Web Server/400 teams with Ultimedia System Facilities

The Web Server/400 product developed by I/NET, Inc. teams up with the multimedia facilities provided by the OS/400 operating system called Ultimedia System Facilities (USF).

The USF platform provides multimedia authoring integrated with a repository allowing the user to store and share all multimedia objects enterprise wide. For example, when the graphics department is done authoring the digital images used to create a brochure that will go be going to print, the marketing team can use the very same graphic online by the Web Server/400 product by imbedding the USF's Object ID associated with the graphic within the HTML source file.

Note:Your browser must currently be connected to the Internet to be able to view the fresh fruit image directly above.

This image was imbedded using the following HTML statement:

<IMG SRC="http://www.inetmi.com/MULTIMEDIA/HM2Q114783IHNS510744">

The "/MULTIMEDIA/HM2Q114783IHNS510744" substring within the URL is used by the Web Server/400 to locate the USF Object. The "/MULTIMEDIA/" substring is an alias configured to point at the USF multimedia repository. The "HM2Q114783IHNS510744" substring is the 20 character USF Object ID which is available through USF APIs (available from the AS/400 or workstation) or workstation tools provided with the USF platform.

The http://www.inetmi.com part of the URL statement refers browsers to the AS/400 located at I/NET running the Web Server/400 product. This is required in this example in order to locate the appropriate USF Object ID which are guaranteed to be unique amongst machines. The imbedded image is only able to be seen by browsers that are currently connected to the Internet. Without Internet access your browser will be unable to resolve to I/NET's web server.

HTML documents can also be stored in the USF repository. If your browser is currently connected to the Internet then you can access an HTML document from within the USF repository served by the Web Server/400 running at I/NET. The URL is http://www.inetmi.com/MULTIMEDIA/HM2Q114783IJYP144862.

One of the strengths that USF gives to this relationship is that USF resolves the complete path of the objects stored within the repository. You will not have to worry about changing all of your references to a digital image if you decide to change the content type of the image that is imbedded. Perhaps the image is too large in a given format and you wish to change the format. Changing the format also changes the extension that the Web Server/400 product will use to determine the content type of the image. If the image was located outside of the USF repository all of the locations that reference that image will need to change to be updated. When the image is pulled from within USF the file name and extension is managed and resolved completely by USF and returned to the Web Server/400 product dynamically every time it is asked for, thus you have no need to change all the locations referencing the USF object (which resolves to a digital image within the USF repository).

Below are a few samples of images residing in the USF Repository on I/NET's web server. The images are shown as thumbnails and when clicked on will display a full size view of the images. Both views are stored as jpeg images.