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Updated February 4, 1999
Once you're finished creating ASF content, you can link to it from HTML pages or applications so that it plays in its external player, or you can embed it into a Web page or Microsoft Office application. To do this, create an ASX file. ASX is defined as a simple text file that acts as a link from a Web page to an ASF file on a Windows Media Services server or an HTTP server. It transfers control of the data from the HTTP browser to the Windows Media Player so that the data can stream.
Browsers by nature understand that when a user hits a link to content, that content should be downloaded to the user's cache directory, where it then plays from the user's hard drive. Streaming was invented to eliminate the need to download content before it starts playing, which means more immediate play and less burden on the user to have adequate hard disk space available. However, when linking directly to streaming files using a standard <a href> tag, the browser will simply download it like any other document, which defeats the purpose of streaming. Therefore, when you want to link to content to play in the external player, you create a redirector file called an ASX file and link to that instead.
After you've created your ASX file, host it on an HTTP server or network server to which all of your potential users will have access. When it's time to link to the ASX in your HTML page, just use a normal tag:
<a HREF="http://servername/path/asxname.asx">Description</a>
Now that you know how to create an ASX file, you're already there. Simply insert the ASX file in an e-mail message as an attachment, and when the user receives it they can double-click on it and the content will start streaming from the specified server.
There are some big advantages to inserting ASX files into e-mail messages as a way to invite or encourage people to view live or stored content. First, doing it this way saves bandwidth. Instead of sending an e-mail message to large numbers of people with big multimedia files that could clog network bandwidth, when you send ASX files you're only sending a tiny (approximately 1K) file that doesn't take up network bandwidth until the user starts playing the file. Also, sending ASX files means that the content for Windows Media Services will play in its external player, which frees the user to continue reading e-mail or work on other applications. Lastly, it allows the content developer to sidestep the entire browser issue by not even requiring that the user have a browser installed.
Additional scripting information and code samples are available in the Windows Media Services section of the Downloads area.
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