Intracasting® with PODIUM

Intracasting is a client/server application that enables you to use the HTTP protocol to push information from a World Wide Web server onto a PODIUM client. To subscribe to an intracast, a PODIUM client application issues an @intracast command. The format of the @intracast command is @intracast=url, where url is the Web address of the intracast. PODIUM downloads the intracast as an invisible background process, permitting normal operations to occur while the Intracast gets downloaded from the Web. When the intracast has been received, PODIUM unpacks it and begins to display the intracast. If the PODIUM window is not visible when the intracast arrives, PODIUM will spring to life, making the intracast become the topmost window on the screen.

Periodically, PODIUM looks to the Web to see if the Intracast has been updated. If so, PODIUM downloads the revised Intracast and automatically displays the updated information. Thus, you can use intracasting to push messages onto the PCs connected to your Intranet. The intracast can contain news updates, weather forecasts, commercial advertising, stock reports—any kind of information you want to distribute. Intracasts can contain links, enabling the user to click on an object to learn more about it. For example, if an intracast displays a series of screens showing different products, the user can click on a product to find out how to order it. Intracasts can even contain computer-based instruction programs, enabling instructors to intracast courses to distance learners.

Preparing an Intracast

If you know how to create a multimedia e-mail message with PODIUM, you know how to prepare an intracast, because intracasting uses the same .pod file format as multimedia e-mail. Instead of e-mailing the file to an individual, however, you upload the pod file to your Web server, which enables PODIUM clients to subscribe to your intracast. Thus, making an Intracast involves three steps:

Creating. Use the PODIUM toolbox to create the text, graphics, sounds, videos, animations, tickers, and any hyperlinks that will be provided in the intracast. Just as any application can be sent in a multimedia e-mail envelope, so can anything you develop be intracasted.
Packing. Use PODIUM’s multimedia e-mail tool to pack the intracast into a pod file. Detailed instructions are provided in the section on creating a multimedia e-mail message.
Uploading. FTP the pod file to your Web site. Be sure to choose the binary option in the FTP software when you upload the file.

Subscribing to an Intracast

Once the Intracast has been mounted on the Web, PODIUM client applications can access it via the @intracast command. The format of the @intracast command is @intracast=url, where url is the HTTP address of the pod file on the Web. For example, to subscribe to the message that gets intracasted from the PODIUM Web site, you would use the following @intracast command:

@intracast=http://www.udel.edu/podium/whatsnew.pod

The @intracast command can be linked to any PODIUM hypertext, trigger, button, or hyperpicture. Or the @intracast command can be placed in the command line on a PODIUM icon.

Linking to an Intracast

To link to an intracast, simply type the @intracast command into the link dialog you get when you use PODIUM’s hyperlink, hypertrigger, or button tools. If you use a text editor to inspect your file after you make an @intracast link, you will find that it is preceded by an exclamation point, which is the link symbol in PODIUM.

Making Computers Autostart an Intracast

You can make a computer automatically subscribe to an intracast by placing the @intracast command on the PODIUM icon’s command line as a parameter that PODIUM will process on startup. Then you drag that icon into your computer’s Startup group. When the computer boots, the Intracast will begin to download automatically.

Intracast Screen Savers

PODIUM screen savers can subscribe to intracasts. To make a PODIUM screen saver subscribe to an intracast command, follow these steps:

In the Windows screen saver dialog, choose PODIUM as your screen saver, then click Settings to configure the screen saver.
In the screen saver configuration dialog, type your @intracast command into the Startup Filename field.

Automatic Intracast Updating

Periodically, PODIUM will check the Web to see if the intracast has been updated. If so, PODIUM will download the new file, replace the old information with the new data, and begin to display the updated information. By default, PODIUM checks for new information every twenty minutes. You can change the update interval via the @IntracastInterval command. The syntax is @IntracastInterval=n where n is the number of minutes you want PODIUM to wait before looking for new information.

Intracast Tickers

One of the most powerful ways to use intracasting is in conjunction with PODIUM’s ticker objects. If the intracast consists of a single custom file containing a ticker, and if you set the /snap switch on the command line of the PODIUM icon, the Intracast will appear as a scrolling ticker at the bottom of the user’s screen.

If the user presses the right mouse button on the ticker, a popout menu will appear. The menu has two options: minimize, show window, and quit. If the user chooses minimize to hide the ticker, and new information subsequently arrives from the Intracast, PODIUM will automatically spring to life and display the ticker with the new information in it. Clicking the show window option causes PODIUM to expand the window, thereby providing more options to the user.

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