SlideShowPro News

12.31.08 | SlideShowPro for Lightroom 1.3.6 released

A new update for SlideShowPro for Lightroom is now available for download in the account center.

This release, version 1.3.6, allows you to override parameter settings assigned through param.xml with FlashVars in the player embed code. You simply create a FlashVars variable for the parameter you want to override (using the same name as used in param.xml) and assign a value. That FlashVars variable will then be used instead of the value assigned in param.xml. This allows you to do things like assign a dynamic XML File Path, change colors, etc.

Also updated in this release is an input field for "Text Strings." The field is populated (by default) with a comma separated list of the English words used for things like the gallery navigation buttons, caption header, etc. You can edit these values to anything you like.

The release also includes the very latest version of SlideShowPro (1.8.9.8) which you can read more about in the version history.

To download the update, login to the account center, then follow the updating instructions if you need assistance.

12.28.08 | SlideShowPro Director Hosting year-end special about to run out!

Just a friendly reminder that there are only three days left to take advantage of our year-end free month bonus. This special offer adds an extra month of service to any SlideShowPro Director Hosting subscription that's new or is an extension of an existing subscription. The offer expires when the clock strikes midnight on December 31st, so take advantage of it while you still can!

12.26.08 | ThumbGrid "iTunes" demo

To further demonstrate what's possible with SlideShowPro ThumbGrid, and to give Flash developers some ActionScript to play with, we've posted a new iTunes inspired demo. The demo loads album cover art in an interface that resembles the iTunes store, whereby you can navigate backwards and forwards between thumb groups, as well as jump to a particular thumb group using the circular navigation above the thumbs. The circular navigation is dynamically generated to include however many thumb group screens are present, so you can add/remove data at will without rebuilding the navigation.

SlideShowPro ThumbGrid users can download the FLA for this demo on the product download page.

12.24.08 | SlideShowPro ThumbGrid 1.1.1 released

SlideShowPro ThumbGrid has been updated to version 1.1.1. This is a small update that changes the behavior of active thumbnails so they can't be clicked while in an active state (but still rollover/rollout). It also includes a new event (switchThumbGroup) that broadcasts information about the thumb group being switched to. This is different than currentThumbGroup, which fires every time a new thumbnail is made active, for it only fires once when thumb groups switch.

Registered users of SlideShowPro ThumbGrid can login to the account center to download.

12.22.08 | SlideShowPro for Flash 1.8.9.8 released

SlideShowPro for Flash (AS2, AS3 and standalone) has been updated to 1.8.9.8 and is now available for download in the account center.

This release is mostly a maintenance / optimization build that improves the efficiency / CPU usage of the media player interface, improved rendering of the timer element when positioned inside content of varying sizes, and some live preview tweaks. This release also changes the file name displayed when using the "File Name" Caption Header Appearance setting with images/videos loaded from SlideShowPro Director (now shows the original file name, not the generated one).

You can read more in the SlideShowPro for Flash version history.

12.17.08 | SlideShowPro ThumbGrid 1.1 Released

A new 1.1 release for SlideShowPro ThumbGrid is now available for download in the account center.

This release includes two new features / parameters to modify when using ThumbGrid. The first, Active Focus, allows you to turn on/off ThumbGrid's automatic selection of active thumbnails on the grid (either when a new image is loaded in SlideShowPro for Flash, or when the user stops manipulating the grid view after five seconds have passed). The second is Thumb Zoom Overflow, which allows thumbnails (when rolled-over) to expand outside the component area. You can allow thumbnails to overflow all four sides of the component, the left and right only, or the top and bottom only. The latter two options are especially helpful when ThumbGrid is scaled to the edges of the SWF with empty space only available above/below or on the left/right side of the component.

We've also modified the TGThumbEvent event class so that it broadcasts all related data pertaining to the image a thumbnail is associated with. This includes the existing currentThumb event, but also with the (two new) events rolloverThumb and rolloutThumb. These will allow Flash developers the opportunity to display things like image titles, captions, etc, outside of the component area when thumbnails are rolled-over in ThumbGrid.

The release also fixes a couple of small things, which you can read more about in the ThumbGrid version history.

12.16.08 | Director 1.2.12

A new maintenance release is now available for Director, version 1.2.12. This release primarily resolves issues with EXIF/IPTC data encoding, along with various other fixes (check the version history for a full report). As always, you can download the latest Director release from the account center.

12.12.08 | Holiday gift for SlideShowPro Director Hosting subscribers

If you subscribe to our SlideShowPro Director Hosting service, a special year-end gift just arrived in your email inbox:

As a way of saying "thank you" for being an early adopter of SlideShowPro Director Hosting, we've retroactively added a free month of service to all existing subscriptions. Which, for those who love to crunch numbers, equates to almost 75 years of free time. If only life itself were that easy.

But while we've got the Santa suit on, we have a special offer. Between now and January 1, 2009, any new or existing subscribers to SlideShowPro Director Hosting will receive an extra month of service by signing up for a new account or by renewing a subscription before the end of this year. If you still have plenty of time left on your subscription, you can still renew with the special offer and the extra months will be added to your total time.

Happy Holidays!

12.08.08 | ThumbGrid and Lightroom?

We've received a number of emails inquiring about Adobe Lightroom and SlideShowPro ThumbGrid, and whether the two shall meet. Here's the deal.

Adobe Lightroom (as of this writing) only accepts Flash galleries coded in ActionScript 2 or older. SlideShowPro ThumbGrid is an ActionScript 3 component, so in order for it to work with Lightroom it would need to be re-coded as ActionScript 2 (something we're not doing), or Lightroom (the application itself) would need to be updated to support ActionScript 3. We obviously can't speak for Adobe and their roadmap with Lightroom, but we can say that they are aware of the ActionScript issue.

So even if we wanted to offer ThumbGrid in a form that was compatible with Lightroom, we couldn't. This is something we'll be keeping an eye on going forward, but until then SlideShowPro ThumbGrid is exclusively a Flash component.

12.03.08 | SlideShowPro ThumbGrid screencast

Been a while since we made one (they're more work than they appear, trust me), but the release of SlideShowPro ThumbGrid warranted a new screencast showing how the component loads data from SlideShowPro for Flash / Director, and how the layout can be adjusted to create a wide variety of thumbnail interface options. Check it out if interested.

12.02.08 | Introducing SlideShowPro ThumbGrid

Teased earlier today via Twitter (you are following us, right?), we've added a new component to our stable of products: SlideShowPro ThumbGrid.

Before we get into what ThumbGrid is, first a little history. Ever since a thumbnail navigation was added to SlideShowPro for Flash we've been asked the same questions over and over by those looking to customize the component.

One, how can I hide everything in SlideShowPro for Flash's navigation except the thumbnails (and use my own buttons)? Two, can the navigation be displayed vertically? Three, can I display more than one row of thumbnails in a single viewing? There were others as well, but they all alluded to the same request — complete flexibility and control over navigation thumbnails.

Total flexibility wasn't possible within the confines of SlideShowPro for Flash (and we didn't really need to add even more parameters and code), so we started from scratch, broke out of the box, and built something entirely new.

Think of SlideShowPro ThumbGrid as a "sister" component to SlideShowPro for Flash. You hide SSP's navigation (if you want to), assign its instance name to ThumbGrid, and publish. The two components communicate with each another, and all of ThumbGrid's data is loaded from SlideShowPro for Flash (so there's no duplication of data or additional XML files to code). When paired with our CMS product SlideShowPro Director, you can instantly populate ThumbGrid.

Design wise, you can do everything from build a single horizontal row of thumbnails (like the embedded nav in SlideShowPro for Flash), a single vertical row, or multi-row/column layouts with however many rows / columns you want. The thumbnails render horizontally or vertically, so you can design a wide variety of thumbnail navigations with a single component.

In the spirit of complete flexibility, and because most Flash developers would turn it off anyway, ThumbGrid doesn't have an embedded navigation. You interface with it using just the mouse, or you can augment the component with your own external buttons that call methods in ThumbGrid. Mix together all the methods/events that both SlideShowPro ThumbGrid and SlideShowPro for Flash offer and you can theoretically build a duplicate version of SlideShowPro for Flash's navigation, if you really wanted to.

There's plenty more to read on the product page itself, and you can see a live "Kyoto" example here as well.

We hope you like it, and we can't wait to see what you do with it!

12.01.08 | SlideShowPro for Flash 1.8.9.7 released

New point release that tweaks a few edge-case issues in the AS2, AS3 and Standalone versions of the component. See what's been updated in the version history.

11.26.08 | Taking a break for Thanksgiving

In case you're not in the United States, tomorrow is a national holiday where Americans consume copious amounts of turkey, bread, green beans, and more than one bottle of red wine. It's the gluttonous, disgusting spectacle we call Thanksgiving, and while we'd like to be here working on new stuff and answering emails, we'll be offline tomorrow, Friday, and the weekend for that matter. We'll try to jump in and assist with emergencies when the turkey buzz wears off and the in-laws are napping, but for the most part our plug will be pulled. We'll of course keep an ear out for any downtime with this site and Director Hosting, but we don't anticipate there being any problems. With that, Happy Thanksgiving to all, and we'll see you again on Monday.

11.19.08 | SlideShowPro for Flash 1.8.9.6 released

SlideShowPro for Flash has been updated to version 1.8.9.6. Check out what's been updated in the version history.

11.18.08 | Director 1.2.11, DirectorPHP 1.0.3 released

We've just released a small update to both Director and the DirectorPHP class that should resolve most encoding issues experienced when using Director's API. In particular, it ensures UTF-8 encoding is proper before parsing the XML response from Director's API as well as removing bad metadata that is sometimes present in photos processed by Picasa. If either one of those issues are affecting you, upgrade to the latest versions of both Director and the DirectorPHP class.

One other change on the Director side is support for the new F4V video format introduced in CS4. You can now upload these files via Director just like you have always been able to with FLVs.

As always, you can get the latest version of Director in the account center. To download the latest version of the DirectorPHP class, visit the Director extras page.

11.12.08 | SlideShowPro for Lightroom 1.3.5 released

A small point update is now available that resolves an issue with the HTML Background parameter not being rendered in the live preview. This only affected the Lightroom 2 version of the extension. The product has also been updated with the latest component version of SlideShowPro. Login to your account profile to download.

11.04.08 | SlideShowPro for Flash Button Packs updated

Both the Pearl and Quartz button packs have been updated with two extra icons each that replace the video play button that appears in the center of videos when Video Auto Start is set to "Off." If you use the button packs and want to update your slideshow, make sure you use the new ActionScript code included in the download so that all of the navigation icons are replaced. Login to your member profile to download.

11.03.08 | SlideShowPro for Flash 1.8.9.5 released

A new point update for SlideShowPro for Flash is now available for download in the Account Center.

This release patches up an issue with the Cache Content parameter in the AS3 version, a few tweaks to Media RSS loading (both AS3 and AS2), plus a few other small things. The main changes in this release are enhancements to the "Standalone" version of SlideShowPro that's distributed with the Flash extension for those who don't own the Flash authoring application.

Before, assigning parameters could only be done through the static param.xml file the standalone version loaded. This was fine for most parameters, but it prevented developers from being able to dynamically assign parameters (for example, the XML File Path). So with this release, any parameter in param.xml can be overridden through FlashVars. Simply add the parameter, its new value, and the FlashVar value will be used instead.

Another change is that SlideShowPro's methods are now exposed through ExternalInterface. Meaning, standalone users can now do things like switch albums through HTML links outside of the SWF, just like the extension users can.

Finally, an attempt was made at simplifying the standalone's embedding process by removing sspWidth and sspHeight from param.xml. Changing both the width/height of the SWF and SlideShowPro was a bit laborious and confusing for new users, so with this release the standalone SWF now automatically scales to whatever size you embed your SWF at.

To read more about the changes, visit the updated Standalone section of our help wiki. Version History has been updated as well.

10.23.08 | C# library for the SlideShowPro Director API

When we released the SlideShowPro Director API, we released the DirectorPHP class as a helpful companion to the large number of PHP developers who use Director and wanted to tap into the API. Our hope was that other developers would step in and do the same for their favorite languages as well.

Michael Rose has taken the plunge first, releasing a C# library that makes connecting to Director's API from ASP.NET a breeze. Michael has been quick to keep his project up to date with the latest bug fixes from the Director side, so be sure you are running the freshest version of Director (1.2.10 at time of writing). Head over to his google code project to try it out. Thanks Michael!

10.22.08 | SlideShowPro for Flash 1.8.9.4 released

A new point update for SlideShowPro for Flash is now available in the account center. This update contains your usual mix of glitch fixes and general updates, but there's a new feature in the ActionScript 3 version we're making available today instead of waiting for the next big point update (1.9) simply because, well, we think it's pretty cool.

Flash CS4 introduced a graphical programming language called Pixel Bender. Adobe has essentially opened up the language used to modify bitmaps in the Flash Player; allowing developers to write their own filters. There's all kinds of wacky things you can do with it, but Pixel Bender can be extremely useful to photographers for it can do things like convert color images to black and white, apply sharpening, tint, etc.

SlideShowPro for Flash 1.8.9.4 (AS3) allows Flash developers the ability to apply one or more Pixel Bender filters to slideshow content, navigation thumbnail links, navigation link previews, album previews, or all of the above. So if you've ever wanted a slideshow of black and white images from a collection of color images without altering your originals, now you can. Simply apply a filter and publish. Your images will be automatically converted.

Now, as great as Pixel Bender is, it's definitely new. Meaning, it's only supported in Flash Player 10, which according to our site stats (and as of this writing) is about 15% of you out there. That number is undoubtedly smaller amongst the general public. But adoption will increase quickly in the months ahead, and this update allows you the ability to experiment now and deploy whenever you feel the time is right for your audience.

Here's an example (Flash Player 10 plugin required). There's also a demo FLA for SlideShowPro for Flash users to download and tinker with on the SlideShowPro for Flash product page, not to mention a new Pixel Bender tutorial in our wiki explaining how it works.

Alright, so that's Pixel Bender. This update also incorporates a couple of important updates we're releasing now instead of later. First, permalinks. We've changed how permalinks work to use IDs assigned to images. You can continue using image numbering for your permalink URLs, but this change allows those who move content around in an album to publish permalinks that always point to images, not their numerical position. Second, we've added the "video play" button (the one that overlays videos) to the navIcons array so it can be swapped out with your own button. Purchasers of the Quartz button pack can now download an update that includes a video play button. An update to the Pearl button back is on the way soon.

That's all for now. Visit the SlideShowPro for Flash product page to download this update.

10.21.08 | Director 1.2.10

In our rush to get 1.2.9 out the door for you Flash 10 users, we inadvertently introduced a few bugs in Internet Explorer. We've resolved these issues along with a few small bugs with the API and have released 1.2.10 in the account center.

10.17.08 | Director 1.2.9 brings Flash 10 support

In case you missed it, version 10 of the Flash Player was released earlier this week, which immediately brought into focus a few major bugs with Director when using the new player. Uploads didn't work at all when using Flash Player 10, nor did any of the "Copy" buttons in Director's interface.

We've been hard at it the last two days and have just released 1.2.9 which brings full support for Flash Player 10 when using Director. Note that the Flash 10 bugs were limited to Director's interface, as SlideShowPro itself works just fine with Flash 10 as is.

To download the latest update, visit the Director product page in the Account Center.

10.16.08 | SlideShowPro for Lightroom 1.3.4 released

A quick patch that address a data loading issue when requesting content from SlideShowPro Director, plus a correction of the version number in the gallery title (in the LR 1 version). SlideShowPro for Lightroom users can download the latest version here.

10.13.08 | SlideShowPro for Flash 1.8.9.3 released

A new point update for both the ActionScript 2 and 3 versions of SlideShowPro for Flash is now available for download in the account center.

This release fixes a few issues in the ActionScript 3 version related to captions, the media player, as well as some album preview loading quirkiness in the ActionScript 2 build. The ActionScript 3 version also adds a new halt() method to assist with garbage collection when unloading a SWF containing SlideShowPro from a parent SWF. For those who use SlideShowPro in this manner we recommend reading the new "Errors unloading SlideShowPro" wiki doc that explains the Flash Player 9 bug and how halt() helps work around it.

As always, this update is free for all SlideShowPro for Flash users. You can read the version history for more specifics as well.

10.09.08 | Director 1.2.8

We've just released Director 1.2.8 with one important bugfix along with an enhancement of an existing feature.

First, the fix: Since releasing the API, one nagging problem has been the copyright symbol that some programs inject into the metadata of an image. The presence of this symbol caused a hiccup with the XML parser the API uses. Director now properly catches and re-encodes the copyright symbol so that it is parsed properly.

Also, for some time now we have allowed you to setup smart ordering for your albums and galleries. This feature allowed you to keep your album imagery and gallery albums in order by file name, album name, or date. One thing missing from the file name and album title presets was the ability to identify whether you wanted the order to be ascending (a to z) or descending (z to a). With Director 1.2.8, we now allow you to specify ascending or descending order for any of the sort presets. A small addition, but we think it will come in handy.

To download 1.2.8, visit the Director product page in the Account Center.

10.07.08 | SlideShowPro for Lightroom 1.3.3 Released

A new point update is available for SlideShowPro for Lightroom in the Account Center.

This release is notable because it forks the single extension we've been distributing into two -- one for Lightroom 1.3 / 1.4 and one for Lightroom 2 and newer. Both versions are in the same download file.

Why the split? Well, Adobe added (to Lightroom 2) sharpening as an option when exporting imagery as part of a web gallery. We could have added a sharpening control to the single extension and called it a day, but the functionality would have been broken in non-2.0 versions of Lightroom, and most people wouldn't have realized why the option wasn't working.

There was an additional upside in splitting the extension, for it meant we could take advantage of the newer (Lua-based) template markup language that Adobe recommends. One of those new features includes the ability to dynamically enable/disable parameters that are dependent upon the values of related parameters.

For example, before if you selected "Numbers" as your Navigation Link Appearance, you could have changed any "Thumbnail" related parameter and nothing would have updated (for the settings weren't applicable). In Lightroom 2 however, any "Thumbnail" parameter that's unused will gray out and not respond to mouse clicks. This makes it much easier to see which parameters require editing based on selections you make while customizing your slideshow.

As always, the update is free for all SlideShowPro for Lightroom users and available for download here. Please refer to the updated installation instructions if you need assistance.

10.03.08 | Flash CS4 is coming. Is SlideShowPro ready?

In a word, yes! Flash CS4 was recently announced by Adobe as part of their updated Creative Suite 4 family of apps, and is scheduled to be released later this month. We've been beta testing both the ActionScript 2 and 3 versions of SlideShowPro with Flash CS4 for the past few weeks and everything works great with both.

You can upgrade to Flash CS4 from Flash MX 2004, Flash 8 or Flash CS3 for $199. If you'd like to support SlideShowPro as part of your purchase, click this link. You'll pay the same price as you normally would (we'll just get a little kickback for the referral). We'd appreciate it!