normal web page, users can interact with
images on an OpenPix-enabled page. Using an OpenPix toolbar, they
can zoom in or out on the image, pan up or down within the viewer,
save the image, or print the image.
You can add OpenPix image tags manually to HTML documents
or use the web-based OpenPix Image Tag Generator to create image
tags automatically. See Chapter 2 of HP OpenPix for Domain Commerce
Getting Started for more information. Additional authoring tools
and utilities are also available. See the OpenPix web site at http://image.hp.com/domaincommerce
for more information.
OpenPix documents can reference images in FlashPix or JPEG
format. Both file types provide good performance and interactivity.
The tiled FlashPix image format is optimized for interactivity over
the Internet.
ImageIgniter Server Components |
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The ImageIgniter server includes image-service and system-management
components. The server has three image-service components:
The Adaptive Delivery service provides
customized delivery of dynamic image content to a wide variety of
browsers and platforms. Adaptive Delivery detects the client platform
using the HTTP user-agent header and dynamically inserts HTML code
to activate the appropriate viewer. This behavior can be customized
in the OpenPix image tag attributes and in the OpenPix Service Manager
(OSM).
The Internet Imaging Protocol (IIP) service transports
image data in 64x64-pixel tiles between the server and the image
viewers. IIP is an industry-standard image data access method. It
runs as a web server extension.
The Flat Image Delivery (FID) service generates
simple JPEG images from a region of an existing image on the server
and passes this image to the Netscape Enterprise Server (NES) for
transport to the client browser. The FID service runs as an NSAPI
extension. The FID service accesses images using the IIP service
internal to the server.
The OpenPix Service Manager (OSM) is the management tool for
the ImageIgniter server. It is accessible via web browsers and is
password-protected. You can use OSM to create server instances,
view system status and version information, change configuration
parameters, and perform diagnostics.
Image reporting and log analysis features can be added to
the OSM. See the OpenPix web site at http://image.hp.com/domaincommerce
for more information.
Understanding ImageIgniter Server Instances
OpenPix supports multihoming web server installations where
a host computer has more than one Netscape Enterprise Server. Each
NES requires its own ImageIgniter server. But because a single set
of OpenPix executable files can support more than one NES, you need
to install OpenPix only once per host computer.
To make an NES work with OpenPix, you create an ImageIgniter
instance for it—a link between the OpenPix software and
the Netscape server. See “Creating ImageIgniter Instances”
in Chapter 3 for more information.
OpenPix Viewers |
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OpenPix viewers include an ActiveX component, a Java applet,
and a Netscape plugin. Each viewer is designed to provide optimal
performance on the platforms it supports. Normal HTML delivery of
flat images is also provided.
The Java applet supports image viewing
in client systems running JDK1.0.2 and later.
The ActiveX component runs in the Windows 95/98
and Windows NT 4 versions of Internet Explorer 3.02 and
later.
The Netscape plugin runs under Windows 95/98and
NT 4-based browsers supporting the Netscape plugin API. The plugin
supports versions 3 and 4 of the Netscape browser.
Flat-image delivery is provided for systems incapable
of using the other viewers. The ImageIgniter server dynamically
generates HTML code and JPEG images when the browser doesn't
support one of the more interactive viewers. A reduced level of
interactivity is provided to the end user.
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