With Microsoft "Blackbird," online content providers can create, publish, and manage a new generation of interactive applications. By creating a rich and exciting user experience, "Blackbird" applications extend the possibilities of the online environment. For more information, see our data sheet on ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/developr/drg/ multimedia/blackbird/bbdsht.zip.
Q: What is Blackbird?
A. Blackbird, which is being developed by Microsoft, is the internal project name for an end-to-end media creation and delivery system that is used to create a new generation of online applications. As a turnkey system, Microsoft Blackbird includes components for designing, authoring, distributing, viewing, and searching online multimedia applications. Blackbird allows independent content providers (ICPs) to offer rich, interactive multimedia applications and services to provide users with a compelling online experience.
Q: When will Blackbird be available, and how can I get Blackbird?
A. A Blackbird beta will be released in late summer 1995, with commercial release targeted for late 1995. A pre-release version of Blackbird was distributed to attendees of The Microsoft Interactive Media Conference on July 18, 1995, and to other content providers for The Microsoft Network. Microsoft Network content providers will automatically be included in the Blackbird beta program. Solution providers and companies that are not yet Microsoft Network content providers will be able to apply for participation in the Blackbird beta release. Information about the beta release will be posted on The Microsoft Network later this summer. To find out more about becoming a Microsoft Network content provider, call 1-800-4MSNFAX.
Q: When will Blackbird applications be viewable to members of the Microsoft Network?
A. Limited beta testing of Blackbird applications will occur on MSN starting in the early fall of 1995, with availability to general users of MSN in late 1995 with the commercial release of Blackbird.
Q: What will Blackbird cost?
A. Pricing for Blackbird has not been decided.
Q: How do Blackbird applications differ from Web HTML pages?
A. Using Blackbird, a content provider can create a client-server multimedia application, taking full advantage of the client computer's processing capabilities. HTML is a markup language for producing hypertext documents that can be viewed online. Unlike Blackbird applications, HTML documents do not contain processing logic and hence are not client-server applications. Rather, HTML documents are static text streams (documents) that are downloaded and then viewed using an HTML browser such as The Microsoft Internet Explorer or the Netscape Navigator. Blackbird applications are full-featured, interactive applications optimized for online delivery, and thus can contain custom programming logic. Blackbird applications can also contain text streams based on the Blackbird Markup Language (BML), which is similar to HTML but has additional capabilities. Blackbird includes components that provide dynamic layout of BML documents. Blackbird also includes a utility that converts HTML to BML, and BML to HTML.
Q: Can Blackbird read HTML pages?
A. Blackbird will include a utility that allows HTML (version 2.0) pages to be converted to the native Blackbird hypertext format, and Blackbird formatted documents to be converted to HTML. This utility will be available with the Blackbird beta in late summer. In addition, a Blackbird application can support embedded HTML content directly via an embedded HTML browser (written as an OLE Control). Such an HTML control is being developed by Microsoft for availability in early 1996.
Q: How can I import existing SGML-based content into Blackbird?
A: Blackbird includes an SGML-based document markup language. The Blackbird DTD is included with this pre-release of Blackbird, and allows content providers to build converters to convert their proprietary SGML based formats (based on their own DTDs) into the Blackbird SGML format.
Q: What is the difference between BDF and BML?
A: The Blackbird Data Format (BDF) is the native storage format for Blackbird documents, based on OLE storage. Because BDF is a fully optimized storage format for structured, online retrieval of compound documents, content providers can directly create BDF documents using Blackbird Word. The Blackbird Markup Language (BML), is an SGML-based format that is represented as ASCII text and structured tags that are interpreted via the Blackbird SGML DTD. Content providers can use BML to automate the creation of their Blackbird documents. For example, content providers can retrieve text from legacy systems and apply BML tags within the text streams. Content providers can use any SGML tool such as The SGML Author for Word to create Blackbird documents.
BML and BDF documents can be used interchangeably within Blackbird applications with no functional difference, although the native BDF format has some modest performance advantages. A utility is provided with Blackbird (with the beta release, late summer), to convert between BDF, BML, and HTML formats, in any direction.
Q: Will Blackbird be available for Internet publishing?
A. Yes. Blackbird 1.0 applications will be hosted by The Microsoft Network, and will therefore be viewed over a TCP/IP Internet connection. Microsoft has announced fully distributed, Internet-based Blackbird servers so that content providers can publish Blackbird applications that can be accessed by anyone with an Internet connection, even customers who are not members of The Microsoft Network. The distributed version of Blackbird for the Internet will be available in the second half of 1996. Only members of the Microsoft Network will be able to access Blackbird 1.0 applications.
Q: What platforms are supported by the Blackbird design software and client runtime software?
A. The Blackbird design tool runs on Microsoft Windows 95, and will be available on Windows NT with the next release of Windows NT (Q1 1996). The client runtime will run on Windows 95, and will be supported on other client platforms including Windows NT and the Apple Macintosh in 1996.
Q: Does Blackbird include content authoring tools?
A. Blackbird works with existing Microsoft and third-party content authoring tools. For instance, graphics, sound, and other multimedia content can be authored in third-party tools, then integrated within Blackbird applications using the Blackbird designer. Blackbird supports most popular graphic formats, including BMP, TGA, TIF, PCX, WMF, GIF, DIB, and JPG. Also, any application supporting the OLE document standard can be used to author Blackbird content.
Blackbird also includes a version of Microsoft Word 6.0 for creating hypertext documents that can be laid out within Blackbird applications. Blackbird Word includes special templates and file filters that allow the user to easily create structured Blackbird hypertext documents with graphics and hypertext linking. The Blackbird hypertext layout system allows content providers to create sophisticated layouts for Blackbird hypertext documents via support for custom style sheets.
Q: How does Blackbird differ from SUN's Java?
A. Java and Blackbird address different problems. Java is a cross-platform programming language. On the other hand, Blackbird is a complete interactive multimedia publishing system that is fully programmable. Java and Blackbird are not necessarily incompatible; for example, it is conceivable that a third-party could provide Java programmabilty for Blackbird.
Java is a cross-platform, C++-like scripting language that will be commercially released by SUN Microsystems in late 1995. Java enables custom scripts to be associated with HTML pages to perform client-side processing.
Blackbird is a complete development and delivery system for interactive applications. Blackbird is designed to support extensible actions via compiled scripts and can be programmed in C, C++, other popular programming languages, and in Blackbird 2.0 with VBA. These extensible actions supply full scripting capabilities for Blackbird applications, and can be defined to perform any client-side processing a content provider requires. Blackbird architecture allows the scripts to be added into the Blackbird Designer so that non-programmers can easily integrate the custom scripts into their applications and designs by simply choosing them from a list during the design process. For example, a script could change the background and/or foreground color of a story's background, or cycle through colors on a timed sequence. The methods and properties for Blackbird design elements are published in the Blackbird Technical Reference.
Q. How can I deliver custom fonts, custom OLE Controls, Video for Windows (AVI) files and other local resources with my Blackbird application?
A. Blackbird will include an application resource installer that will support downloading custom fonts, custom OLE Controls, and other support files for your application (called local resources). The installer will allow you to either package these files so that they will be downloaded and installed automatically when a user activates the application for the first time, or update the local resource package.
Q. What extra controls and design elements will be added to Blackbird before commercial release?
A. The pre-release does not include several components that will be part of the first commercial release:
Other controls may be provided in the first commercial release of Blackbird. More importantly, because Blackbird is a component-based application, Blackbird can be easily extended modularly by Microsoft and third parties without requiring a long wait for a new product release. For instance, Microsoft is developing an HTML browser control that can be released independently of Blackbird and be used as soon as it is ready.
Finally, other feature enhancements and utilities (such as the HTML/BML/BDF conversions tool) will be provided before the first commercial release of Blackbird.
Q. Can I create Electronic Eforms in Blackbird?
A. Yes. Microsoft will supply a Blackbird Eform control with the beta release of Blackbird. This control will allow you to create MAPI-based Eforms within your Blackbird applications, and will require no programming. Content providers that want to create Blackbird Eforms immediately can program their own extensible actions that use MAPI to package and route data. Information on Blackbird extensible actions and an example are included in the Blackbird Technical Reference.
Q. Can I create custom processing scripts in Blackbird?
A. Yes. Information on creating Blackbird extensible actions is provided with the Blackbird Technical Reference. These actions are automatically added to the Blackbird action dialog so that non-programmers can easily integrate them into their applications. You can program an extensible action by creating a custom OLE Control--a complete example is provided with the Blackbird Technical Reference.
Q. Will Blackbird include Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)?
A. VBA will be integrated as a scripting language for Blackbird in early 1996.
Q. When can I publish my Blackbird application to the Microsoft Network and begin testing my Blackbird application over the wire?
A. A limited number of alpha sites are testing Blackbird applications using a private Blackbird data center. The Blackbird server software will be integrated into the general MSN data center this summer, and content providers will be able to start staging their Blackbird applications over-the-wire starting with the Blackbird beta release in late summer.