Digital Workshop

Hi to all! I am using Opus Pro XE 4.0 and I am about to publish a pub with the internet as a delivery medium. I have noticed that when you click on publish Opus gives you 4 options to publish:
1-Create a standalone publication
2-Create a iO plugin based standalone publication
3-Create a web publication
4-Create a screensaver.

Option 1 and 4 very clear. No problem there.

The issue is with option 2 and 3. I have read the manual but STILL I do not understand the main difference, advantage or disadvantage. So my questions are:

1-Option 2 and 3 are for use on the web. That is clear
2-I know that option 3 produces a .ilm file embedded into a html page, that is ok BUT If I want to use option 2 it creates an standalone publication so how I going to present the pub to the client using this option? Let me explain....Option 3 is presented using a internet link to a page let called index.htm. When people click on that file the ilm embedded into the page kicks and the pub is presented (right?)
Now...
3-Can anybody in DW explain to me how I present on the web a pub created using option 2??Do I have to provide a link from inside a html page to the executable that it is created and if this is so then:
a-Usually when you produce links to an executable, the browser will ask you what do you want to do: save or open? If the customer chooses open then it will need to be fully donwload before start playing or it will be stream it???
b-Why is then these two options presented. Could you please explain to me...I am a bit confuse and I need to finish a project using one of those options at the time of publishing....
I need an answer asap because my project is due tomorrow. Thanks

Yours truly confused

German

Hi Herman,
Option 2 is NOT for use on the web -- it is only used if you want to distribute a small exe to users with the IO plugin installed.

The ONLY option you have for a pub presented on the web is option 3 -- Create a web publication.

cheers
Paul

Hi Paul,
Thank you for your reply. My follow up question then will be...
If option 2 is not really a web option..why DW present this as a web solution?
What is the point of producing this pub using the iOplugin when option 1 is perfectly ok to distribute on the net? You zip the file and then you provide a link to that zip file, the customer then download it.
No....It must be something more that I can't see at the moment with option 2 so let's hope DW can reply to this enquiry.

Thanks anyway Paul
German

Hi,

Thank you for your enquiry.

As you may be aware, when you publish an executable in Opus, the publication data file is combined with a file named ilmplay.exe (located in C:\Program Files\Opus Pro 04\Players\win32). This 'player' file is the same for every publication and contains all of the code necessary to run your publication data on the end-users system. This player file adds an overhead of around 1.5 MB to any published file.

The iO-plugin essentially installs this player file onto the end-user's system, so when they visit your iO-based web publication, they only need to download the publication data and the previously-installed plug-in will run the publication.

Publishing a project as an 'iO plugin based standalone publication' creates an executable which does not contain the player file and is therefore substantially smaller than a normal standalone publication. For example, publishing a blank, single page publication as a standalone publication results in a file weighing in at 1.56 MB, whereas publishing an iO based standalone publication results in a file size of 78 KB.

This is obviously very useful when distributing publications on small storage media such as floppy disks or business card CDs or sending publications by e-mail for review. If the client has not previously downloaded the iO-plugin, they will be prompted to download this from our web site (using the same interface shown on web publications) and once the plug-in is installed, they will be able to view the publication (and any future iO-based publications) without delay.

I hope this helps. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further queries.

Kind regards,

Hi Robin
Thank you very much!
This is the exact information I was looking for!
I was sure that was some important missing piece of information in my analysis.

German