Sound in Slide show

sandtrap

Joined: 2004-11-04
Posts: 1

Posted: Thu, 2004-11-04 19:50

How can I Apply a music theme to my slideshow ?

Sgtvishus

Joined: 2005-01-14
Posts: 1

Posted: Fri, 2005-03-04 01:45

I actually have the same question. I'm going to continue searching forums...

Seeking to embed a sound file or music clip into a categories' slideshow.
Possibly multiple slideshows, but it will be okay if I can just plant a music file in some header or something that plays for slideshow.

Semper Fi,

Vishus

lewisy

Joined: 2005-03-28
Posts: 4

Posted: Mon, 2005-03-28 12:46

It would be nice to have audio files (music and narratives) attached to each photo and the entire folder such as background music. The background music must be muted and stopped if an audio clip is assigned to a particular photo.

is it possible to do this?

Thanks,
Lewis

maggard

Joined: 2004-12-01
Posts: 24

Posted: Mon, 2005-04-04 14:01

Just thinking it through a bit I can see a few possible issues with 'theme music' for photos.

1. Web browsers (the people) *hate* audio surprising them. It's always too loud, or too quiet, and sudden noise shocks the heck out of unsuspecting photo browsers. Even web adverts have learned not to play music at page viewers.

2. Bandwidth & delay. Gallery is pretty lightweight to load. The graphic elements are usually cached, the biggest delay is pulling down the subject of the page; it's image. However with an associated audio file you're now pulling down *two* largish files simultaneously which will delay both a bit, possibly considerably for folks on limited connections.

3. Continuity. There's no way to predict how anyone is going to play the audio files. Sure they can be specified to be embedded in a page but every visitor is gonna be different:

You'll have folks with Windows Media Player or QuickTime or RealPlayer or WinAmp or mPlayer or whatnot firing up and taking focus from their web browser. For the stand-alone players the audio from each page might queue up, or multiple ones might play at once, or multiple players might get loaded (stop the insanity!)

Audio files that do stay embedded in a page will stop playing when that particular page is no longer open so there won't be "album" music, just "page" music, or worse yet "album" music starting over-and-over anew with each page loading. This could be worked around with an "album" pop-up staying open for the duration of an album but that might be tricky to pull off and pop-behinds are not well liked, or often even permitted, by browsers anymore.

4. Third parties & liability. The music industry in many countries is quite zealous about pursuing websites that distribute music without paying for the privilege. At the same time there are legions of folks typing "memories from cats" into search engines looking for an online copy. I think few photo album folks are interested in becoming the web's #1 source for Andrew Lloyd Weber MIDI & MP3 files.

5. On the other hand many cameras now offer an audio note option, so increasingly a "photo" consists not only of an image but also someone's voice intoning "Aunt Janie" or "What an amazing sunrise!". Those at-the-moment recordings are possibly integral to the photo and could legitimately be considered part of it.

6. Audio need not be limited to music. I'd love to record family members responding to various photos of themselves and other relatives, including ones now long gone, and then include those with the photos (just like text comments are now). Or on the same theme I've a 10 second video I took with my camera of the St. Lawrence flowing by Quebec City in mid-winter, the audio track contains the moans, groans, creaks, and sudden cracks as the ice pushes by the city, this adds immeasurably to the photo gallery.

7. Seventh item because Marketing always told me lists should have 7 elements.

bentobenji

Joined: 2007-07-19
Posts: 4

Posted: Thu, 2007-07-19 21:25

I figured out how to do it, though I agree that it may be inadvisable if done obnoxiously. I had to do it because a client wanted it. So here's what I did:

You need to change a couple of files to do this so I'll start there, then give you a few links to refer to. If you want further detail you can post back this thread.

You do most of the changes to the template file 'Slideshow.tpl' in the 'modules/slideshow/templates/' directory. You will also need to add links to external .js files in the Header.tpl file in the same directory.

First of all, you can find all you need to know on how to make and add the sound itself at this url:
http://www.irt.org/articles/js217/index.htm

You have to use a sound-only swf because other mime types open up a plugin player or external player, unless we're talking about rudimentary midi wav files. You also need to use the swf format if you need to interact with the sound. That link will tell you how to do it, though there are some details messed up with the making of the swf. He doesn't mention that the timeline in the diagram is that of the placed movie clip that is given an instance of on the main timeline. It helps to know Flash by the way but you may be able to figure it out. This guy has a way more detailed tutorial : http://www.devx.com/webdev/Article/16425/0/page/1

The other details involve placing the javascript functionality into the Slideshow.tpl file. You can follow the instructions for the general tutorial, but the function that calls the Flash api needs to be placed in the group of functions at the top of that document. Then where you call the embed function at the bottom of the page, you change the scrURL to the location of your .swf file. I created a new var at the top called audioId which references the Slideshow item.id, then place that into the embed srcURL. It'll look like 'http://www.mydomain.com/sounds/'+audioId+'.swf', and when parsed it'll call whatever album you clicked from, as long as you name your sound file according to the desired slide ID, like '355.swf'. You can also just give the embed function a regular url but then you're stuck with the same soundtrack for every photo album slideshow.

If someone sees this and asks I can give more detail. It just seems someone should answer this question since I haven't seen any answers.

sandtrap Joined: 2004-11-04 Posts: 1	Posted: Thu, 2004-11-04 19:50
	How can I Apply a music theme to my slideshow ?
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Sgtvishus Joined: 2005-01-14 Posts: 1	Posted: Fri, 2005-03-04 01:45
	I actually have the same question. I'm going to continue searching forums... Seeking to embed a sound file or music clip into a categories' slideshow. Possibly multiple slideshows, but it will be okay if I can just plant a music file in some header or something that plays for slideshow. Semper Fi, Vishus

lewisy Joined: 2005-03-28 Posts: 4	Posted: Mon, 2005-03-28 12:46
	It would be nice to have audio files (music and narratives) attached to each photo and the entire folder such as background music. The background music must be muted and stopped if an audio clip is assigned to a particular photo. is it possible to do this? Thanks, Lewis

maggard Joined: 2004-12-01 Posts: 24	Posted: Mon, 2005-04-04 14:01
	Just thinking it through a bit I can see a few possible issues with 'theme music' for photos. 1. Web browsers (the people) hate audio surprising them. It's always too loud, or too quiet, and sudden noise shocks the heck out of unsuspecting photo browsers. Even web adverts have learned not to play music at page viewers. 2. Bandwidth & delay. Gallery is pretty lightweight to load. The graphic elements are usually cached, the biggest delay is pulling down the subject of the page; it's image. However with an associated audio file you're now pulling down two largish files simultaneously which will delay both a bit, possibly considerably for folks on limited connections. 3. Continuity. There's no way to predict how anyone is going to play the audio files. Sure they can be specified to be embedded in a page but every visitor is gonna be different: You'll have folks with Windows Media Player or QuickTime or RealPlayer or WinAmp or mPlayer or whatnot firing up and taking focus from their web browser. For the stand-alone players the audio from each page might queue up, or multiple ones might play at once, or multiple players might get loaded (stop the insanity!) Audio files that do stay embedded in a page will stop playing when that particular page is no longer open so there won't be "album" music, just "page" music, or worse yet "album" music starting over-and-over anew with each page loading. This could be worked around with an "album" pop-up staying open for the duration of an album but that might be tricky to pull off and pop-behinds are not well liked, or often even permitted, by browsers anymore. 4. Third parties & liability. The music industry in many countries is quite zealous about pursuing websites that distribute music without paying for the privilege. At the same time there are legions of folks typing "memories from cats" into search engines looking for an online copy. I think few photo album folks are interested in becoming the web's #1 source for Andrew Lloyd Weber MIDI & MP3 files. 5. On the other hand many cameras now offer an audio note option, so increasingly a "photo" consists not only of an image but also someone's voice intoning "Aunt Janie" or "What an amazing sunrise!". Those at-the-moment recordings are possibly integral to the photo and could legitimately be considered part of it. 6. Audio need not be limited to music. I'd love to record family members responding to various photos of themselves and other relatives, including ones now long gone, and then include those with the photos (just like text comments are now). Or on the same theme I've a 10 second video I took with my camera of the St. Lawrence flowing by Quebec City in mid-winter, the audio track contains the moans, groans, creaks, and sudden cracks as the ice pushes by the city, this adds immeasurably to the photo gallery. 7. Seventh item because Marketing always told me lists should have 7 elements.

bentobenji Joined: 2007-07-19 Posts: 4	Posted: Thu, 2007-07-19 21:25
	I figured out how to do it, though I agree that it may be inadvisable if done obnoxiously. I had to do it because a client wanted it. So here's what I did: You need to change a couple of files to do this so I'll start there, then give you a few links to refer to. If you want further detail you can post back this thread. You do most of the changes to the template file 'Slideshow.tpl' in the 'modules/slideshow/templates/' directory. You will also need to add links to external .js files in the Header.tpl file in the same directory. First of all, you can find all you need to know on how to make and add the sound itself at this url: http://www.irt.org/articles/js217/index.htm You have to use a sound-only swf because other mime types open up a plugin player or external player, unless we're talking about rudimentary midi wav files. You also need to use the swf format if you need to interact with the sound. That link will tell you how to do it, though there are some details messed up with the making of the swf. He doesn't mention that the timeline in the diagram is that of the placed movie clip that is given an instance of on the main timeline. It helps to know Flash by the way but you may be able to figure it out. This guy has a way more detailed tutorial : http://www.devx.com/webdev/Article/16425/0/page/1 The other details involve placing the javascript functionality into the Slideshow.tpl file. You can follow the instructions for the general tutorial, but the function that calls the Flash api needs to be placed in the group of functions at the top of that document. Then where you call the embed function at the bottom of the page, you change the scrURL to the location of your .swf file. I created a new var at the top called audioId which references the Slideshow item.id, then place that into the embed srcURL. It'll look like 'http://www.mydomain.com/sounds/'+audioId+'.swf', and when parsed it'll call whatever album you clicked from, as long as you name your sound file according to the desired slide ID, like '355.swf'. You can also just give the embed function a regular url but then you're stuck with the same soundtrack for every photo album slideshow. If someone sees this and asks I can give more detail. It just seems someone should answer this question since I haven't seen any answers.

Sound in Slide show

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