Deep Zoom - Redefining Any Web Site Experience (super cool, check it out)

nikola — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:20:00 GMT

These are completely new and revamped web sites (I don’t mean just “silverlight added” or a cool app – looks more like Web 3.0).

This guy has some great ideas of improving the user experience on web sites.

Just check out the first 1.5 minutes of the video here http://delicategeniusblog.com/?p=692 and see if you’ll like it…

He shows a straight-forward way to add completely new experiences to any web site.

I could easily see Web 3.0 emerging now.

:) It's awesome. Imagine what happens next!

Update: here's the video showing these ideas in practice (the actual demos start after minute 1)

Deep Zoom: Creating Working Application in Less than 5 Minutes Using the New Deep Zoom Composer

nikola — Wed, 07 May 2008 14:42:00 GMT

This post shows how to:

· Create working deep zoom application in less than 5 minutes*

· Upload a Silverlight 2 application to Silverlight Streaming – free hosting currently in Beta

· A good starting point if you want to create a set of image and share with your family or friends.

* including the time to download and install the Deep Zoom Composer (typically)

Deep Zoom Sample

Use mouse to move/zoom around.

Also see http://memorabilia.hardrock.com/ for a sample that rock & rolls.

Creating the Sample Above

Step 1: Install Deep Zoom Composer

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=457b17b7-52bf-4bda-87a3-fa8a4673f8bf&displaylang=en

Step 2: Click New Project

Step 3: Click Add Image and add your images

Step 4: Click compose and arrange your collection

Step 5: Click Export, name your project (e.g. DeepZoomFirstTry) and Export

Step 6: Click “view in browser”

You’re done!

Hosting on Silverlight Streaming

Step 1: Apply for account on http://streaming.live.com. Direct link: http://silverlight.live.com/account/create.aspx

Step 2: Prepare your application for upload

· Find the ClientBin folder where Deep Zoom composer output the working application

The ClientBin should contain a .xap file and GeneratedFiles folder

· Create manifest.xml that looks like the one below and place it in the ClientBin folder

<source>DeepZoomOutput.xap</source>

<isWindowless>false</isWindowless>

</SilverlightApp>

Remember to replace the name of the .xap file in the manifest with your .xap file’s name.

Step 3: Zip the contents of ClientBin and upload them to Silverlight Streaming

Step 4: Embed your application somewhere

Copy the iframe html into your page/blog suggested from the Silverlight streaming web site after uploading the application. It looks something like this: