By design, ThumbGrid leverages SlideShowPro for Flash for all the data and content it receives. This keeps ThumbGrid lightweight and ensures the two components are always in sync.
This also means (when used with SlideShowPro Director) that image size requests for ThumbGrid have to be made to SlideShowPro for Flash because it’s the component calling the shots. Well, no more.
With version 2.1, ThumbGrid now requests its own images from SlideShowPro Director; giving users perfectly formatted thumbnail images without any parameter edits to SlideShowPro for Flash. And it’s done without having to make two separate data assignments. ThumbGrid still uses the same data SlideShowPro for Flash uses, but it now makes its own separate content request from SlideShowPro Director to obtain images at the exact sizes it needs (for both the Gallery and Album screens). If you change the dimensions of ThumbGrid with setSize(), ThumbGrid will make another request from Director for a new set of images. This makes it much easier for new users of ThumbGrid to get perfectly formatted results right out of the box.
Additionally, ThumbGrid 2.1 changes the “Scroll Slow” Interactivity setting to “Scroll Normal” and revises “Scroll Slow” to now be slower, with rollover areas that are pushed further towards the component’s edges.
Also, album thumbnails on the Gallery screen now change to an “active” appearance when their content is loaded in SlideShowPro for Flash, and we’ve added “Active Filter” and “Rollover Filter” settings that (along with the existing “Inactive Filter” setting) provide filter options for every possible thumbnail state.
Registered users of ThumbGrid 2 can download this free update from account center. If you’re a ThumbGrid 1.0 user, you can purchase an ThumbGrid 2 upgrade for $15.
Today we’re releasing a point update for ThumbGrid 2 that fixes a mathematical rounding problem that would sometimes cause an extra (empty) thumb group to be included. Users of ThumbGrid 2 can download the product update through the account center.
ThumbGrid 2 has been up-ticked to 2.0.1 today with some refinements and additional functionality.
First, refinements. We spent some time working on how proportionally scaled thumbnail images behave when using the “Zoom” rollover option. Their positioning when scaling now factors in the resized state of the thumbnail background, so if a thumbnail on the perimeter has enough room to scale naturally as opposed to scaling “in” when overflow is constrained, it will now do so. Looks more natural this way.
Second (and apologies for not thinking of this before the 2.0 release), image scaling is now more flexible. Before, you’d set “Scale” in one place and it would affect all thumbnails. In 2.0.1, there’s now a separate “Scale” parameter for the Gallery screen. This allows you choose which scale type you want for each screen. For example, as seen below, you can use “Crop to Fit” for the Gallery screen and “Proportional” for the Album screen.
Registered users of ThumbGrid 2 can download this update through the Account Center.
The new 2.0 version of ThumbGrid — the popular add-on component for SlideShowPro for Flash — is now available for purchase.
If you are an existing user of ThumbGrid, you can upgrade to ThumbGrid 2 for $15 (single user) or $75 (corporate) through your account center profile. If you purchased ThumbGrid anytime within the past 30 days (4/17-5/17) you are eligible for a free upgrade. If applicable, contact us to request the free ThumbGrid 2 upgrade.
If you haven’t been following recent news posts here concerning ThumbGrid 2, you can get update to date with what’s new at our wiki here. While you’re there, we’ve re-written the entire ThumbGrid User Guide to explain everything there is to know about ThumbGrid, from top to bottom. Chances are if you’re not sure how a particular feature works, you’ll find the answer there.
A special thank you to the people who took the time to download our public beta of ThumbGrid 2 to test and provide feedback. Tangible improvements were made to the final release as a result of beta testers’ involvement. If you are currently using the public beta of ThumbGrid 2, the component will expire at midnight, June 1st. By “expire” we mean that the thumbnail navigation will no longer load or operate. So if you’ve published and embedded a SWF containing the beta on a public web site, you have two weeks from today to update it before it ceases to operate.
Questions? Fire away.
The public beta of ThumbGrid 2 is now available for download.
A couple of key points about this component. One, this is a time limited public beta that requires at least Adobe Flash CS3 and SlideShowPro for Flash in order to use. Two, you don’t have to own or use the 1.x version of SlideShowPro ThumbGrid — we’re opening this up to existing ThumbGrid users, and those who’ve never used the product before in the hope we’ll receive more feedback.
We cover a lot more in the release notes, including answers to common questions we expect to receive, so hit the link below for more information (and to download the beta).
Download ThumbGrid 2 public beta
Note: to see an overview video of what’s new in this release, click here.
In the near future we will be releasing a public beta of ThumbGrid 2 — a next gen version of our thumbnail navigation add-on component for SlideShowPro for Flash. The beta will be available on a time-limited basis for any user of SlideShowPro for Flash (and ThumbGrid too of course), and includes some really cool new features. So, what’s new? Here’s a quick overview video we threw together:
The features fly by fairly quickly, so here’s a written overview of what’s being added:
Gallery interface
ThumbGrid 2 will allow you to load album thumbnails as part of a separate gallery interface. The interface works just like the current grid for content thumbnails, except it will have its own unique set of parameters (for a different size/layout). Click an album preview, and thumbnails for the content contained therein will appear. An ActionScript method that loads the gallery interface will be available for your own external buttons.
Independent content browsing
In the first version of ThumbGrid, the thumbnails currently in view always matched the album currently loaded in the SlideShowPro player. With ThumbGrid 2, you’ll be able to independently browse and load thumbnails from different albums in a gallery without changing your main slideshow. For example, this will allow you to offer an external album selector that loads thumbnail previews of album content in ThumbGrid. And if the user wants to view the larger versions, they can click the ThumbGrid thumbnail and the SlideShowPro player will switch to that content.
Thumbnail titles
Titles assigned to content will be available for display inside each thumbnail. You’ll have the option of showing the text as a layer above the thumbnail image, or as in inline element between the thumbnail’s frame and the image itself. You can apply titles just to content, to album previews, or both.
Fixed grid layout
The first version of ThumbGrid offered one way to adjust thumbnail size — adjusting the width/height of the component, and/or adjusting the number of interior rows/columns. With ThumbGrid 2, we’ll be adding on a second “Fixed” option that will allow you to specify the exact pixel width/height you want each thumbnail image to be. ThumbGrid will then automatically space the thumbs to align evenly (horizontally and vertically), or you can turn off auto-spacing and allow the thumbnails to flow naturally as one group.
Scrollbar support
ThumbGrid 1 allows you to navigate two ways: by mouse, or with external buttons that move the grid. ThumbGrid 2 will extend navigation with a third option: Flash’s UIScrollbar component (which comes with Flash). To use it, you simply drag the scrollbar component to the stage, hook it up to ThumbGrid with an instance name, and publish.
Video overlays
ThumbGrid 2 will automatically detect when the content associated with a thumbnail is video and give you the option of displaying a “play” graphic on top of thumbnail images.
Load effects
“Fade in” will remain the default effect, but for extra pizzaz we’re adding “Slide”, “Mask”, “Zoom Out”, and “Diagonal”. Speed and duration of the load effect will be configurable.
If you have some feedback about these features, we want to hear from you! Drop us an email at help.slideshowpro.net. Expect to see a public beta posted here soon.
This is a small point update that makes ThumbGrid more compatible with the new “Always Auto” Display Mode option introduced in the latest version of SlideShowPro for Flash (v1.9.8.3). Registered users can download the free update through the Account Center.
A maintenance update to SlideShowPro ThumbGrid has been released. This version, 1.3.4, improves thumbnail image alpha tweening so that semi-opaque values for Active / Inactive / Rollover behave more consistently when animating. This update can be downloaded from the account center.
SlideShowPro ThumbGrid 1.3.3 released
A maintenance release for SlideShowPro ThumbGrid has been released that addresses a navigation issue when interacting with the component using the nextThumbGroup() and prevThumbGroup() methods. This update is only recommended for those who are controlling ThumbGrid using their own external buttons, and can be skipped by everyone else. SlideShowPro ThumbGrid users can download the latest version from the account center.
SlideShowPro ThumbGrid 1.3.2 released
This is a small point update that improves the visibility of “zoomed” thumbnail images that overflow outside of the component area. In some instances, high scale values would cause visual clipping. This point update ensures that images remain visible.
This is a free update for all SlideShowPro ThumbGrid users and can be downloaded through the account center.
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