Have you ever wondered how to add some spice to your Web site? You may not realize that Domino can serve up much more than plain HTML. We'll briefly describe what Shockwave is, walk through the steps for adding Shockwave files to your Domino Web site, and then show you how EntreVision, Inc. "shocked" their fictitious Chile Pepper site. (EntreVision, a dynamic groupware consulting firm and Lotus Premium Partner, designed the fictitious Chile Pepper site to showcase the power of Domino on the Web.)

The techniques in this article work with Domino 4.5 or later.

What is Shockwave?

Shockwave is an interactive, dynamic file type that you can embed into your Domino Web pages. Shockwave files can have sound, animation and links, and are a popular solution for Web site design with the entertainment, advertising, learning, and design industries. You can create Shockwave files by using Macromedia's Authorware, Director, or Flash. For more information on these products and how to create Shockwave files, see the Macromedia Web site at http://www.macromedia.com.

To view your "shocked" site, users need to have the Shockwave plug-in, which is available free of charge from Macromedia. The first time users try to view a Web page that contains a Shockwave file, their browser searches its plug-ins directory for the Shockwave plug-in. What happens if the browser can't find the plug-in? If they are using Internet Explorer 3.x or 4.x, the browser immediately downloads and installs the plug-in (using Active X) from the Macromedia Web site. If they are using Netscape Navigator 3.x or 4.x, the browser notifies them that the plug-in is required, and asks whether they want to get it. (You can still see the site without the plug-in; however, the elements that use the plug-in will appear as broken icons.)

In addition to the Shockwave plug-in, you can download Macromedia's Streaming Shockwave player, which lets animation and sound files start playing immediately while the remainder of the file downloads in the background. For more information on downloading the Shockwave plug-in or player, see http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/.

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Adding Shockwave files to your Domino Web site

Once you've got your Shockwave files created, use the following steps to add them to your Domino Web site:

1. Add Shockwave definitions to your Domino configuration file, httpd.cnf, so Domino can display them correctly. For example, if you created the files with Director, add the following entries:

   AddType .dcr application/x-director binary 1.0 # Shockwave for Director AddType .dir application/x-director binary 1.0 # Shockwave for Director AddType .dxr application/x-director binary 1.0 # Shockwave for Director

   
   

   These types are now included in the httpd.cnf files in Domino 4.6; however, you might still need to add them if you upgraded from an earlier release of Domino. Definitions for other Macromedia Shockwave products, such as Authorware, Freehand, Flash, and others, can be found at http://www.macromedia.com/support/config.html.

2. Copy the Shockwave files into the html directory, which resides in the notes/data/domino directory. (Alternatively, you can store these files in a Notes database as document attachments and use the $file directive to retrieve them. For more information on this technique, see the article, "Notes.Net Exposed: Using a database to store Web site graphics.")
3. Add the Shockwave file to your Web page by using passthru HTML. (Enter the code, highlight it, and then choose Text - Pass-Thru HTML.) The code should be in the format :

   <embed src=shockwave_file.dcr>

   For a complete listing of the HTML parameters you can use with the Shockwave file, see the sidebar "Shockwave parameters."

4. Save the page. If you are using Release 4.6, you can preview how the page will look in a browser by choosing Actions - Preview in Web Browser. (To preview forms or navigators, choose Design - Preview in Web Browser. For views, choose View - Preview in Web Browser.)

Note: To use the Web browser preview, you must have selected the Toolbox option when installing the Notes Designer client. Also, you must have an Internet browser selected in your Location document, and you should have at least Default access in the database's ACL.

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Shocking the Chile Pepper site

For example, Entrevision uses the following code to "shock" their Chile Pepper site, served by Domino. (See http://chilepepper.lotus.com/ and go to the Chile Life section to view this code as it appears on the Web.)

<embed src="Attachments/$File/chilelife_param.dcr" 
/$File is a Domino parameter used to open elements with file
/ attachments. The .drc file is stored in the Notes database. 
width=410 height=170 

sw1="../../Chile+Addiction" 
sw2="DocWin" 
sw3="/Demo/ShockMe.nsf/Lookup/Ice+Cream" 
sw4="DocWin" 
sw5="../../Special+Events" 
sw6="DocWin" 
sw7="http://www.notes.net" 
sw8="DocWin">
/sw1 to sw8 are user-definable parameters that provide a 
/generic way to pass URL parameters from HTML to the 
/Shockwave file.

Notice that the code uses the height and width tags for cropping the Shockwave file, and sw tags for linking URLs to the Shockwave file. "One of the biggest challenges we faced was building a Shockwave file in a way where we did not have to hard code the URLs, which can cause more work when you want to make changes later," explains Peter Carroll, a partner at EntreVision, Inc. "We met this challenge by using the generic sw tags as they let us easily pass information to the Shockwave file in a more efficient manner."

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The future of Shockwave

Macromedia has developed a new product called Universal Media Initiative, which brings its products, such as Shockwave for Director and Flash onto a Java-based delivery system. With this method, Web developers can build interactivity using the Macromedia products, with the intention of them being delivered with the Shockwave plug-in. Then, if the end user does not have the plug-in installed, a Java applet with the plug-in code and the Shockwave file, are downloaded instead. This Java version is slower, but is still a good alternative in certain situations.

"The Universal Media Initiative is something that I am very excited about as a designer," says Bryon McInroy, an Interface Designer at EntreVision, Inc. "Added functionality with plug-ins are nice to add to Web sites or applications. The possibility of an end user not having a given plug-in installed can be a deterrent for relying on Shockwave or other plug-in technologies for functionality. But with the Universal Media Initiative, developers and clients have two levels of assurance, the plug-in and then Java."

So, Shockwave will remain a good option for spicing up your Domino Web site.

Resources

• EntreVision
  
  
• Notes.Net Exposed: Using a database to store Web site graphics
  
  
• Macromedia Web site
  
  

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Table of contents

• What is Shockwave?
• Adding Shockwave files to your Domino Web site
• Shocking the Chile Pepper site
• The future of Shockwave
• Resources
• About the author
• Comments

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