The Supplementary tab

All management of supplementary media is performed via the Supplementary tab in the Multimedia module. The bottom half of the tab consists of a Supplementary table that lists all supplementary media. The set of fields above the table display data about the media currently selected in the Supplementary table:

The following fields are available:

Field Name

Description

Identifier

The file name given to the media on the Vitalware server.

This must be provided and must be unique in the Supplementary table for the current record. When adding new media the name of the file being imported is used as the default identifier. An identifier may consist of any characters, including spaces, except for:

\ / : * ? " < > |

Width (pixels)

If the supplementary media is an image, the width in pixels is calculated automatically and stored. For other types of media that have a width in pixels (e.g. video) the value may be entered manually.

Height (pixels)

If the supplementary media is an image, the height in pixels is calculated automatically and stored. For other types of media that have a height in pixels (e.g. video) the value may be entered manually.

MIME Type

The type of the supplementary media.

Vitalware calculates the MIME Type automatically and adds the value to this field. The MIME Type is a high level term describing the overall category into which the media belongs. Example values are: image, video, audio, application, etc.

MIME Types available in Vitalware are defined by RFC 2046.

MIME Format

The format used to store the supplementary media.

The value is used to determine how the media should be decoded for viewing, playing, etc. For each MIME Type there is a wide range of available formats. As with the MIME Type, Vitalware calculates the MIME Format automatically and adds the value to this field.

MD5 Checksum

A calculated value used to determine whether the media has been modified.

Vitalware calculates the checksum automatically and adds it to this field. The checksum should be used where the authenticity of the supplementary media needs to be verified.

File Size (bytes)

The size of the supplementary file in bytes.

Vitalware calculates the size of the media automatically and adds the value to this field. The value may be used to determine download times, storage requirements, etc.

Usage

A list of values outlining what the supplementary media may be used for.

The usage field allows supplementary media to be searched for based on its purpose. For example, the IMu server may be queried to determine whether a given resource has a preferred thumbnail, which is a cropped version of the original image. In this case the Usage field may contain the term Thumbnail. A Lookup List is provided to allow some vocabulary control over the available values.

Notes

An area where notes about the supplementary media may be stored. The notes may describe what the media contains, or it may be information that is displayed along with the media when displayed on a website (e.g. copyright information, a credit line, a textual label).

Only the Usage, Notes, Width and Height fields may be altered. All other fields are calculated by Vitalware automatically and cannot be modified.