Using the Real Media Streaming functionality of our webserver.

Preparing media for the Real Media Streaming server is a 4 step process.

1. Digitize the media from its source (Audiotape, Videotape, CD, etc) to a digital file on a computer. Recommended software for this purpose include Adobe Premire (tm) or Strata StudioPro (tm). Premiere works well for both Audio and Video. A lower end but still very useful is the free iMovie program that comes with the Mac. It's best to consult the manuals or on-line help for specific assistance in accomplishing your media import.

Once you have imported your media file, you'll need to save it or "export it". Frequently it is easiest to work with the various movie editing programs, even if you are working with a sound-only file. The .mpg format is the most standard and versatile, and most applications can both write to and read from this file format, though .aiff and QuickTime formats usually work well too. Save your file to a local hard drive, and be sure that you have enough space for the file being created - video files can easily grow to be 1 Gigabyte or more.

Important: The computing center, to comply with copywright laws, will not condone the development or publishing of any content owned by another individual. This includes, but is not limited to, audio or video tracks from commercial products such as music CD's or commercial videotapes. The Center for Information Technology reserves the right to remove any content that is illegally published, to revoke any or all computing resource accounts of any user found violating this policy, and Oberlin College reserves the right to take diciplinary action or to commence criminal or civil actions against any user found violating this policy. Additionally, the CIT does not allow users to attach their own audio or video hardware to our public machines without explicit prior permission.

2. Convert digitized files to the RealMedia format. Real Networks provides a free program “Helix Producer Basic” that allows one to convert files into the realmedia format. This product can be found at the bottom of the following page. http://www.realnetworks.com/products/producer/basic.html

3. Upload the media files to the right directory on the Web Server. Because RealMedia files are delivered to the user in a different way than web pages are, they need to be placed in a different place in your account on the Web server. When you FTP to the web server, you will usually go immediately into your web directory, where your HTML and graphics files live. You will need to navigate up one level to what is known as your "home" directory and find the directory called "rmedia". Enter this directory, and upload your media files as binary format. Note: If you place real media files in your web directory you will not be able to use them!

4. Reference correctly the new audio files so that players can find and recognize it. You can embed a link to a real media file directly into an html document as follows: http://isis.cc.oberlin.edu:8080/ramgen/userid/filename.rm

Setting up the database on the web server.

To have a database set up on the webserver, contact webmaster@oberlin.edu. We use MySQL as our database software.

Once the database has been created, tables and the proper fields will need to be created. This can be done from a command line, by using a scripting language in a webpage or from a GUI interface.

The easiest method, and the only one I'm comfortable with, is a third party GUI interface for MySQL. A version for windows machines can be found at http://www.mysql.com/downloads/mysql-3.23.html. Once the table is set up it is time to set up Dreamweaver to connect to it.

Setting up Dreamweaver to interact with your database.

The current set up of our server (www.oberlin.edu) does not allow Dreamweaver to create and test database connections and code. Therefore it is important to find a “Testing server” The testing server must have PHP set up on it. It would be best if it were running an Apache web server but this isn't as critical. The database will still be on www.oberlin.edu - isis.cc.oberlin.edu. Once you've found a testing server, define the following parts of your Dreamweaver site.

Local Site definition - folder on your machine which will contain all your files.

Remote Site definition - server and folder that will contain all the files which will be visible to the world.

Testing Server definition - server and folder that will contain and run the files while you are developing the pages.

Once the pages have been created it is time to move them to the cgi-bin directory of your Oberlin web account. The PHP files created by Dreamweaver must all start with the following line:

#!/usr/local/bin/php

Any references to include files need to be changed to absolute references e.g. http://...

Once the files have been moved the permissions need to be changed.

Setting the permissions for the php file in the cgi-bin directory.

You will need a SSH secure shell Client. A version of this program for Windows machines can be found at

http://www.ssh.com/support/downloads/secureshellwks/non-commercial.html or on the download page of the CIT website. MAC OSX users can use the Terminal application that comes with OSX.

Once the software has been installed you will need to know the account name and password.

exec zsh (change to another shell that allows adv command line editing – arrow keys)

You will need to know some UNIX

For instance,

• ls : lists all files/folders in the current directory
• ls –l (l like in little not the number 1) :long listing of all files/folders
• Reading Permission flags outputted by ls –l command. Three levels of permissions are displayed. They are displayed in 3 sets of 3. The groups from left to right are user (u), group (g), other or everyone(o)
• Types of permissions : r- read ; w-write ; x – execute
• chmod – change the permissions for a particular file. This must be done to allow the server to execute a particular php file. The syntax for making a particular file executable on our webserver is “chmod [-fR] <symbolic-mode-list> file”
  where <symbolic-mode-list> is a comma-separated list of [ugoa]{+|-|=}[rwxXlstugo] eg. chmod u+x filename.php
• Deleting files:
• rm –i filename
• Deleting directories
• rmdir –i filename

Database: Username: Password

Classrooms : classroom : EdTechClassroom - List of classrooms, equipment & usage (requires BANNER file)

surveys : surveys: EdTechSurveys – Set up for surveys

d_board : d_board: EdTechDBoard

XXX registration: registration: EdTechRegistration – Registration for workshops.

events: events: EdTechEvents – Workshops, grants, Brown Bag Seminars,

FAQ: FAQ : EdTechFAQ – Tips : Blackboard/ Scanning/Dreamweaver etc.

catalog : catalog : EdTechCatalog – Course catalog info.