A little pesky display issue with the media player popped up after 1.6.2 went out the door yesterday, so I quickly patched the problem and pushed out a new release. If you’re not using video, or if you are (but always include the media player interface), there’s no real need to update. But if you’re using 1.6.2, and are hiding the media player when using video, it’s recommended.
A few more glitchy things popped up from version 1.6.0, so version 1.6.2 of the component is now available for download. To read what’s changed / fixed in this release, check out the version history.
A new point-release for SlideShowPro is now available for download. This version fixes a few little things that popped up during the course of people using 1.6.0 over the past couple of weeks, including a couple of footer positioning errors, the dissapearance of the media player (when playing back audio) when entering / exiting full screen mode, and a Firefox video playback problem.
Also, due to several comments from end-users, I’ve revised the “Hidden When Gallery Open” option for the Navigation Appearance parameter so that the navigation is invisible when the gallery slides up, but is then visible again on the way back down. This way you don’t see the navigation bar animating upward with the gallery.
I’ve also added a new method to handle xml file swapping after the component has initialized: setData(). Using this, you can assign new XML File Path / XML File Type to SlideShowPro through an external button and SlideShowPro will reload with that new data. This brings back functionality that existed in earlier SlideShowPro versions where assigning a new XML File Path would reload the component with that data (but in a more formal, method based way).
Anyway, if you’d like to read more about the changes, the version history has been updated. To download, click the “User Login” link at the top-right of this page to grab it from the Account Center.
In addition to the updated versions of SlideShowPro and SlideShowPro Director, we’re also releasing a new pair of export scripts for Photoshop CS2 / CS3. What do they do? Well, they either take a bunch of images already open in Photoshop, or an external folder full of images, and spit out slideshow / thumbnail imagery plus an XML file. And if your images have metadata embedded in them, the metadata will be used when populating image captions.
After export, all you have to do is link to the XML file it created from SlideShowPro and you’re done. It’s a similar concept to our iPhoto plugin, in that it’s designed for quick, one-time batch export of content to quickly build a slideshow, but these scripts are cross-platform, and work with either Photoshop CS2 or CS3.
Visit the new Extras to download a copy!
SlideShowPro 1.6 and SlideShowPro Director 1.1 now available
Title says it all! SlideShowPro 1.6 and SlideShowPro Director 1.1 are now available for purchase / download. As noted before, these updates are free for all current users of both applications, and can be downloaded through your profile here at the site. Click on the “User login” link at the top of this page to enter the new Account Center.
Couple of important notes concerning these releases:
One, if you’re upgrading to either product, be sure to read the update notes included with both. A lot has changed in both of these releases, so it’s important that you take the necessary precautions to avoid problems.
Two, we’ve decided with these new releases to revise our product pricing. This will only affect new users, for both products are free updates for all existing users. That said, we’re sure there are some people out there who were holding out on obtaining Director 1.1 (or additional installation keys) until the final version was available, so to be fair we’re offering a special Director coupon code that’ll allow existing users to purchase Director for the old price. To obtain the coupon code (which is available for the next two weeks), login to your profile, and if you purchased SlideShowPro before today you’ll see the code at the top.
Thanks go out to all our beta testers and language translators who helped us make these releases even better.
I’m pleased to announce that after numerous weeks of private / public beta testing, SlideShowPro 1.6 and SlideShowPro Director 1.1 are “final” and ready to roll. In tandem with the updates will be a new design for slideshowpro.net, updated screencast videos (which will now be available as a podcast), completely new documentation (all user guides rewritten), a new Photoshop CS2/CS3 script (will write more about this later), as well as updated demonstration files using the latest version of SlideShowPro.
We’ll be sending out an email blast when everything is complete, which we’re guesstimating to be either sometime tomorrow or Wednesday. We just have a few little things to take care of before then.
Thanks to all the beta testers who helped kick the tires!
After a full summer of development, and a couple of weeks of private beta testing, we’re finally able to publicly offer release candidates for both SlideShowPro 1.6 and SlideShowPro Director 1.1. Feature wise, a lot has changed in both products, but that’s only half the story. We’ve also put a considerable amount of time into under-the-hood improvements. You know, the kind of stuff that never gets a fancy bullet point, but is there nonetheless.
With that, if you’re feeling brave, you can now login to your user profile and download the first release candidate of both products (assuming you own both, of course). But before you do, please remember that both are still considered betas. We’ve spent a lot of time kicking the tires on both, and feel strong enough about their stability to offer both publicly. But we fully expect there to be issues that will require resolution before going final with both products.
SlideShowPro 1.6.0 RC1 installs as a separate extension in Extension Manager, so installing that is pretty straightforward. SlideShowPro Director 1.1 RC1 on the other hand, because we’re dealing with server-side software, isn’t so straightforward. If you download Director 1.1, refer to the sticky entries in the Director 1.1 Release Candidate forum before attempting to install / update your existing installation of Director, or install a new build.
New forums have been setup for both products as well. We encourage anyone who downloads and uses these releases to provide feedback through those channels.
Before I go, one last thing. Many thanks to our private beta testers who were kind enough to help kick the tires. Their time and feedback was more than helpful.
As demonstrated a week ago, the next update to SlideShowPro will support FLV playback. With that, we’ll soon be updating this site with an example of SlideShowPro playing back video. That’s where we could use your help. We could lift some movie trailers or other stuff that doesn’t belong to us, but that’s not nice. So we’re turning to you! If you’ve got some video we could use for demonstration purposes, we’d be happy to give you credit and a conspicuous link back to your web site.
What kind of video are we looking for? Anything that’s production quality, 16:9 aspect ratio, and around two or three minutes in length. It can’t contain profanity, or anything offensive. We’d also prefer something non-promotional/advertorial (otherwise it might look like we’re selling something else). Short films, music videos, experimental stuff, whatever you’re willing to share!
If you’d like to help out, email us a URL to your masterwork(s). You can also shoot us an email if you have any questions.
Thanks in advance.
Would you like to help “kick the tires” of SlideShowPro 1.6 and Director 1.1? If so, jump over to our beta signup page and send us your email address. Please be sure to use the same email address that’s part of your slideshowpro.net user profile so that we can verify your identity. The beta is open to any user who owns a license for either product, but we will stop asking for participants once we feel the room is full enough. So if you’re interested, signup now, and make sure you read the Terms & Conditions first. Thanks!
Remember all those times when I said that “video wasn’t supported” in SlideShowPro? And that loading FLVs was a bit of a hack? Well, not anymore. The next update to SlideShowPro, version 1.6.0, will support direct linking to FLVs from your XML file, just like you would an image. So all you have to do is create an FLV, link to it in the XML, or upload it to Director. Here’s a little demonstration I whipped up using a trailer for the movie Ratatouille.
The demo doesn’t show this (cause there’s only one piece of content), but if SlideShowPro is set to “Auto” Display Mode when reaching a video, the video will temporarily switch Display Mode to “Manual,” and after completion of the video will switch it back to “Auto” and progress to the next “image.” This way you could line up more than one video, or mix videos with photos, and they’ll playback in a loop.
As for the media player, it appears at the beginning of a video for 5 seconds, then slides out of the way. If you want it back, move your mouse down towards where it would normally be, and the player will appear. And like all other parameters in SlideShowPro, you’ll have complete control over its color, text size, scale, etc. You can also turn off the navigation to just show video and the media player if you’d like.
And one last thing — your videos will scale just the same as images. So if they don’t fit exactly, you can proportionally scale them, downscale larger videos only, or scale and crop to fit.
So there you go! Back to work!
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