GETTING STARTED WITH CDF

André Kuzniarek

Director of Document and Media Systems
Wolfram Research

Overview

The Wolfram CDF format has been available as part of Mathematica since the release of 8.0.1 at the beginning of this year, which included the release of the Wolfram CDF Player.

The official CDF format rollout occurred in July with our CDF website going live along with extensive press coverage.

All year we've been in talks with existing and potential new partners among publishers, publishing vendors, and other industries.

This presentation will speak to the evolution of our technologies in arriving at CDF, the current state of the format and how it is being used, how it's being supported in Mathematica 8.0.4, and in the emerging overall Wolfram group technology strategy.

Before CDF »

CDF Concept, Message, and Terms »

CDF Deployment Methods »

Future Directions »

Before CDF

MathReader

Free static notebook viewer

Pre-V6: no interactive elements, no evaluation capability

Mathematica Player

Released just after V6

Static notebook viewer

Free desktop runtime for viewing Manipulate-based interactive content 
(and supported the launch of our Demonstrations site)

Required uploading of notebooks to our site to be “playable”

Mathematica Player Pro

Released with Player

Same features as Player but allowing evaluation of inputs and higher level Mathematica functionality 
(data loading etc.)

$200 app

No need to upload notebooks, works with any notebook

Commercial app deployment channel

CDF Concept, Message, and Terms

Whither (N)notebooks

Notebook, as a term for a document type, is being used in many different products and is no longer closely identified with Mathematica

We needed a desciptor that was clean and clear about the potential of the format

CDF rhymes with PDF

It’s easy to communicate the value proposition of CDF with this acronym, as one can say it’s like a PDF but with computation capabilities

Allows for using the term as an object in and of itself (noun), as we use PDF today: 
“Send me a PDF == give me a CDF. We have a collection of CDFs...”

Concerns about trademark were alleviated by the somewhat crowded idea space making use of the term — it’s easier to join in with many, rather than going against one prominent use — though we hope to become the most prominent use over time

CDF distinguishing features

No longer requires web uploading — playable documents/apps are saved directly from Mathematica 8

CDF Player is a web plug-in!

Full-screen mode

Embeddable objects (as seen on our Demonstrations site)

PlayerPro remains the required app for higher level features (to deploy NB or CDF)

CDF vs. Flash vs. JavaScript vs. Java

Easier to develop and deploy multi-parameter interactive visualizations and analysis tools with computation on-board

No dedicated programming expertise required other than learning Mathematica basics

Access to built-in data and functionality not available to other coding languages

Soon to be more platform-portable than Flash

FreeCDF

Terms spelled out on website »

CDF usage is tied to Player licensing

Free when content is free, licensing required when content is licensed

Player displays logo in corner of embedded content, and terms language on toolbar for full page and desktop content

Publisher level signing of CDF docs removes these “watermarks” for commercial content

CDF Deployment Methods

Will cover all aspects of CDF creation and deployment in detail at the CDF workshop on Friday.

Desktop Document/App »

Full web page »

Web page embedded object »

To come: 
WRI server-based (remote loaded) transclusion

Deploying from Mathematica 8.0.4

Save an entire notebook or just a selection to CDF with proper deployment options set automatically

Deployment details covered on website

Newly added deployment wizard provides option for web embedding

Newly added functions for programmable CDF interaction:

CDFDeploy["file.cdf ", expr]

CDFInformation["myfile.cdf"]

{Size->{437,524},
EmbeddingScript-><script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://www.wolfram.com/cdf-player/plugin/v2.1/cdfplugin.js”></script>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
var cdf = new cdfplugin();
cdf.embed(‘CubeSphere.cdf’, 437, 524);
</script>}

Future Directions

CDF application “containers”

Activation of higher level CDF features at document level (played w/same free runtime)

Mathematica online and CDF creation

Running CDF objects from our cloud

CDF on iOS and Android

CDF creation tools

Additional CDF feature goals

Annotation

Social/collaboration layer

Font embedding

Self-contained runtime

DRM

CDF Resources

www.wolfram.com/cdf »

Jon McLoone’s CDF intro from our virtual conference »

Tech Conference Sessions

CDF experiences—Eric Schulz, Wednesday @ 2:30, Fighting Illini

Manipulate secrets—Lou D’Andria, Wednesday @ 3:30, Fighting Illini

CDF in Publishing—Maryka, Thursday @ 9:30, Little Chief

Theo’s keynote, Thursday @ 10:30

Stylesheets Birds of a Feather session, Thursday @ 2:30, Illinois @ Homewood Suites

John Fultz keynote, Friday @ 9:00

CDF mobile development—Rob Raguet-Schofield, Friday @ 10:30, Little Chief

CDF Workshop, Friday @ 11:00, Gopher/Spartan Room

Tutorial webinars to come (probably with next virtual conference)

Forums/online community to come (with cloud services)

WRI contacts

André Kuzniarek: andre@wolfram.com

Maryka Baraka: maryka@wolfram.com

Jon McLoone: jonm@wolfram.com