OVAView User Guide

Usage

To use OVAView, copy the ENTIRE OvaView directory (ZIP file downloadable from here) to the WWW root directory of your web server, such that it can be accessed from

http://<your-domain>/OvaView.

Then, at the top of any AIF files on your site that you wish to render, place the following line (before the opening “<rdf:RDF…>” tag):

<?xml-stylesheet href=”/OvaView/aif.xsl” type=”text/xsl”?>

Advanced Usage

If you want to use a different directory name, or locate OVAView in a different directory on your server, then this is possible, but requires a modification to the stylesheet.

1) Open the stylesheet in a text editor
2) Find the line:

var CONTEXT_PATH = “/OvaView”;

and change it to match your desired settings. So, for example, if you want to place the OVAView directory in a directory called “utils”, change it to:

var CONTEXT_PATH = “/utils/OvaView”;

Or, if you wish to rename the folder (for example, to “ova-view”), change it to:

var CONTEXT_PATH = “/ova-view”;

3) Modify the <?xml… declaration above to match the new directory structure and/or name

NOTE: Using OVAView does not mean files with the extension “.aif” will be immediately viewable in a web browser. To do this requires a modification of your web server’s configuration such that it sends the correct header information. To view AIF files without doing this, you can do one of two things:

1) Change the file extension from “.aif” to “.xml” or
2) Use a “wrapper” written in a server-side language, such as PHP, to change the header information. An example of a PHP script is:

<?php

header(“content-type:text/xml”);
echo file_get_contents(“myfile.aif”);

?>

You can also make this script more generic:

<?php

header(“content-type:text/xml”);
echo file_get_contents($_REQUEST[“aiffile”]);

?>

You would then call this script (called, for example, “getAif.php”) by visiting:

http://<your-domain>/getAif.php?aiffile=myfile.aif

changing “myfile.aif” for any AIF file stored in the same directory as the script.

A sample rendering of AIF using OVAview can be seen at http://ova.computing.dundee.ac.uk/OvaView/sample.php