****README.txt - Free Flash FLV Video Player**** ##################################################################################### Version : Flash FLV Player SWF v1.0 Beta Released : January 10, 2011 Copyright : (c)2011 Craig Chant (DJ - C.D.C.) http://dance-music.org Coded In : FLASH - X/HTML - JAVASCRIPT Licence : Released under GNU/GPL version 3, as shown below. Released as freeware - no warranty given. ##################################################################################### Acknowledgements -> Inspired by Lee Brimelow and his 'Flash Video Basics' tutorials (http://www.gotoandlearn.com) ##################################################################################### --Requirements-- 1. A web site. Though you can simply use it on your local computer to view any FLV file on your PC or on the web if you so desire. --Files Included In This Distribution-- README.txt - This file with instructions and documentation. Flash_FLV_Player.swf - Compiled Flash Player SWF file. Flash_FLV_Player_Local.swf - Compiled Flash Player SWF file for playing videos locally on your PC. FLV_Flash_Vars.js - Javascript Flash FLV Player flashVars loader script. Flash_FLV_Player_FlashVars.txt - Detailed list of available flashVars and documentation. Flash_Player.htm - X/HTML Flash FLV Player website example page. blank.gif - 1x1 pixel transparent GIF image should you need it. --Quick Installation Instructions-- 1. Download and unzip the files contained in Flash_FLV_Player.zip file. 2. Upload the following file to a place of your choice on your website. - Flash_FLV_Player.swf NOTE: If you are running the player locally then you don't need to upload anything! Remember if you wish to run the player locally on your computer to view FLV files on your PC, you need to ensure you also have the Flash_FLV_Player_Local.swf file. If you are using a local Flash_Player.htm file on your PC to view videos hosted on the web then you only need to use the Flash_FLV_Player.swf file. Alternatively if you are using the Javascript loader method and viewing local FLV files, you need to set the 'Local' setting vars.Local = '1'; This ensures it uses the correct Flash SWF file, alternatively if you manually code the HTML page, you need to ensure you point the object to the correct Flash FLV Player (Flash_FLV_Player_Local.swf). You also need to ensure you set all paths to alternative image files to the same folder on your computer and have all the required images placed there also. I know it's a pain but the security Adobe sets on flash applications means this is the simplest work around so you can use it both for the web and locally. The Javascript file will also make your browser moan and require authorisation for two security prompts, this again is due to security settings to help stop you geting infected with viruses, and a good reminder that you should never run Javascript from an untrusted source locally on your computer! 3. Edit the Flash_Player.htm file if you wish to change the background colour of the webpage. To set the background black use the following :- background-color:#000000; 4. Upload the HTML file to the same place as the Flash_FLV_Player.swf file. 5. Edit the FLV_Flash_Vars.js file if you want to use the loader script. 6. Upload the FLV_Flash_Vars.js file to the same place as the other files. 7. Navigate your browser to the web address of the HTML file you just uploaded and enjoy the movie! NOTE: The provided HTML file requires the Javascript file, so you need to upload both if using this method but you can use the alternative method shown below. --Basic Player Use Guide-- OK so that's rather a simplistic view of the player, so let's go deeper.... Firstly... remember to review the Flash_FLV_Player_FlashVars.txt file and use it as a reference guide to all the available configuration flashVar variable settings! There are so many that I felt it best to provide these in a separate reference file rather than making this README.txt file too massive and intimidating. If you know a bit of HTML and are happy to edit website pages in a text editor such as notepad and use FTP to upload them to your website, then none of this is particularly difficult, the only hard part is for you to create (or acquire) a bunch of FLV videos you want to share with the world, friends and family and spending the time to design and configure your player just the way you want it! If you have an image editing package and a flare for design then you will be able to come up with some truly awesome player designs by simply using some of the flashVar settings! It's worth noting here that although the player is fully configurable with an unbelievable plethora of settings, you only need to use one to get results... That's the 'Flv' or 'vars.Flv' variable (if using the Javascript loader script), which tells the player what file to play, it really is that easy to use. So if you want to hand code the HTML it's only a few lines of code and can be as simple as this.... YOUR PAGE TITLE If you look closely you will see the flashVars defined, you will also notice there is an tag which has the same info as the tags. This is because not all browsers understand the tag with settings and so you have to also use an tag. It's bit of a pain having to do things twice, however you want to be sure that the greatest range of web browsers will be compatible and play your video files. You will also notice I have included the variable FlvTitle to give the video a title which is displayed on the buffering screen by default. When hand coding the flashVars each one must be separated by an ampersand (&) , ie. myVar1=myVal1&myVar2=myVal2&myVar3=myVal3 Trying to configure the entire player in this manner can get tedious and difficult to read as well as spot simple mistakes, so I have included a much more user friendly Javascript method for providing values to the many different player settings. If you hand code the flashVars and need to use an ampersand (&) in your value you need to use (%26) to URL Encode it and (%22) for double a quote ("). Using the Javascript file and accompanying HTML file will make life a lot easier to set up your player as desired. You will notice in the HTML file there is a piece code which looks like this... This tells the page to load the FLV_Flash_Vars.js file where your settings reside. NOTE: It MUST be placed between the tag! There is another piece of code which looks like this... This calls the showPlayer() function which will load the flashVars and write the player to the browser. NOTE: You can use showPlayer() with arguments if you wanted to tell the loader script to use a different FLV file and FLV Title than the one in the FLV_Flash_Vars.js file. This is handy for embedding more than one player into your web page at the same time. Simply use it as follows... Remember to set the player setting in the loader script for NoAuto = '1' , otherwise you will annoy your web visitors pretty quick if a bunch of videos start auto playing! Of course this is just an example of its use. As long as you place the showPlayer() function between - Flash_Player2.htm - - Flash_Player3.htm - Now you have a page which loads three FLV players all with different configuration files. With a little experimenting, you'll be embedding your movies into your web pages with ease! --A Quick Note On File Paths-- When providing paths to files via the flashVars for configuration settings, you don't have to fully qualify them with 'http://www.yourdomain.com/' you can simply use relative paths '/myfolder/myfile' and if the the movie is in the same place as the SWF player file, simply use 'myfile.flv' it is only if the movie is on someone elses website will you need to use the full URL. Remember you cannot use images that are not on your website or if using the local version, the images must be on your computer. --Other / Settings Not Yet Covered-- - Default / good practice parameter given to the flash SWF file for security. AND allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" - Ensures the video plays in high quality AND quality="high" - Ensures the flash SWF is transparent and doesn't show the grey 'flash stage' background. AND wmode="transparent" - Allows fullscreen so the 'Enlarge' button works - 'Enlarge' will not work without it! AND allowFullScreen="true" - Tells the what Flash_FLV_Player.swf file to use. AND src="Flash_FLV_Player.swf" NOTE: If you put the SWF file in a different folder to the HTML file and you are using the flashVars loader script, you can provide this path via the vars.SWFPath = '/myPath/'; variable setting. You do not need to include the SWF file name, this is done for you based on the vars.Local setting. --Brief Description Of The Flash FLV Player History-- Basically I have a good friend who runs a DJ / Karaoke / Events company and wanted me to incorporate into their website application, the ability to add movies to the website via an MS Access application I developed for him. This way he could have promotional videos and event movies with the ability to show them on his website and have his visitors and clients view them easily. I spent a week hunting Google looking for a FREE Flash FLV Player, it took me a while, but eventually I found one, it seemed to be free, unlike many, and didn't have any watermarks or embedded company branding. After spending a week writing the back end application I set up the Flash Player only to find it didn't work properly! The video would buffer and skip and no matter what setting you passed the player, it made no difference. I decided, as I have Flash 8, to look into what would be required to write my own. That's when I stumbled across Lee Brimelow's awesome 'Flash Video Basics' tutorials, so I watched them eagerly, slowly getting to grips with how it all worked, and after watching all eight tutorials I found myself hungry for more features, so I continued to add controls such as the timer, percent loaded and volume slider. This inspired me to make the player configurable via user defined settings (flashVars) as I needed to pass in video titles and .flv file paths, before I knew it I had created a cool little flash player that's less that 25KB and has 154 possible configuration settings! It has more options than you can shake a stick at, with aplha transparency controls, alternative images for everything inlcuding a video background for watermarks, you can resize it, remove controls, change positions, dimensions, colours... the list really does go on! So there you have it, I decided I would give this FLV Player away for FREE to accompany my other free software (Google Rank Extractor), and hopefully so you won't have to go through the headaches and sleepless nights I did trying to find a truly free Flash FLV player that worked, with all the settings you could possibly want. I hope you enjoy the player and find it useful, I am more than happy for you to send me feedback, suggestions and bug reports, but unfortunately I cannot provide technical support for general usage and the FLV player is provided without any warranties. --Copyright, License To Use and Other Legal Stuff-- File: README.txt Application: Flash FLV Player. Application: README.txt file for Flash FLV Player. Copyright (C) 2011 Craig Chant This program is free software: You may use, redistribute and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation. It is released under version 3 of the License. This program is distrbuted in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/ for more details. The only requirements for redistribution are that any such distributions, with or without improvements, carry the original copyright notice above, and that any derivitive versions also carry a GNU GPL License. ################################################################ --Version History-- Version : Flash FLV Player SWF v1.0 Beta January 10, 2011 - Original Release