I’ve been testing Slideshow Pro for Lightroom before buying.
I set up a group of images in Lightroom (v2) and then exported a slideshow to my desktop. I then placed the Lightroom folder into my Freeway site folder that I’m working from. I then placed the swf file that Lightroom created into a FW5 page. When I preview in my browser the slideshow works fine, but instead of thumbnail icons of my images along the bottom of the Slideshow I just have numbers for each image 01 02 03 etc.
If I double click the html file that Lightroom/Slideshow creates, I my slideshow shows thumbnails of the pictures in the slideshow.
While I was able to get Slideshow Pro slideshow to work, albeit without the thumbnail images (see my first post), when I try to place my slideshow swf into an existing FW site I am working on – I place it into an HTML box – when I preview it, the slideshow breaks my page apart – I see the slideshow pushed to the left and there is a large white box extending out to the right past my page.
My site was set up with fixed dimensions and to be centered. Will SlideShow Pro work with this type of setup. Am I bringing the file in wrong. Most of the items on my page were created with the CSS button turned on.
Any suggestions on what to do appreciated and please describe things in a step by step process as I am still new at FW.
I usually avoid putting anything in the Freeway published site folder. For some reason it causes things to be a mess. I end up manually transferring just the images folder through FTP using Transmit. I also use the “Upload Extra Resources” action to upload the ssp swf, the param.xml, and the images.xml file to their setup location. Someday I would like to see a folder upload action as this would save time in these instances.
To solve your situation, is it hosted on a server somewhere to look at?
(I’m sure you know you’re only supposed to import the loader.swf file into Freeway, not the slideshowpro.swf file.)
I haven’t upload the site yet, I was just trying to test it off my computer. However, what I didn’t know was that I was supposed to use the loader.swf – I was using the slideshowpro.swf file.
With regard to uploading the files and not putting them into the Freeway site folder, do you mean not putting them loose or individually within the Freeway folder at all, and in a totally separate folder? Can you give me a sample of the folder structure you are talking about. Thanks
And…I have both Lightroom and Flash 8, although I’ve not really used Flash much in the past. I tried making a Slideshow from the Flash version. Although it worked, it didn’t give me any thumbnails below my slideshow. How do I get those to show up? Also if I end up using the Lightroom version, does Director still provide me with any benefits?
Sorry for all the questions, but you seem well versed in this.
Jeff
PS. I did check out some of your screencasts and they were very helpful. Also liked your website.
How I usually have it setup on mine is putting the album1 (or more albums) in the root part of the site where the HTML is. I know you can opt in your XML in Lightroom as to where the items are located, but I usually keep things away from the Resources. I’ve had slideshow’s get deleted when the site gets updated.
As far as a directory structure here’s how mine usually look:
css
Freeway Created CSS Files
Resources
Freeway Created Resources Files
index.html
images.xml
param.xml
album1
album2
album3
slideshowpro.swf
That in turn puts that loader.swf file into your Resources folder by importing it into your Freeway document as you’ve now done.
As far as the Flash component of SSP, did you get numbers or did your thumbnails just show up as a white box. If it shows up as number that means you didn’t change the navigation to be Thumbnails in the Component Inspector and if it’s the white then it’s something wrong in your XML file with direction towards your thumbnail folders. Since the XML is a simple to understand text file you should be able to dissect the problem.
Many thanks. You’ve answered something thats been niggling me for sometime. SSP via Lightroom into Freeway. There was a long thread a while back and I ended up using the iframe action to do a workaround, now it makes sense.
The Upload Extra Resources action could do with having more than seven upload options, lightroom generates eight if you utilise popups, but thats a minor point.
There might be a conflict of files in the root if popups are part of your gallery but I’ve yet to try and see.
Jeffery,
Opera will tell you of any error’s (missing files), along the bottom and by looking at the activity from the windows menu.
I agree the screencasts are excellent, the visual aspect can be much more instructive than textually.
Thanks. I played around some more after my last post and using the Flash generated output, placed the swf file by dragging from the finder onto my Freeway page. That seems to make it work (at least I can view it in a browser and my page doesn’t break apart). I also figured out the numbers vs thumbnails part as well.
Still a bit confused as to how to use the Lightroom generated files, however, since there is a loader.swf and an ssp.swf. Are you saying that you place the loader and not the ssp.swf into Freeway. If so, if I drag and drop that it comes in much larger than my page and I can’t preview anything.
At the moment the Flash version seems a bit easier to use.
One other question with regards to SSP. Does it take up a lot of bandwidth? that is, I have a few different slideshows I want to show. Is it worth doing them on separate pages with links that would take one to the next slideshow on another page or can I put multiple slideshows on the same page. I was planning on about 15-20 images a slideshow.
Yeah, you are supposed to put the “loader.swf” file into Freeway. I’d recommend creating an HTML box first to the dimensions of the slideshow itself, double click (or single) to get the blinking text cursor and then File > Import…select your loader.swf file.
I only really use the lightroom version if I need something quick and without thumbnails or much of anything else.
If you set your publish settings in the Flash version to compress the movie (should be under the second tab in the publish menu) then the SWF file size won’t be very big. I’ve seen a few of mine range from 24kb-88kb…which isn’t bad because once it’s loaded it’s loaded. It all depends on your image sizes and file sizes of them if it’s going to matter as far as your bandwidth.
As far as separating them I usually (if images are related or part of the same group…say for a portfolio…) just create multiple albums in the same slideshow. If you need to separate them you could do that as well. One way I’ve done that is on my portfolio site in the way that it uses the picture boxes to sort the various sections.
I’ve been following this thread for a couple of days with great interest. Granted, I’m still crawling with Freeway, but following Dan J’s directions, after drawing the HTML box, clicking to get the blinking cursor and going to File>Import, the only option I’m offered is Import Text. Getting the loader.swf file is not available. I’ve tried dragging from the Finder with no success.