magmasource.caltech.edu

Rather than installing the Flash plugin we recommend that you use the built in Flash player in either Google Chrome, which is available for all desktop operating systems, or Microsoft Edge, which is included in Windows 10 by default. You will need to enable Flash for the MAGMA movies website. If you do not want to use Flash at all, or if you are using a mobile device, such as an iPad, you can still view the movies. If no browser plugin for Flash is detected, or the plugin is out of date, then movies will be converted to HTML5 (on the server side) and will loop automatically. Composite movies with full controls, which may be played off-line, are available on request. To play movies off-line we recommend installing the Shumway extension to Firefox, which (locally) converts the Flash objects to HTML5.

On Chrome, go to Settings → Advanced → Content settings → Flash. Move the slider to allow sites to run Flash. Add the MAGMA domain name (https://magmasource.caltech.edu) to the list of allowed sites. Follow the 'How to choose the movies' instructions to open any movie on the MAGMA site. Then move the slider back to block other sites from running Flash, so that the settings look like the example to the right. You should find that you can still open movies on the MAGMA sites.

For Microsoft Edge, click the 'Settings and more' three dots in the top right hand corner. Go to Settings → Advanced Settings and move the 'User Adobe Flash Play' slider to 'On'. You still need to activate Flash for individual sites by opening a .swf (Flash) file directly; otherwise the Flash plugin will not be detected and the movies will loop. Follow the movie test link below, and click the puzzle piece that should appear in the address field. This displays a message that Adobe Flash content was blocked, and asks whether you want to allow Adobe Flash to run on the MAGMA site. If you choose 'Always allow' then movies on the MAGMA site should work correctly, with full controls.

If you already have a forum account, you can log in to the right; otherwise please register!
(You only need do this if you want to use Microsoft Edge for movie playback)

The linked test movie is a composite movie of the sort intended for off-line use (see above and next section). You can test the Shumway extension to Firefox by following this link: if the movie controls work then the extension is installed correctly. You can test off-line use by right-clicking the link above and selecting "Save Link As..." or similar. Open the downloaded file by dragging it from a file manager, such Windows Explorer or MacOS' Finder, onto the Firefox window. On Linux you may need to issue the following command at the Terminal to get it working (no need to restart Firefox):

  echo 'application/x-shockwave-flash      swf swfl' >> .mime.types  

Note that the Shumway browser extension is not detected as a Flash plugin for Firefox. Shumway can be used to control off-line movie playback, but movies that are opened from the Movie Selector will loop within Firefox/Shumway.

Open the Movie Selector and choose the layout and number of movies. S-X (entropy-composition) and T-X (temperature-composition) movies are the larger plots; temperature, melt fraction, melt productivity and entropy versus pressure are the smaller plots. Plots options, such as binary system, source type, mixing ratio and melt regime can be applied separately or copied to all plots. Choose between 'Heterogeneous' (pyroxenite and peridotite source in thermal but not chemical equilibrium) or 'Homogeneous' (a single source with the same bulk composition). A 'Normal' mixing ratio means that the combined pyroxene and depleted perdotite have a fertile mantle-like composition; 'Low pyroxenite' gives an overall more depleted source and 'High pyroxenite' a more enriched one.

Buttons are provided for playing the combined movie in a browser window, printing (displaying the frame for a chosen pressure, without movie controls, so that the image can be saved) and saving the query so that the same combination of movies can be revisited without using the Movie Selector.

On the older movie server it was possible to download the combined Flash (.swf) file for off-line playback that could, for example, be more convenient for teaching purposes. For reasons beyond our control, that option is not available on the new server. Instead, when you choose 'Save query' one of the links given is a 'mailto:' that may be used to request an off-line version of a given movie combination. To request multiple files, simply copy and paste text, one quoted string per line, into the email body. Include your name etc. too so that we know you are not a robot! You will receive an email reply with a link for downloading the .swf file(s). As mentioned previously, we suggest you view the downloaded file in Firefox, with the Shumway extension.

Known bugs and limitations

• There is almst no documentation! Basic documentation, including more detail about Movie Selector options and movie playback controls, will be posted soon. Full explanation, with examples taken from the available movies, will follow later.
• The combined movie files may take a long time to load, especially on mobile devices. Please be patient: once loaded, playback speed should be fine.
• The dimensions of the embedded movies are calculated using the browser window height, at the time of loading. If a movie, like the two-plot example shown here, is not displaying correctly then try resizing the window (e.g. reduce the width slightly).
• Similarly, if you resize the window and the embedded movies are now too big or too small, then just refresh the page to recalculate the sizes.
• On iPad, you need to scroll up after the movie loads to hide the title bar. This works better on Chrome than Safari, but see the next comment.
• On mobile devices you may get an error message about a problem with the website. This is likely to be related to memory use; freeing up space on your device may help, especially on older devices. iOS Safari will automatically reload the page and continue almost seamlessly.
• The layout for portrait orientation does not quite work as intended on iPad. For a single large plot (e.g. T-X for all systems, except Fo-Q) you can simply zoom in to fill the screen. For two small plots, use the landscape 1/2 page layout (movies 1 and 2) instead of the portrait one (movies 1 and 3).

The movie output has been most thoroughly tested in Chrome, as that is the only browser available on all the platforms that we have access to. It has been also been checked (to varying degrees) in Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, and Opera, and on Linux / Mac / Windows / iOS where appropriate.