Our WordPress plugin SlidePress has been updated to version 1.3 and is now available in the WordPress plugin directory for updating.
This version is notable for it includes a number of usability enhancements, bug fixes, and a host of underlying code improvements. Notable additions and changes include:
* Six new default themes to choose from when publishing a gallery.
* Complete redesign / reorganization of gallery settings interface (see below).
* Support for h.264 videos uploaded to the WordPress Media Library.
* WordPress page publishing from the SlidePress post button.
With this release we strived to not only fix problems that popped up after our previous release, but also improve the basic usability of the plugin. Of note is the “Style Settings” area, which before was one (very) long, noisy list of checkboxes, inputs and colored boxes. For 1.3 we’ve re-organized all the settings into containers which may be toggled open/closed for editing. In addition, settings now disable (and hide) if they aren’t applicable due to the value of a “parent” setting. For example, you now only see the pan & zoom customization settings if “Use Pan and Zoom” is enabled. This cuts down on the amount of visual inputs, and also avoids any potential confusion when editing.
Click here for the full version history. To upgrade, see the updating instructions in the wiki. Using SlideShowPro Standalone 1.9.8 is recommended with this release, so you should also update your SWF as well. Download the latest version of SlideShowPro Standalone from the account center.
Every day, users of our products share their creations with us. From those submissions we pick the ten most creative, beautiful, and/or unique examples and include them in our monthly newsletter. Whichever site from those 10 stands out just a little more is crowned “Site of the Month”, which not only gives the winning user bragging rights, but also awards them with a free SlideShowPro t-shirt as our small way of saying ‘thank you’ for making us look so good.
SITE OF THE MONTH:
Gabriel Jeffrey
http://gabrieljeffrey.com/
The online photography portfolio of Gabriel Jeffrey is an exercise in both simplicity and visual impact. The site uses SlideShowPro Director (for content management and publishing) and SlideShowPro for Flash, which has nearly every inline interface item turned off. The component is scaled to the dimensions of the SWF — allowing photos to be displayed full-frame in the browser window at any screen resolution. The site contains a simple navigation positioned at the top left, plus large forward / backward graphics layered on top of the component for lateral browsing through an album. Last but certainly not least, there’s also a collection of beautifully-shot videos in the “Moving Images” section that uses SlideShowPro’s media player interface.
THE REMAINING TOP 9 (ALL FANTASTIC – DIVE IN!):
http://www.imagebychristos.com/
http://vixpetportraits.com/
http://www.studio-ca.se/
http://dirkrauscher.de/
http://www.reneadler.com/
http://www.tedmorrison.com/ (Director API)
http://www.indyrain.com/
http://www.sambroadbent.co.uk/
http://www.accesi.lv
Note: To respect the privacy of our users, only those sites shared directly with us are considered and included. If you’d like us to consider your site for next month, please submit your site by sending an email or posting to the Show & Tell Forum.
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 for Flash / SlideShowPro Standalone updated to 1.9.8
Updates to both SlideShowPro for Flash and SlideShowPro Standalone are available for download in the account center. This version, 1.9.8, is a maintenance release that resolves a few issues that came about in recent weeks. If you’re not currently experiencing any issues with either product, you can skip this release. See the version history for more information.
Lightroom to Director Plugin updated to 1.0.4
A new version of the Lightroom to Director Plugin, which allows you to upload imagery from your Lightroom library directly to your Director install, has been released. This updated fixes an issue related to Director 1.4, where the albums list would sometimes appear blank when trying to export. Upgrading to the new version of the plugin should fix that issue. The update can be downloaded from the Director product page.
New to SlideShowPro Director hosting: Language support
Thanks to our ongoing translation project, and the hard work of many volunteer translators, we are glad to announce that the Director hosting service is now available in three additional languages: Spanish, Dutch (in both Standard and Belgium variants) and Serbian. To change the language in Director, go to your profile screen by clicking your username in the top right hand corner of any screen in Director. Once there, scroll to the bottom of the page (under the Preferences heading) and change your language to whatever you like.
More translations are on the way. If your language isn’t supported yet and you would like to join our translation efforts, visit the SlideShowPro Director Translation Project. Any language that is more than 75% translated will be included automatically for all slideshowpro.com accounts and all self-hosted Director install as well.
All SlideShowPro Director hosting subscriptions were updated early this morning to version 1.4, and everything appears to functioning normally. If you are a subscriber and have any problems or questions, please contact support. For more information about what’s new in this release, see this blog post.
After an extended beta cycle, we’re happy to announce that SlideShowPro DIrector 1.4 is available for public release. You can download the upgrade right now via the account center, or, if you are already running one of the 1.4 beta releases, you can upgrade from within Director thanks to the new auto-update functionality.
What’s new in 1.4? Here’s a rundown of the major additions/changes. For a full list of changes, see the version history on the wiki.
Smarter XML caching
Usually, when a change is made in Director, any cached XML that is affected by that change is deleted completely. That means the next time a slideshow is loaded, the entire XML file has to be regenerated, which can take time depending on the size of your gallery. In 1.4, we keep what is called “fragment caches”, which means that the XML file is cached in manageable chunks. So, when a change is made in Director, only the affected chunk is removed from the cache, and only that chunk has to be regenerated next time. Bottom line: XML regeneration will be much faster in 1.4, particularly for large galleries.
Auto-updating
If you’ve ever had to manage several Director installs, you know the pain that can be associated with keeping them all up to date. That’s why Director 1.4 features a built in auto-update system. While you will still need to upgrade all your installs to 1.4 the old way, once they are running 1.4 all further updates will be handled in Director itself, all you have to do is click a button.
Simplified install
In addition to making application updates easier, we’ve also made the initial installation process simpler. Installation will now consist of a single file you upload to your server. You then load the file in your web browser, enter your server information, and presto‚ all the requisite files for SlideShowPro Director will be downloaded from our server to yours with all the correct file permissions and settings you need to get going. This system will ensure fewer installation errors and make the installation process easier for non-web developers.
Updated translations
Thanks to the new community translation project and the tireless work of our volunteer translators, the Dutch, Spanish and German translations have been bundled with the Director 1.4 package. We’ll be adding other languages as work progresses on those translations. To get involved, visit the translation project.
Generated video previews and thumbnails
In the previous point update to SlideShowPro Director, we enhanced videos by giving users the ability to assign separate images for video previews and thumbnails. Director 1.4 will take this functionality a step further by generating images from your uploaded videos. Simply upload a video, and SlideShowPro Director will automatically assign a still image. To use a different image from a video, pop-open the edit window to choose a different frame. For users who prefer creating their own video previews and thumbnails, nothing has changed. You can still assign your own images should you not want to use an image generated by Director.
Note: This functionality will require a server with the ffmpeg library installed. Director 1.4 will automatically find the library for you (if available). If you’re unsure whether your server currently supports ffmpeg, you may want to contact your web host.
Smart galleries
In Director 1.3, we introduced smart albums, which allowed you to group content from other albums based on tags, date and other information. In Director 1.4, we’ve extended Director’s built-in intelligence to allow for smart galleries. They work much like smart albums do, as you can add tags to albums and use those tags to form smart galleries. You can also use the date the album was created or last modified as a rule to further filter the included albums.
Rebuilt manage albums interface
Last but certainly not least, we have reworked a portion of Director that has needed some updating for quite some time. The manage albums screen, which is used to select which albums are included/excluded from a custom gallery, worked fine as long as you didn’t have too many albums. If you had a larger install, however, the screen slowed down and in some cases was not usable. We’ve now separated out the functionality, showing only the albums currently in the gallery by default. To add albums, you simply click the “Add albums” button, and any available albums are shown in a popup dialogue. The listing is paginated and can also be searched, so it should work well whether you have 5 albums or 500.
SlideShowPro Director translation project now live
The SlideShowPro family of products is used all over the world, with many of our users speaking languages other than english. For some time, we’ve provided basic templates that allowed Director’s interface to be translated, but it was a cumbersome process and not easy to update. Today, we are launching a web based translation project that will allow anyone to join in the effort to translate Director to their native language.
It couldn’t be easier to get started. Just visit the translation project in your web browser, then select your language. There may already be an existing translation in your language and if so, you can simply join in the work that is already underway. If you don’t see your language listed, start a new translation in the proper locale.
Once you have selected a language, you will be presented with an english message to translate. Type the string in your language, then click the Save button (or just press Enter) and another message will be loaded for you to translate. At any time, you can click the language name in the page header to see an overview of your translated messages as well as download the translation files for testing in Director.
If you have any questions or feedback on the translation application, feel free to drop us a line.
And now, for our final song of the evening, we thought you might like to know that the SlideShowPro section of this site has been redesigned to better communicate the player’s features, as well as include the SlideShowPro Standalone and SlidePress products that were announced earlier today.
One of the goals of the page was to simplify and consolidate the various forms of SlideShowPro into a single page that allowed users to better distinguish between product options. We did that by separating the features that were common, then followed-through with features and accessories that were unique to each version. We also included a handy comparison chart so each version of SlideShowPro can be comparatively viewed side by side.
Last but not least, we’ve also moved SlideShowPro ThumbGrid as well as our various free extras (like the Photoshop export script) to the product sections they pertain to. This should hopefully avoid product compatibility confusion in newer users of our products.
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