Media Panel in UIO

[Cheetham, Anastasia]

Hey, everyone,

The Floe team is incorporating the Video Player into the IDI website, and the process has raised some questions we thought we'd run by the community.

The Video Player adds an extra panel to UI Opions: the Media Panel. In addition to the default three (Text and Display, Layout and Navigation, Links and Buttons), the extra panel (called "Audio and Video") offers inputs for controlling captions and transcripts.

To support the ability to "plug in" extra panels in UIO, the Infusion framework was modified (these modifications are now in master). As well, the Video Player code includes a customized version of the UI Fat Panel template and some "framework-y" stuff (in particular, a 'modelRelay' used for conveying the extra preferences to UIO, but generalized as "a junction between an applier bound to one model and another").

We're considering the idea of folding the Media panel into UIO proper i.e. making it a part of the component out-of-the-box. It would be off by default, but integrators would be able to enable it if desired. To accomplish this, the "framework-y" stuff that's currently living in the Video Player code would likely be integrated into the Infusion framework and the Media panel template would be added to the other three templates.

We're wondering what people's thoughts are on this idea. What questions do you have about it? What do you see as the pros and cons? What issues should we be considering?


Thanks!

-- 
Anastasia Cheetham     Inclusive Design Research Centre
acheetham at ocadu.ca           Inclusive Design Institute
                                        OCAD University