What is AssetML ?

AssetML defines an xml file that let application developper to use it as a resource database.
The idea is to be have a way to search content on your hard drive with metadata (like name, category, file type, description) instead of just a file name. This way, users can browse content more easily and developpers can share content more easily.

AssetML can be used to provide stock images, sounds or video and let any application benefit from it.
For example in the education area, we always need voices for letters, numbers, icons and so on. Instead of having each application developpers provide its own, he could create a package with an assetml description file and let others use it.
Another example is to use it to package free musics in the usual distribution form (like rpm). This way, audio players and games could let you browse and select a background music easily.
Last is for stock images, like with music, we can now install them and let the user select a background or an image for a document by searching through the assetml database.

Be aware that this is a very young project and that the tools and formats used here may be changed or altered.
For more information please contact the mailinglist.

XML File format

 <AssetML dataset="numbers-en" rootdir="../numbers-en/" locale="en">
  <Asset file="1.ogg" mimetype="audio/x-ogg">
   <Description>The number One</Description>
   <Credits>Who did the audio / Licence info</Credits>
   <Categories>number;math;algebra</Categories>
  </Asset>
 </AssetML>

I18N issues

After xml-i18n parsing we would end up with:

 <AssetML dataset="gcompris numbers" rootdir="../gcompris/boards/numbers/"\
    locale="en">
  <Asset file="1.ogg" mimetype="audio/x-ogg">
   <Description>The number One</Description>
   <Description xml:lang="fr">Numero Un</Description>
   <Credits>Who did the audio / Licence info</Credits>
   <Categories>number;math;algebra</Categories>
  </Asset>
 </AssetML>

File extension and Location

To easily find assetml file, they must have the extension .assetml and be located in $prefix/share/assetml
The images, audio and video themselves can be placed anywhere and they will be found by merging the attribute rootdir of AssetML and the file attribute.
This way, the packager can organise its asset files the way he/she wants within the archive.

Packaging issues

One still could of course create a package dependancy to the resources package if they are mandatory for its app to work.

Tools and utilities