With RealText you can create streaming text presentations, combining text as needed with other types of media such as audio or video. You simply create a RealText file with mark-up similar to HTML to describe how and when the text displays. RealServer can then stream the text to RealPlayer or Web browsers.
Because RealServer can also broadcast RealText live, RealText an ideal solution for delivering live stock market information or breaking news, for example. Because it is a true streaming server, RealServer streams the data as it comes in, instead of downloading blocks of data to users' computer for later display.
RealText provides a number of window styles that you can choose depending on how you want to display text. If you have installed RealPlayer, click the link to see an example of each of these window types:
A generic window has no preset parameters. You can use it to create any RealText display allowed by the RealText mark-up. You can display and erase lines of text, scroll text through the window, or have text crawl from side to side, for example.
A ScrollingNews window is preset to have text scroll from the bottom of the window to the top at a set rate for the entire presentation. The text does not crawl from side to side, though.
Text in a TickerTape window crawls from the right side of the window to the left. It can also loop back around to the right. It does not scroll up or down, however. Text displays next to the window's top or bottom edge.
The Marquee window is like the TickerTape in that text crawls from right to left and can loop. It is different in that text is centered vertically within the window.
A TelePrompter window behaves like a generic window except that text arriving at the bottom edge of the window causes the text above it to move up just enough to display the new line.
The RealText mark-up language is similar to HTML. If you are familiar with HTML, you will pick up RealText quickly. The mark-up has some important differences from HTML, though. Keep the following points in mind when writing a RealText file.
<br/>
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Note |
Although tags without a closing slash still work, you cannot edit the file in an XML editor without a Document Type Definition (DTD). To learn more about XML, the language that RealText is based on, visit http://www.w3.org/XML. |
<!-- This is a comment -->
The following steps describe how to create a static RealText file. The rest of this manual describes the RealText mark-up in detail.
<window options...>
...All Other Mark-up Goes Between These Tags...
</window>
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Additional Information |
See "<window> Tag Attributes". |
<window>
Mary had a little lamb,
<br/><time begin="3"/>little lamb,
<br/><time begin="6"/>little lamb,
<br/><time begin="9"/>Mary had a little lamb
<br/><time begin="12"/>whose fleece was white as snow.
</window>
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Additional Information |
See "Text Tags". |
<smil>
<body>
<par>
<textstream src="rtsp://realserver.company.com/mary.rt"/>
<video src="rtsp://realserver.company.com/mary.rm"/>
</par>
</body>
</smil>
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Additional Information |
See RealMedia Production Guide available at http:// www.real.com for information about creating a SMIL file. |
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Additional Information |
RealMedia Production Guide available at http:// www.real.com explains the options for linking your Web page to your presentation. It also explains how to play your RealText presentation in your Web page rather than in RealPlayer. |
To broadcast RealText live, you do not create a RealText file. Instead, you build a broadcast application to add RealText mark-up to the live text. Your application then feeds the text to the broadcast library on RealServer. The documentation for the RealMedia Software Development Kit (SDK) explains how to create a broadcast application and integrate it with RealServer. You can get the SDK at http://www.real.com.
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Additional Information |
See RealMedia Production Guide available at http:// www.real.com for more information about bandwidth consumed by video or audio that accompanies RealText. |
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