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PUBLISH YOUR SPOT ELSEWHERE ON THE WEB
If you would prefer to host your spots
elsewhere on the web, you may need to add a few extra steps to publishing to make
your spots work on any web server. 3DML is of
course a new language, and 3DML files have a MIME type that is new and
foreign to most Web servers and Web browsers out there. In plain old english,
this means that putting your spot on the Web may take one more step than
putting an HTML page on the web.
Because 3DML is a new
MIME type, web servers must be introduced to 3DML, and instructed to recognize
3DML files. This is very similar to how you change the registry in Windows
to recognize new file extentions. (MIME types are a way in which Web servers
tell Web browsers what kind of information is in a particular file. You
don't need to understand MIME types to publish 3DML spots, but if you
are interested, you can find more MIME information at the MIME
Information Page.)
TRIPOD ADOPTS 3DML MIME TYPE
Great news! The free homepage hosting service Tripod, at http://www.tripod.com,
has adopted the 3DML MIME type. For builders who use Tripod to host your
web sites and Spots, you no longer need to embed your Spot in an HTML
page. Instead, you can link to it directly!
THERE ARE THREE WAYS TO HOST A SPOT
- The EMBED tag in HTML (the easiest way!)
The first is to embed your 3DML spots in HTML pages.
(see below). This solution will work for any Web server out there.
- Hosting 3DML spots at Flatland or on free web hosting services
Many folks building on the web today put their websites up for free
on free web hosting services. Currently, some free hosting services
do host 3DML spots, while some do not. Click
here to learn how to host your Spot at your free homepage hosting service.
- The .htaccess file for Apache servers
This second method works only on Apache Web servers. (Over half of the
Web servers out there run Apache.) If you know your Web server is Apache,
you can simply upload a single simple file called the .htaccess file
that will take care of the whole MIME type issue. Click
here to learn more about the .htaccess file for Apache servers.
EMBEDDING 3DML IN AN HTML PAGE
With
this solution, you put an HTML page up on your site that includes a simple
EMBED tag - this tag works for both MS IE 4.0, 5.0beta and Netscape 3.0,
4.5. The EMBED tag includes the 3DML MIME type and a link to your .3dml
files.
Just copy the code
below, and save it as an HTML file. Edit the TITLE to be your spot title
and SRC to point to your 3DML file. If your 3DML file is called "flatrocks.3dml",
then you will want to call this HTML page "flatrocks.html". If someone
goes to this HTML file and does not have Rover, they will be given the
option to go to the PLUGINSPAGE (our download page) to get their own copy.
This should work on
all Web servers out there, with the exception of some of the free homepage
services. Tripod, for instance, will only allow you to upload files that
have specific file extensions, and .3dml is not one of them (yet). We
are working on solutions for these situations. If this solution does not
work on your server for some reason, please
let us know.
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Flatland Rocks!</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#000000" LEFTMARGIN=0 TOPMARGIN=0 SCROLL="no">
<EMBED TYPE="model/vnd.flatland.3dml"
SRC="flatrocks.3dml"
PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.flatland.com/download/"
HEIGHT="100%"
WIDTH="100%">
</BODY>
</HTML>
We know this can be a confusing process, so if you have any questions,
please email Flatland Help at help@flatland.com
Once you've built your spot, and uploaded it to the host of your choice,
it's time to submit your spot to the
3Directory of Spots on the web!
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