Feature wish:
* To make it easier to reuse content created by XMLmind products in
LMSes/CMSes, please consider the option, for images and media elements,
to embed the resources as data URIs.
Background:
My partner (my wife) came to me and told me how satisfied she is with
the way audio insertion works in XMLmind XML Editor. She found it easy
and intuitive. In fact, she meant that this was the best userexperience
she had when it comes to adding audio to a XHTML document - something
she does fairly frequently, and usually inside the editor of our online
LMS/CMS system.
However, then came a problem: She would like to be able to paste pages
created in the XMLmind editor into the LMS/CMS. Something which is
simple enough, as long as the XHTML does not contain any embedded
resources. But when the XHTML contain embedded resources, things starts
to get complicated. Why? Because the LMS/CMS requires the embedded
resources to be stored in particular places, which means that the
content (more or less) must be uploaded via the LMS/CMS and, thereafter,
must be embedded in the page via the interface of the LMS/CMS for doing
such things. (Thus what worked nicely in the off-site editor - namely
XMLmind XML Editor - must be recreated via tedious process in the
LMS/CMS.)
In our LMS/CMS (see www.atutor.ca), it is possible to embed resources as
data URIs. By possible I mean that if - for instance - for an <img
src='file' /> we manually add the content of @src as a data URI - such
as the below,
src="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAA
ANSUhEUgAAAAUAAAAFCAYAAACNbyblAAAAHElEQVQI12P4
//8/w38GIAXDIBKE0DHxgljNBAAO9TXL0Y4OHwAAAABJRU
5ErkJggg=="
the image is emebedded directly in the page (instead of being saved the
place where the LMS/CMS wants to save them). (Eventually, the LMS/CMS
could save the resource represented as data URI wherever it wants.)
Example page that uses data URIs for audio:
https://iandevlin.com/html5/data-uri/audio.php
(Incidently, especially in the past, in our PHP-based LMS/CMS, we used
data URIs for working around a PHP-related incompatibility with Apple
Safari+QuickTime. So data URIs can have other advantages as well ...)
If XMLmind XML Editor had the option of embedding an external media
resource as a data URI, copying and pasting the code into the LMS/CMS
would be much simpler. I am only used to how our own LMS/CMS functions,
but I believe that such a feature have potentional of being useful in
connection with many LMSes/CMSes.
As user interface for this feature, I would suggest - for instance for
audio files - to add an ”embed as data URI” option under the Option
tab of the dialog window of the Audio element.
Today, XMLmind XML editor does not interpret data URIs. Thus, the Play
button does not work, when the URI is a data URI. I guess fixing that
particular issue, ought to be the first step ...
The alternatives to data URIs, for us, is to use some external tool to
create the data URIs - which in turn means some form of editing outside
XMLmind XML editor. (Or to stop using our LMS/CMS for certain types of
content.)
--
leif halvard silli
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