Preface

Oracle interMedia Annotator is a utility that extracts metadata from audio, image, and video sources of certain formats and inserts the metadata, along with the media source file, into an Oracle database.

Audience

This guide is intended for anyone who is interested in extracting metadata from a multimedia file and storing both the metadata and the multimedia file in an Oracle database. Users who want to integrate the Annotator engine with their applications should be familiar with Java and JDBC. Advanced users who want to write their own PL/SQL Upload Templates should be familiar with PL/SQL. Advanced users who want to write their own annotation types or parsers should be familiar with Java and XML.

Organization

This guide contains 10 chapters and 4 appendixes:

Chapter 1	Contains a general introduction.
Chapter 2	Contains an overview and configuration information for the Annotator GUI.
Chapter 3	Contains information on using the Annotator GUI to create and manipulate annotations.
Chapter 4	Contains instructions for using the PL/SQL Template Wizard to generate PL/SQL Upload Templates.
Chapter 5	Contains a full-length example of a Java application using the Annotator engine.
Chapter 6	Contains reference information on the Java APIs associated with the Annotator engine.
Chapter 7	Contains instructions for writing a PL/SQL Upload Template to upload your annotation to an Oracle database.
Chapter 8	Contains a full-length example of a custom parser.
Chapter 9	Contains reference information on the Java APIs associated with writing custom parsers.
Chapter 10	Contains information on creating your own annotation types.
Appendix A	Contains information on using Oracle9i Text to query stored annotations.
Appendix B	Contains reference information on supported formats.
Appendix C	Contains reference information on annotation attributes.
Appendix D	Contains answers to frequently asked questions.

Accessibility

Oracle's goal is to make our products, services, and supporting documentation accessible to the disabled community with good usability. To that end, our documentation includes features that make information available to users of assistive technology. This documentation is available in HTML format, and contains markup to facilitate access by the disabled community. Standards will continue to evolve over time, and Oracle is actively engaged with other market-leading technology vendors to address technical obstacles so that our documentation can be accessible to all of our customers. For additional information, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program Web site at http://www.oracle.com/accessibility/.

JAWS, a Windows screen reader, may not always correctly read the Java code examples in this document. The conventions for writing Java code require that closing braces should appear on an otherwise empty line; however, JAWS may not always read a line of text that consists solely of a bracket or brace.

Conventions

In examples, an implied carriage return occurs at the end of each line, unless otherwise noted. You must press the Return key at the end of a line of input.

Although Boolean is a proper noun, it is presented as boolean in this guide because Java is case-sensitive.

The java.lang.String object is sometimes abbreviated as String.

The following conventions are also used in this guide:

Convention	Meaning
. . .	Vertical ellipsis points in an example mean that information not directly related to the example has been omitted.
. . .	Horizontal ellipsis points in statements or commands mean that parts of the statement or command not directly related to the example have been omitted.
boldface text	Boldface text indicates either a term defined in the text, the glossary, or in both locations; or a window name, button name, menu name, or menu item.
monospace font	Monospace font in text indicates a code example, a URL, or an absolute path name.
< >	Angle brackets enclose user-supplied names.
[ ]	Brackets enclose optional clauses from which you can choose one or none.