Using ScriptyLightbox

Legacy Tutorials
1

Hi Everyone,
I’ve seen lots of posts regarding the scriptylightbox and have read the instructions; however, I just can’t get it to work. Here’s what I’d like to do:

Have a text message open a lightbox and play a flash movie (actually an mp4) file.

Here’s what I’ve done:

  1. Created a page that contains just the movie.
  2. Linked to that page from another page (using a text link).
  3. Added the ScriptyLightbox to the text link.
  4. Set the dimensions in ScriptyLightbox appropriately.

Here’s what happens:

Nothing - well, OK something happens - when I click on it a lightbox opens; however, there’s nothing inside of it. Also, the lightbox dimensions are not what I defined them to be (much bigger).

Any help or pointing me to a post that answers this question will be greatly appreciated (I’ve looked for one, but haven’t found anything).

Thanks in advance for your help!

Greg

tutorials mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

2

You don’t need to do that first step – simply link to the movie file
itself, not to a page containing it. SL has the ability to work out
what sort of content you’ve linked to by the filename extension, and
it will add all the object / embed code that your plug-in will need to
read the file. The simplest way to do this is to use the Link to File
Action (or the Graphic Link to File, which will allow you to have a
thumbnail image for your movie as the trigger) as that will upload the
file and make the link in one step.

Walter

On Feb 23, 2010, at 5:11 PM, Greg Blomstrom wrote:

Hi Everyone,
I’ve seen lots of posts regarding the scriptylightbox and have read
the instructions; however, I just can’t get it to work. Here’s what
I’d like to do:

Have a text message open a lightbox and play a flash movie (actually
an mp4) file.

Here’s what I’ve done:

  1. Created a page that contains just the movie.
  2. Linked to that page from another page (using a text link).
  3. Added the ScriptyLightbox to the text link.
  4. Set the dimensions in ScriptyLightbox appropriately.

Here’s what happens:

Nothing - well, OK something happens - when I click on it a lightbox
opens; however, there’s nothing inside of it. Also, the lightbox
dimensions are not what I defined them to be (much bigger).

Any help or pointing me to a post that answers this question will be
greatly appreciated (I’ve looked for one, but haven’t found anything).

Thanks in advance for your help!

Greg

tutorials mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

tutorials mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

3

Hi Walt,
Thanks for the reply - I still can’t get it working. I made a short video to show you what I’m doing - maybe that will shed some light on my problem. Here’s the link: http://www.screencast.com/t/NTY5M2EzODU

Thanks!

tutorials mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

4

If you link to file the old fashioned way- by drawing a graphic or HTML
item, clicking the globe and selecting “Browse” and selecting a file from
there, you will be able to add the lightbox action, no problem.

TB

On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 7:40 PM, Greg Blomstrom <email@hidden

wrote:

Hi Walt,
Thanks for the reply - I still can’t get it working. I made a short video
to show you what I’m doing - maybe that will shed some light on my problem.
Here’s the link: http://www.screencast.com/t/NTY5M2EzODU

Thanks!

tutorials mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

tutorials mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

5

Simple to fix. And yes, the screencast was a big help. Draw an HTML
box on the page, double-click inside it to get a text cursor, and
choose Insert / Action Item / Link to File from the main menu.
Configure the Action in the Actions palette as you would ordinarily.
Finally, click on the HTML box you drew initially, and apply the SL
Action to that.

Walter

On Feb 23, 2010, at 7:40 PM, Greg Blomstrom wrote:

Hi Walt,
Thanks for the reply - I still can’t get it working. I made a short
video to show you what I’m doing - maybe that will shed some light
on my problem. Here’s the link: http://www.screencast.com/t/NTY5M2EzODU

Thanks!

tutorials mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

tutorials mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

6

I have a screencast on my site about how to use both Scripty Lightbox and SlimBox. It includes how to attach a video clip using Scripty Lightbox.

It might just be the ideal thing.

http://www.danjasker.com/fwtuts/view/slimbox-vs-scriptylightbox/

tutorials mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

7

Hi Greg

I noticed from your Screencast that you linked to a file that was in your Site folder.

You have to be very careful about doing that. FW handles the files in your Site folder and its subfolder the Resources folder and linking to things in there can screw with FW’s file management.

Instead put these sort of files in the Media folder that FW created for you - in your case in the SJ Vid Prod folder.

David

tutorials mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

8

If you link to file the old fashioned way- by drawing a graphic or HTML item, clicking the globe and selecting “Browse” and selecting a file from there, you will be able to add the lightbox action, no problem.

Yes that is fine, but using the Action the file will be uploaded by FW for you.

David

tutorials mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

9

Hi Everyone,
Thank you for your input and suggestions - I think I’m almost there, but not quite. This video shows it all: http://www.screencast.com/t/MTA4NzFk.

Greg

tutorials mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

10

You’re really close. I just tested this, so I can say with certainty
that it does work.

  1. Delete the Link to File Action you drew in your second step. Leave
    the HTML box with SL attached where it is.
  2. Double-click into the HTML box so you see a flashing text cursor.
  3. From the main menu, choose Insert / Action Item / Link to File. The
    Action item will appear within the text box, as an inline box. (You
    drew it as a child box, which should also have worked, but clearly did
    not.)
  4. Configure that Action to create your link and upload the correct
    file.

Preview and enjoy.

Walter

On Feb 24, 2010, at 6:37 PM, Greg Blomstrom wrote:

Hi Everyone,
Thank you for your input and suggestions - I think I’m almost there,
but not quite. This video shows it all: http://www.screencast.com/t/MTA4NzFk
.

Greg

tutorials mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

tutorials mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

11

Hi Walt,
OK, I got it to work! Only thing is I found that it would only work with a .mov file and won’t work with a .flv or .mp4 file. This is OK; however, I’ve found that not everyone can open .mov files (the other 2 types noted above are compatible with more browsers). If there is something I need to do differently for .flv or .mp4 files, please let me know.

Thank you again for your help and quick replies!

Greg

tutorials mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

12

Aha, that makes sense. Your construction with the Link to File drawn
as a child would have worked, too, if you had linked to an mov file.
Actually, the list of file types is quite a bit longer than that.
Here’s everything that’s considered “media” by lightwindow.

media : [‘aif’, ‘aiff’, ‘asf’, ‘avi’, ‘divx’, ‘m1v’, ‘m2a’, ‘m2v’,
‘m3u’, ‘mid’, ‘midi’, ‘mov’, ‘moov’, ‘movie’, ‘mp2’, ‘mp3’, ‘mpa’,
‘mpa’, ‘mpe’, ‘mpeg’, ‘mpg’, ‘mpg’, ‘mpga’, ‘pps’, ‘qt’, ‘rm’, ‘ram’,
‘swf’, ‘viv’, ‘vivo’, ‘wav’],

I haven’t tried, but I imagine that anything you can play through
QuickTime would work, so maybe if I were to add the mp4 and m4a types
to this they would also work.

You can’t play flv directly in any browser – it has to be “wrapped”
with a swf player, so that will never work unless you link to the swf
file and pass the flv in the FlashVars attribute.

Walter

On Feb 24, 2010, at 8:38 PM, Greg Blomstrom wrote:

Hi Walt,
OK, I got it to work! Only thing is I found that it would only work
with a .mov file and won’t work with a .flv or .mp4 file. This is
OK; however, I’ve found that not everyone can open .mov files (the
other 2 types noted above are compatible with more browsers). If
there is something I need to do differently for .flv or .mp4 files,
please let me know.

Thank you again for your help and quick replies!

Greg

tutorials mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

tutorials mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

13

Hi Walt,
The mystery is solved! If you can add the mp4 and m4a file types, that would be great and really appreciated!

Thank you very much for your support and for writing the ScriptyLightbox!

P.S. If you don’t have access to an mp4 or m4a file, let me know and I can post a couple for you to work with.

P.P.S. Yes, I know about the flv needing a wrapper - I actually put the flv action into the html box (that had the SL attached to it) to try it. It played, but it was only about 1 cm in height! Too funny! :slight_smile:

tutorials mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

14

hi I have also a question to the lightbox.I am new in this program and do not get it work, the lightbox.
I want the lightbox appearing not as a new file but a picture which is embedded in my site. I do want to force the user/visiter on my site to press the “go back” button to reach again my site.
Can somebody help me?
would be really nice.

constanz

tutorials mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options