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Information & Tip File
There are a couple areas of interest that users of the ARCUS Media Server should be made aware of. In this help file we hope to cover most of issues people might encounter while using this archive. In addition there are a few tips that every user could find useful.
Browser Compatibility : Due to the number of formats the Media Server contains and combined with the number of browsers being used in the general population there are bound to be some issues with some of them. The biggest issues are encountered with TIFF files and, of those, primarily CMYK colorspace TIFF files. Since we like to keep the media in its original highest quality format and in its original colorspace if possible there are tradeoffs in what browsers can view those files in their highest quality. The best browser seems to be Apple Safari 2.0 for Macintosh. It can render basically all image types though the high quality full size TIFFs frequently have slightly incorrect color when viewed in the browser window. The color is correct on the downloaded file however. Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox on both Macintosh and PC will often display a 'broken image' icon on the full size files. This is because the files are simply not displayable but can be downloaded and viewed in an external image application just fine. More info on downloading later on this page. On all browsers, images in the thumbnail galleries and intermediate galleries will all display correctly. Navigation / Menu Options: The ARCUS Media Archive is organized in a simple hierarchical structure. On the top level of the archive there are numerous categories for each type of media. Be it video or audio or photographs. Each category is then broken down into sub-categories as needed or directs you straight to a listing of available albums. For example : entering into "Photos - By Photographer" category will bring you a listing of albums arranged alphabetically by the photographers last name. Clicking a photographers album will then bring up the thumbnail view where you can see all their files at a glance.
To navigate away from the intermediate page, the simplest way would be to use the "breadcrumbs" near the top of the page. This will let you select which level you would like to return to.
 
Below the "breadcrumbs" there is also a dedicated menu button that will return you to the thumbnail page itself. In addition, below the main site banner there is an option called "Album List" which will return you to the top level category, for instance if you were looking at "Photos - By Photographer" it would bring back to the album listing for photos showing all the photographers albums.
To the right of the thumbnail menu button there is a button to reduce the amount of visible information on the screen. This could be useful when skipping through a series of images to reduce screen clutter.
This graphic shows the information that is hidden when you hide the file information. The red bracketed section is what will be hidden from view. The default however is to always display this information. The image title and description are always shown regardless of the file information being hidden or not.
The next menu item is the slidehow option. In slideshow view it will show the images of an album in series. The duration between slides is set at 5 seconds. At any time you can click the "Stop Slideshow" button near the bottom of the page and be taken to the intermediate view of the currently displayed photo.
One very cool feature of the ARCUS Media Archive is the ability to send a favorite photo to someone else as an e-Card. Clicking the e-Card button will take you to the e-Card composition screen.
 
On the e-Card composition screen you can enter the recipients email and name as well as your own and a brief greeting and message to them. They will receive an email showing them the picture and your message in a 'postcard'-like format. As well as a link back to the ARCUS Media Archive itself.
If the recipient can not accept or view HTML formatted email, there will be a link on the top of the message which will direct them to an online rendering of your e-Card. File Info / Searching : The file information section that is displayed beneath all media elements in the archive displays some very useful information that everyone should become familiar with. One of the most important, if you are planning on using the images in a presentation or brochure of your own, is the "Usage" section. This will tell you at a glance what restrictions are placed on the media if you would like to use them. The usage section is linked as well and will take you directly to a page describing the usage classification for that particular media element.
 
Also displayed is the file information itself. This will tell how large the full size and full resolution file is. In both dimensions as well as in filesize. This is useful to look at before clicking through to the full size file as it will give you a good idea how long the file might take to be viewed. In the case of watermarked per-use classified photos, this section will only describe the filesize of the watermarked image as the full size images are kept off the server unless a request is made for an unprotected file.
Every file also contains a section dedicated to 'keywords'. These are clickable links that are more or less pre-loaded search queries based on a simple description of the media content. In this example, clicking the 'glacier' keyword would bring up a search result page of all the media elements that also contain the keyword of 'glacier'. This is a good way to find similar groups of files across multiple photographers or even across multiple categories of media.
In addition to using the supplied keywords to search, you can manually search as well. Whereas the keywords are limited to searching other keywords, a manual search will find the search terms within the keywords as well as the file title, the file description, the media creators name, the contact email, the contact website, and even the usage classification.
 Downloading Files : Once you've browsed around and found some media that you would like to use, chances are you would like to download them. On photographs you can click the image in the intermediate view and wait for a full size to load in a new browser window. Once the full size image has loaded you can merely right-click the picture and "Save Image as..." to save it to your computer. Some photos are of a small enough size that there is no full size version, the full size is seen in the intermediate view. For media that is watermarked you will have to email the Media Archive administrator to make arrangements to get those media files.  
Due to the mentioned browser incompatibilities with some file formats and colorspaces, the full size photo will sometimes fail to display correctly. It will instead show a broken picture icon. You can still right-click the 'image' and select "Save Image As..." to save to your computer. The file will display correctly when opened in a image viewing or editing application such as Adobe Photoshop.
When you are displaying an audio or video file you will see a controller visible under the file. Near the far right of the standard QuickTime controller there is a menu which has the option to save the file. It is best to choose "Save As Source..." from the menu. This will download the raw file. Using "Save As Quicktime Movie..." will prompt you for options that will only slow down the download process. "Save As Source..." is best.
  
If you need to download multiple files there is a built-in feature that makes the process incredibly easy. At the bottom of each intermediate page in the file information section there is a link called "Add to Favorites". By clicking this you end up creating a list of all the pictures you would like downloaded. When you click the "My Favorites" menu item under the site banner you are taken to a page with thumbnails of all the files you have selected.
To use the manual search, simply click the "Search" menu item near the top of the page under the site banner. This will open a new page with a simple search dialog box. Enter your search terms and click the "Search the file collection" button to get a thumbnail listing of all of the results containing those terms.
In the upper right corner there is a "Download as Zip File" link. This will package all of the full resolution full quality versions of the selected media, compress them all as a single ZIP archive and download the archive to your computer. This saves time as well as bandwidth, especially when dealing with multiple files. To remove a file from your "Favorites" page, simply click the file you would like to remove, this will send you back to the intermediate page of that file. At the bottom of the page the "Add to Favorites" will changed to "Remove from Favorites", click that link to remove the file.
Example Thumbnail View
Clicking an individual file will bring up the intermediate view:
Example Intermediate View
This page contains all the file information such as file size, usage classification, full size dimensions, as well as a larger preview of the file. On media pages for photographs, clicking the photo on the intermediate page will bring up the full quality high resolution version in a pop-up window. On video and audio files, the intermediate page will start downloading the media file and will begin streaming when enough of the file has downloaded to play without interuption. There will be a controller for pausing/restarting playback if needed. To navigate away from the intermediate page, the simplest way would be to use the "breadcrumbs" near the top of the page. This will let you select which level you would like to return to.
Any additional questions can be directed to : photo@arcus.org |