Frogans Player for Developers [noinstall] - Windows

Platform: Windows (other platforms)
Version: Alpha 0.2.6
Release date: December 31, 2015

Status

This alpha version is deprecated - It is no longer able to validate FSDL documents based on FSDL 3.0 - find the latest Windows version

Note: Frogans Player for Developers (alpha) is a preliminary version provided on an "as is" basis. The OP3FT cannot guarantee that the rendering performed by this alpha version will be compatible down to the last pixel with the rendering performed by the release version of Frogans Player.

To be informed of the distribution of versions of Frogans Player, subscribe free of charge to the Announcement read-only mailing list.

Intended audience

Frogans Player for Developers (alpha) is intended for developers wishing to contribute to the development of the FSDL language and Frogans Player by creating and testing their first Frogans sites using FSDL 3.0.

This Frogans Player version is not intended for the general public.

Any contribution to the development of the Frogans technology, in any form, is considered as acceptance of the Frogans Technology Development Contributor Policy and the commitments it contains, without restriction or reserve.

Feedback sought

This alpha version represents an opportunity for developers to participate in the development of the Frogans technology.

To post questions or suggestions, or to report errors relating to the FSDL language or to this Frogans Player version, subscribe free of charge to the Early-questions mailing list. Please prefix the subject of any posts you make to this list concerning FSDL 3.0 with "[FSDL]" and prefix the subject of any posts concerning Frogans Player for Developers with "[FP-Dev]".

The OP3FT is looking for feedback from the developer community in two key areas:

The FSDL 3.0 language
You can suggest improvements in the design of FSDL, such as:
- changes to the minimum, maximum, and default values of attributes
- changes to applicability rules for attributes
- new Frogans slide rendering constraints (intended to ensure useability for end-users)

The implementation of Frogans Player for Developers
You can suggest improvements or report errors in the implementation of Frogans Player for Developers, in areas such as:
- validation of FSDL documents (including error messages)
- rendering of Frogans slides
- Frogans Player GUI (e.g. the contextual menu, entry of Frogans addresses, icons)

Your feedback can concern either a given platform (Windows, MacOS X, or Linux) or all platforms.

Requirements

Operating System versions currently supported:

Windows 2000
Windows XP
Windows Vista
Windows 7
Windows 8
Windows 8.1
Windows 10

Hardware resources:

133 MHz or more Pentium microprocessor (or equivalent)
At least 512 megabytes (MB) of RAM
At least 256 megabytes (MB) of available space for storage (e.g. HDD, SSD)
Video adapter and monitor with 640x480 or higher resolution and 16 bit color

Release information

This version allows you to create and test Frogans sites under development whose Frogans slides are stored locally on your workstation. The address of your Frogans site under development must start with Test*.

This version implements the graphical elements of FSDL 3.0.
It does not implement dynamic elements of FSDL.

The following elements are available for testing: <frogans-fsdl>, <file>, <resimage>, <respixels>, <resdraw>, <respath>, <setfont>, <font>, <restext>, <text>, <setfilter>, <filter>, <setrelief>, <relief>, <setshadow>, <shadow>, <resmerge>, <merge>, <layer>, and <button>.

This version does not manage Frogans slide rendering constraints, which are currently under discussion.

Future versions of Frogans Player for Developers will implement dynamic elements of FSDL and will allow you to host your Frogans sites under development on the server of your choice.

Change log:

Changes between 0.2.5 and 0.2.6:

Resolved issue: The FSDL validator did not accept '' (the empty string) for the value of an optional attribute referring to a component identifier ("fontref" attribute of the <text> element, and the "filterref", "reliefref", and "shadowref" attributes of both the <merge> and the <layer> elements).
Resolved issue: In a merge resource, if the value of the "resid" attribute of the <resmerge> element was mistakenly used as the value of the "resref" attribute of one of the child <merge> elements, then an internal rendering error occurred.

Known issues (as of December 31, 2015):

The second and third steps in the optimization of Frogans Player for Developers have not been completed yet. (The second step consists in optimizing processes implemented in low-level functions, and the third step consists in optimizing the overall process for parsing and rendering Frogans slides.) Therefore, parsing and rendering can be slow. The release version of Frogans Player will be significantly faster. As a reminder, the first step was completed in alpha version 0.1.7. (This step consisted in enabling options that control optimization when compiling the Frogans Player runtime engine written in C.)
The error reporting system of the XML parser and the FSDL validator can generate incomplete or inaccurate messages.
Since Frogans slide rendering constraints are not managed yet, internal rendering errors can still occur. Such an error can occur, for example, if the lead or the vignette representation of the Frogans slide is unintentionally authored to be fully transparent, or if the placement of a button prevents it from being visible.

Download

Frogans Player for Developers [noinstall] (7z version): FrogansPlayer4Dev-noinstall-alpha0.2.6-win32.7z - 33.6 MB - [ SHA1 ]

Instructions

For a video presentation on the FSDL language and how to create Frogans slides, watch the FSDL tutorials given during the Frogans Technology Conference 5, available at conference.frogans.org. For additional resources related to FSDL 3.0, including a recap and extracts of the technical specification, see FSDL 3.0 resources

You can also find inspiration and help in tutorials created by third parties, such as frogans-lab.com (in English). The OP3FT welcomes such initiatives!

To create and test your own Frogans sites using Frogans Player for Developers, follow these steps:

Download and decompress the archive on your system. A Frogans Player directory is created with the name of the archive.
Open the Frogans Player directory and execute Frogans Player for Developers. A small, movable yellow circle representing Frogans Player is displayed in the center of the screen.
Note: if Frogans Player for Developers does not start or launch correctly, check whether your antivirus software is blocking the program or waiting for a confirmation. It has been reported that Avast! under Windows 10 prevents the program from launching correctly unless you disable the "scan program when executing" option. An Extended Validation certificate (EV) might solve this problem. This solution is currently being tested for Windows.
Select "Open a Frogans site..." from the Frogans Player contextual menu and enter the following test Frogans address: Test*helloworld. The corresponding sample Frogans site appears, which you can move, resize, and navigate.
Use the Frogans site contextual menu to reload the current Frogans slide (i.e. page of the Frogans site) or close the Frogans site. In order to display the Frogans site in the 640x480 resolution of the rendering canvas, disable the scaling factor (option for developers only in the Frogans site contextual menu).
Each Frogans site is made up of one or more Frogans slides. The Frogans slides of a Frogans site (i.e. the FSDL documents and their auxiliary files) are stored in a specific directory called the Frogans site root directory. In this version of Frogans Player for Developers, Frogans site root directories are located directly on your system, not on a server. The Frogans site root directories are subdirectories of the "test" directory, which is found in the Frogans Player directory. For example, the Frogans site root directory of the sample Frogans site corresponding to the test Frogans address Test*helloworld is the "helloworld" subdirectory of the "test" directory.
To create and test your own Frogans site with the test Frogans address Test*sitename, create a subdirectory called "sitename" in the "test" directory, and store your Frogans slides there. "sitename" can contain up to 28 ASCII characters in the range from 'a' to 'z', from '0' to '9' inclusive, and the '-' character (no spaces allowed). In this version of Frogans Player for Developers, the file name of the FSDL document representing the home slide of your Frogans site must be "home.fsdl" and the encoding of all FSDL documents must be UTF-8.
You can create and test as many Frogans sites as you wish. The number of Frogans slides in a Frogans site is unlimited. The Frogans site root directory can contain subdirectories.
To modify an FSDL document, edit the corresponding file in your favorite text editor that supports XML (and remember to reload the Frogans slide afterwards). We suggest that you use the .fsdl extension for the file names of your FSDL documents.

Legal information / Credits

Frogans Player for Developers [noinstall]
Version: alpha0.2.6-win32

Frogans Player for Developers (the "Software") is developed by and belongs to the OP3FT.

The Software must be used in compliance with the Frogans Technology User Policy, accessible at the following permanent URL: https://www.frogans.org/en/resources/ftup/access.html.

By downloading and using the Software, you agree to and undertake to be bound by the version in force of the Frogans Technology User Policy.

Sample Frogans sites included in the "test" directory located in the Frogans Player directory are provided by the OP3FT to help you create your own Frogans sites. You are free to use, copy, distribute, modify, adapt, or share these sample Frogans sites.

The Software uses third-party source materials which are credited in the "COPYRIGHT-AND-LICENSE" directory available in the archive to be downloaded (see download).

Frogans Player for Developers [noinstall] - Windows - Alpha 0.2.6