I was recently at the REMIX conference in Melbourne, during which the speakers spent a lot of time on Silverlight 2, in particular deep zoom.
One of the speakers mentioned that it was possible to have users upload their photos, and to create a deep zoom image out of it on the server. He went so far as to say that all of the tools are currently out there to be making
every image on the web "deep-zoomable", and that all it will take now is for us to get out there and get it implemented.
The problem is I can't find any reference to any kind of deep zoom API that would let me compose deep zoom images programmatically. I've googled (and Live-searched) long and hard but nothing shows up.
Can anyone out there give me a definitive answer as to whether there exists, or will exist, a method of composing deep zoom images automatically through .NET code?
Thanks sladapter, I'm fully aware of the Deep Zoom Composer, and how it allows you to manually create Deep Zoom images. Unfortunately that doesn't answer my question at all. I asked if there is any way to automate this procedure, purely through .NET code,
i.e. an API.
Hope you liked the session, I did the the YouCard part of the session you're talking about, and Jose Fajardo (http://advertboy.wordpress.com/) did the DeepZoom part.
If you look inside the Deep Zoom installation folder (C:\program files\microsoft\deep Zoom Composer) you will find a tool called "SparseImageTool.exe". That's the "brain" behind Deep Zoom composer, and is in charge of creating the deep zoomable image. If
you run it from the command line you can see all the switches and options available.
What Jose was talking about is automating the process of creating the Deep Zoomable image using the "SparseImageTool.exe" file. There is currently no pure C# API (that I'm aware off), but you can easaly build one around the tool. I haven't seen Jose's code
to do this, but one solution to have automatically generated Deep Zoom images is to create a Windows Service that use a FileSystemMonitor object to monitor a "input" folder. When ever a JPG file lands in this folder it can kick off the "SparseImageTool.exe"
with the nececary parameters to generate the deep zoomable image. That way you could just dump a bunch of files in a folder and have them automatically queued up to be converted.
In the future I assume this process will be even easier, but it's defenetly doable today! :)
Good luck!
Jonas Follesø
http://jonas.follesoe.no <- Now with Webcam support in Silverlight2! :)
http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&hs=QEG&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=deep+zoom+api+sparseimagetool+image+tool&spell=1 <- that query gives you some good info.
Kirupa Chinnathambi commented the following on the Expression blog on a question about an API:
deef - we are working on that, and you can do that already with a lot of trickery using the SparseImageTool.exe found in the Deep Zoom Composer's Program Files folder.
And some final information. An old friend of mine, Giorgio Sardo, has documented how to automate Deep zoom: http://blogs.msdn.com/giorgio/archive/2008/05/05/deep-zoom-batch-export-programmaticly-using-c.aspx
So that one contains a C# application that takes all photos in a folder and turns it into a deep zoom collection.
I didn't expect you to answer! Yes, I was in your session, and I also had a chat to you downstairs at the morning tea afterwards! I really enjoyed the session. I was particularly impressed by your preparation of the Twitter-crash back-up plan. I was
the tall-ish guy who thanked you afterwards for the hint you gave in your session about getting controls to fade away elegantly rather than just disappearing when you dispose of them, by attaching an event handler in the parent control to the completed event
of the fade-out animation within the control, which disposes of the control neatly. You were chatting to my other friend Andrew a lot all day.
Thanks for pointing me to this command-line tool. I knew Jose must have known what he was talking about! That will be plenty easy for me. I'll create a bit of a wrapper around it and get playing!
Cool, yeah, I deffenetly remember you! You should update your Silverlight.net forum profile with a picture - makes it easier to remember who's who in the Silverlight community :)
Good luck on your Deep Zoom adventures. You got a blog, btw?
PS: Guess Microsoft would be happy if you mark the question as answered (if you feel it is)
Andy sorry for the lateness in replying.. Thank god Jonas keeps track of these forums, im just flat out at work at the moment.
So i believe Jonas is going to get my stuff out their, I've created a wrapper around the sparse tool (much like what Jonas mentioned in his answer). It's not the ideal API BUT it is still a decent solution and it is a pretty fast converter.
Let me know if you need any more info regarding DZ or anything silverlight related.
andythompy
Member
22 Points
7 Posts
Is there a Deep Zoom API?
May 29, 2008 12:42 AM | LINK
Hi guys,
I was recently at the REMIX conference in Melbourne, during which the speakers spent a lot of time on Silverlight 2, in particular deep zoom.
One of the speakers mentioned that it was possible to have users upload their photos, and to create a deep zoom image out of it on the server. He went so far as to say that all of the tools are currently out there to be making every image on the web "deep-zoomable", and that all it will take now is for us to get out there and get it implemented.
The problem is I can't find any reference to any kind of deep zoom API that would let me compose deep zoom images programmatically. I've googled (and Live-searched) long and hard but nothing shows up.
Can anyone out there give me a definitive answer as to whether there exists, or will exist, a method of composing deep zoom images automatically through .NET code?
Thanks!
Andy
.NET 3.5 deep zoom deepzoom multiscaleimage "Silverlight 2" MultiScaleImage Source multiscale image Deep zoom multiscaleimage deepzoom
sladapter
All-Star
43609 Points
7910 Posts
Re: Is there a Deep Zoom API?
May 29, 2008 01:02 AM | LINK
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=457b17b7-52bf-4bda-87a3-fa8a4673f8bf&DisplayLang=en
Software Engineer
Aprimo, Inc
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they answered your question
andythompy
Member
22 Points
7 Posts
Re: Is there a Deep Zoom API?
May 29, 2008 01:19 AM | LINK
Thanks sladapter, I'm fully aware of the Deep Zoom Composer, and how it allows you to manually create Deep Zoom images. Unfortunately that doesn't answer my question at all. I asked if there is any way to automate this procedure, purely through .NET code, i.e. an API.
Can anyone answer my question?
follesoe
Member
94 Points
27 Posts
Re: Is there a Deep Zoom API?
May 29, 2008 05:29 AM | LINK
Hi Andy!
Hope you liked the session, I did the the YouCard part of the session you're talking about, and Jose Fajardo (http://advertboy.wordpress.com/) did the DeepZoom part.
If you look inside the Deep Zoom installation folder (C:\program files\microsoft\deep Zoom Composer) you will find a tool called "SparseImageTool.exe". That's the "brain" behind Deep Zoom composer, and is in charge of creating the deep zoomable image. If you run it from the command line you can see all the switches and options available.
What Jose was talking about is automating the process of creating the Deep Zoomable image using the "SparseImageTool.exe" file. There is currently no pure C# API (that I'm aware off), but you can easaly build one around the tool. I haven't seen Jose's code to do this, but one solution to have automatically generated Deep Zoom images is to create a Windows Service that use a FileSystemMonitor object to monitor a "input" folder. When ever a JPG file lands in this folder it can kick off the "SparseImageTool.exe" with the nececary parameters to generate the deep zoomable image. That way you could just dump a bunch of files in a folder and have them automatically queued up to be converted.
In the future I assume this process will be even easier, but it's defenetly doable today! :)
Good luck!
Jonas Follesø
http://jonas.follesoe.no <- Now with Webcam support in Silverlight2! :)
deep zoom deepzoom multiscaleimage
follesoe
Member
94 Points
27 Posts
Re: Is there a Deep Zoom API?
May 29, 2008 05:41 AM | LINK
Some additional info:
http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&hs=QEG&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=deep+zoom+api+sparseimagetool+image+tool&spell=1 <- that query gives you some good info.
Kirupa Chinnathambi commented the following on the Expression blog on a question about an API:
deef - we are working on that, and you can do that already with a lot of trickery using the SparseImageTool.exe found in the Deep Zoom Composer's Program Files folder.
An example of what you suggest can be seen on a public preview site called PhotoZoom: http://photozoom.mslivelabs.com/
:)
The photozoom.mslivelabs.com is an example of an automated Deep Zoom solution.
Hope this helps! :)
follesoe
Member
94 Points
27 Posts
Re: Is there a Deep Zoom API?
May 29, 2008 05:43 AM | LINK
And some final information. An old friend of mine, Giorgio Sardo, has documented how to automate Deep zoom: http://blogs.msdn.com/giorgio/archive/2008/05/05/deep-zoom-batch-export-programmaticly-using-c.aspx
So that one contains a C# application that takes all photos in a folder and turns it into a deep zoom collection.
andythompy
Member
22 Points
7 Posts
Re: Is there a Deep Zoom API?
May 29, 2008 05:50 AM | LINK
Thanks Jonas!
I didn't expect you to answer! Yes, I was in your session, and I also had a chat to you downstairs at the morning tea afterwards! I really enjoyed the session. I was particularly impressed by your preparation of the Twitter-crash back-up plan. I was the tall-ish guy who thanked you afterwards for the hint you gave in your session about getting controls to fade away elegantly rather than just disappearing when you dispose of them, by attaching an event handler in the parent control to the completed event of the fade-out animation within the control, which disposes of the control neatly. You were chatting to my other friend Andrew a lot all day.
Thanks for pointing me to this command-line tool. I knew Jose must have known what he was talking about! That will be plenty easy for me. I'll create a bit of a wrapper around it and get playing!
Andy
andythompy
Member
22 Points
7 Posts
Re: Is there a Deep Zoom API?
May 29, 2008 05:52 AM | LINK
Wow, I just saw all the extra information you added.
Thanks again mate!
follesoe
Member
94 Points
27 Posts
Re: Is there a Deep Zoom API?
May 29, 2008 06:01 AM | LINK
Hi Andy!
Cool, yeah, I deffenetly remember you! You should update your Silverlight.net forum profile with a picture - makes it easier to remember who's who in the Silverlight community :)
Good luck on your Deep Zoom adventures. You got a blog, btw?
PS: Guess Microsoft would be happy if you mark the question as answered (if you feel it is)
Cheers,
Jonas
liquidboy
Member
290 Points
67 Posts
Re: Is there a Deep Zoom API?
May 29, 2008 06:05 AM | LINK
Andy sorry for the lateness in replying.. Thank god Jonas keeps track of these forums, im just flat out at work at the moment.
So i believe Jonas is going to get my stuff out their, I've created a wrapper around the sparse tool (much like what Jonas mentioned in his answer). It's not the ideal API BUT it is still a decent solution and it is a pretty fast converter.
Let me know if you need any more info regarding DZ or anything silverlight related.
Jose