3 Replies Latest reply: Oct 10, 2014 2:34 AM by Peter Villevoye RSS

    What does the acronym "OAM" stand for ?

    Peter Villevoye CommunityMVP
    Peter Villevoye Sep 29, 2014 2:37 AM

      It might seem a trivial question, but as a trainer my goal is to make things less complicated or at least more understandable to my course attendees. Describing the oam file in Adobe Edge Animate is one of such areas where students get lost. Why is it called an "Animate Deployment Package" in Edge Animate, "Edge Animate Composition" in Dreamweaver, and an "Animated Widget File" elsewhere, while the extension is "OAM", and what does the abbreviation stand for actually ? Consistent use of a file format's name and logical extension would help users understanding it better.

        • 1. Re: What does the acronym "OAM" stand for ?
          vivekuma Adobe Employee
          vivekuma Sep 29, 2014 3:07 AM (in response to Peter Villevoye)

          An OAM file is a zip file that packs all the necessary assets into an Assets folder, and includes some configuration information in an XML document.

          Try replacing the extension of .oam to .zip, and see the content inside of it.


          OAM(no idea why it's called oam) is an exention for "Animate Deployment Package" file. It's called "Deployment package" in Edge Animate because it packages edge animate composition that can be deployed to other Adobe products like Dreamweaver, InDesign, & Muse.


          In Dreamweaver, the same file is called "Edge Animate Composition" because inserting this will bring the edge animate created composition into Dreamweaver.


          While it's called "Animated Widget File" elsewhere, because it is of file type ""Animated Widget File", as you can see here: http://www.fileinfo.com/extension/oam


          Hope it helps,

          Vivekuma

          • 2. Re: What does the acronym "OAM" stand for ?
            Siva. Community Member
            Siva. Sep 29, 2014 8:03 AM (in response to Peter Villevoye)

            OAM is OpenAjax Metadata More here

            • 3. Re: What does the acronym "OAM" stand for ?
              Peter Villevoye CommunityMVP
              Peter Villevoye Oct 10, 2014 2:34 AM (in response to vivekuma)

              I also Googled and found this page about this OpenAjax, but with so many developers (and even Dreamweaver) steering away from Ajax, I thought it would just be a coincidence for Adobe to use a similar extension. But I've opened the buried XML file in the zipped .oam folder, and noticed indeed the widget xmlns="http://openajax.org/metadata" spec="1.0" in the code. So thanks for reassuring !

               

              Still, it's a pity Adobe doesn't use a more consistent description of it in various applications.