XIMPEL - Introduction

XIMPEL is a framework that is used to easily create interactive media presentations. The author describes his/her presentation through an XML file. Within this XML file you specify what your presentation looks like, for instance you can specify:

• When and how to show a media item (video/image/etc.)
• Questions that will be presented to the viewer
• When and where a clickable element should be displayed and what happens when the viewer clicks it
• Etc.

Two files are used for creating a XIMPEL presentation:

• The playlist file
• The config file

The playlist file is the file that tells XIMPEL what it needs to do. It is a description of the presentation written in XML code. The config file is the file that allows you to change some optional settings unrelated to the content of the presentation.

Basic playlist file structure

Every playlist file has the following minimal structure:

playlist.xml

						<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
						<ximpel>
							<playlist>
								<!-- Description of the presentation comes here -->
							</playlist>						
						</ximpel>

The <ximpel> element has no functional effect but is used only for clarity to indicate this is a XIMPEL presentation. The <playlist> element is a wrapper for the presentation, meaning that everything within these tags describes the what the presentation will look like.

Basic config file structure

The config file has the following minimal structure:

config.xml

						<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
						<ximpel>
							<config>
								<!-- Settings are defined here -->
							</config>	
						</ximpel>

Defining configuration from within the playlist file

Generally you specify configuration settings in the config file. However, configuration can also be specified from within the playlist file by using the <config> tags.

playlist.xml

						<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
						<ximpel>
							<playlist>
								<!-- Description of the presentation comes here -->
							</playlist>
							<config>
								<!-- Settings are defined here -->
								<!-- These settings will overwrite settings specified in the config file -->
							</config>	
						</ximpel>

Any configuration specified between the <config> and </config> tags within the playlist file will overwrite settings specified in the config file.