What’s New in CDF?

André Kuzniarek

Wolfram Research

CDF updates and information

Quick overview of CDF

New CDF-related features in Version 9

Enterprise concept

FreeCDF license details

Web deployment variations

Wolfram cloud (Mathematica online)

Mobile solutions

Future directions

Additional resources

Computable Document Format: quick overview

Export features and player released with Mathematica 8.0.1 at beginning of last year

Website, messaging, and marketing rolled out last summer

Latest player released with Mathematica 8.0.4

Player Pro thereafter at end of last year

demonstrations.wolfram.com switched over to CDF last year

CDF integrated into Wolfram Alpha Pro this year

Adopted in various ways over the last year by all the major STEM publishers, developers in industry and education, and numerous blogs

New CDF-related features in Version 9

Preview for CDF Player and Player Pro

Deployment wizard updates for new Mathematica product/license options and embedding details

Deployment wizard provides alt image for JS code automatically

HTML export includes embedded CDF objects (for Manipulates et al)

Improved security model (sandbox), resolving bugs with function white list and other concerns

Enterprise Mathematica: pro-level CDF

Mathematica product models now include mid-priced starter edition and high-end enterprise edition (starting at ~$7K)

Enterprise Mathematica deploys CDF files with Player Pro-level capabilities

Data import/export

Spawning notebooks and dialogs

Integrating encoded packages (protecting intellectual property)

Input field support for arbitrary text

File saving (saving state)

Enterprise Mathematica can be activated at different levels for license to deploy in three primary ways:

Internal solutions, deploying within company/site.

Project solutions, via consulting providers or a company's internal development efforts. Might overlap with 1 or 3, depending on distribution details.

Product solutions, typically for sale to the general public with cost recovery.

See Ian’s talk for more technical details about this:

Specifics in wizard

CDFDeploy[] signing option

FreeCDF license details

FreeCDF is our license “brand” for standard-level CDF files created by all Wolfram products

Now based on Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license

Details on CDF website, but essentially means:

No restrictions on distribution

Commercial sale is allowed, but must maintain same terms

Original creator attribution required

Modification is allowed as long as all the above remains true

Must preserve Wolfram branding/trademark elements

Web deployment variations

WordPress plugin offers convenience for anyone hosting their own WP blogs

demonstrations.wolfram.com now offers cross-domain embedding (just like YouTube)

Similar embedding methods can be exploited to embed CDF content on social media:

Tumblr

Facebook

Etc...

Exploiting Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Solutions) or DropBox or other cloud-storage channels

More details covered by Vitaliy Kaurov on our blog, training site, and webinars

Mathematica Online

Quick demonstration of current progress

Results are embeddable/shareable

Manipulates rendered in HTML 5/JavaScript

Creating a mix of client-side and server-side deployment

No plugin, device independent

Goal is to offer “channels” for hosting CDF content that can be emebedded anywhere or deployed as part of your own publishing portal

Pricing model will be based on bandwidth usage

Mobile solutions

We announced publicly our intentions to support CDF on iPad at the beginning of the year

Prototype of CDF Player on iPad presented at Tools of Change conference, which we blogged and you can find Theo’s presentation on YouTube

The underlying rendering technology has since been re-engineered for speed improvements, delaying release

After our Version 9 release of Mathematica, we’ll be rolling out iPad apps based on demonstrations and built with the native CDF player

A stand-alone player will follow, for handling CDF file content loaded in the player or side loaded from other media (web pages and ebooks)

Current solutions for Apple iBooks 2 (and iBooks Author release this year) are based on W|A API, built into dashboard applets -- basically HTML packaged into a particular directory/resource layout (look me up for more details)

Also exploring solutions based on remote desktop/VNC-like services

Windows tablet just works, but Manipulates should be optimized by moving controls below and magnifying (contact me for more details)

Ultimate goal is to be able to support our technology, and specifically our format (CDF), across all devices/all screens in one way or another

Future directions

Frequent, regularized, numbered releases separate from Mathematica

Self-contained executables (Windows only initially)

Archive/container format (for application packages and book projects)

Plugin DOM/JS API

Plugin web scaling

Authoring templates for interactive content

Additional resources

Talks related to CDF

Ian: Deploying CDF technical details (directly following)

Yu-Sung: CDF development workshop (tomorrow)

Mathematica Online talks

Manipulate/dynamics/interacitvity-related talks

Website resources:

Website updates coming with new resources tab aggregating materials

New broadcast site

Training

Virtual conferences and Experts Live