A Streaming Media JukeBox

This week we embark on a new series of columns that will deal with controlling streaming media with JavaScript. Streaming media files reside on the server and are buffered by its clients. In this way, there is no need to download and store the very large size media file on the client machine. This technology is already being used for several applications such as video on demand, Internet-based training, and on-line classes. Some people believe that streaming media is going to be the next killer application that will drive the Internet economy one notch higher.

There are several streaming media file formats and players on the Internet. In this column we introduce the usage of Microsoft's Windows Media Player for playing streaming media. We'll show you how to embed the Media Player in a Web page and how to control its attributes by JavaScript. We'll also present our streaming media . The Windows Media Player is supported only by Internet Explorer 4.0 and up. In this part we present the PC version only. We'll present the Mac version in a later column.

In this column, you'll find out:

• How to embed the Windows Media Player in your Web page
• How to tell the difference between audio, ASF, and ASX file formats
• How to modify the Media Player's properties by JavaScript
• How to write a streaming media jukebox

We also provide the full script and its zipped version.