SlideShowPro for Lightroom release date
Last night Adobe released version 1.3 of Adobe Lightroom, which we were beta testing as part of our SlideShowPro for Lightroom development. Now that 1.3 is “final” and available, we’ll be spending the next few days kicking the gallery around to ensure everything still works, then eat some turkey and drink copious amounts of red sauce to round out the week (it’s Thanksgiving next week, for those not in the US). After all that, SlideShowPro for Lightroom 1.0 will be released on Monday, November 26th. Pricing and other details concerning the differences between the Flash/Lightroom versions will be explained then.
But that’s not all. Something else is being released on the 26th as well. More details a little later today.
By popular request, we’ve added a new free script to the Extras page for those who need a quick, painless way to compile an XML file — dynamically — by reading the contents of a directory. The free PHP script can be linked to from SlideShowPro for Flash, and builds all the requisite markup for both slideshow imagery and video, plus thumbnails you’ve created, and returns it to SlideShowPro for loading. Then the next time you need to update your slideshow, you simply upload new images and the script takes care of the rest.
Full instructions can be found in the download. Script requires PHP 4 or 5, and works on web servers running Apache or Windows. Hit the extras page for the download link if interested.
When I first started working on SlideShowPro about three years ago, I had no idea I’d still be working on it today. Or for that matter, subsequently quitting my full time day job as a Creative Director at Turner (specifically the Super Deluxe video comedy site) to work exclusively on SlideShowPro (and related products). I always thought it would be a fun side project to experiment with, and maybe a few people would use it. Well, times have certainly changed, and as a result there will be a small, but symbolic name change.
If someone asked me 2 years ago what “SlideShowPro” was, I would have replied, “a Flash photo gallery and slideshow component.” Which, as you may have noticed, is how I’m using the name in the first paragraph. But today that doesn’t hold true anymore. “SlideShowPro” is much more than that. It’s rapidly becoming a publishing platform, mainly because of the work Brad and I have been putting into SlideShowPro Director. “SlideShowPro” is also a collection of exporting utilities for Photoshop and iPhoto, not to mention the Adobe Lightroom web engine that’ll be released in the coming weeks. Today the name is spread across multiple products and has outgrown its original definition.
So with that, what some people (especially older users) may associate with “SlideShowPro” will be changing to “SlideShowPro for Flash.” It’s a small change, but a very notable one, for it frees the brand “SlideShowPro” from being just a Flash component for expanded use in all kinds of things. It’ll also help clarify how our products work, for new users will be able to choose from “SlideShowPro for Flash” or “SlideShowPro for Lightroom,” and instantly understand which version they require.
There will be small tweaks here and there to the site, as well as all the documentation, to incorporate the updated name. May feel a little weird (it’s taken me some time to get used to it), but going forward it’s the best thing to do.
Wasn’t planning on releasing a new update so quickly after the last one (which came out only 4 days ago) but one of my favorite old bugs from the early days of 1.6 crawled back in, so I had to push this out quickly. The bug I’m referring to is the nasty little piece of unformatted text that would appear in the Content Area if Media Player Appearance was set to “Hidden.” Rather unsightly. Version 1.6.7 fixes that.
While I was working on the media player I found a couple of other little things that needed updating, so I was able to get those in as well. You can read the full version history here.
Another day, another update. This release adds a parameter to control whether smoothing is applied to videos when they’re scaled by SlideShowPro. Named “Video Smoothing,” it’s turned on by default, and only affects videos that are scaled by “Content Scale.” In other words, if your video doesn’t require scaling, or you have Content Scale set to “None,” no smoothing is applied. If otherwise, smoothing is used. This will make the quality of downscaled videos better.
Also updated the Customization Guide’s parameter list to include this new parameter, as well as the ActionScript Help panel.
ahsi, which is short for Abstract Hair Studio’s Inc., is using SlideShowPro on their business site to showcase their portfolio of work as well as product photography. The site begins with a clever interactive element, and you engage the site menu by double clicking anywhere on the page (for near zero Fitts’s law). Click on “Works”, and SlideShowPro is there loading split frame images along with an external navigation, caption, and image counter all custom made by the developer. Great photos, nice presentation.
Just a small patch to fix a mouse tracking issue that caused the media player to not show/hide at the correct time when Content Frame Padding was set to a higher value than 0. Hardly something that would affect most users, so most can skip this release. But if you use video or audio in your slideshow and are applying padding to your content, this one is for you.
Login your account center profile to grab the latest version.
A bug-fix release for Director is now available, fixing several minor issues along with a bug that caused emails sent from Director to fail on some servers. For a full list of the changes, visit the Director version history.
The latest and greatest version of SlideShowPro is now available for download in the Account Center. This is a point release that fixes a few issues that popped up since the latest point release (including most notably) a content scaling fix when using inline captions, and the ability to playback audio when the media player is hidden. You can read more about this release in the forum’s version history thread.
Flash Player 9 for Leopard updated. Director uploads work again.
Yay! Adobe has come through with an update to Flash Player 9 for OS X 10.5 (Leopard) that fixes the upload breakage in SlideShowPro Director. So if you’re using 10.5 and Director, head on over here to grab the latest version.
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