On2 Flix Publisher for Flash^® SDK

Introduction

The On2 Flix Publisher for Flash^® Software Development Kit (SDK) consists of complete API documentation and a reference JavaScript/HTML web application. As an On2 Flix Publisher licensee, you may adapt and extend the provided JavaScript helper libraries and HTML in any way you choose, royalty-free.

To be kept informed of the most recent On2 Flix Publisher SDK changes, please read the change log for Windows Publisher changes. For Mac plugIn changes, see the Mac change log.

To view the differences between the Flix Publisher plug-ins for Mac and Windows, please read the Differences in the Mac Safari PlugIn section.

API Documentation

The application programming interface (API) documentation for On2 Flix Publisher is extensively cross-referenced, and may be accessed via the Modules and Related Pages tabs, above.

This page is the Main Page.

Reference Application

The Flix Publisher SDK ships with a reference application that demonstrates all features of the API:

• Drag-and-drop file transcoding
• Video capture from a camera device
• Live streaming of camera capture to Adobe^® Flash Media Server 2^®
• Encoder settings configuration
• Output file preview
• "Mark-in" and "mark-out" controls, to select portions of the video
• Uploading
• jQuery-based implementation

Notes:

• Users of Publisher version 2.x will want to examine the 3.x Reference Application Improvements.
• New users should examine the File Manifest.

Setup Instructions

To run the reference app you must first configure your copy of On2 Flix Publisher for your environment, and deploy the reference app files to a web server. For uploading, an account on an FTP server is also required.

Follow these steps to prepare On2 Flix Publisher for your environment and to configure the reference application.

Step 1: Locate Your Files and Install the SDK

On2 has provided you with a .ZIP archive containing four files:

• [your_company_name]_publisher.CAB - A plug-in for Microsoft Internet Explorer
• np[your_company_name]publisher.xpi - A plug-in for Mozilla-compatible browsers (e.g., Firefox)
• plugin-info.txt - A text file containing necessary parameters
• [VERSION]_documentation.zip - An archive containing the SDK samples and documentation

Un-zip the archive to a convenient location, perhaps your Desktop, and then un-zip the documentation archive that's included within the zip file.

The reference app files can be found in the samples folder from the documentation archive. After extracting the documentation archive, move the .CAB and .xpi files from your Desktop to the plugins folder, under samples (samples\plugins)

Step 2: Deploy the Reference Application

To operate correctly, the reference app must be deployed to a web server and viewed in a web browser -- just as users do when visiting your site.

Choose a location on your development or production web server, and copy the entire contents of the samples folder there.

Step 3: Set Configuration Parameters in flixpub_conf.js

The original flixpub_conf.js file is included within the documentation archive, here: samples\scripts\flixpub_conf.js. There is now a copy of it on your web server. You must edit several parameters in flixpub_conf.js, using values found in plugin-info.txt.

flixpub_conf.js contains instructions for completing this step.

Step 4: Browse to the Publisher Reference Application

The Publisher reference app is now configured and installed on your web server. Browse to the page named flixpub_advanced.html, which will be at the URL corresponding to the server location where you copied the sample files.

For example, in the illustration above we copied the sample files to www/public/my_site/publisher/, where my_site is the HTTP document root. In this case, the URL for the reference application would be http://my_site/publisher/flixpub_advanced.html.

Publisher is now ready for testing and customization.

Product Details

The On2 Flix Publisher for Flash is a web browser plug-in that enables users to encode video content (either pre-recorded or captured live from a camera) in Adobe^® Flash^® 8 format and upload the video to a web site or file server.

If you are a web site that supports or wants to add Flash video sharing, blogging, or uploading, the On2 Flix Publisher offers the following advantages:

• Entirely browser-based, incredibly simple to use - drag, drop, watch!

• Save massive bandwidth costs - twice. Not only will On2 Flix Publisher’s Flash 8 video save you download bandwidth, but your users will be uploading compressed Flash 8 video to your service instead of large, poorly compressed (or worse, uncompressed) files.

• Decreased server load. You won’t need racks of dedicated servers to compress uploaded video. Processor-intensive encoding is done on the user’s own computer!

• Everything in one format. No codecs to license, no bizarre formats to support, no transcoding hassles. Every video user’s upload is in Flash 8 FLV format.

• The best video quality, period. Flash 8 video quality is as good as and often better than Windows Media, Quicktime, Real, H.264, MPEG-4, and H.263/Spark. Flash 8 files are up to 40% smaller than Flash 7 files.

• Less waiting. Users create web-ready Flash Videos on their computers that can be viewed immediately after upload to your website.

Support

For help with additional questions, please visit http://on2.com/company/feedback/.