For years I have been successfully using Slideshow Pro in Lightroom to create my web galleries in Freeway. I would like to switch to Slideshow Pro Director (SSPD) for a number of reasons but I’m confused as to how to make it all work. I understand the SSPD end of it and I see where SSPD gives you the code to paste into the website, but I don’t understand where and how to do it in Freeway. (I am a photographer, not a web designer so please keep that in mind with any explanations). Thanks in advance.
Dan, this was timely as I was in the middle of working on this. I did buy the screencast and watched it a couple of times but I have a problem. After pasting into the Insert>markup item… box and publishing the site, all I get is a black box, no slideshow. Any thoughts?
Are you viewing it locally or are you viewing it on a live web server. One thing to check:
Are you hosting the site on your own server space where the Director installation is or are you hosting Director on your server and running the site somewhere else?
ANSWER: If you are running things on the same hosting set up then it should work but if you running things separately you will need to create a crossdomain.xml file which will allow the slideshow on the remote server to access your Director installation. Creating a crossdomain.xml file is easy and instructions are found here: http://www.crossdomainmaker.com/
It is also good practice to have a crossdomain.xml file in general regardless if it is remote or not.
Also, what Dave suggested would be your best bet considering I put the screencast together and would be able to help you figure it out.
Okay, I think I know my problem. I have SSPD installed on my webserver. To view the slideshow in Freeway, it has to be uploaded and viewed from the server - live. In Freeway I was doing a File>publish site and then File>Preview in Browser, but not uploading to server. Once I uploaded it and went to the live site, it worked fine.
Glad it worked out and yes the mobile versions will work with any of the SlideShowPro products (Flash, Lightroom, and Standalone) as long as they are integrated into Director 1.5.
It has come to my attention that the implementation of SSP for Lightroom into Freeway has changed significantly so I will have to put something together for how to do that since my previous SSP for Lightroom will not work.
If you can live with the player in SSPD, there is a SSPD plugin for LR where you can simply export selected images into a new or existing SSPD album. If you drop them into an existing album, the automatically show up in your website slideshow. That is pretty slick.
I have yet to explore using the SSP LR player with Director but I’m hopeful it will be just as easy.
I have found the player built into Director to be a bit clunky and lacking in options. If anyone has figured out the best way to use SSPD and LR, please don’t hesitate to post.
I’ve been able to work out using LR and Director and I have successfully uploaded working LR SSP galleries to my web host. But I have not been able to figure out how to embed the proper code into Freeway so the SSP gallery is integrated into my website. The instructions from SSP reads “You can simply direct people to the index.html file in the subdirectory you just uploaded.” I don’t know how to make this work or even it it’s the proper way. Any ideas?
Okay, I’ve got it to work by trial and error. I have no idea what I was really doing, but it seems to work.
I use the Upload Extra Resources action by doing the following;
Created a image collection in LR.
Loaded the images into Director via the LR Export plugin
Created a LR SSP Gallery
Copy the XML address from Director and used it in the SSP LR XML file path
Change XML file type to “Director”
Exported the gallery to my desk top and upload to my web host.
In Feeway:
Create an HTML window and apply the Upload Extra Resources action
Double click the window and a “Content File” window will open. Locate the exported LR gallery on your computer, open, and click on the slideshowpro.swf file. Click open and then okay to close the Content window.
In the Actions window click on “With Page’s HTML File”. Then on the number items select the following items from the LF gallery folder: index.html, param.xml, slideshowpro.swf, images.xml, and pop.swf.
Upload your website from Freeway. This should do it. I was able to add a number of new images to the Director gallery and they show up in the website. The LR Director Export plug in makes this very easy. Hopes this helps.
The instructions from SSP reads “You can simply direct people to the index.html file in the subdirectory you just uploaded.” I don’t know how to make this work or even it it’s the proper way. Any ideas?
Easiest way is to put an iFrame on your FW page that links to the index.html file in your project folder that you uploaded.
David,
Even better. The iFrame works great, and so does Director. I especially like the way Director converts the slideshow for the iPhone and iPad. This is just about perfect for my needs.
That has a link to some instructions from the SSP Wiki on how to implement everything in a regular HTML editor. You will then have to translate how to set it up in Freeway which isn’t difficult to do.
Perhaps you mis-understood what I was saying. The way I have things set up requires either using Upload Extra Resources to add those files, but what is different is that you can simply enter the code into the Page > HTML Markup area and then create a layered HTML item on the page where you want the slideshow to go.
That’s easier than an iFrame.
Read the instructions link found on my site and you’ll see that is indeed easier.