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| In order to use the image which a site like the Labelmaker creates, you first need to know the image's URL (it's web address). This is where the second element of the top right frame comes into play. "What second element, dctv?" I hear you cry! hehee. well, it's the one that grabs yer URL's! |
| Just as each site on the World Wide Web has a unique site address (e.g. www.bbc.co.uk) and each page within a site has it's own unique web address (e.g. www.bbc.co.uk/news), so to does every picture on every web page (e.g www.bbc.co.uk/news/logo.gif). The address or URL is usually concealed from |
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view but everything you see on the Internet has one. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) really IS an address too; the address of the PC (or server) where the image is actually stored. When the Labelmaker processes a request to make an | ||||||||||
| image, it is via a remote server whose job is to generate the image then give it a URL and upload it onto the internet. This is all done in the time it takes you to see your finished graphic - all that you need to do is find the image's elusive URL, put it on your site, "et voila!", words AND pictures! | |||||||||||
| The good news is you don't have to do any hard work to find image URLs created here - dctv has thought of everything! Look BENEATH the remote controls, there's a further button which when pressed returns the image's URL automatically! This button reads 'Grab URL'...I just love buttons, don't you!!? hehee... OK without further ado let's fire up the workbench again and generate another label as before. But this time, try 2 additional steps: |
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| All going well you should see the image's URL appear, as if by magic! MAKE A NOTE OF THE FULL IMAGE URL. Either write it down (it'll be long) or press 'Ctrl+A' followed by 'Ctrl+C' to COPY it into the console's memory (those without keyboards use the on-screen COPY command). Just to confirm that the image exists for yourself(!), open the Left Trigger and PASTE the new URL in the field (you may have to delete the 'http://' already there). Now JUMP to it. Your image has become part of the great Information Superhighway that is the World Wide Web! You creative thing you. |
| Now a word of warning. The host server's generosity in creating free graphics may well be huge, but their storage capacity almost certainly isn't. The space needed to hold all these new graphics is no bottomless pit: the URL given is a TEMPORARY one. i.e. lasting no more than a few hours. At most. You |
| MUST transfer the image file to a more stable server. One which is not constantly being recycled by other customers (the Dreamcast itself has no such facility to store data beyond switching it off). To retain the image you must transfer the image before it is deleted to a |
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| free web-space hosting site such as Yahoo! GeoCities (Sitemaker/Geocities) or FreeDrive.com (Freebies/FreeDrive). Then you need to use FTP procedures to transfer the file using a transloading service (Toolbox/TransLoader). This is another topic completely, please view the relevant channels and sites given for more info. For now we're still not quite finished with investigating the top right frame... |
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