Anistock ( www.anistock.com ) is a library and collection of ready to use Stock Animation and Video Backgrounds. All animations and video backgrounds are created by their our own team of skilled animators and come fully rendered in PAL, NTSC, HD and Web formats.

Brian O' Connell, CEO from Anistock approached iWorks in 2007 with a view of developing a platform which would enable Anistock to sell 2D and 3D animations directly to the public. In addition Brian also wanted the system to be able to cater for affiliates and distributors who would promote and sell the animations either directly from their own site or through Anistock.

iWorks was awarded the contract to build the system in the summer of 2007.

The following modules were built on time and within budget mainly using Perl as the core language and MySQL as the database;

1. The Catalogue Module.

• This module detects new animation clips when they are placed on the Anistock Server and updates the Anistock catalogue database.
• Each animation clip consists of a number of ancillary files. Namely, a watermarked version of a large and small jpg, a large and small flash file. These are displayed in the frontend of the website and allow potential customers to view the Anistock content. In addition the module caters for a number of un-watermarked formats such as Flash, NTSC Mov, PAL Mov, Hi-Definition Mov etc.
• This module also detects what required files are missing. A report on missing formats is sent to an Anistock staff member each morning.
• A Master control panel for the Administrator was built using Perl and MySQL which facilitates the management of all aspects of the online business. For example; creating various categories that the clip type would go under, such as Backgrounds, Sport etc. The facility to match a clip against these categories and to mark that clip as published or unpublished.
• A separate Administration area was built for keyworders. These are individuals who insert search terms and keywords against the clip for search engine purposes.

2. The Billing Module.

• Originally the Billing Module was set up to allow for customer's to purchase individual clips. However with the ever changing field of e-Commerce, it became apparent very quickly that the way forward for Anistock was to go down-the-road of a subscription based model. This is were an Anistock customer signs up for a month or a year and has access to download a predefined quantity per month and formats based on the chosen subscription type. This was straightforward to achieve as iWorks creates flexibility for change in all it's bespoke developments.
• As a result a number of additional components was required to facilitate the subscription based model. Namely the ability for the Administrator to create and amend various subscription models. These models would be based on either a month or a year. The number of credits (1 clip = 1 download) that were allowed to be downloaded per month, the various formats that the subscription was tied to, and as the feature was built with multi-currency, the various prices by currency for the subscription model. These requirements were all developed seamlessly into the Master Control Panel.
• Like all businesses, iWorks built a number of online and automatic e-Mail reports from daily sales, to monthly downloads, affiliate visitors etc.
• An automated e-Mail component was built in Perl to inform existing customers a week before their subscription was to end of this fact with the hope that they would re-subscribe.
• In addition the system was set up to allow the Administrator to create and use coupons which would allow discounts on subscription purchases. Such coupons are used for various marketing campaigns and for rewarding existing subscribers.
• Brian also required a number of payment gateways to be incorporated into the billing process. The billing process was further complicated with the option of additional Anistock offerings. For example; Anistock introduced the Anitailor feature which allows existing subscribers the option of tailoring existing clips at a nominal price. The Anicreate feature allows existing subscribers the option of purchasing animation clips made to order.

3. The Distributor and Affiliate Module

• It was decided at the very start that Anistock would use to its best advantage, affiliates and distributors. Distributors would be those websites that would sell Anistock content, direct from their own website. Affiliates on the other hand, would be those that pushed traffic to Anistock from their own website.
• This module was built in Perl and used the MySQL database and allows like-minded webmasters the ability to signup / register as an Affiliate or Distributor.
• The module reports to each webmaster on a monthly basis, the number of visitors, purchases and commissions. In addition it offers webmasters additional codes and pieces of software to use to maximise returns. For example, one piece of software was an Ajax widget which allows the webmaster to display the entire Anistock Database, on their website easily using only two scripts on their server. This widget allows for the webmaster's visitors the ability to search the Anistock database and view the content via categories and pages. Another example was a specific link for each webmaster, which in turn they could use in their e-Mail campaigns. This link identifies the webmaster's profile, with the added bonus of offering a discount to the webmaster's address list.
• Each Affiliate and Distributor is e-Mailed on a weekly basis, a pdf report on their Anistock commission and traffic.
• The module also automates payments to Affiliates and Distributors on a monthly basis.

4. The Storage Module

• Anistock files can range from a couple of megabytes in size to a Gigabytes. With each animation having more than 10 different formats, and with the Anistock database over 20,000 clips it was obvious that a typical webserver would not be able to cope with demand or space.
• In order for visitors to receive the best possible experience it was necessary to have the downloadable content, stored separately, otherwise as subscriber's are downloading content and using the server's bandwidth, visitors to the site would experience very slow load times - which just wasn't acceptable. After investigating the various current options that were available to host Terabytes of data, we went with Amazon S3 Storage. iWorks had previous experience with S3 when we built the Media website www.venuevj.com, it was an obvious choice.
• Scripts were developed in Perl to integrate with the S3 engine. In addition we were able to encrypt part of the URL string for the download and set a time-limit within the encryption. This enabled Anistock to issue URLs to their subscribers, which as a result would allow the subscriber to download the content over a set period, and once that period expired so did the facility to download the clip. This secured Anistock's content entering the public domain.

5. The Frontend Module

• The frontend module was designed and developed with both the end user and search engine in mind. It can be very difficult to match both requirements, but with determination and patience we achieved just that.
• The code behind the frontend is full tableless CSS dynamically built using Perl and MySQL, which enables search engines the option of crawling through the content more easily. Remember the SEO motto, Content is King.
• The URLs use apache mod rewrites to be Search Engine and human readable (changed the urls to something meaningful and ended it with a .html.
• A comprehensive search component was built which searches by weighted keyword against each clip and returns the results weighted by relevence.
• Each clip has been incorporated dynamically with its own page, this was to improve search engine readable content which in turn results in higher ranking. (Do you remember the keyworders I mentioned earlier.... its those Keywords that were entered that get picked up by the search engines!).
• A preview of each clip is achieved by a simple rollover using an in-house developed flash thumbnail component. A large preview is available by opening the larger flash preview within a frame. This allows the subscriber / user to view the animation without having to leave the searched page.
• For subscribers, we developed a login / register script. Upon logging into the system the subscriber can view downloaded clips, print pdf invoices, change his/her details, renew or upgrade their subscription, etc in real time.
• A facility for all subscribers was developed which allows the subscriber to request changes to any animation clip - the Anitailor option. This facility required additions to various administration areas to control the request.
• A feature for all subscribers was developed which allows the subscriber to request formats that are not currently available. The rendering request is updated in various Administration areas, with the result that an email is sent to the subscriber when the rendered clip is available for download from S3 Storage.
• An additional feature was put in place to allow subscribers to allow their friends or work colleagues a chance to download content. This is a unique feature that iWorks suggested to Brian. This involves using a token system. A token which is a unique identifier can be e-mailed automatically by the subscriber, to a friend or colleague. This is dependant on the number of credits (downloads) the customer has left. The upshot is that the friend or work colleague could download an animation clip without the need to sign up. This proved quiet useful in large design studios.

All the above and more was achieved within the agreed deadline and within budget. Like all iWorks clients we have had a positive working relationship with Anistock. We are of the view that if our client does well, there is a good chance so will we. Like the majority of websites, Anistock is a going concern, and as such is constantly evolving. We are committed to working and partnering with Anistock going forward on whatever their present and future requirements are.

We are currently developing a few new modules for Anistock. All is on the Q T, however I can say that we are building a Flex application that will be geared towards the 3 main social network sites. This module will go live in February 2009. We are very excited about it.