Image Surfer Pro Fusker Collection View

File Button ISP Form Button Process Page Button View Button Tools Button Info Button Auto Range Override Direct URL Entry File Button ISP Form Button Process Page Button View Button Tools Button Info Button File Button ISP Form Button Process Page Button View Button Tools Button Info Button Auto Range Override Visualize Auto Range Modify Optimize Organize Split Merge Insert & Delete Insert & Delete
Fusker collection view menu with Visualize highlighted and submenu present

Fusker Collection View Menu:
Visualize Submenu

The Visualize entry in the Fusker Collection Tree Menu is a submenu consisting of four options.

Similar to the Binoculars/Visualization button on Image Surfer Pro toolbar button, this submenu allows you to generate webpages which display the file references as images. However, rather than using the user preferneces to determine what type of webpages to generate, the menu option allows you to specify the visualization type directly, effectively overriding the Visualization Configuration in your user preferences.

View Types

There are four types of visualization available:

Multi-Page Views

While the options on the Visualize Submenu override the user configurations of views based on segment type, they do not override the limits you have placed on the number of images per page generated.

When more than one page is required to display the media files from your fusker collection you will notice links placed at the top and bottom of the pages.

graphic display of the link for Previous Media Files... This link is placed at the top of each display page after the first page. It will take you back one Visualization page which displayed the previous set of media files in the visualization.\
graphic display of the link for More Media Files... This link will take you forward one Visualization page to the next set of media files in the visualization. This link is at the bottom of every page except the last page of the visualization.

Image Surfer Pro Visualization Pages

Image Surfer Pro visualization pages are standard HTML pages built by Image Surfer Pro and stored in a temporary directory on your computer. The files are removed when the IE tab associated with the instance of Image Surfer Pro which created the files is closed. When more than one page is used to show the visualization the pages are linked via "relative" links. This means they can be copied to other locations or even published directly to the Internet.

Image Surfer Pro supports links to four types of media files: Images, Videos, Frames, and Pages. An Image Surfer Pro visualization page may display any combination of each of these media sources. The number of media files referenced by a particular visualization page may be configured in your User Preferences.

It is possible to create references in Image Surfer Pro which access media of the wrong type or to files which either do not exist or which reference content that can not be accessed via external webpages. When viewing a fusker collection these files represent missing file blocks and will display differently depending upon the media type Image Surfer Pro thought it was accessing.

Viewing Images

Images are the cornerstone of early Image Surfer Pro development and arguably still the core media reference found in ISP Collection files. On Image Surfer Pro visualization pages, images are shown as images. Typically they are shown at full resolution but you may constrain the size of the images with your user preferences such that each image will be assured to fit within the IE display window. Each image is shown in a continuous manner without line breaks.

Each image is a clickable reference. Hovering over the image will bring up an information tag which tells you what the image links to. In some visualization types images on some pages will link to additional media from the related portion of the fusker collection. For example, images on "guide" pages link to "expanded" views of the gallery that contains the image. On other pages the image provides a direct link to the image file. Because of this, expanded and basic visualization pages can be treated as Free Hosted Galleries.

Viewing Videos

Built-in browser and HTML support was introduced with the release of HTML5. Internet Explorer only supports MP4 video files referenced this way. We expect MP4 video to become the standard way video is presented on the web as it is already a growing portion of internet content. A poster image is typically associated with each video file.

On guide pages the poster image will be used to provide a link to the expanded gallery view which includes the video. In an expanded view, the video will be overlaid with the poster image. Hovering over the poster image with the mouse will reveal the controls available at the bottom of the video, such as play/pause, sound volume, full screen toggle, and a progress/tracking bar. By default Image Surfer Pro will display video files at the full resolution of the video without constraint. If you wish to constrain the initial size of videos such that they are sure to fit in the browser display window you may configure the size in the User Preferences.

Viewing Frames

With broadband internet access Tube Sites such as YouTube became a common surfing experience before HTML5 was available with direct support for MP4 files. Most of these sites use an IFrame interface to deliver video content. However, the IFrame tag in HTML is very flexible and essentially provides a generic window on the browser display that the hosting server controls and interacts through. This makes Frames Active Content and when you interact with these objects you are in essence directly interacting with the hosting server.

While MP4 is a growing segment of Internet traffic, there is no reason to expect IFrame data to go away. There are significant advantages to linking to block video data and entire content delivery networks have been built which specialize in delivering video content in this way.

In an expanded view the frame will be shown in a box below an Active Content warning. While a frame has no poster image, it is common for the server to provide a static image when the frame is not in "play mode" - so the box outline and warning are presented to assure you understand the frame is active content and not a direct video file. The size of the box and frame is determined by the sizing information contained in the frame segment.

Viewing Pages

A page is meant to be the generic container for any content found which is not an Image, Video, or Frame. Image Surfer Pro utilizes the flexibility of the IFrame construct to provide a sub window in the IE display window where the content can be rendered by the hosting server. As was done with frames, pages are shown in a box with a warning that the page is active content. All pages are presented in a frame the size of the IE display window.

Related User Preferences:

Image of User Preferences Dialog with the General tab selected - nothing highlighted Image of User Preferences Dialog with the Processing tab selected - nothing highlighted Image of User Preferences Dialog with the Processing tab selected - nothing highlighted Image of User Preferences Dialog with the Views tab selected - Page Limits block highlighted
Image of User Preferences Dialog with the Images tab selected - image sizing configurations highlighted Image of User Preferences Dialog with the Videos tab selected - video sizing configurations highlighted Image of User Preferences Dialog with the Frames tab selected - nothing highlighted Image of User Preferences Dialog with the Pages tab selected - nothing highlighted


Views Tab: Page Limits
In almost all cases you will want to limit the number of images placed on each page when viewing your fusker collection. The two text entry controls allow you to customize the number of images based on the size of the images in your fusker collection, the amount of memory your computer has, whether your computer is 32bit or 64bit, and how many images you want to see on a single page.

Views Tab: Guide Pages Image Size
These configurations constrain the size of the images used on guide pages when the first media file for a gallery is either an image or a video. Dynamic will constrain the images such that they fit on the browser display window at the time the guide page is created or you may constrain the images to the fixed size of a specific width and height. Images are constrained such that the image proportions are not distorted and images smaller than the constraints will display in full resolution.

Images Tab: Detailed View Image Size
These configurations constrain the size of images displayed on expanded view pages generated by Image Surfer Pro. Dynamic will constrain the images such that they fit on the browser display window at the time the guide page is created or you may constrain the images to the fixed size of a specific width and height. Images are constrained such that the image proportions are not distorted and images smaller than the constraints will display in full resolution.

Videos Tab: Video Size
These configurations constrain the size of videos displayed on expanded view pages generated by Image Surfer Pro. Dynamic will constrain the videos such that they fit on the browser display window at the time the guide page is created or you may constrain the videos to the fixed size of a specific width and height. Images are constrained such that the video proportions are not distorted and videos smaller than the constraints will display in full resolution.

Differences in Free and Full Versions

Screen capture of free version limitation dialog

Video and Frame Display:
Videos and Frames displayed by the free version of Image Surfer Pro are size limited to 720x480 pixels and are displayed with an Image Surfer Pro overlay. The controls of the videos and frames are also modified such that the videos can not be shown full screen nor the sound volume adjusted.

Screen Capture Examples

Sample screen capture of fusker collection view

Using a sample fusker collection, the visualization examples walk through how changes in configuration and submenu selection change your fusker collection webpages. Download the sample fusker collection file and follow along with the examples or just read through the examples to get a basic understanding.