Way of controlling one webpage with another webpage?

[AzzyDude24601]

Hi, I'm assisting in the creation of a UI for a web app. The app is basically a website containing a database full of a few thousand YouTube videos.

The idea is that the controller uses an iPad to browse the database on one of the webpages, chooses a video and then it plays on a different webpage, which the viewers will be watching.

Anyone have ANY idea where to begin? ...I was thinking something along the lines of 'push' notifications maybe? No idea how they work though. It seems like a simple idea but it's proving quite difficult for my feeble intellect.

[mlseim]

A few questions ...

Is this all happening on one website ... it's just different pages?

Does the "controller guy" need to be able to force videos to start and stop,
or does the video player itself stay under control of the user?

Do all users viewing see the same video at the same time?
And by that I mean, if a viewer goes to your webpage, they'll see
the YouTube video player ... they have to press "play". Another viewer
will visit the page and see the same YouTube video ... and they
also have to press "play". One person is half-way through the video,
the other person has just started viewing it.

The viewers will also not finish watching at the same time. The "controller guy"
will have no idea what part of the video the user has seen. A viewer may finish
watching and just sit there ... meanwhile, the other visitors are watching the
next video. The "controller guy" really has no control over that, because web pages
are loaded into each individual user's browser ... they are not "kiosks".

EDIT:
I'm curious about addlisteners to determine when a video finishes. I'm seeing info like this:
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=983665

another link: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6...hen-video-ends

I suppose if a video finishes, you can refresh the page and PHP loads the next one for the user.
With "autoplay", the video starts when the page loads.



.

[AzzyDude24601]

Hi, thanks for the reply, it's actually a lot simpler than that.

The controller consists of one person on an iPad in the same room as the viewers. The viewers consist of about 4-8 people in a group looking at the same screen.

The controller decides the video and has the ability to pause, rewind and fast forward it, and the viewers watch the video (on a different webpage of the site because we will have a different UI for them and we just want them to focus on the video, not what the controller is doing).

Links to the YouTube videos will be stored in a MySQL database and the embed code will be retrieved using PHP. I think it's all very doable but I'm really uncertain about the logistics of controlling one webpages content with another webpage in real-time?

[mlseim]

I don't think it can be done using browsers, where a user views a webpage.

I believe the computers where the users are watching the videos needs to
be running an actual .exe program (C++ ?) ... all of them tied together somehow.
Maybe as simple as one PC where the controller does the work from the iPad,
and the other 8 PC's are "kiosk" monitors ... not browsers. They all see the same
video generated by the one PC.

Think about this ... even if you were using browsers, how would you get all of
the individual PC's to load them at the same exact time? Not possible.

[AzzyDude24601]

Originally Posted by mlseim

Think about this ... even if you were using browsers, how would you get all of
the individual PC's to load them at the same exact time? Not possible.

Okay, I don't think I've explained this well enough. There are only 2 "computers" involved in this situation, and only 2 "webpages".

The controller is viewing their webpage on an iPad. The 6-8 veiwers are viewing their webpage on one single television together (i.e. a TV connected to a laptop with a HDMI cable).

I think that should be possible without using C++?

[AzzyDude24601]

Originally Posted by nioeya20

I believe the computers where the users are watching the videos needs to
be running an actual .exe program (C++ ?) ... all of them tied together somehow.
Maybe as simple as one PC where the controller does the work from the iPad,
and the other 8 PC's are "kiosk" monitors ... not browsers. They all see the same
video generated by the one PC.

Why do people keep mentioning multiple PC's!?

There are only two PC's involved. One is used by the controller, one is used by the viewers. Just imagine two computers and two people. One person is looking at one webpage and the other person is looking at the other webpage. I just need a way to send information from one page to the other in real-time.

[mlseim]

There are 2 computers and and iPad ... the iPad is not a computer.

The 2 computers can be connected "video-wise" so the controller
and users are watching the same thing. If you're thinking the iPad
can be one of the computers, you have the problem of connecting
the video displays. That's why you'll have 2 computers and 1 iPad?
So you have 3 things?

And making the iPad a remote control for the 1st PC is also a problem.

That's why we're saying that a browser (like IE or FireFox) is not involved here.
Browsers are not "real-time".


.

[AzzyDude24601]

Originally Posted by mlseim

There are 2 computers and and iPad ... the iPad is not a computer.

The 2 computers can be connected "video-wise" so the controller
and users are watching the same thing. If you're thinking the iPad
can be one of the computers, you have the problem of connecting
the video displays. That's why you'll have 2 computers and 1 iPad?
So you have 3 things?

And making the iPad a remote control for the 1st PC is also a problem.

That's why we're saying that a browser (like IE or FireFox) is not involved here.
Browsers are not "real-time".


.

The iPad is no different from a computer in this context. We'll use Safari to access a webpage. The fact that it's an iPad doesn't even need to be mentioned actually. It's just a web browser.

Basically we have 1 computer looking at a webpage and we have 1 other computer looking at a different webpage. I want to be able to press a pause button on one page that will then pause the video on the second page.

I've discussed it with an acquaintance of mine who said he thought it was very doable. It would primarily involve JavaScript and JQeury.

I was just looking for more advice on the subject. Creating a .exe program is definitely not an option.

[mlseim]

I think with VLC you can "stream to network".
That means all computers connected are watching the same thing.

http://www.videolan.org/

Maybe that might be a solution.