6. SMIL 3.0 Content Control

This section is normative.

This section defines the SMIL 3.0 content control modules. These modules contain elements and attributes which provide for runtime content choices and optimized content delivery. SMIL content control functionality is partitioned across five modules:

• BasicContentControl, containing content selection elements and predefined system test attributes;
• CustomTestAttributes, containing author-defined custom test elements and attributes;
• PrefetchControl, containing presentation optimization elements and attributes; and
• SkipContentControl, containing attributes that support selective attribute evaluation.
• RequiredContentControl, defining the systemRequired attribute to specify the namespace prefixes of modules required to process a particular SMIL file.

Since all of the content control elements and attributes are defined in modules, designers of other markup languages may reuse this functionality on a module by module basis when they wish to include media content control in their language.

The functionality in the CustomTestAttributes module builds on the functionality of the BasicContentControl module; profiles implementing the CustomTestAttributes module must also implement the BasicContentControl and RequiredContentControl modules. The PrefetchControl and SkipContentControl modules have no prerequisites.

It is implementation dependent when content control attributes are evaluated. Attributes may be evaluated multiple times. Dynamic reevaluation is allowed but not required. When dynamic reevaluation is supported by a user agent, it is expected that any system- or custom-test variable will be evaluated at the beginning of a node's execution (either at its initial begin time or each time a repeated element restarts). For situations in which more explicit control over reevaluation is required, the use of the SMIL 3.0 State modules is encouraged.

This section is normative.

6.3.1 SMIL 3.0 BasicContentControl Module Overview

SMIL 1.0 provides a "test-attribute" mechanism to process an element only when certain conditions are true, for example when the language preference specified by the user matches that of a media object. One or more test attributes may appear on media object references or timing structure elements; if the attribute evaluates to true, the containing element is played, and if the attribute evaluates to false the containing element is ignored. SMIL 1.0 also provides the switch element for expressing that a set of document parts are alternatives, and that the first one fulfilling certain conditions should be chosen. This is useful to express that different language versions of an audio file are available, and that the client may select one of them.

The SMIL 3.0 BasicContent module includes the test attribute functionality from SMIL 1.0 and extends it by supporting new system test attributes. This section will describe the use of the predefined system test attributes, the switch element and test attribute in-line placement. A mechanism for extending test attributes is presented in the CustomTestAttributes module.

Predefined System Test Attributes

This specification defines a list of test attributes that can be added to language elements, as allowed by the language designer. In SMIL 1.0, these elements are synchronization and media elements. Conceptually, these attributes represent Boolean tests. When any of the test attributes specified for an element evaluates to false, the element carrying this attribute is ignored.

SMIL 3.0 supports the full set of SMIL 2.1 system attributes. The SMIL 2.1 compatible system test attributes are:

• systemBitrate
• systemCaptions
• systemLanguage
• system-overdub-or-caption (note: this attribute has been deprecated in favor of systemCaptions or systemOverdubOrSubtitle)
• systemScreenDepth
• systemScreenSize

Note that, with the exception of system-overdub-or-caption, the names of these attributes have been changed to reflect SMIL 3.0's camelCase conventions. The SMIL 1.0 hyphenated names are deprecated in this release.

SMIL 3.0 also supports system test attributes that define additional characteristics of the system environment. These are:

• systemAudioDesc
• systemCPU
• systemComponent
• systemOperatingSystem
• systemOverdubOrSubtitle

Finally, SMIL 3.0 supports system test attributes that define characteristics of the SMIL version (starting with version 3.0) and base profile supported by the system environment. These are:

• systemBaseProfile
• systemVersion

The complete definition of each attribute is given in the attributes definition section.

The switch element

The switch element allows an author to specify a set of alternative elements from which only the first acceptable element is chosen.

  ...
  <par>
    <video src="anchor.mpg" ... />
    <switch>
      <audio src="dutchHQ.aiff" systemBitrate="56000" ... />
      <audio src="dutchMQ.aiff" systemBitrate="28800" ... />
      <audio src="dutchLQ.aiff" ... />
    </switch>
  </par> 
  ...

Authors should order the alternatives from the most desirable to the least desirable. Furthermore, authors may wish to place a relatively fail-safe alternative as the last item in the switch so that at least one item within the switch is chosen (unless this is explicitly not desired). If all alternatives are equivalent an author should signal this through the allowReorder attribute on the switch, this gives the user agent the freedom to pick the best match (as opposed to the first match).

Note that some network protocols, e.g. HTTP and RTSP, support content-negotiation, which may be an alternative to using the switch element in some cases.

It is the responsibility of the SMIL user agent to determine the setting for system test attribute values. Such settings may be determined statically based on configuration settings, or they may be determined (and re-evaluated) dynamically, depending on the player implementation. When dynamic reevaluation is supported by a user agent, it is expected that any system- or custom-test variable will be evaluated at the beginning of a nodes execution (either at its initial begin time or each time a repeated element restarts). For situations in which more explicit control over reevaluation is required, the use of the SMIL 3.0 State modules is encouraged. Players may not select members of a switch at random.

System Test Attribute In-Line Use

To allow more flexibility in element selection, test attributes may also be used outside of the switch element.

 ...
 <par>
    <audio src="audio.rm"/>
    <video src="video.rm"/>
    <textstream src="stockticker.rt"/>
    <textstream src="closed-caps.rt" systemCaptions="on"/>
 </par>
 ...

The alternatives indicated by the in-line construct could be represented as a set of switch statements, although the resulting switch could become explosive in size. Use of an in-line test mechanism significantly simplifies the specification of adaptive content, especially in those cases where many independent alternatives exist. Note, however, that there is no fail-safe alternative mechanism (such as defining an element without a test attribute inside of a switch) when using test attributes in-line.

6.3.2 Elements and Attributes

SMIL 3.0 BasicContentControl defines the switch element, the allowReorder attribute and a set of predefined system test attributes.

The switch element

The switch element allows an author to specify a set of alternative elements. An element is selected as follows: the player evaluates the elements in the order in which they occur in the switch element. The first acceptable element is selected at the exclusion of all other elements within the switch. Implementations must NOT arbitrarily pick an object within a switch when test attributes for all child elements fail.

The allowReorder Attribute

The allowReorder attribute signals whether a user agent may reorder the direct descendents of the switch element, based on user preferences, if it thinks this could lead to a better user experience.

The possible values are no, the default, disallowing reordering and yes, allowing reordering.

Predefined Test Attributes

SMIL 3.0 defines the following system test attributes. When any of the test attributes specified for an element evaluates to false, the element carrying this attribute is ignored. Note that most hyphenated test attribute names from SMIL 1.0 have been deprecated in favor of names using the current SMIL camelCase convention. For these, the deprecated SMIL 1.0 name is shown in parentheses after the preferred name.

It is the responsibility of the SMIL 3.0 Player to determine the settings for each predefined test variable. These values may be determined by static configuration settings, or they may be evaluated dynamically during runtime. Such setting and (re)evaluation behavior is implementation dependent. When dynamic reevaluation is supported by a user agent, it is expected that any system- or custom-test variable will be evaluated at the beginning of a nodes execution (either at its initial begin time or each time a repeated element restarts). For situations in which more explicit control over reevaluation is required, the use of the SMIL 3.0 State modules is encouraged.

For this version of SMIL elements with specified test attributes that evaluate to false, or elements within a switch that are not selected, are considered to be ignored and will behave as though they were not specified in the document. Any references to these elements will be as if the elements were not in the document. In particular, any ID references to the element will act as if there was no element with that ID. Languages that integrate this module must specify any additional behavior related to these ignored elements. In the SMIL 3.0 Language profile, timing attributes that reference invalid IDs are treated as being indefinite.

6.3.3 Integration Requirements for the BasicContentControl Module

The functionality in this module does not build on functionality defined in other SMIL 3.0 modules.

6.3.4 Document Type Definition (DTD) for the BasicContentControl Module

See the full DTD for the SMIL Content Control modules.

This section is normative.

6.4.1 SMIL 3.0 CustomTestAttributes Module Overview

The use of predefined system test attributes in the SMIL BasicContentControl module provides a selection mechanism based on attributes that are fixed within the module's definition. The CustomTestAttribute module extends this facility with the definition of author-defined custom test attributes. Custom test attributes allow presentation authors to define their own test attributes for use in a specific document. Custom test attributes may be shared among application documents using the uid attribute.

As with system test attributes, custom test attributes may be used within timing structure and media object elements; if they evaluate to true, the containing element is activated and if they evaluate to false, the containing element is ignored. In this version of SMIL, an ignored element will be treated as if it were not part of the source document. As a result, any element referencing the ID of the ignored node will, in effect, reference an invalid ID. Languages that integrate this module must specify any additional behavior related to these ignored elements.

Since custom test attributes are application/document specific, they need a mechanism to allow attribute definition and attribute setting. Attribute definition is done via the customAttributes and customTest elements. The initial state of any custom test attribute may be set at author-time with the defaultState attribute, which takes a value of either true or false. This module provides an override attribute with a value hidden that gives an author the ability to discourage runtime resetting of any attributes using these mechanisms.

The state of the attribute can be changed in one of three ways:

1. by modifying the value of the default state attribute in the document source before delivery to the player;
2. by using the unique identifier given in the uid attribute to dereference a runtime value for the customTest; or
3. by an interface presented to the user (or the user agent) through the document player at runtime.

The exact rules for setting and modifying the values associated with custom test attributes are given below.

An implementation may support either, both, or none of methods 2 and 3. If method 2 is supported, the URI value in uid is simply a unique identifier and does not imply that the runtime value must be fetched over the Web. The value may be stored and retrieved locally, and simply identified by the uid. The precise manner in which this is done is implementation dependent. If method 3 is supported, the custom test attribute facility does not require any specific UI support for direct user manipulation of the custom test attributes.

<smil>
  <head>
    <layout>
       <!-- define projection regions -->
    </layout>
    <customAttributes>
      <customTest xml:id="west-coast" title="West Coast Edition" 
        defaultState="false" override="visible"  
        uid="http://defs.example.org/user-settings/west-coast" />
      <customTest xml:id="east-coast" title="East Coast Edition" 
        defaultState="false" override="visible" 
        uid="http://defs.example.org/user-settings/east-coast" />
      <customTest xml:id="far-north"  title="Northern Edition"
        defaultState="false" override="visible"
        uid="http://defs.example.org/user-settings/far-north" />
      <customTest xml:id="the-rest"   title="National Edition"
        defaultState="true"  override="hidden" />
    </customAttributes>
  </head>
  <body>
    ...
    <par>
      <img src="background.png" region="a"/>
      <video src="story_1v.rm" region="b" />
      <switch>
        <audio src="story_1w.rm" region="c" customTest="west-coast"/>
        <audio src="story_1e.rm" region="c" customTest="east-coast"/>
        <audio src="story_1n.rm" region="c" customTest="far-north"/>
        <audio src="story_1r.rm" region="c" customTest="the-rest"/>
      </switch>
    </par>
    ...
  </body>
</smil>

Rules for Setting Values

The setting of the value associated with a custom test attribute proceeds as follows:

1. The initial setting is taken from the value of the defaultState attribute, if present. If no default state is explicitly defined, a value of false is used.
2. Next, if a URI mechanism is supported by the implementation, the URI defined by the uid attribute is checked to see if a persistent value has been defined for the custom test attribute with the associated id. If such a value is present, it is used instead of the default state defined in the document (if any). Otherwise, the existing initial state is maintained.
3. Next, if a UI-based mechanism (either via the SMIL DOM, a player GUI or some other means) is available and a value has been set by the user, the value associated with the custom test attribute is set to the user-specified value. If no user preference has been defined, either the UID-based value or the default value from the document text (in that order) is used.

Note that a user setting of the custom test attribute will take precedence over a URI setting. If the user has not specified a value for the attribute then the URI setting takes precedence. As with predefined system test attributes, this evaluation will occur in an implementation-defined manner. The value may be (re)evaluated dynamically, but this is not required. When dynamic reevaluation is supported by a user agent, it is expected that any system- or custom-test variable will be evaluated at the beginning of a nodes execution (either at its initial begin time or each time a repeated element restarts). For situations in which more explicit control over reevaluation is required, the use of the SMIL 3.0 State modules is encouraged. Note also that not all implementations need support uid or UI setting of attributes.

6.4.2 Elements and Attributes

This section defines the elements and attributes that make up the functionality in the SMIL CustomTestAttributes module. The customAttributes and customTest elements are used to define custom test attribute variables and the customTest attribute is used in-line on media object and timing structure references to control evaluation of the containing elements.

The customAttributes element

The customAttributes element contains definitions of each of the custom test attributes. The contained elements define a collection of author-specified test attributes that may be used in switch statements or as in-line test attributes in the document.

The customTest element

The customTest element defines an author-specified name that will be used as the test argument in the switch element or in-line on media object and timing structure elements. The customTest elements are defined within the section delineated by the customAttributes elements that make up part of the document header.

The customTest attribute

In addition to the customAttributes and customTest elements, this module provides a customTest attribute that can be applied by language designers to media objects and timing structure elements requiring selection. In all operational aspects, the custom test attribute is similar to the predefined system test attribute facility of the BasicContentControl module.

6.4.3 Integration Requirements for the CustomTestAttribute Module

The functionality in this module builds on functionality defined in the BasicContentControl module, which is a required prerequisite for inclusion of the CustomTestAttribute module.

The profile implementing the custom test elements and attributes must provide a means of associating a unique XML identifier with a customTest element, so that it can be used by the customTest attribute. And the profile should provide a means of associating descriptive text with a customTest element, which may be used in a GUI or other selection mechanism that may be presented to the user. For the SMIL 3.0 Language Profile, the element's id and title attributes serve this purpose.

6.4.4 Document Type Definition (DTD) for the CustomTestAttribute Module

See the full DTD for the SMIL Content Control modules.

This section is normative.

6.5.1 SMIL 3.0 PrefetchControl Module Overview

This module defines an element and attributes that may be used to control the fetching of content from a server in a manner that will improve the rendering performance of the document.

This element will give a suggestion or hint to a user agent that a media resource will be used in the future and the author would like part or all of the resource fetched ahead of time to make the document playback smoother. User-agents may ignore prefetch elements, though doing so may cause an interruption in the document playback when the resource is needed. It gives authoring tools or savvy authors the ability to schedule retrieval of resources when they think that there is available bandwidth or time to do it. A prefetch element is contained within the body of an XML document, and its scheduling is based on its lexical order unless explicit timing is present.

6.5.2 Elements and Attributes

The prefetch element

The prefetch gives authors a mechanism to influence the scheduling of media object transfers from a server to the player.

Documents must still playback even when the prefetch elements are ignored, although rebuffering or pauses in presentation of the document may occur. If the prefetch for a prefetch element is ignored, any timing on the element is still respected, e.g. if a prefetch element has a dur="5s", elements that depend on the prefetch element's timing behave as if the prefetch took 5 seconds.

The intrinsic duration of a prefetch element is either the duration of the media fetch, if the prefetch operation is supported by the implementation, or zero if prefetch is not supported.

If a prefetch element is repeated, due to restart or repeat on a parent element the prefetch operation should occur again. This insures appropriately "fresh" data is displayed if, for example, the prefetch is for a banner ad to a URL whose content changes with each request.

6.5.3 Integration Requirements for the PrefetchControl Module

A profile integrating the PrefetchControl module must add the attributes necessary to specify the media to be fetched. In general, these will be the same resource specifying attributes as those on the media elements themselves. In addition, the profile must add any necessary attributes to control the timing of the prefetch element.

6.5.4 Document Type Definition (DTD) for the PrefetchControl Module

See the full DTD for the SMIL Content Control modules.

This section is normative.

6.6.1 SMIL 3.0 SkipContentControl Module Overview

This module contains one attribute, skip-content attribute, that can be used to selectively control the evaluation of the element on which this attribute appears. This attribute is introduced for future extensibility of SMIL. The functionality is unchanged from SMIL 1.0.

6.6.2 Elements and Attributes

Element definition

The SkipContentControl module does not contain any element definitions.

The skip-content attribute

6.6.3 Integration Requirements for the SkipContentControl Module

It is the responsibility of the language profile to specify which elements have skip-content attributes to enable this expansion mechanism.

This section is normative.

6.7.1 SMIL 3.0 RequiredContentControl Module Overview

This module contains one attribute, systemRequired, which is used to identify one or more namespace prefixes. These prefixes may be used to define a minimum set of modules that a user agent must support to process a given SMIL file. This attribute is a critical component of the SMIL Scalability Framework.

6.7.2 Elements and Attributes

Element definition

The RequiredContentControl module does not contain any element definitions.

The systemRequired attribute

6.7.3 Integration Requirements for the RequiredContentControl Module

It is the responsibility of the language profile to specify which elements support the systemRequired attribute. In order to support the SMIL Scalability Framework, all profiles are expect to at least support this attribute on the top-level SMIL element.