OAW Screencasts (Planning)

< To: oAW

Since we received a lot of positive feedback for the screencasts Markus recorded for the openArchitectureWare 4.2 release, we thought it might be worthwhile to produce oAW screencasts in a more or less regular way.

Topics

Topics we think might be interesting for our users:

• How to install
• Model-to-Model Transformations
• Stdlib
• Extension Tipps and Tricks
• Integration with Enterprise Architect
• Integration with MagicDraw
• Integration with RSM/RSA
• Integration with GMF
• Detailed overview on the workflow engine
• Xtext basic
• Xtext advanced
• Structure of projects
• Integration of generators as Eclipse plugin
• Features of the expression language
• Creating a workflow component
• Creating cartridges (concentrate on basics)
• Designing extendable cartridges (using AOP)

Schedule

This section helps us plan the recording of the screencasts.

People

Who would be willing to help?

• Peter: Plan, create samples, record & edit screencasts
• Markus: Record and edit screencasts
• Karsten: Create samples, record & edit screencasts
• Sven: Record and edit screencasts
• Patrick: Compose a short intro and outro jingle (Meanwhile, the jingle is available)

Tools

Tool recommendations. Any free tools? Or commercial ones we have licenses for? Do not enter license codes here, use the license page on openArchitectureWare.org instead

You will need a screen recording software. I am using Camtasia Studio (I still use version 4, version 5 seems to be the current one).

They do have a 30-day trial license, so you can give it a try and ISC can pay for one or more licenses later.

To make sure the sounds recording is a decent quality you should use a microphone. I like to use a handheld mike like this one: Sony F-V220 Alternatively any halfway decent headset mike should be good enough, (after all, we're not trying to record a Hollywood movie here).

To create the video, I run the recorder application of Camtasia. I then select Window as the recording area and make sure Record Audio is selected. You can perform a little audio test to verify that the recording level is ok - the Recorder window actually shows you the level. It should be in the upper third, never reaching the top of the bar.

You then press the big red Record button. You will then have to select the Window you want to record. A red-bordered rectangle shows the current selection. Once you've selected the window you want to record click there. This will result in selecting that window for recording, and the window will have the recording tools attachted to its bottom. Make sure you don't record more than 1024*768 pixels, since larger areas might result in performance/frame rate issues.

Then just go ahead with whatever you want to record. Once you've finished, press the Stop button in the control panel at the bottom of the recording area. Camtasia will show you a preview of the recording in a separate window.

If you like what you see, press Save to store the recording somewhere on your disk. Note that at this point it is still in a raw state. It's not yet a video you can watch anywhere.

Camtasia will prompt you whether you want to edit the video in Camtasia Studio. Typically you will answer with yes, "Edit my Recording".

Camtasia then opens the editor shown below. You can use the timeline in the bottom to cut out stuff you don't want to have in the final recording, and also move things around (mainly you'll just remove stuff). Camtasia also provides a number of special effects, but I have never used any of these.

Once you're finished editing, you can select Produce Video As ... from the File menu.

Here's a couple of hints for the settings you should use when producing the video:

• Select Custom Production Settings, then Next
• Select AVI video (or WMV Streaming), then Next
• Leave all the AVI Encoding Options unchanged; press Next
• Leave the Video Size options unchanged; making is smaller loses details, so don't do it! Press Next
• Don't change anything about the Video Options. Press Next once more :-)
• If you follow the advice to create short videos illustrating one specific point, then you don't need any of the Marker options. Press Next.
• In the Produce Video dialog, make sure you select a name and a folder for the video. Press Finish (finally :-))
• The video is now available in the folder you've selected.

Source Code

We will need to write / re-use / re-work existing and / or new samples to perform these screen casts.

• Where do we place those sample projects (i.e. which repository):
• How should the samples be named: