SlideShowPro News

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.

10.14.08  |  Top 10 user examples for October 2008

Every month loads of SlideShowPro users share their creations with us. From those submissions we pluck out the ten most creative, beautiful, interesting, or unique examples and post them here as well as in our monthly e-mail newsletter.

In no particular order, here are our top user examples for October, 2007:

DVO Photo: http://www.dvophoto.com/
Saturized studio: http://www.saturized.com/
Kobe: http://www.arcinspirations.com/kobe/
Anthony Kramer: http://www.alevelfx.com/
Philip Nealey: http://www.nealeyphoto.com/
Little Pictures: http://www.little-pictures.co.uk/
Jeremy Shelby: http://www.jeremyshelby.com/
Khaisang Photography: http://www.khaisangphotography.com/
Barry Mann Photography: http://www.barrymannphotography.com/
Oliver Perrott: http://www.oliverperrott.com/
Gottschall Photodesign: http://www.gottschallphotodesign.de
Access TCA: http://www.accesstca.com/
Studio Hofmann: http://www.studio-hofmann.com/

Note: To respect the privacy of our users, only those sites shared directly with us are considered or included. If you’d like us to consider your site for next month, please submit your site through our contact page or post to the Show & Tell community forum.

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!