mBED Interactor is a point-and-click tool for adding multimedia to your Web site. Using mBED Interactor and your own imagination, you can easily create mbedlets--multimedia interfaces that can include graphics, sounds, animation, and other advanced effects, including interactivity.
Interactor provides a structured, visual way to include multimedia entities in an mbedlet. These entities, called mBED Players, are the mbedlet's building blocks. Their behaviors can include movement, visual changes, and sound. Players can interact with each other and with the user.
The twelve player types are sprite, picture, path, button, text, sound, box, control, effect, score, audiostream and sublet. You customize players by associating them with data, properties and handlers. Data provides content, such as graphics files or sound files. Properties control the appearance, size, and features of the player. Handlers tell the player how to respond to user actions and system events.
As you create players, you view and arrange them in the Layout window, then preview the action in the Runtime window or in an HTML page running in the browser of your choice. You can create and then reuse player prototypes, using object oriented principles, to design mbedlets that are efficient and extensible.
As you work, Interactor creates a master file for the mbedlet. You can view the simple structure of the mbedlet (.mbd) file from within the tool, and edit it with any text editor. It is a simple text file that lists the players with their data, properties, and handlers.
When you have finished the mbedlet, you reference the mbedlet in an HTML file, then move the .mbd file and other resources to a web server.
We have included two tutorials to help you learn Interactor:
For some ready-to-use objects, pull down the Help menu and choose Content Library. There are buttons, controls, textboxes, and textures that you can customize and use in your explorations.