Java Community Process

The Java Community Process (JCP) is the mechanism by which technologies are adopted as standards in the Java community. A Java Specification Request (JSR) is a document describing the technology and why the Java community should adopt it. The result of the JCP is the standard itself and a reference implementation (RI).

Only JSRs in the rich media space are included here, and not all media-oriented JSRs are represented. A complete list of JSRs can be found at http://www.jcp.org.

Java Advanced Imaging (JSR-34) is a specification that defines how to interact with two-dimensional raster and vector graphics images. It includes image manipulation, composition, and synthesis operations. Because of the computational complexity of some operations, native code is included in the RI for certain platforms.

The Java Media Framework (JSR-908) defines how to combine elements such as a CODEC and hardware rendering into a pipeline for the delivery of rich media content. An example application, included in the RI, is an MP3 player. The MP3 player consists of a simple pipeline that includes an MPEG-1 decoder, Layer 3 (audio) decoder, and a hardware rendering device (the audio card in the PC).

Enterprise Media Beans (JSR-86) extends the Enterprise JavaBean (EJB) specification to include digital assets. This specification defines interfaces for splitting, combining, and manipulating assets and builds upon JSR-34, JAI, and JSR-908, JMF.

The JStream Assembly Interface (JSR-158) defines how to assemble multiple streams of data into a user experience. It is different from the MPEG specifications in that the end goal is to produce an experience similar to broadcast media. The targets of this specification are insertion of content, such as advertisements, and assembly of the stream to be distributed in multiple environments.

Metadata standards

Meta information is being standardized in many vertical industries, just as XML standards have formed in most vertical industries. There are some common standards that apply to all domains.

Dublin Core metadata is used to supplement existing methods for searching and indexing Web-based metadata, regardless of whether the corresponding resource is an electronic document or a physical object. The Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (DCMES) was the first metadata standard delivered out of the DCMI, as IETF RFC 2413. DCMES provides a semantic vocabulary for describing the core information properties, such as description, creator, and date attributes.

The Warwick Framework describes an architecture for aggregating multiple sets of metadata. The Warwick Framework has two fundamental components, containers and packages. Packages are typed metadata sets. Containers are the unit for aggregating packages.

WebDAV stands for "Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning". It is a set of extensions to the HTTP protocol that allows users to collaboratively edit and manage files on remote web servers. The WebDAV specification (RFC 2518) provides a protocol that allows clients to perform remote web-content authoring. WebDAV provides two basic elements: properties and collections.

Properties are metadata about the resource being held. This metadata set is not specific, allowing each resource to have its own metadata definitions. Properties may be used to describe the asset as well as the state of the asset. There are two types of properties, described as live and dead. Live properties are enforced by the server, but can originate from the server or the client. Dead properties are stored on the server but the client enforces the semantics.

Collections are sets of digital assets contained within a hierarchical structure. Each digital asset and hierarchical folder contains an independent set of properties.

Figure 1: A WebDAV-based rich-media solution overview.

The Evolution of Rich Media
The Evolution of Rich Media
Solution overview