Update flash movie from cms made simple

[jondrew]

Hi,

Does anybody know of or have a module that can update a flash movie? The movie in question is really just a flash gallery of images so the user would need to be able to update the images and add a description/bit of text to go with each.

Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks

Jon

[tomgsd]

You could probably use the album module for this.

You would need to create a template that would output the pictures to xml and then load it into flash using the "showtemplate=false" parameter in the url.

[jondrew]

Thanks Tom, I'm only a designer with some HTML/CSS skills really so wouldn't know how to output the images to xml? Any help you could give there would be much appreciated but I understand it might be too much to explain on a message board.

Thanks!

[tomgsd]

Its not that difficult really - a basic example would go something like this:

1. Decide on an xml structure, eg:
   
        Photo 1 description
        Photo 2 description
        Photo 3 description
   

2. Modify existing template (eg, lightbox - I believe the section which deals with the picture list is commented near the bottom) so that you have smarty variables in place of the urls and descriptions, eg (this is not accurate - it needs the correct variable names):


   
    {foreach from=$pictures??? item=somevar}
        picturelink}">{$somevar->picturedesc}
    {/foreach}
   

3. Add some pictures then under "Content -> Pages", create a page with "Album" as the content type and choose your gallery.

4. From flash, create XML load script and use "yoursite.com/index.php?page=pagealias&showtemplate=false".  You should then be able to access your pictures from flash and make a nice pretty slideshow!

Hope this helps!

[jondrew]

Tom,

Thanks for that, sounds like it's not too complicated. Would you be on hand to give any advice and fix any problems on a commercial basis in the next couple of weeks or so?

Thanks

Jon

[tomgsd]

No problem.

For any commercial stuff just PM me with the details.

Tom

[jondrew]

Thanks Tom,

Is "yoursite.com/index.php?page=pagealias&showtemplate=false". What needs to go as the xml file?

eg would the code in flash say: new XML("yoursite.com/index.php?page=pagealias&showtemplate=false".)

cheers

[tomgsd]

Yes it is.  You can put any link into the flash as long as it returns a valid xml document.

[antosha]

Thank you for that Tom,
I was looking to create a flash sideshow too, but never thought about the album module : )