December 12th, 2008
- Flash
I have recently stumbled into a problem with a media section of a site I am working on where users can view video clips. As is the norm now-days, I am using an flv that progressively downloads from my web server to the client. The area is pretty much like a YouTube section of the site where the user picks or searches from a database of video clips, then upon choosing their clip views this on another page.
The problem reared its ugly head because unlike youtube, this site used a menu that drops down over the flash video.
This is easily curable using the wmode=transparent parameter that allows elements to be displayed over the flash object.
<param name=”wmode” value=”transparent”> – to be added to the OBJECT tag
wmode=”transparent” – to be added to the EMBED tag
However, my issue came with also wanting the user to be able to display the video in full screen. At first I thought it was just a case of using a skin with the full screen option. But upon reading further I found I also needed the “allowfullscreen” parameter set to true.
Again, not a problem, once it was set it worked like a dream… until I set both wmode and allowfullscreen. That’s when things fell over.
This is down to the software scaling which allowfullscreen uses to take over the users monitor.
I had a few options…
Although it wasn’t a perfect solution, opening up a new media player would allow the full screen and provide another opportunity to display more information related to the video to the user. Therefore this is what I opted for.
The final obstacle was stopping the current video (if playing) when the user pops up the media player.
This is possible using javascript to communicate with the current flash movie and then popping up the media player in the same function.
I found http://www.permadi.com/tutorial/flashjscommand/ – very useful.
So, there we go. For the time being that’s my solution. Still not perfect though, so I will keep an eye on my stats to see when the majority of users have the latest flash player installed.
Tags: allowfullscreen, control flash, flash, javascript, media player, wmode
Posted in Misc, Website Development | No Comments »
December 9th, 2008
For such a long time I used the web in pretty much the same way each day. I would log on to my sites, normally in the same order, carry out my everyday tasks, usually in the same way, then close the browser, usually with the same red cross in the top right hand corner. Ok, so the red cross bit of it’s not going to change, but the way in which I now browse the web has… and that’s thanks to StumbleUpon.
I’ve been a web developer for several years now and have often looked at ways in which I can keep up-to-date with the latest new websites out there. Not easy, due to the fact a new website wouldn’t fit into my pattern of web usage! The only new websites I used to come across were factual ones when searching for information or code and they were hardly the most inspiring.
Since starting this website, I’ve tried to look into every avenue of online marketing (for no budget) to try and encourage visits to the site. My primary focus was obviously SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and generating content through this blog. But as any web developer knows, it takes time to make an impact.
That’s when I looked into user-generated sites such as Digg, reddit, delicious and finally StumbleUpon. So, initially I looked to these online resources to promote my site, but after installing the StumbleUpon toolbar, I started to view a handful of new sites a day just to see what else is out there.
The good news is, I’ve come across some really useful sites and some that have inspired me. I’ve finally found that way of keeping up-to-date with some of the most impressive content on the web. I’ve quite literally stumbled upon a gem of a site. If you haven’t already, I suggest you also give it a go…
Tags: Latest websites, new, StumbleUpon, Web Development
Posted in Website Development | 1 Comment »
December 9th, 2008
After the success of my fonejacker TV Soundbox on Facebook, I decided to try out the same with
two of my favourite characters.
Alan Partridge is a legend… pure and simple. Also, running through his tv shows – The Day Today, Knowing me Knowing you and I’m Alan Partridge, Steve Coogan has blessed our screens with a character that delivers some of the best comedy quotes ever!
Perfect for an Alan Partridge TV Soundbox…
The next character is Gene Hunt from the shows Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes. Both show’s have proved to be the best thing to come out of the BBC drama vault in years and Philip Glenister as Gene Hunt doesn’t only deliver a cracking performance in each episode, he also delivers a plethora of quality quotes.
So again… Gene Hunt lends himself perfectly to a TV Soundbox application.
As I have used Widgetbox to make these applications, you can install them on any social networking profile or add them too your own website.
Check them out here…
Gene Hunt
http://www.neilsmithdesigns.co.uk/genehunt.html
Alan Partridge
http://www.neilsmithdesigns.co.uk/alanpartridge.html
Fonejacker
http://www.neilsmithdesigns.co.uk/fonejacker.html
Tags: Alan Partridge, Facebook, Gene Hunt, Quotes, Steve Coogan, TV Soundbox
Posted in Website Marketing | 1 Comment »
December 9th, 2008
After my initial blogs about Widgetbox and creating a facebook app (Pitch to the Dragons). I thought I’d investigate what sort of fun widget I could create using flash and Widgetbox.
I love fonejacker – It’s one quality program with some excellent characters. It’s also a tv show that lends itself to a little application that lets you here from all the best characters on the show. So I set about creating a flash app that lets the user select a character and then play a series of sound clips from the show.
Once complete I set this up as a facebook widget through using Widgetbox. Once again the process was very easy and within minutes (although the flash app took me several hours!) the widget was up and running.
So… five stars again for Widgetbox.
If you have facebook you can add the fonejacker tv-soundbox to your profile.
It contains all the best characters such as Terry Tibbs, Brian Betonde, The mouse, George Agdgdgwngo, Mr Doovde and the Chinese lad who likes to pirate dvds! I only added this to facebook and promoted it in a few fonejacker groups a couple of days ago and it has already surpassed the dragons app I did weeks ago.
If you haven’t got facebook, you can take a look and play around with it here.
I’ve also included some code on the page incase you would like to embed it in your own website.
Tags: Brian Betonde, Facebook application, Fonejacker, Mr Doovde, Terry Tibbs, widgetbox
Posted in Misc | No Comments »
December 9th, 2008
I came across Widgetbox when I was looking into developing a Facebook widget I had an idea for. As with most bloggers I want as many people as possible reading my posts, so I look into every avenue of marketing my website. The social network boom has made this an obvious place to look, with every person having so many friends viral marketing has never been able to spread so fast.
For my Facebook application I delved into FBML and already had knowledge of php so was able to develop my widget in about a week. However when I came across Widgetbox it looked on the surface like I could have saved time simply registering and going through their wizard.
That wasn’t quite the case although the features it does support are still quite impressive.
With php and mysql you can obviously create a far superior application than what is basically possible on Widgetbox. But it does let you interface with Flash and Javascript so there is scope to make a decent application.
As it interacts with Flash there are already loads of games that have been made into Widgets.
However the quickest and easiest way of creating a widget is by first creating a Blidget. This is a Widget of your Blog.
Widgetbox guides you through the process seamlessly, even loading Facebook within a frame to enable you to set up the necessary parameters.
You can then promote your new widget through Facebook, through a blidget promo badge you post on your website or on other social networking sites such as MySpace or Bebo.
You see, even though I’ve banged on about facebook, Widgetbox supports the OpenSocial container as well. Although Facebook is not developed on the OpenSocial platform and is at the moment the most used platform, OpenSocial is Googles attempt at standardising social networking… and I wouldn’t bet against Google winning in the long run, would you?
So all in all Widgetbox is a great tool for developing a widget to promote your blog really easily.
Infact you can install my Widget to have a look at what it’s like by clicking on the “Get My Widget for your site” on the left hand side of this page.
It looks like this…
I’ve only touched the surface of what Widgetbox can offer, but I can see that it will help loads of people out there spread their hard work to a far reaching audience.
Tags: Blidget, Blogging, Facebook, FBML, Social Networking, Viral Marketing, widget, widgetbox
Posted in Blogging | 1 Comment »
