[Pro] play music on all pages uninterrupted

Freeway
1

I am building a site for a client who wishes to have background music. Following these instructions is pretty straightforward…

Is there a way to keep the tune playing uninterrupted across all pages? The music starts over when navigating to a new page on the site but I want the music to just keep playing. I can’t think of a way to do this short of building the site in flash which is not an option as it is required to work on tablets (iPad etc) as well as desktop machines.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers, Paul

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2

There are two possible solutions. The first is preferred, the second is going to KILL any hope of search engines or human users ever liking you, so it’s best avoided.

Option 1. Create a music player page, designed to fit in a tiny window, and use Spawn New Window or Link to New Window to open a tiny, minimized audio player window. Use the Background Sound Action on that page, or better still, drag the music file into the page and create a player with controls to stop and start. If you are using Spawn New Window, I believe it has the option to auto-open a child page at or after the main page loads. I don’t recommend that last part, by the way, because playing music without asking first is incredibly user-hostile. If there’s a button I can choose to press to start the music, then I have no problem with that.

Option 2. Create a frameset, and put your entire site in it. Make the frame holding the music page just big enough to show the player controls, and set the other frame (where you will be hosting your entire site) have the indeterminate size (*), which means it will take up whatever is left after the other frame has reserved its space. Problems with this include the fact that the only URL that will ever work is the one for your site – you can’t bookmark or send a link to someone for anything besides www.yoursitehere.com, because any inner page will have to load the frameset to get the outer music wrapper.

Walter

On Apr 5, 2012, at 12:53 PM, mr buffy wrote:

I am building a site for a client who wishes to have background music. Following these instructions is pretty straightforward…

http://www.softpress.com/kb/questions/184/Using+Music+and+Audio+Files+on+your+Web+Site

Is there a way to keep the tune playing uninterrupted across all pages? The music starts over when navigating to a new page on the site but I want the music to just keep playing. I can’t think of a way to do this short of building the site in flash which is not an option as it is required to work on tablets (iPad etc) as well as desktop machines.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers, Paul

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3

AHHHHHH

Don’t you hate sites with music!! I listen to my music if I want to -
forcing me to listen to “your” music is a big NO.

Just my opinion :slight_smile:

Bruce

On 5 April 2012 17:53, mr buffy email@hidden wrote:

I am building a site for a client who wishes to have background music.
Following these instructions is pretty straightforward…

http://www.softpress.com/kb/questions/184/Using+Music+and+Audio+Files+on+your+Web+Site

Is there a way to keep the tune playing uninterrupted across all pages?
The music starts over when navigating to a new page on the site but I want
the music to just keep playing. I can’t think of a way to do this short of
building the site in flash which is not an option as it is required to work
on tablets (iPad etc) as well as desktop machines.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers, Paul

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4

It is was the client wants, not my decision! Though I am doing my best to discourage autoplay.

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5

Clients always have “cute” ideas that they think are world conquering -
heaven help us FW folk!

Bruce

On 5 April 2012 19:11, mr buffy email@hidden wrote:

It is was the client wants, not my decision! Though I am doing my best to
discourage autoplay.

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6

Walt… I was going to consider doing it despite what you just said about searchability etc…but then I found a key older post from you where you mention that I wont be able to send someone a link to part of the site and I do this often with parents. Glad you mentioned that.

Do I have another option like this…

Given that the yahoo media player is working perfect…can I have it so when person gets to hoffkids no player …then there is a link that says play music…they hit this and little window opens up over and they can choosevtune while still clicking around other pages? I realize they would have to shut page/player at end of visit.

I tried to just click on green frame ofbthe yahoo player action and spawn new window but it would not let me apply another action to it.

Thanks

Barry

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7

You would create a separate player page in Freeway (size it to fit a tidy little daughter window) and then put a simple graphic or text link on your page with the Spawn New Window Action applied to that. SNW doesn’t work the way you describe – you can’t “tear off” a page element into a new window (although that sounds like a cool interface idea).

Walter

On Apr 19, 2012, at 7:51 AM, Hoffman wrote:

Given that the yahoo media player is working perfect…can I have it so when person gets to hoffkids no player …then there is a link that says play music…they hit this and little window opens up over and they can choosevtune while still clicking around other pages? I realize they would have to shut page/player at end of visit.

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8

So Walt is this the correct method?..

  1. make a new page (will clear all off of it)

  2. Draw the yahoo player action on that page and resize the page as small as possible to house the yahoo player (may need help later)

  3. Put a graphic link on my master page (called PLAY) and link this to this new page

  4. make that link spawn to new window.
    Will I be able to control where the little page with the player opens??? (may need help later)

result:

*when visitor comes to index.html no player
*visitor can click PLAY graphic link and up comes mini page on top with yahoo player
*visitor hits play, music starts and they can navigate wherever on Hoffkids they wish.

They then have to shut page to end music (or close Hoffkids?)

:-)))))

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9

On Apr 19, 2012, at 8:53 AM, Hoffman wrote:

So Walt is this the correct method?..

  1. make a new page (will clear all off of it)

  2. Draw the yahoo player action on that page and resize the page as small as possible to house the yahoo player (may need help later)

When you create your new player page, base it on a blank master. Put all of your content together in the top-left corner, and don’t set the page to center align. You should then be able to open this in a very tiny sized window.

  1. Put a graphic link on my master page (called PLAY) and link this to this new page

Technically, you just need to use SNW on that item, and choose your page in the Actions palette in the SNW interface. You don’t need to add a link and SNW to the same object. (Also, resist the urge to use the “iPad-friendly settings” in SNW – those will completely break your separate player window scheme, since it will open the player in a floating layer in the same page, which means that the player will stop when the visitor navigates to a different page.)

  1. make that link spawn to new window.
    Will I be able to control where the little page with the player opens??? (may need help later)

result:

*when visitor comes to index.html no player
*visitor can click PLAY graphic link and up comes mini page on top with yahoo player
*visitor hits play, music starts and they can navigate wherever on Hoffkids they wish.

They then have to shut page to end music (or close Hoffkids?)

They will have to locate the small player window and close it or click the stop button in the player.

Walter

:-)))))

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10

makes sense- will try tonight with excitement.

How do I add a blank master (sorry ,never did it before). I always just drag the MASTER 1 down.

Barry

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11

Page / New Master will make an entirely empty master page. If you’ve already decorated Master 1, then you need to create Master 2 (or whatever you want to call it). It’s a very good idea anyway to have an entirely empty master page in your document, because it’s a very good way to completely remove all master items from an instance page. Just switch to that blank master in the Page Inspector, then look to see what’s left on the page – that will be anything that was either added to that instance page, or that got disconnected from the master in some way.

Walter

On Apr 19, 2012, at 9:37 AM, Hoffman wrote:

makes sense- will try tonight with excitement.

How do I add a blank master (sorry ,never did it before). I always just drag the MASTER 1 down.

Barry

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12

got it!!

can’t wait to get home from work!!!

thanks much.

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13

You mean like this:
http://www.actionsworld.com/tearoff/
:slight_smile:

You can drag the “task window” around the browser window, but try dragging it off the browser window and releasing the mouse button.

Only tested in Safari, and done for kicks more than anything else.

On 19 Apr 2012, 11:57 am, waltd wrote:

You would create a separate player page in Freeway (size it to fit a tidy little daughter window) and then put a simple graphic or text link on your page with the Spawn New Window Action applied to that. SNW doesn’t work the way you describe – you can’t “tear off” a page element into a new window (although that sounds like a cool interface idea).

Walter

On Apr 19, 2012, at 7:51 AM, Hoffman wrote:

Given that the yahoo media player is working perfect…can I have it so when person gets to hoffkids no player …then there is a link that says play music…they hit this and little window opens up over and they can choosevtune while still clicking around other pages? I realize they would have to shut page/player at end of visit.

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14

Damn, Paul. That is truly slick!

Walter

On Apr 19, 2012, at 12:27 PM, Paul wrote:

You mean like this:
http://www.actionsworld.com/tearoff/
:slight_smile:

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15

I’m using the Scriptaculous libraries to do the heavy lifting. But there is not much additional code needed to achieve this effect.

On 19 Apr 2012, 4:59 pm, waltd wrote:

Damn, Paul. That is truly slick!

Walter

On Apr 19, 2012, at 12:27 PM, Paul wrote:

You mean like this:
http://www.actionsworld.com/tearoff/
:slight_smile:

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16

Walt - could you please check this out and tell me if it is the best it can be?

i made the page that the player is on 600W x 400H but it seems it is the dimensions in the SNW that most matter. i used 600w x 300h

the pop up window looks weird at first because it needs room in case you hit playlist and it gets tall.

just click this link below and hit “press for music” at the top to test out.

http://hoffkids.com/FWtest/articles.html

i will eventually put this link on top of master.

Also is there a way for this page with player to open in bottom left instead of upper left?

tx

barry

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17

I would be asking myself “Does adding music to my pages like this really add anything to the Maths orientated users experience or is it just a distraction?”

Unless the answer is an unequivocal YES then I would shelve the idea!

My 2c.

David

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18

HI Dave,

Hoffkids is not a math site. It is not a science site. It is a very unique one of a kind middle schooler place to do things they never did with regards to education and enjoyment. Conferencing, interactive simualtions, etc.

When asked what they would most want in a site which they will use so much, music choice came up (not more math links).

I think the way I am doing the player gives them the choice to ignore and pretend it never existed, or most importantly one more way for them to interact and enjoy a special environment of their own.

It is a hard site for outsiders to truly understand as it not much like the normal sites people see (nothing to sell, not promoting something, not concerned with google searches, etc). What makes it special is that it is not there normal education site.

As far as possible distraction? maybe- how will I know until later- I am sure kids in the computer lab will be playing it and it will be gone sometime soon after its launch :frowning:

Barry

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19

there—> their

sorry.

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20

Are you then going to poll your kids as to their choice of music? (Remember copyright issues)

I appreciate that the whole site is a labour of love for you and to generate interest from the kids but I can’t help feeling that you are going to quite a lot of effort to “enhance” your site when that could wait until the rest is finished.

It will probably be a short lived novelty to see what Hoff’s choice of music is and to have a laugh at it. Lets face it us old gits have no clue what the kids are into. I listen to what my 11 yo girl tells me she likes and I cringe.

So put me down for being a boring old fart if you like - I know I am - and just ignore me and get on with it.

D :slight_smile:

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