Director shortcomings; Rev/altBrowser the solution?

[jbv]

Stephen,

Before answering your question, I guess a few more details
are needed. Especially, I don't really understand why you
need to embed a browser within a Director window ... and
where does the HTML file comes from ?
Is the HTML code generated on the fly from the XML, and
is the browser window used to navigate between successive
screens, or different frames of the Director stage ?

JB

> Folks:
>
> Here (according to our Director developer) is the rundown on where Director
> is apparently falling short when it comes to developing the product we need.
> Can anyone tell me if Rev can solve these problems or if we're overlooking
> something in Director?
>
> ------
> Dynamic population of drop down boxes with multiple language types.
> For example, I would like to have an external (maybe XML) list of language
> names, all using their appropriate font set. I would like to have a drop
> down box that's on the stage to gather all elements from the external file
> to populate the drop down. Each element in the drop down would be a
> separately executable when selected.
> Browser Interaction-
> Embedding a browser within a Director window. The purpose of this browser,
> would be to seamlessly integrate into the Director stage and interpret an
> HTML file properly (including multiple language support).
> This embedded browser could have external Director controls that would
> print, navigate this HTML file.
> Also, a director search box could be embedded into the Director environment
> and allow for user searching of web pages...
> 3 D model control
> To be able to have full control over a 3 D model (rotate, pan, zoom), and
> embed hotspots on particular sections of the model. I would like to be able
> to click on a spot to navigate to another area of the score within the
> Director environment, and/or launch an external browser or an embedded
> browser.
> ------
> Just to recap the complexity of this project:
> The project will deal with very large amounts of text. The text needs to be
> formatted with many different styles and includes detailed tables and
> graphics with captions. The text will originate from an XML file, needs to
> be searchable, and be displayed in multiple languages. All languages will be
> included in the project and users should be able to switch from one to the
> other seamlessly. All drop-down boxes and interface elements will need to
> change on the fly when the user selects a new language. Dynamic text based
> on user search strings must be generated. Users must be able to print the
> content of windows (even windows holding dynamic content.) To cap it, the
> project must interact with the user's system for base technology checks and
> a few other things.
> We've looked at many different solutions. From what we can tell, the best
> way to do this consistently and effectively is through an embedded browser
> window and use XHTML/HTML to handle the formatting and unicode. An
> additional benefit is that we will be able to handle pdfs if we use a
> browser.
> For this project, Director may not work because of the problems mentioned
> above. Flash will not work because it's inability to handle large amounts of
> formatted text. iShell may work but it's ability to work with the operating
> system seems limited.
> So, can anyone tell me if the Rev/altBrowser combination is the best way to
> go with this? Are we missing something in Director? Ideally, we'd like to
> have absolutely everything handled from within the app but I don't think
> this is possible.
> Any help would be really appreciated. I've been banging my head against the
> wall looking for decent solution for some time now.
> Steve
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