| ThingMaker Documentation Chapter 6) Publishing

| Tutorial 9: Protecting Your Things This Tutorial discusses how to protect your Things before publishing them. You must have a ThingWorld ID (see Tutorial 8), before you undertake this Tutorial. Here are the steps you'll perform in this tutorial:

- Open an existing Scene
- Add a Copyright Action to the Thing
- Add an ID/credit Action to the Thing
- Add a Lock Action to a Thing

  Getting Started
  1. Run the ThingMaker application.
  If it's not already running, launch the application. If it is open, save your current Scene file.

  2. Open the file Tutorial 3.tms.
  It's contained in:
  drive:/Program Files/Parable/ThingMaker/Tutorial/Tutorial3.tms

  Adding Copyright
  This Scene file contains only one Thing. Lock and Copyright Actions, like all Actions, are added to a Thing's Settings Sheet. Because each Thing in a Scene can have its own Lock and Copyright, you can add treat individual Things differently.

  1. Click on the Dog Thing to select it.

  2. Open the Settings Sheet for the Thing.
  You can quickly open the Settings Sheet by double-clicking on the Thing in the Scene.

  3. Drag the Copyright Action to the Information Tab of the Settings Sheet.
  Copyright and Lock Actions are added to the Information Tab. If you drag these Actions to one of the other Tabs, ThingMaker will prompt you to place it in the Information Tab.

  4. Click on the Copyright Holder ID Field.
  This Field lists all the ThingWorld IDs that have been loaded into the program already.

  5. Choose an ID.
  Don't use the ThingMaker Generic ID, because it won't provide a link back to you. Anyone with this ID can open any Thing tagged in this manner.

  Preview in Browser
  Even without publishing your Thing to the web, you can see what the Copyright Action will look like by using the Preview in the Browser function.

  1. Choose Preview in Browser from the File menu.
  This should launch your default browser and display the Scene in it. If the browser doesn't launch, here are some questions to ask yourself:

- Do you have a browser installed?
- Do you have a default browser defined for the system?
- Do you have ThingViewer installed?
- Do you have enough memory?

  2. Move the cursor over the Thing and press the right-mouse button.
  A context-menu appears.

  3. Choose Copyright.
  The Copyright and Credits Window appears. Notice that the year and the name of the ThingWorld ID holder appear in the Button at the top of the Dialog next to the Copyright symbol. Click this Button. The browser should take you to the ID page at the ThingWorld website.

  4. Close the Browser.
  We provide the ability for you to insert the copyright symbol with any Thing object which you create using ThingMaker. This provides you with certain protections under the U. S. Copyright Law. You may need to register your copyright under the U. S. Copyright Law with the U. S. Copyright Office. Parable does not undertake to register your copyright with the U. S. Copyright Office. Please consult your counsel to determine if additional actions are necessary on your part.

  Adding an ID/Credit Action
  The Copyright ID Action lets you add copyright information to a Thing. You can add one copyright ID to a Thing. Keep in mind that you can give credit to other people involved in creating a Thing when the ID/Credit action is used.

  1. Add an ID/Credit Action to the Thing.

  2. Type in a credit into the Credit(Role) field.
  As an example, for the creator of the Thing, you could type Artist into the Credit (Role) Field. You could also type designer, producer, or other designation of your choosing.

  3. Choose a ThingWorld ID.

  4. Choose Preview in Browser from the File menu.

  5. Right-mouse click the Thing.
  Notice that the Role and ThingMaker ID are displayed. This list will scroll if there are multiple names.

  Clicking on the ID name (blue text) will take you to the ID page attached to that ID/Credit Action.

  When you're finished, close the browser and return to ThingMaker.

  Giving Credit
  Other contributors can provide you with their ID/Credit Actions. They can be attached to a Thing or not attached to a Thing, and you can store them in a Scene or Gallery until you are ready to add them to the Credits list. You won't be able to edit this ID/Credit Action, but you can add it to your Things for this purpose.

  Locking the Thing
  Now that you've added Copyright and ID/Credit Actions to your Thing, you are almost ready to publish the Scene. First, we suggest you add a Lock Action to prevent others from using your Thing without permission. You don't have to add a Lock before publishing, but it's just something you should consider very strongly.

  1. Select the Thing, open the Settings Sheet, and click the InformationTab.

  2. Drag the Lock Action to the Information Tab.
  The Lock Settings Sheet appears in the Settings Palette. Leave the options as they are.

  3. Preview the Scene.

  4. Right mouse-click the Scene.
  Notice that the Menu items Save Scene Copy Thing and Copy HTML tag, are disabled. Adding the Lock Action has disabled these options.

  5. Return to ThingMaker.

  Configuring the Lock
  The Lock Action includes three ways to lock your work: you can Lock a Thing to a Universal Resource Locator (URL), you can prevent reuse, or you can lock parts of the Thing. The Lock to URL and Prevent Reuse options are more fully explained in the Reference manual section for the Lock Action.

  In this section of the Tutorial, we are going to make a Thing that others can copy and reuse, but we are going to limit what they can do with it.

  1. Click on the Prevent Reuse option (It should now be unchecked).
  Others will be able to save and reuse the Thing now.

  2. Add a Web Action to the MouseClick State of the Thing.

  3. Click on the Information Tab and click on the Lock Action Icon.

  4. Click on the Detail Tab.
  This shows the details for the Lock. You will see that every component of the Thing is listed in the scrolling field and has a check-box for Copying and Changing. All of these are checked, which means no one can change or copy that component at this time.

  5. Scroll down to the Web Address Action at the bottom of the list.

  6. Click on the Changing check box.
  This means that a person who chooses to save this Thing for future use will be able to change the web address only.

  7. View the Thing in the Browser.
  You'll see that Copy and Save are back in the Context menu because you unchecked the Prevent Reuse option.

  Where to from here
  As an exercise, save the ID you used to create the Thing. Temporarily remove it from the ThingMaker's ID field, then open it in ThingMaker and see how the Thing is treated without an ID. You may also want to explore what happens to your Things without a Lock or Copyright and Credits. You can also learn more about these Actions in the Reference manual.

  Now that you've learned how to protect your Things, let's move on to Tutorial 10 and learn how to publish your Things as Scenes in HTML pages.

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