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PR-smil-19980409
Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) 1.0 Specification
W3C Proposed Recommendation 09-April-1998
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This version:
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http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/PR-smil-19980409/
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Latest version:
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http://www.w3.org/TR/PR-smil
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Previous version:
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http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/WD-smil-0202
About this Document
This document has been prepared by the Synchronized Multimedia Working Group
(WG) of the World Wide Web Consortium. The WG comprised the following
individuals:
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Stephan Bugaj, Lucent/Bell Labs
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Dick Bulterman, CWI
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Bruce Butterfield, RealNetworks
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Wo Chang, NIST
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Guy Fouquet, Alcatel
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Christian Gran, GMD
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Mark Hakkinen, The Productivity Works
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Lynda Hardman, CWI
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Peter Hoddie, Apple
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Klaus Hofrichter, GMD
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Philipp Hoschka, W3C
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Jack Jansen, CWI
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George Kerscher, DAISY Consortium
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Rob Lanphier, RealNetworks
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Nabil Layaïda, INRIA
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Stephanie Leif, RealNetworks
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Jonathan Marsh, Microsoft
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Sjoerd Mullender, CWI
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Didier Pillet, CNET/DSM
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Anup Rao, Netscape
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Lloyd Rutledge, CWI
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Patrick Soquet, Havas
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Warner ten Kate, Philips
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Jacco van Ossenbruggen, CWI
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Michael Vernick, Lucent/Bell Labs
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Jin Yu, DEC
Acknowledgements: In addition to the working group members,
the following people contributed to the SMIL effort: Bert Bos (W3C), Martin
Dürst (W3C), Al Gilman, Håkon Lie (W3C) and Henning Schulzrinne
(Columbia University).
Editor: Philipp Hoschka, W3C
(hoschka@w3.org)
Abstract
This document specifies version 1 of the Synchronized Multimedia Integration
Language (SMIL 1.0, pronounced "smile"). SMIL allows integrating a set of
independent multimedia objects into a synchronized multimedia presentation.
Using SMIL, an author can
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describe the temporal behavior of the presentation
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describe the layout of the presentation on a screen
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associate hyperlinks with media objects
This specification is structured as follows: Section 2 presents the specification
approach. Section 2 defines the "smil" element. Section 3 defines the elements
that can be contained in the head part of a SMIL document. Section
4 defines the elements that can be contained in the body part of a SMIL document.
In particular, this Section defines the time model used in SMIL. Section
5 describes the SMIL DTD.
Status of this Document
This document is a W3C Working Draft produced by the W3C Working Group on
Synchronized Multimedia (SYMM). This document is [soon to be] undergoing
review by the Members of the World Wide Web Consortium. It is a stable document
derived from a series of working drafts produced over the last year as
deliverables of the Synchronized Multimedia activity. Details of this review
have been distributed to Member's representatives. Comments by non-Members
should be sent to www-smil@w3.org.
For most of the features in this specification, interoperability of independently
developed implementations has been demonstrated at an interoperability meeting.
Implementation of the remaining features is in progress. Endorsement of this
specification as a W3C Recommendation is contingent on demonstration of
interoperability for the remaining features.
Available languages
The English version of this specification is the only normative version.
However, for translations in other languages see
http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/PR-smil-19980409/translations.
Errata
The list of known errors in this specification is available at
http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/PR-smil-19980409/errata.
Table of Contents
SMIL documents are XML 1.0 documents [XML10]. The
reader is expected to be familiar with the concepts and terms defined in
XML 1.0.
This specification does not rely on particular features defined in URLs that
cannot potentially be expressed using URNs. Therefore, the more generic term
URI [URI] is used throughout the specification.
The syntax of SMIL documents is defined by the DTD in Section 5.2. The syntax
of an attribute value that cannot be defined using the DTD notation is defined
together with the first element using an attribute that can contain the attribute
value. The syntax of such attribute values is defined using the Extended
Backus-Naur Form (EBNF) defined in the XML 1.0 specification.
An element definition is structured as follows: First, all attributes of
the element are defined in alphabetical order. An attribute is defined in
the following way: If the attribute is used by an element for the first time
in the specification, the semantics of the attribute are defined. If the
attribute has already been used by another element, the specification refers
to the definition of the attribute in the first element that used it. The
definition of element attributes is followed by the definition of any attribute
values whose syntax cannot be defined using the DTD notation. The final
section in an element definition specifies the element content.
Element Attributes
The "smil" element can have the following attribute:
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id
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This attribute uniquely identifies an element within a document. Its value
is an XML ID.
Element Content
The "smil" element can contain the following children:
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body
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Defined in Section 4.1
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head
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Defined in Section 3.1
3.1 The head
Element
The "head" element contains information that is not related to the temporal
behavior.
Element Attributes
The "head" element can have the following attribute:
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id
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Defined in Section 2
Element Content
The "head" element can contain the following children:
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layout
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Defined in Section 3.2
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meta
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Defined in Section 3.4
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switch
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Defined in Section 4.3
The "head" element may contain any number of "meta" elements and either a
"layout" element or a "switch" element.
3.2 The layout Element
The "layout" element determines how the elements in the document's body are
positioned on an abstract rendering surface (either visual or acoustic).
If a document contains no layout element, the positioning of the body elements
is implementation-dependent.
A SMIL document can contain alternative layout elements as content of a "switch"
element (defined in Section 4.3). This can be used for example to describe
the document's layout using different layout languages.
The following example shows how CSS2 can be used as alternative layout language
to the SMIL basic layout language (defined in Section 3.3):
<smil>
<head>
<switch>
<layout type="text/css">
[region="r"] { top: 20px; left: 20px }
#i2 { top: 30px; left: 30px }
</layout>
<layout>
<region id="r" top="20" left="20" />
</layout>
</switch>
</head>
<body>
<seq>
<img region="r" src="http://www.w3.org/test" dur="10s" />
<img id="i2" src="http://www.w3.org/test2" dur="5s" />
</body>
<smil>
Element Attributes
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id
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Defined in Section 2
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type
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This attribute specifies which layout language is used in the layout element.
If the player does not understand this language, it must skip all text up
until the next "</layout>" tag. The default value of the type attribute
is "text/smil-basic-layout".
Element Content
If the type attribute of the layout element has the value
"text/smil-basic-layout", it can contain the following elements:
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region
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Defined in Section 3.3.1
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root-layout
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Defined in Section 3.3.2
If the type attribute of the "layout" element has another value, the element
contains character data.
This specification defines a basic layout language for SMIL. Unless otherwise
noted, SMIL basic layout is a subset of the
visual rendering model
and the formatting properties defined by the CSS2 specification
[CSS2]. The reader is expected to be familiar with
the concepts and terms defined in CSS2.
SMIL basic layout only controls the layout of a subset of SMIL elements referred
to as positionable elements. In SMIL 1.0, only media object elements
(defined in section 4.2.3) are positionable. It is illegal to use SMIL basic
layout for elements that are not positionable.
SMIL basic layout makes the following restrictions to the CSS2 visual rendering
model:
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All positionable elements are
block-level elements
(i.e. the value of the
"display"
property of all positionable elements is equal to "block" for all positionable
elements).
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All boxes have an
absolute
positioning scheme (i.e. the value of the
"position"
property is equal to "absolute" for all positionable elements).
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All boxes are contained within a single containing block defined by the root
element. None of the boxes generated by the positionable elements contains
another box.
The type identifier for SMIL basic layout is "text/smil-basic-layout". A
MIME-like [RFC2045] notation for the type-identifier
is chosen to be consistent with the type-specification used for other layout
languages. "text/smil-basic-layout" is not a registered MIME type, and probably
will not be registered in future.
Default Values
SMIL basic layout defines default values for all formatting properties of
a positionable element.
If the author wants to select the default layout values for all
positionable elements in a document, the document must contain an empty
layout element of type "smil-basic-layout" such as:
<layout type="text/smil-basic-layout"></layout>
If the document does not contain any layout element, the default values
for the formatting properties are implementation-dependent
The region element controls the position, size and scaling of positionable
elements.
In the following example fragment, the position of a text element is set
to a 5 pixel distance from the top border of the rendering window:
<smil>
<head>
<layout>
<region id="a" top="5" />
</layout>
</head>
<body>
<text region="a" .../>
</body>
</smil>
Element Attributes
The "region" element can have the following attributes:
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background-color
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The use and definition of this attribute are identical to the
"background-color"
property in the CSS2 specification, except that SMIL basic layout does not
require support for "system colors".
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fit
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This attribute specifies the behavior if the intrinsic height and width of
a visual media object differ from the values specified by the height and
width attributes in the "region" element. This attribute replaces the behavior
defined in CSS2.
This attribute can have the following values:
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fill
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Scale the object's height and width independently so that the content just
touches all edges of the box.
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hidden (default)
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If the intrinsic height (width) of the media object element is smaller than
the height (width) defined in the "region" element, render the object starting
from the top (left) edge and fill up the remaining height (width) with the
background color.
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If the intrinsic height (width) of the media object element is greater than
the height (width) defined in the "region" element, render the object starting
from the top (left) edge until the height (width) defined in the "region"
element is reached, and clip the parts of the object below (right of) the
height (width).
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meet
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Scale the visual media object while preserving its aspect ratio until its
height or width is equal to the value specified by the height or width
attributes, while none of the content is clipped. The object's left top corner
is positioned at the top-left coordinates of the box, and empty space at
the left or bottom is filled up with the background color.
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scroll
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A scrolling mechanism should be invoked when the element's rendered contents
exceed its bounds.
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slice
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Scale the visual media object while preserving its aspect ratio so that its
height or width are equal to the value specified by the height and width
attributes while some of the content may get clipped. Depending on the exact
situation, either a horizontal or a vertical slice of the visual media object
is displayed. Overflow width is clipped from the right of the media object.
Overflow height is clipped from the bottom of the media object.
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height
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The use and definition of this attribute are identical to the "height"
property in the CSS2 specification. Attribute values can be "percentage"
values, and a variation of the "length" values defined in CSS2. For "length"
values, SMIL basic layout only supports
pixel units as defined
in CSS2. It allows to leave out the "px" unit qualifier in pixel values
(the "px" qualifier is required in CSS2).
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id (required)
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Defined in Section 2
A region element is applied to a positionable element by setting the
region attribute of the positionable element to the id
value of the region.
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left
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The use and definition of this attribute are identical to the
"left"
property in the CSS2 specification. Attribute values have the same restrictions
as the attribute values of the "height" attribute.
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skip-content
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This attribute is introduced for future extensibility of SMIL (see Appendix).
It is interpreted in the following two cases:
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If a new element is introduced in a future version of SMIL, and this
element allows SMIL 1.0 elements as element content, the "skip-content" attribute
controls whether this content is processed by a SMIL 1.0 player.
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If an empty element in SMIL version 1.0 becomes non-empty in a future SMIL
version, the "skip-content" attribute controls whether this content is processed
by a SMIL 1.0 player.
If the value of the "skip-content" attribute is "true", and one of the cases
above apply, the content of the element is ignored. If the value is "false",
the content of the element is processed.
The default value for "skip-content" is "true".
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title
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This attribute offers advisory information about the element for which it
is set. Values of the title attribute may be rendered by user agents in a
variety of ways. For instance, visual browsers frequently display the title
as a "tool tip" (a short message that appears when the pointing device pauses
over an object).
It is strongly recommended that all "region" elements have
a "title" attribute with a meaningful description. Authoring tools should
ensure that no element can be introduced into a SMIL document without this
attribute.
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top
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The use and definition of this attribute are identical to the
"top"
property in the CSS2 specification. Attribute values have the same restrictions
as the attribute values of the "height" attribute.
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width
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The use and definition of this attribute are identical to the
"width"
property in the CSS2 specification. Attribute values have the same restrictions
as the attribute values of the "height" attribute.
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z-index
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The use and definition of this attribute are identical to the
"z-index"
property in the CSS2 specification, with two exceptions:
-
-
In SMIL basic layout, a box never establishes a local stacking context.
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If two boxes generated by elements A and B have
the same stack level, then
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If the display of an element A starts later than the display of an element
B, the box of A is stacked on top of the box of B (temporal order).
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If the display of the elements starts at the same time, and an element A
occurs later in the SMIL document text than an element B, the box of A is
stacked on top of the box of B (textual order).
Element Content
"region" is an empty element.
The "root-layout" element determines the value of the layout properties of
the root element, which in turn determines the size of the viewport, e.g.
the window in which the SMIL presentation is rendered.
If a document contains more than one "root-layout" element, this is an error,
and the document should not be displayed.
Element Attributes
The "root-layout" element can have the following attributes:
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background-color
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Defined in Section 3.3.1
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height
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Defined in Section 3.3.1
Sets the height of the root element. Only length values are allowed.
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id
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Defined in Section 2
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overflow
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The use and definition of this attribute are identical to the
"overflow"
property in the CSS2 specification, except that in SMIL basic layout the
default value is "hidden".
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skip-content
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Defined in Section 3.3.1
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title
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Defined in Section 3.3.1
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width
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Defined in Section 3.3.1
Sets the width of the root element. Only length values are allowed.
Element Content
"root-layout" is an empty element.
The "meta" element can be used to define properties of a document (e.g.,
author, expiration date, a list of key words, etc.) and assign values to
those properties. Each "meta" element specifies a single property/value pair.
Element Attributes
The "meta" element can have the following attributes:
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content (required)
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This attribute specifies the value of the property defined in the meta element.
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id
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Defined in Section 2
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name (required)
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This attribute identifies the property defined in the meta element.
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skip-content
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Defined in Section 3.3.1
The list of properties is open-ended. This specification defines the following
properties:
-
base
-
The value of this property determines the base URI for all relative URIs
used in the document.
-
pics-label or PICS-Label
-
The value of this property specifies a valid rating label for the document
as defined by PICS [PICS].
-
title
-
The value of this property contains the title of the presentation.
It is strongly recommended that all "meta" elements have a "title"
attribute with a meaningful description. Authoring tools should ensure that
no element can be introduced into a SMIL document without this attribute.
Element Content
"meta" is an empty element.
4.1 The body
Element
The "body" element contains information that is related to the temporal and
linking behavior of the document. It implicitly defines a "seq" element (defined
in Section 4.2.2, see Section 4.2.4 for a definition of the temporal semantics
of the "body" element).
Element Attributes
The "body" element can have the following attribute:
-
id
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Defined in Section 2
Element Content
The "body" element can contain the following children:
-
a
-
Defined in Section 4.5.1
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animation
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Defined in Section 4.2.3
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audio
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Defined in Section 4.2.3
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img
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Defined in Section 4.2.3
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par
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Defined in Section 4.2.1
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ref
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Defined in Section 4.2.3
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seq
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Defined in Section 4.2.2
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switch
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Defined in Section 4.3
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text
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Defined in Section 4.2.3
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textstream
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Defined in Section 4.2.3
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video
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Defined in Section 4.2.3
4.2 Synchronization Elements
4.2.1 The par Element
The "par" element is used to express that several synchronization elements
occur in parallel. That means that the children of a "par" element can have
arbitrary temporal ordering.
Element Attributes
The "par" element can have the following attributes:
-
abstract
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A brief description of the content contained in the element.
-
author
-
The name of the author of the content contained in the element.
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begin
-
This attribute specifies the time for the explicit begin of an element. See
Section 4.2.4 for a definition of its semantics.
The attribute can contain the following two types of values:
-
delay-value
-
A delay value is a clock-value measuring presentation time. Presentation
time advances at the speed of the presentation. It behaves like the timecode
shown on a counter of a tape-deck. It can be stopped, decreased or increased
either by user actions, or by the player itself.
The semantics of a delay value depend on the element's first ancestor that
is a synchronization element (i.e. ancestors that are "a" or "switch" elements
are ignored):
-
If this ancestor is a "par" element, the value defines a delay from the effective
begin of that element (see Figure 4.1).
-
If this ancestor is a "seq" element (defined in Section 4.2.2), the value
defines a delay from the effective end of the first lexical predecessor that
is a synchronization element (see Figure 4.2).
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event-value
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The element begins when a certain event occurs (see Figure 4.3). Its value
is an element-event (see Definition below).
The element generating the event must be "in scope". The set of "in scope"
elements S is determined as follows:
-
Take all children from the element's first ancestor that is a synchronization
element and add them to S.
-
Remove all "a" and "switch" elements from S. Add the children of all "a"
elements to S, unless they are "switch" elements.
The resulting set S is the set of "in scope" elements.
<par>
<audio id="a" begin="6s" ... />
...
</par>
D
Figure 4.1: Using a delay value within a "par" element
<seq>
<audio .../>
<audio begin="5s" .../>
</seq>
D
Figure 4.2: Using a delay value within a "seq" element
<par>
<audio id="a" begin="6s" ... />
<img begin="id(a)(4s)" ... />
</par>
D
Figure 4.3: Synchronization attribute with element event value
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copyright
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The copyright notice of the content contained in the element.
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dur
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This attribute specifies the explicit duration of an element. See Section
4.2.4 for a definition of its semantics. The attribute value can be a clock
value, or the string "indefinite".
-
end
-
This attribute specifies the explicit end of an element. See Section 4.2.4
for a definition of its semantics. The attribute can contain the same types
of attribute values as the "begin" attribute.
-
endsync
-
For a definition of the semantics of this attribute, see Section 4.2.4. The
attribute can have the following values:
-
first
-
id-ref
This attribute value has the following syntax:
id-ref = "id(" id-value ")"
where "id-value" must be a legal XML identifier.
-
last (default)
-
id
-
Defined in Section 2
-
region
-
This attribute specifies an abstract rendering surface (either visual or
acoustic) defined within the layout section of the document. Its value must
be an XML ID. If no rendering surface with this id is defined in the layout
section, the values of the formatting properties of this element are determined
by the default layout.
The "region" attribute on "par" elements cannot be used by the basic layout
language for SMIL defined in this specification. It is added for completeness,
since it may be required by other layout languages.
-
repeat
-
For a definition of the semantics of this attribute, see Section 4.2.4. The
attribute value can be an integer, or the string "indefinite". The default
value is 1.
-
system-bitrate
-
Defined in Section 4.4
-
system-captions
-
Defined in Section 4.4
-
system-language
-
Defined in Section 4.4
-
system-overdub-or-caption
-
Defined in Section 4.4
-
system-required
-
Defined in Section 4.4
-
system-screen-size
-
Defined in Section 4.4
-
system-screen-depth
-
Defined in Section 6.4
-
title
-
Defined in Section 3.3.1
It is strongly recommended that all "par" elements have a "title" attribute
with a meaningful description. Authoring tools should ensure that no element
can be introduced into a SMIL document without this attribute.
Note on Synchronization between Children
The accuracy of synchronization between the children in a parallel group
is implementation-dependent. Take the example of synchronization in case
of playback delays, i.e. the behavior when the
"par" element contains two or more continuous media types such as audio or
video, and one of them experiences a delay.
A player can show the following synchronization behaviors:
-
hard synchronization
-
The player synchronizes the children in the "par" element to a common clock
(see Figure 4.5 a)).
-
soft synchronization
-
Each child of the "par" element has its own clock, which runs independently
of the clocks of other children in the "par" element (see Figure 4.5 b)).
D
a) hard synchronization: Delay in video: Either the audio is stopped,
or some video frames are dropped. The exact behavior is
implementation-dependent
D
b) soft synchronization
Figure 4.4: Effect of a delay on playout schedule for players using different
synchronization policies
Attribute Values
-
clock value
-
Clock values have the following syntax:
-
Clock-val ::= Full-clock-val | Partial-clock-val | Timecount-val
Full-clock-val ::= Hours ":" Minutes ":" Seconds ("." Fraction)?
Partial-clock-val ::= Minutes ":" Seconds ("." Fraction)?
Timecount-val ::= Timecount ("." Fraction)?
("h" | "min" | "s" | "ms")? ; default is "s"
Hours ::= 2DIGIT; any positive number
Minutes ::= 2DIGIT; range from 00 to 59
Seconds ::= 2DIGIT; range from 00 to 59
Fraction ::= DIGIT+
Timecount ::= DIGIT+
2DIGIT ::= DIGIT DIGIT
DIGIT ::= [0-9]
The following are examples of legal clock values:
-
Full clock value: 02:30:03 = 2 hours, 30 minutes and 3 seconds
-
Partial clock value: 02:33 = 2 minutes and 33 seconds
-
Timecount values:
3h = 3 hours
45min = 45 minutes
30s = 30 seconds
5ms = 5 milliseconds
A fraction x with n digits represents the following value:
x * 1/10**n
Examples:
00.5s = 5 * 1/10 seconds = 500 milliseconds
00:00.005 = 5 * 1/1000 seconds = 5 milliseconds
-
element-event value
-
An element event value specifies a particular event in a synchronization
element.
An element event has the following syntax:
-
Element-event ::= "id(" Event-source ")(" Event ")"
Event-source ::= Id-value
Event ::= "begin" | Clock-val | "end"
-
The following events are defined:
-
begin
-
This event is generated at the element's effective begin.
Example use: begin="id(x)(begin)"
-
clock-val
-
This event is generated when a clock associated with the element reaches
a particular value. This clock starts at 0 at the element's effective begin.
For "par" and "seq" elements, the clock gives the presentation time elapsed
since the effective begin of the element. For media object elements, the
semantics are implementation-dependent. The clock may either give presentation
time elapsed since the effective begin, or it may give the media time of
the object. The latter may differ from the presentation time that elapsed
since the object's display was started e.g. due to rendering or network
delays.
It is an error to use a clock value in an element event that is greater than
the effective duration of the element generating the event.
Example use: begin="id(x)(45s)"
-
end
-
This event is generated at the element's effective end.
Example use: begin="id(x)(end)"
Element Content
The par element can contain the following children:
-
a
-
Defined in Section 4.5.1
-
animation
-
Defined in Section 4.2.3
-
audio
-
Defined in Section 4.2.3
-
img
-
Defined in Section 4.2.3
-
par
-
Defined in Section 4.2.1
-
ref
-
Defined in Section 4.2.3
-
seq
-
Defined in Section 4.2.2
-
switch
-
Defined in Section 4.3
-
text
-
Defined in Section 4.2.3
-
textstream
-
Defined in Section 4.2.3
-
video
-
Defined in Section 4.2.3
All of these elements may appear multiple times as direct children of a par
element.
4.2.2 The seq Element
The children of a "seq" element form a temporal sequence.
Attributes
The seq element can have the following attributes:
-
abstract
-
Defined in Section 4.2.1
-
author
-
Defined in Section 4.2.1
-
begin
-
Defined in Section 4.2.1
-
copyright
-
Defined in Section 4.2.1
-
dur
-
Defined in Section 4.2.1
-
end
-
Defined in Section 4.2.1
-
id
-
Defined in Section 2
-
region
-
Defined in Section 4.2.1
The region attribute on "par" elements cannot be used by the basic layout
language for SMIL defined in this specification. It is added for completeness,
since it may be required by other layout languages.
-
repeat
-
Defined in Section 4.2.1
-
system-bitrate
-
Defined in Section 4.4
-
system-captions
-
Defined in Section 4.4
-
system-language
-
Defined in Section 4.4
-
system-overdub-or-caption
-
Defined in Section 4.4
-
system-required
-
Defined in Section 4.4
-
system-screen-size
-
Defined in Section 4.4
-
system-screen-depth
-
Defined in Section 4.4
-
title
-
Defined in Section 4.2.1
It is strongly recommended that all "seq" elements have a "title" attribute
with a meaningful description. Authoring tools should ensure that no element
can be introduced into a SMIL document without this attribute.
Element Content
The seq element can contain the following children:
-
a
-
Defined in Section 4.5.1
-
animation
-
Defined in Section 4.2.3
-
audio
-
Defined in Section 4.2.3
-
img
-
Defined in Section 4.2.3
-
par
-
Defined in Section 4.2.1
-
ref
-
Defined in Section 4.2.3
-
seq
-
Defined in Section 4.2.2
-
switch
-
Defined in Section 4.3
-
text
-
Defined in Section 4.2.3
-
textstream
-
Defined in Section 4.2.3
-
video
-
Defined in Section 4.2.3
4.2.3 Media Object Elements: The ref,
animation
, audio,img, video,text and
textstream
elements
The media object elements allow the inclusion of media objects into a SMIL
presentation. Media objects can be included either by reference (using a
URI), or they can be written inline. In the latter case, they are included
as CDATA in the content of a media object element.
There are two types of media objects: media objects with an intrinsic duration
(e.g. video, audio) (also called "continuous media"), and media objects without
intrinsic duration (e.g. text, image) (also called "discrete media").
Anchors and links can be attached to visual media objects, i.e. media objects
rendered on a visual abstract rendering surface.
When playing back a media object, the player must not derive the exact type
of the media object from the name of the media object element. Instead, it
must rely solely on other sources about the type, such as type information
contained in the "type" attribute, or the type information communicated by
the server or the operating system.
Authors, however, should make sure that the group into which of the media
object falls (animation, audio, img, video, text or textstream) is reflected
in the element name. This is in order to increase the readability of the
SMIL document. When in doubt about the group of a media object, authors should
use the generic "ref" element.
Element Attributes
Media object elements can have the following attributes:
-
abstract
-
Defined in Section 4.2.1
-
alt
-
For user agents that cannot display a particular media-object, this attribute
specifies alternate text. It is strongly recommended that all
media object elements have an "alt" attribute with a meaningful description.
Authoring tools should ensure that no element can be introduced into a SMIL
document without this attribute.
-
author
-
Defined in Section 4.2.1
-
begin
-
Defined in Section 4.2.1
-
clip-begin
-
The clip-begin attribute specifies the beginning of a sub-clip of a continuous
media object as offset from the start of the media object.
Values in the clip-begin attribute have the following syntax:
Clip-time-value ::= Metric "=" ( Clock-val | Smpte-val )
Metric ::= Smpte-type | "npt"
Smpte-type ::= "smpte" | "smpte-30-drop" | "smpte-25"
Smpte-val ::= Hours ":" Minutes ":" Seconds
[ ":" Frames [ "." Subframes ]]
Hours ::= 2DIGIT
Minutes ::= 2DIGIT
Seconds ::= 2DIGIT
Frames ::= 2DIGIT
Subframes ::= 2DIGIT
The value of this attribute consists of a metric specifier, followed by a
time value whose syntax and semantics depend on the metric specifier. The
following formats are allowed:
-
SMPTE Timestamp
-
SMPTE time codes [SMPTE] can be used for frame-level
access accuracy. The metric specifier can have the following values:
-
smpte
-
smpte-30-drop
-
These values indicate the use of the "SMPTE 30 drop" format with 29.97 frames
per second. The "frames" field in the time value can assume the values 0
through 29. The difference between 30 and 29.97 frames per second is handled
by dropping the first two frame indices (values 00 and 01) of every minute,
except every tenth minute.
-
smpte-25
-
The "frames" field in the time specification can assume the values 0 through
24.
The time value has the format hours:minutes:seconds:frames.subframes. If
the frame value is zero, it may be omitted. Subframes are measured in
one-hundredth of a frame.
Examples:
clip-begin="smpte=10:12:33:20"
-
Normal Play Time
-
Normal Play Time expresses time in terms of SMIL clock values. The metric
specifier is "npt", and the syntax of the time value is identical to the
syntax of SMIL clock values.
Examples:
clip-begin="npt=123.45s"
clip-begin="npt=12:05:35.3
"
-
clip-end
-
The clip-begin attribute specifies the end of a sub-clip of a continuous
media object (such as audio, video or another presentation) that should be
played. It uses the same attribute value syntax as the clip-begin
attribute.
If the value of the "clip-end" attribute exceeds the duration of the
media object, the value is ignored, and the clip end is set equal to the
effective end of the media object.
-
copyright
-
Defined in Section 4.2.1
-
dur
-
Defined in Section 4.2.1
-
end
-
Defined in Section 4.2.1
-
fill
-
For a definition of the semantics of this attribute, see Section 4.2.4. The
attribute can have the values "remove" and "freeze".
-
id
-
Defined in Section 2
-
longdesc
-
This attribute specifies a link (URI) to a long description of a media object.
This description should supplement the short description provided using the
alt attribute. When the media-object has associated anchors, this attribute
should provide information about the anchor's contents.
-
region
-
Defined in Section 4.2.1
-
src
-
The value of the src attribute is the URI of the media object, if it is
included by reference. It is illegal for a media object element to have a
"src" attribute if the media object is written inline.
-
system-bitrate
-
Defined in Section 4.4
-
system-captions
-
Defined in Section 4.4
-
system-language
-
Defined in Section 4.4
-
system-overdub-or-caption
-
Defined in Section 4.4
-
system-required
-
Defined in Section 6.4
-
system-screen-size
-
Defined in Section 4.4
-
system-screen-depth
-
Defined in Section 4.4
-
title
-
Defined in Section 4.2.1
It is strongly recommended that all media object elements have a "title"
attribute with a meaningful description. Authoring tools should ensure that
no element can be introduced into a SMIL document without this attribute.
-
type
-
MIME type of the media object referenced by the "src" attribute, or included
in the content of the element. In the latter case, the "type" attribute is
required.
Element Content
Media Object Elements can contain the following element:
-
anchor
-
Defined in Section 4.5.2
In the following discussion, the term "element" refers to synchronization
elements only.
For each element we define the implicit, explicit, desired, and effective
begin, duration, and end.
The effective begin/duration/end specify what the reader of the document
will perceive.
The implicit, explicit, and desired values are auxiliary values used to define
the effective values.
The rules for calculating each of these values for the elements defined in
SMIL 1.0 are described in the next section.
-
Each element in SMIL has an implicit begin.
-
Each element can be assigned an explicit begin:
begin = <explicit-begin>
It is an error if the explicit begin is earlier than the implicit begin of
the element.
-
Each element in SMIL has an implicit end.
-
Each element can be assigned an explicit end:
end = <explicit-end>
-
The implicit duration of an element is the difference between the
implicit end and the implicit begin.
-
Each element in SMIL can be assigned an explicit duration:
dur = <explicit-duration>
-
The desired begin of an element is equal to the explicit begin if
one is given, otherwise the desired begin is equal to the implicit begin.
-
Each element has a desired end.
-
The desired duration of an element is the difference between the
desired end and the desired begin.
-
Each element has an effective begin.
-
Each element has an effective end. (Note: the effective end of a
child element can never be later than the effective end of its parent.)
-
The effective duration of an element is the difference between the
effective end and the effective begin.
This section defines how time model values are calculated for the synchronization
elements of SMIL 1.0 in cases that are not covered by the rules in Section
4.2.4.1.
Determining the implicit begin of an element
-
The implicit begin of the first child of the "body" element is when the document
starts playing. When this is falls outside the scope of this document.
-
The implicit begin of a child of a "par" element is equal to the effective
begin of the "par" element.
-
The implicit begin of the first child of a "seq" element is equal to the
effective begin of the "seq" element.
-
The implicit begin of any other child of a "seq" element is equal to the
desired end time of the previous child of the "seq" element.
Determining the implicit end of an element
The first description that matches the element is the one that is to be used:
-
An element with a "repeat" attribute with value "indefinite" has an implicit
end immediately after its effective begin.
-
An element with a "repeat" attribute with a value other than "indefinite"
has an implicit end equal to the implicit end of a seq element with the stated
number of copies of the element without "repeat" attribute as children.
-
A media object element referring to a continuous media object has an implicit
end equal to the sum of the effective begin of the element and the intrinsic
duration of the media object.
-
A media element referring to a discrete media object such as text or image
has an implicit end immediately after its effective begin.
-
A "seq" element has an implicit end equal to the desired end of its last
child.
-
A "par" element has an implicit end that depends on the value of the "endsync"
attribute. The implicit end is equal to the sum of the effective begin of
the "par" element and the implicit duration which is derived as follows:
-
If the value of the "endsync" attribute is "last", or if the "endsync" attribute
is missing, the implicit duration of the "par" element is the maximum of
the desired durations of its children.
-
If the value of the "endsync" attribute is "first", the implicit duration
of the "par" element is the minimum of the desired durations of its children.
-
If the value of the "endsync" attribute is an id-ref, the implicit duration
of the "par" element is equal to the desired duration of the child referenced
by the "id-ref".
Determining the desired end of an element
-
If the element has both an explicit duration and an explicit end, the desired
end is the minimum of:
-
the sum of the desired begin and the explicit duration; and
-
the explicit end.
-
If the element has an explicit duration but no explicit end, the desired
end is the sum of the desired begin and the explicit duration.
-
If the element has an explicit end but no explicit duration, the desired
end is equal to the explicit end
-
Otherwise, the desired end is equal to the implicit end.
Determining the desired begin of an element
The desired begin of an element is determined by using rule 7 in Section
4.2.4.1.
Determining the effective begin of an element
The effective begin of an element is equal to the desired begin
of the element, unless the effective end of the parent element is earlier
than this time, in which case the element is not shown at all.
Determining the effective end of an element
-
The effective end of the last child of the body element is player-dependent.
The effective end is at least as late as the desired end, but whether it
is any later is implementation-dependent.
-
The effective end of the child of a "par" element can be derived as follows:
-
If the child has a "fill" attribute, and the value of the "fill" attribute
is "freeze", the effective end of the child element is equal to the effective
end of the parent.
-
If the child has a "fill" attribute, and the value of the "fill" attribute
is "remove", the effective end of the child element is the minimum of the
effective end of the parent and the desired end of the child element.
-
If the child element has no "fill" attribute, the effective end of the child
depends on whether or not the child has an explicit duration or end.
-
If the child has an explicit duration or end, the effective end is determined
as if the element had a "fill" attribute with value "remove".
-
If the child has neither an explicit duration nor an explicit end, the effective
end is determined as if the element had a "fill" attribute with value "freeze".
-
The effective end of the last child of a "seq" element is derived in the
same way as the effective end of a child of a "par" element.
-
The effective end of any other child of a "seq" element can be derived as
follows:
-
If the child has a "fill" attribute, and the value of the "fill" attribute
is "freeze", the effective end of the child element is equal to the effective
begin of the next element
-
If the child has a "fill" attribute, and the value of the "fill" attribute
is "remove", the effective end of the child element is the minimum of the
effective begin of the next element and the desired end of the next child
element.
-
If the child element has no "fill" attribute, the effective end of the child
depends on whether or not the child has an explicit duration or end.
-
If the child has an explicit duration or end, the effective end is determined
as if the element had a fill attribute with value "remove".
-
If the child has neither an explicit duration nor an explicit end, the effective
end is determined as if the element had a fill attribute with value "freeze".
4.3 The switch Element
The switch element allows an author to specify a set of alternative elements
from which only one acceptable element should be chosen. An element is acceptable
if the element is a SMIL 1.0 element, the media-type can be decoded, and
all of the test-attributes (see Section 4.4) of the element evaluate to "true".
An element is selected as follows: the player evaluates the elements in the
order in which they occur in the switch element. The first acceptable element
is selected at the exclusion of all other elements within the switch.
Thus, authors should order the alternatives from the most desirable to the
least desirable. Furthermore, authors should place a relatively fail-safe
alternative as the last item in the <switch> so that at least one item
within the switch is chosen (unless this is explicitly not desired).
Implementations should NOT arbitrarily pick an object within a
<switch> when test-attributes for all fail.
Attributes
The switch element can have the following attributes:
-
id
-
Defined in Section 2
-
title
-
Defined in Section 4.3
It is strongly recommended that all switch elements have a "title"
attribute with a meaningful description Authoring tools should ensure that
no element can be introduced into a SMIL document without this attribute.
Element Content
If the "switch" element is used as a direct or indirect child of a "body"
element, it can contain the following children:
-
a
-
Defined in Section 4.5.1
-
animation
-
Defined in Section 4.2.3
-
audio
-
Defined in Section 4.2.3
-
img
-
Defined in Section 4.2.3
-
par
-
Defined in Section 4.2.1
-
ref
-
Defined in Section 4.2.3
-
seq
-
Defined in Section 4.2.2
-
switch
-
Defined in Section 4.3
-
text
-
Defined in Section 4.2.3
-
textstream
-
Defined in Section 4.2.3
-
video
-
Defined in Section 4.2.3
All of these elements may appear multiple times as children of a "switch"
element.
If the "switch" element is used within a "head" element, it can contain the
following child:
-
layout
-
Defined in Section 3.2
Multiple layout elements may occur within the switch element.
4.4 Test Attributes
This specification defines a list of test attributes that can be added to
any synchronization element, and that test system capabilities and settings.
When one of these attributes evaluates to "false", the element carrying this
attribute is ignored.
Within the list below, the concept of "user preference" may show up. User
preferences are usually set by the playback engine using a preferences dialog
box, but this specification does not place any restrictions on how such
preferences are communicated from the user to the SMIL player.
The following test attributes are defined in SMIL 1.0:
-
system-bitrate
-
This attribute specifies the average bandwidth, in bits per second available
to the system. This could be used to make a choice based on the users connection
to the network. Typical values for modem users would be 14400, 28800, 56000
bit/s etc. The attribute can assume any integer value greater than 0. Evaluates
to "true" if the available system bitrate is equal to or greater than the
given value. Evaluates to "false" if the available system bitrate is less
than the given value.
-
system-captions
-
This attribute allows authors to distinguish between a redundant text equivalent
of the audio portion of the presentation (intended for a audiences such as
those with hearing disabilities or those learning to read who want or need
this information) and text intended for a wide audience. The attribute can
have the values "on" and "off". Evaluates to "true" if the user has indicated
a desire to see closed-captioning information, and evaluates to "false" if
the user has indicated that they don't wish to see such information.
-
system-language
-
The attribute value can be any language name from RFC 1766
[RFC1766]. Evaluates to "true"
if one of the languages
indicated by user preferences is the same as the language given as
the value of this parameter. Evaluates to "false" if they do not match.
Implementation note: When making the choice of linguistic preference available
to the user, implementors should take into account the fact that users are
not familiar with the details of language matching as described above, and
should provide appropriate guidance. As an example, users may assume that
on selecting "en-gb", they will be served any kind of English document if
British English is not available. The user interface for setting user preferences
should guide the user to add "en" to get the best matching behavior.
Multiple languages MAY be listed for content that is intended for multiple
audiences. For example, a rendition of the "Treaty of Waitangi," presented
simultaneously in the original Maori and English versions, would call for:
-
<audio src="foo.rm" system-language="mi, en"/>
However, just because multiple languages are present within the object on
which the system-language test attribute is placed, this does not mean that
it is intended for multiple linguistic audiences. An example would be a
beginner's language primer, such as "A First Lesson in
-
Latin," which is clearly intended to be used by an English-literate audience.
In this case, the system-language test attribute should only include "en".
A language-range matches a language-tag if it exactly equals the tag, or
if it exactly equals a prefix of the tag such that the first tag character
following the prefix is "-". [...]
Note: This use of a prefix matching rule does not imply that language tags
are assigned to languages in such a way that it is always true that if a
user understands a language with a certain tag, then this user will also
understand all languages with tags for which this tag is a prefix. The prefix
rule simply allows the use of prefix tags if this is the case.
-
system-overdub-or-caption
-
This attribute is a setting which determines if users prefer overdubbing
or captioning when the option is available. The attribute can have the values
"caption" and "overdub". Evaluates to "true" if the user preference matches
this attribute value. Evaluates to "false" if they do not match.
-
system-required
-
This attribute specifies the name of an extension. Evaluates to "true" if
the extension is supported by the implementation, otherwise, this evaluates
to "false". In a future version of SMIL, this attribute value will be an
XML namespace [NAMESPACES].
-
system-screen-size
-
Attribute values have the following syntax:
screen-size-val ::= screen-height"X"screen-width
Each of these is a pixel value, and must be an integer value greater than
0. Evaluates to "true" if the SMIL playback engine is capable of displaying
a presentation of the given size. Evaluates to "false" if the SMIL playback
engine is only capable of displaying a smaller presentation.
-
system-screen-depth
-
This attribute specifies the depth of the screen color palette in bits required
for displaying the element. The value must be greater than 0. Typical values
are 1, 8, 24 .... Evaluates to "true" if the SMIL
playback engine is capable of displaying images or video with the given color
depth. Evaluates to "false" if the SMIL playback engine is only capable of
displaying images or video with a smaller color depth.
Examples
1) Choosing between content with different bitrate
In a common scenario, implementations may wish to allow for selection via
a "system-bitrate" parameter on elements. The media player evaluates each
of the "choices" (elements within the switch) one at a time, looking for
an acceptable bitrate given the known characteristics of the link between
the media player and media server.
...
<par>
<text .../>
<switch>
<par system-bitrate="40000">
...
</par>
<par system-bitrate="24000">
...
</par>
<par system-bitrate="10000">
........
</par>
</switch>
</par>
...
2) Choosing between audio resources with different bitrate
The elements within the switch may be any combination of elements. For instance,
one could merely be specifying an alternate audio track:
...
<switch>
<audio src="joe-audio-better-quality" system-bitrate="16000" />
<audio src="joe-audio" system-bitrate="8000" />
</switch>
...
3) Choosing between audio resources in different languages
In the following example, an audio resource is available both in French and
in English. Based on the user's preferred language, the player can choose
one of these audio resources.
...
<switch>
<audio src="joe-audio-french" system-language="fr"/>
<audio src="joe-audio-english" system-language="en"/>
</switch>
...
4) Choosing between content written for different screens
In the following example, the presentation contains alternative parts designed
for screens with different resolutions and bit-depths. Depending on the
particular characteristics of the screen, the player can choose one of the
alternatives.
...
<par>
<text .../>
<switch>
<par system-screen-size="1280X1024" system-screen-depth="16">
........
</par>
<par system-screen-size="640X480" system-screen-depth="32">
...
</par>
<par system-screen-size="640X480" system-screen-depth="16">
...
</par>
</switch>
</par>
...
5) Distinguishing caption tracks from stock tickers
In the following example, captions are shown only if the user wants captions
on.
...
<seq>
<par>
<audio src="audio.rm"/>
<video src="video.rm"/>
<textstream src="stockticker.rtx"/>
<textstream src="closed-caps.rtx" system-captions="on"/>
</par>
</seq>
...
6) Choosing the language of overdub and caption tracks
In the following example, a French-language movie is available with English,
German, and Dutch overdub and caption tracks. The following SMIL segment
expresses this, and switches on the alternatives that the user prefers.
...
<par>
<switch>
<audio src="movie-aud-en.rm" system-language="en"
system-overdub-or-caption="overdub"/>
<audio src="movie-aud-de.rm" system-language="de"
system-overdub-or-caption="overdub"/>
<audio src="movie-aud-nl.rm" system-language="nl"
system-overdub-or-caption="overdub"/>
<!-- French for everyone else -->
<audio src="movie-aud-fr.rm"/>
</switch>
<video src="movie-vid.rm"/>
<switch>
<textstream src="movie-caps-en.rtx" system-language="en"
system-overdub-or-caption="caption"/>
<textstream src="movie-caps-de.rtx" system-language="de"
system-overdub-or-caption="caption"/>
<textstream src="movie-caps-nl.rtx" system-language="nl"
system-overdub-or-caption="caption"/>
<!-- French captions for those that really want them -->
<textstream src="movie-caps-fr.rtx" system-captions="on"/>
</switch>
</par>
...
4.5 Hyperlinking Elements
The link elements allows the description of navigational links between objects.
SMIL provides only for in-line link elements. Links are limited to
uni-directional single-headed links (i.e. all links have exactly one source
and one destination resource). All links in SMIL are actuated by the user.
Handling of Links in Embedded Documents
Due to its integrating nature, the presentation of a SMIL document may involve
other (non-SMIL) applications or plug-ins. For example, a SMIL browser may
use an HTML plug-in to display an embedded HTML page. Vice versa, an HTML
browser may use a SMIL plug-in to display a SMIL document embedded in an
HTML page.
In such presentations, links may be defined by documents at different levels
and conflicts may arise. In this case, the link defined by the containing
document should take precedence over the link defined by the embedded object.
Note that since this might require communication between the browser and
the plug-in, SMIL implementations may choose not to comply with this
recommendation.
If a link is defined in an embedded SMIL document, traversal of the link
affects only the embedded SMIL document.
If a link is defined in a non-SMIL document which is embedded in a SMIL document,
link traversal can only affect the presentation of the embedded document
and not the presentation of the containing SMIL document. This restriction
may be released in future versions of SMIL.
Addressing
SMIL supports name fragment identifiers and the '#' connector. This means
that SMIL supports locators as currently used in HTML (e.g. it uses locators
of the form "http://foo.com/some/path#anchor1").
Linking to SMIL Fragments
A locator that points to a SMIL document may contain a fragment part (e.g.
http://www.w3.org/test.smi#par1). The fragment part is an id value that
identifies one of the elements within the referenced SMIL document. If a
link containing a fragment part is followed, the presentation should start
as if the user had fast-forwarded the presentation represented by the destination
document to the effective begin of the element designated by the fragment.
The following special cases can occur:
-
The element addressed by the link has a "repeat" attribute.
-
If the value of the "repeat" attribute is N, all N repetitions of the element
are played.
-
If the value of the "repeat" attribute is "indefinite", playback ends according
to the rules defined for repeat value "indefinite".
-
The element addressed by the link is contained within another element that
contains a "repeat" attribute.
-
If the value of the "repeat" attribute is N, playback starts at the beginning
of the element addressed by the link, followed by N-1 repetitions of the
element containing the "repeat" attribute.
-
If the value of the "repeat" attribute is "indefinite", playback starts at
the beginning of the element addressed by the link. Playback ends according
to the rules defined for repeat value "indefinite".
-
The element addressed by the link is content of a "switch" element: It is
forbidden to link to elements that are the content of "switch" elements.
4.5.1 The a Element
The functionality of the "a" element is very similar to the functionality
of the "a" element in HTML 4.0 [HTML40] . SMIL
adds an attribute "show" that controls the temporal behavior
of the source when the link is followed. For synchronization purposes, the
"a" element is transparent, i.e. it does not influence the synchronization
of its child elements. "a" elements may not be nested. An "a" element must
have an href attribute.
Attributes
The "a" element can have the following attributes:
-
id
-
Defined in Section 2
-
href (required)
-
This attribute contains the URI of the link's destination.
-
show
-
This attribute controls the behavior of the source document containing the
link when the link is followed. It can have one of the following values:
-
"replace" (default): The current presentation is paused at its current state
and is replaced by the destination resource. If the player offers a history
mechanism, the source presentation resumes from the state in which it was
paused when the user returns to it.
-
"new": The presentation of the destination resource starts in a new context,
not affecting the source resource.
-
"pause": The source presentation is paused at its current state, and the
destination resource starts in a new context. When the display of the destination
resource ends, the source presentation resumes from the state in which it
was paused.
-
title
-
Defined in Section 4.2.1
It is strongly recommended that all "a" elements have a "title" attribute
with a meaningful description. Authoring tools should ensure that no element
can be introduced into a SMIL document without this attribute.
Element Content
The "a" element can contain the following children:
-
animation
-
Defined in Section 4.2.3
-
audio
-
Defined in Section 4.2.3
-
img
-
Defined in Section 4.2.3
-
par
-
Defined in Section 4.2.1
-
ref
-
Defined in Section 4.2.3
-
seq
-
Defined in Section 4.2.2
-
switch
-
Defined in Section 4.3
-
text
-
Defined in Section 4.2.3
-
textstream
-
Defined in Section 4.2.3
-
video
-
Defined in Section 4.2.3
Examples
Example 1
The link starts up the new presentation replacing the presentation that was
playing.
<a href="http://www.cwi.nl/somewhereelse.smi">
<video src="rtsp://foo.com/graph.imf" region="l_window"/>
</a>
In the example, the second line can be replaced by a reference to any valid
subtree of an SMIL presentation.
Example 2
The link starts up the new presentation in addition to the presentation that
was playing.
<a href="http://www.cwi.nl/somewhereelse.smi" show="new">
<video src="rtsp://foo.com/graph.imf" region="l_window"/>
</a>
For example, this allows a SMIL player to spawn off an HTML browser.
Example 3
The link starts up the new presentation and pauses the presentation that
was playing.
<a href="http://www.cwi.nl/somewhereelse.smi" show="pause">
<video src="rtsp://foo.com/graph.imf" region="l_window"/>
</a>
Example 4
The following example contains a link from an element in one presentation
A to the middle of another presentation B. This would play presentation B
starting from the effective begin of the element with id "next".
Presentation A:
<a href="http://www.cwi.nl/presentationB#next">
<video src="rtsp://foo.com/graph.imf"/>
</a>
Presentation B (http://www.cwi.nl/presentation):
...
<seq>
<video src="rtsp://foo.com/graph.imf"/>
<par>
<video src="rtsp://foo.com/timbl.rm" region="l_window"/>
<video id="next" src="rtsp://foo.com/v1.rm" region="r_window"/>
^^^^^^^^^
<text src="rtsp://foo.com/caption1.html" region="l_2_title"/>
<text src="rtsp://foo.com/caption2.rtx" region="r_2_title"/>
</par>
</seq>
...
The functionality of the "a" element is restricted in that it only allows
associating a link with a complete media object. HTML image maps have
demonstrated that it is useful to associate links with spatial subparts of
an object. The anchor element realizes similar functionality for SMIL:
-
The anchor element allows associating a link destination to spatial and temporal
subparts of a media object, using the "href" attribute (in contrast, the
"a" element only allows associating a link with a complete media object).
-
The anchor element allows making a subpart of the media object the destination
of a link, using the "id" attribute.
-
The anchor element allows breaking up an object into spatial subparts, using
the "coords" attribute.
-
The anchor element allows breaking up an object into temporal subparts, using
the "begin" and "end" attributes. The values of the begin and end attributes
are relative to the beginning of the media object.
-
Some media formats already provide an internal mechanism for associating
an identifier with a subparts of a media object expressed in this format.
The anchor element allows accessing these subparts, using the "fragment-id"
attribute.
Attributes
The anchor element can have the following attributes:
-
begin
-
Defined in Section 4.2.1
-
coords
-
The value of this attribute specifies a rectangle within the display area
of a visual media object. Syntax and semantics of this attribute are similar
to the
coords
attribute in HTML image maps, when the link is associated with a rectangular
shape. The rectangle is specified by four length values: The first two values
specify the coordinates of the upper left corner of the rectangle.The second
two values specify the coordinates of the lower right corner of the rectangle.
Coordinates are relative to the top left corner of the visual media object
(see Figure 4.7). If a coordinate is specified as a percentage value, it
is relative to the total width or height of the media object display area.
An attribute with an erroneous coords value is ignored (right-x smaller or
equal to left-x, bottom-y smaller or equal to top-y). If the rectangle defined
by the coords attribute exceeds the area covered by the media object, exceeding
height and width are clipped at the borders of the media object.
Values of the coords attribute have the following syntax:
coords-value ::= left-x "," top-y "," right-x "," bottom-y
D
Figure 4.5: Semantics of "coords" attribute
-
end
-
Defined in Section 4.2.1
-
fragment-id
-
The value of this attribute is the media-format internal identifier of a
subpart that is contained in the media object. This attribute can be used
with media formats that have an internal mechanism for associating an identifier
with a subpart of a media object encoded in this format. Note that conversion
may be necessary to turn the media-format internal identifier into a string
containing only legal XML characters.
-
id
-
Defined in Section 2
-
skip-content
-
Defined in Section 3.3.1
-
title
-
Defined in Section 3.3.1
It is strongly recommended that all anchor elements have a "title"
attribute with a meaningful description. Authoring tools should ensure that
no element can be introduced into a SMIL document without this attribute.
-
z-index
-
Defined in Section 3.3.1
-
Anchors are placed in a subspace of the z-layer of the media-object containing
the anchor. This means that anchors are only active if the box associated
with them is not covered by boxes of other media objects.
The following example demonstrates this. Two copies of the same images are
overlaid at exactly the same screen position. The image with the lower z-index
contains an anchor. In this example, the rule defined above means that even
though the z-index of the anchor is higher than the z-index of the second
image, the anchor will not be active, since it is completely covered by the
second image.
<smil>
<head>
<region id="c1" z-index="5" top="5" left="5" />
<region id="c2" z-index="6" top="5" left="5" />
</head>
<body>
<img region="c1" ... />
<anchor z-index="7" top="0" left="0" />
</img>
<img region="c2" src="img.gif" />
</body>
</smil>
Examples
1) Associating links with spatial subparts
In the following example, the screenspace taken up by a video clip is split
into two regions. A different link is associated with each of these regions.
<video src="http://www.w3.org/CoolStuff">
<anchor href="http://www.w3.org/AudioVideo" coords="0%,0%,50%,50%"/>
<anchor href="http://www.w3.org/Style" coords="50%,50%,100%,100%"/>
</video>
2) Associating links with temporal subparts
In the following example, the duration of a video clip is split into two
subintervals. A different link is associated with each of these subintervals.
<video src="http://www.w3.org/CoolStuff">
<anchor href="http://www.w3.org/AudioVideo" begin="0s" end="5s"/>
<anchor href="http://www.w3.org/Style" begin="5s" end="10s"/>
</video>
3) Jumping to a subpart of an object
The following example contains a link from an element in one presentation
A to the middle of a video object contained in another presentation B. This
would play presentation B starting from second 5 in the video (i.e. the
presentation would start as if the user had fast-forwarded the whole presentation
to the point at which the designated fragment in the "CoolStuff" video begins).
Presentation A:
<a href="http://www.cwi.nl/mm/presentationB#tim">
<video id="graph" src="rtsp://foo.com/graph.imf" region="l_window"/>
</a>
Presentation B:
<video src="http://www.w3.org/CoolStuff">
<anchor id="joe" begin="0s" end="5s"/>
<anchor id="tim" begin="5s" end="10s"/>
</video>
4) Associating links with media-format internal identifiers
In the following example, two internal identifiers contained in the "CoolStuff"
animation file are made accessible within SMIL. A link is associated with
the objects designated by these identifiers.
<ref src="http://www.w3.org/CoolStuff.anim">
<anchor id="joe" fragment-id="AX789" href="http://www.cnn.com/joe"/>
<anchor id="tim" fragment-id="AY994" href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee"/>
</ref>
5) Combining different uses of links
The following example shows how the different uses of associated links can
be used in combination.
Presentation A:
<a href="http://www.cwi.nl/mm/presentationB#tim">
<video id="graph" src="rtsp://foo.com/graph.imf" region="l_window"/>
</a>
Presentation B:
<video src="http://www.w3.org/CoolStuff">
<anchor id="joe" begin="0s" end="5s" coords="0%,0%,50%,50%"
href="http://www.w3.org/"/>
<anchor id="tim" begin="5s" end="10s" coords="0%,0%,50%,50%"
href="http://www.w3.org/Tim"/>
</video>
A SMIL 1.0 document may optionally contain a document type declaration,
which names the document type definition (DTD) in use for the document.
For SMIL, the document type declaration should look as follows (the double
quotes can be replaced by single quotes):
<!DOCTYPE smil PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD SMIL 1.0//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/PR-smil/SMIL10.dtd">
The XML 1.0 specification provides a way to extend the DTD using the
<!DOCTYPE> element, for instance to add a new set of entity definitions.
Authors must not use this feature with SMIL since many SMIL players will
not support it.
The following is illegal in SMIL:
<!DOCTYPE smil PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD SMIL 1.0//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/PR-smil/SMIL10.dtd" [
<!ENTITY % AcmeCorpSymbols PUBLIC
"-//Acme Corp//ENTITIES Corporate Symbols//EN"
"http://www.acme.com/corp_symbols.xml"
>
%AcmeCorpSymbols;
]>
<!--
This is a draft and experimental XML document type
definition for SMIL 1.0.
Draft: $Date: 1998/04/09 14:39:55 $ ($Revision: 1.8 $)
Authors:
Jacco van Ossenbruggen <jrvosse@cwi.nl>
Sjoerd Mullender <sjoerd@cwi.nl>
This is work in progress, subject to change at any time.
Further information about SMIL 1.0 is available at:
http://www.w3.org/AudioVideo/
-->
<!-- Generally useful entities -->
<!ENTITY % id-attr "id ID #IMPLIED">
<!ENTITY % title-attr "title CDATA #IMPLIED">
<!ENTITY % skip-attr "skip-content (true|false) 'true'">
<!ENTITY % desc-attr "
%title-attr;
abstract CDATA #IMPLIED
author CDATA #IMPLIED
copyright CDATA #IMPLIED
">
<!--=================== SMIL Document =====================================-->
<!--
The root element SMIL contains all other elements.
-->
<!ELEMENT smil (head?,body?)>
<!ATTLIST smil
%id-attr;
>
<!--=================== The Document Head =================================-->
<!ENTITY % layout-section "layout|switch">
<!ENTITY % head-element "(meta*,((%layout-section;), meta*))?">
<!ELEMENT head %head-element;>
<!ATTLIST head %id-attr;>
<!--=================== Layout Element ====================================-->
<!--
Layout contains the region and root-layout elements defined by
smil-basic-layout or other elements defined an external layout
mechanism.
-->
<!ELEMENT layout ANY>
<!ATTLIST layout
%id-attr;
type CDATA "text/smil-basic-layout"
>
<!--=================== Region Element ===================================-->
<!ENTITY % layout-attrs "
height CDATA #IMPLIED
width CDATA #IMPLIED
background-color CDATA #IMPLIED
">
<!ELEMENT region EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST region
%id-attr;
%title-attr;
%layout-attrs;
left CDATA "0"
top CDATA "0"
z-index CDATA "0"
fit (hidden|meet|scroll|slice|fit) "hidden"
%skip-attr;
>
<!--=================== Root-layout Element ================================-->
<!ELEMENT root-layout EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST root-layout
%id-attr;
%title-attr;
%layout-attrs;
overflow (visble|hidden|scroll|auto|inherit) "hidden"
%skip-attr;
>
<!--=================== Meta Element=======================================-->
<!ELEMENT meta EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST meta
name NMTOKEN #REQUIRED
content CDATA #REQUIRED
%skip-attr;
>
<!--=================== The Document Body =================================-->
<!ENTITY % media-object "audio|video|text|img|animation|textstream|ref">
<!ENTITY % schedule "par|seq|(%media-object;)">
<!ENTITY % inline-link "a">
<!ENTITY % assoc-link "anchor">
<!ENTITY % link "%inline-link;">
<!ENTITY % container-content "(%schedule;)|switch|(%link;)">
<!ENTITY % body-content "(%container-content;)*">
<!ELEMENT body (%body-content;)*>
<!ATTLIST body %id-attr;>
<!--=================== Synchronization Attributes ========================-->
<!ENTITY % sync-attributes "
begin CDATA #IMPLIED
end CDATA #IMPLIED
">
<!--=================== Switch Parameter Attributes =======================-->
<!ENTITY % system-attribute "
system-bitrate CDATA #IMPLIED
system-language CDATA #IMPLIED
system-required NMTOKEN #IMPLIED
system-screen-size CDATA #IMPLIED
system-screen-depth CDATA #IMPLIED
system-captions (on|off) #IMPLIED
system-overdub-or-caption (caption|overdub) #IMPLIED
">
<!--=================== Fill Attribute ====================================-->
<!ENTITY % fill-attribute "
fill (remove|freeze) 'remove'
">
<!--=================== The Parallel Element ==============================-->
<!ENTITY % par-content "%container-content;">
<!ELEMENT par (%par-content;)*>
<!ATTLIST par
%id-attr;
%desc-attr;
endsync CDATA "last"
dur CDATA #IMPLIED
repeat CDATA "1"
region IDREF #IMPLIED
%sync-attributes;
%system-attribute;
>
<!--=================== The Sequential Element ============================-->
<!ENTITY % seq-content "%container-content;">
<!ELEMENT seq (%seq-content;)*>
<!ATTLIST seq
%id-attr;
%desc-attr;
dur CDATA #IMPLIED
repeat CDATA "1"
region IDREF #IMPLIED
%sync-attributes;
%system-attribute;
>
<!--=================== The Switch Element ================================-->
<!-- In the head, a switch may contain only layout elements,
in the body, only container elements. However, this
constraint cannot be expressed in the DTD (?), so
we allow both:
-->
<!ENTITY % switch-content "layout|(%container-content;)">
<!ELEMENT switch (%switch-content;)*>
<!ATTLIST switch
%id-attr;
%title-attr;
>
<!--=================== Media Object Elements =============================-->
<!-- SMIL only defines the structure. The real media data is
referenced by the src attribute of the media objects.
-->
<!-- Furthermore, they have the following attributes as defined
in the SMIL draft
-->
<!ENTITY % mo-attributes "
%id-attr;
%desc-attr;
region IDREF #IMPLIED
alt CDATA #IMPLIED
longdesc CDATA #IMPLIED
src CDATA #IMPLIED
type CDATA #IMPLIED
dur CDATA #IMPLIED
repeat CDATA '1'
%fill-attribute;
%sync-attributes;
%system-attribute;
">
<!--
Most info is in the attributes, media objects are empty or
contain associated link elements:
-->
<!ENTITY % mo-content "(#PCDATA|%assoc-link;)*">
<!ENTITY % clip-attrs "
clip-begin CDATA #IMPLIED
clip-end CDATA #IMPLIED
">
<!ELEMENT ref %mo-content;>
<!ELEMENT audio %mo-content;>
<!ELEMENT img %mo-content;>
<!ELEMENT video %mo-content;>
<!ELEMENT text %mo-content;>
<!ELEMENT textstream %mo-content;>
<!ELEMENT animation %mo-content;>
<!ATTLIST ref %mo-attributes; %clip-attrs;>
<!ATTLIST audio %mo-attributes; %clip-attrs;>
<!ATTLIST img %mo-attributes; >
<!ATTLIST video %mo-attributes; %clip-attrs;>
<!ATTLIST animation %mo-attributes; %clip-attrs;>
<!ATTLIST text %mo-attributes; >
<!ATTLIST textstream %mo-attributes; %clip-attrs;>
<!--=================== Link Elements =====================================-->
<!ENTITY % smil-link-attributes "
%id-attr;
%title-attr;
href CDATA #REQUIRED
show (replace|new|pause) 'replace'
">
<!--=================== Inline Link Element ===============================-->
<!ELEMENT a (%schedule;|switch)*>
<!ATTLIST a
%smil-link-attributes;
>
<!--=================== Associated Link Element ===========================-->
<!ELEMENT anchor EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST anchor
%skip-attr;
%smil-link-attributes;
%sync-attributes;
coords CDATA #IMPLIED
fragment-id CDATA #IMPLIED
z-index CDATA "0"
>
References
-
[CSS2]
-
"Cascading Style Sheets, level 2", B. Bos, H. Lie, C. Lilley, I. Jacobs,
24 March 1998.
-
Available at
http://www.w3.org/TR/PR-CSS2/.
-
[HTML40]
-
"HTML 4.0 Specification", D. Raggett, A. Le Hors, I. Jacobs, 8 July 1997.
Available at
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/.
-
[ISO/IEC 10646]
-
ISO (International Organization for Standardization). ISO/IEC 10646-1993
(E). Information technology -- Universal Multiple-Octet Coded Character Set
(UCS) -- Part 1: Architecture and Basic Multilingual Plane. [Geneva]:
International Organization for Standardization, 1993 (plus amendments AM
1 through AM 7).
-
[NAMESPACES]
-
"Namespaces in XML", T. Bray, D. Hollander, A. Layman, 27 March 1998
Available at
http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-xml-names.
-
[PICS]
-
"PICS 1.1 Label Distribution -- Label Syntax and Communication Protocols",
31 October 1996, T. Krauskopf, J. Miller, P. Resnick, W. Trees
Available at
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-PICS-labels-961031
-
[RFC1738]
-
"Uniform Resource Locators", T. Berners-Lee, L. Masinter, and M. McCahill,
December 1994.
Available at
ftp://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc1738.txt.
-
[RFC1766]
-
"Tags for the Identification of Languages", H. Alvestrand, March 1995.
Available at
ftp://ftp.internic.net/rfc/rfc1766.txt.
-
[RFC1808]
-
"Relative Uniform Resource Locators", R. Fielding, June 1995.
Available at
ftp://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc1808.txt.
-
[RFC2045]
-
"Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part One: Format of Internet
Message Bodies", N. Freed and N. Borenstein, November 1996.
Available at
ftp://ftp.internic.net/rfc/rfc2045.txt. Note that this RFC obsoletes
RFC1521, RFC1522, and RFC1590.
-
[SMPTE]
-
"Time and Control Codes for 24, 25 or 30 Frame-Per-Second Motion-Picture
Systems - RP 136-1995". Society of Motion Picture & Television
Engineers.
-
[URI]
-
"Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax and Semantics", T.
Berners-Lee, R. Fielding, L. Masinter, 18 November 1997.
Available at
http://www.ics.uci.edu/pub/ietf/uri/draft-fielding-uri-syntax-01.txt.
This is a work in progress that is expected to update
[RFC1738] and
[RFC1808].
-
[XML10]
-
"Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0", T. Bray, J. Paoli, C.M. Sperberg-McQueen,
editors, 10 February 1998.
Available at
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/
(non-normative)
In the future, SMIL 1.0 may be extended by another W3C recommendation, or
by private extensions.
For these extensions, it is recommended that the following rules are obeyed:
-
All elements introduced in extensions must have a "skip-content" attribute
(defined in Section 3.3.1) if it should be possible that their content is
processed by SMIL 1.0 players.
-
Private extensions must be introduced using the syntax of the XML namespace
specification.
It is recommended that SMIL 1.0 players are prepared to handle documents
that contain extensions.
Extensions should be handled using an XML namespace mechanism, once such
a mechanism becomes a W3C recommendation. In the rest of the section, the
syntax and semantics for XML namespaces defined in the W3C note [NAMESPACE]
will be used for demonstration purposes only.
The following cases can occur:
-
The document contains a namespace declaration for the SMIL 1.0 specification
that defines an empty prefix. In this case, non-SMIL 1.0 elements and attributes
are only allowed in a document if they are declared using an XML namespace.
The document may not contain a document type declaration for SMIL 1.0. If
it does, it is invalid.
In the following example, the element "new:a" is a legal extension. The elements
"mytags:a" and "b" are syntax errors, since they are not declared using an
XML namespace.
<?xml:namespace ns="http://www.acme.com/new-smil" prefix="new" ?>
<?xml:namespace ns="http://www.w3.org/TR/PR-smil" ?>
<smil>
<body>
<par>
<new:a>
...
</new:a>
<mytags:a ... />
...
</mytags:a>
<b>
...
</b>
</par>
</body>
<smil>
-
The document contains no document type declaration, it contains a document
type declaration for a SMIL version higher than 1.0, or it contains a namespace
declaration for a SMIL specification with a version higher than 1.0. For
a SMIL 1.0 player to be able to recognize such a namespace declaration, it
is recommended that the URI of future SMIL versions starts with
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-smil, and is followed more characters which may
for example be a version number.
In this case, a SMIL 1.0 player should assume that it is processing a SMIL
document with a version number higher than 1.0.
The following cases can occur:
-
Unknown element
-
Unknown elements are ignored
An unknown element may contain content that consists of SMIL 1.0 elements.
Whether such content is ignored or processed depends on the value of the
"skip-content" attribute. If the attribute is set to "true", or the attribute
is absent, the content is not processed. If it is set to "false", the content
is processed.
-
Content in Element that was declared "Empty"
-
A future version of SMIL may allow content in elements that are declared
as "empty" in SMIL 1.0.
-
Whether this content is ignored or not depends on the value of the "skip-content"
attribute of the formerly empty element. If the attribute is set to "true",
the content is not processed. If it is set to "false", the content is processed.
-
Unknown Attribute
-
Unknown attributes are ignored.
-
Unknown Attribute Value
-
Attributes with unknown attribute values are ignored.
Copyright
© 1998 W3C
(MIT,
INRIA,
Keio ), All Rights Reserved. W3C
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