Installation and setup of the playheads in our catalog are designed to be as simple as possible, while also giving you control over as many aspects as you may need.
The most important thing to remember is that the playhead needs to be told what to do, via a configuration file. If it can't read one, it will complain. Loudly.
The playhead itself is a Flash 8 document (SWF file), but in the package there are other files:-
You should NEVER upload any files from within the 'source_files' or 'documentation' folders of your package. Any fonts supplied must be installed on your computer if you are editing the source FLA files, but are not needed by your listeners and should not be uploaded to your website.
This will be loaded from the same website folder as the SWF file, and using the same name as
the playhead (but with an XML extension). For example, if the playhead is available at
http://www.mywebsite.xx/music/fmp300.swf
then the configuration file must be at
http://www.mywebsite.xx/music/fmp300.xml
The file contains XML data that defines all of the startup parameters for the playhead (autostart,
volume, etc), the initial colors for playheads that allow color changes, and of course the location
of the playlist. The configuration file must be present, and must have a playlist defined,
or the playhead will stop and display an error.
You can choose to embed the XSPF playlist into the configuration file if you want - see below for details!
A sample configuration file with an external playlist looks like this:-
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?>
<config version="1" xmlns="http://www.draftlight.net/dnex/config/ns/0/">
<color bg="#202020" icon="#ffffff" marker="#BA4709" text="#ffff00" bars="#0000ff"
skin="0" skinurl="myskin.jpg" />
<init autoplay="0" volume="80" continue="1" />
<playlist type="xspf" static="1" media="video">http://www.playlists.xx/videos.xml</playlist>
</config>
The parameters in a color tag are as follows (some or all may not influence your particular playhead design):-
The parameters in an init tag are as follows (some may not influence your particular playhead design):-
This contains a relative or absolute URL linking to a playlist. There should be one playlist tag per configuration file. The opening tag has three parameters:-
The playhead will usually read details of the media files from a playlist (a text file). The location of the playlist, and the type of file to be read, is defined in the configuration file (see above). The playlist can be loaded from anywhere on the web, provided you ensure the server hosting the playlist has provided a policy file permitting access. Detailed instructions on the format for a playlist are provided with your purchase.
If you wish to deliver your playlists using a scripting language, or have a simple unchanging list of tracks to play, you may like to embed the XSPF code within the configuration file instead of linking to another one. The only rules are that the playlist must live inside a <xspf> tag and come AFTER the <init> tag. Here's an example of a configuration file with an embedded playlist:-
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?>
<config version="1" xmlns="http://www.draftlight.net/dnex/config/ns/0/">
<color bg="#202020" icon="#ffffff" marker="#BA4709" text="#ffff00" bars="#0000ff"
skin="0" skinurl="myskin.jpg" />
<init autoplay="0" volume="80" continue="1" />
<xspf media="video" static="1">
<trackList>
<track>
<title>Call Me When I'm Drunk</title>
<location>video33.flv</location>
<image>/videos/images/drunk-pic.jpg</image>
</track>
<track explicit="1">
<title>Broken Horizons : MoonBottom : Click here to visit our website</title>
<location>http://www.moonbottom.website/media/video55.flv</location>
<info>http://www.moonbottom.website/</info>
</track>
</trackList>
</xspf>
</config>
The player will show an error and disable itself if the configuration file or playlist file cannot be opened. If a user has an older version of Flash Player, they will be prompted to update.
If the playlist contains more than one entry, the user can move between tracks using the transport buttons. Depending on the skin design, the user can pause, loop, fast-forward and rewind playback at any time. When the playhead first starts opening a track, it will begin playback as soon as enough data has loaded - this usually means about 10 seconds of video. On most designs a progress bar shows the state of download, but if the FLV video file hasn't been created with duration metadata, this will only show download status and not playback position. Once the track has downloaded once, it is usually stored in memory on the user's computer and so is not re-downloaded if they listen to the track repeat (except where the webserver delivers the FLV file with a special No-Cache header, which we strongly discourage).
If a track cannot be loaded (the media file is unavailable) the playhead will remove it from the list and try the next file. If it ends up with only one valid track, it will turn on looping and replay that track over and over. If it finds NONE of the media files can be loaded, it reports an error and stops.
If a track has an
Video playlists must define the title, location and (optional) image tags for each entry. A video track must be in FLV format with embedded metadata, otherwise playback will be corrupted. Trying to play any other format of video can cause crashes.
All our commercial playheads support Skipjack™, our world-leading playback session control system. Whenever a user is listening to a static playlist, Skipjack continually records the exact track and position information. If the user navigates to a different page on your website and reloads the playhead with the same playlist, Skipjack automatically finds the correct track and position, and begins playback. It also remembers volume settings. Skipjack stores information on the client computer, not on your website - so requires no extra work on your part.
Usually a small icon displays when Skipjack is returning to a session position. Users normally have up to 30 seconds between navigating away and returning before Skipjack erases the track memory. If the playlist is defined as 'dynamic', or has changed in the configuration file, then Skipjack is disabled. You should use Skipjack with caution if the server delivering your media files uses No-Cache headers, as users will face a long delay as the track reloads from the beginning. It is advised to test Skipjack for large video files to ensure the seeking delay is acceptable to your users.
The following instructions are normally not required for basic use of the playhead. users wishing to change some of the default settings should read on..
By default, the playhead looks for a file called 'XXX.xml' where XXX is the player's own filename. If you generate your configuration files dynamically using PHP or ASP, then you will need to tell the playhead to load this new URL. This is done by adding a special variable to the page code, both in the OBJECT and the EMBED tags. If we wanted to tell 'player01.swf' to open a configuration file called 'dynamic.php', then you need to add this line to the OBJECT param list:-
<param name="flashVars" value="config=dynamic.php" />
and in the EMBED tag, add the variable definition
You can specify any filename, but if you wish to use a URL containing non-alphabetical
characters you MUST URLencode the name using RFC2396. For example, if your configuration
file is at
http://www.myfiles.com/radioplayhead/config.php?music=madonna
then the URLencoded version is
http%3A%2F%2Fwww.myfiles.com%2Fradioplayhead%2Fconfig.php
There are some problems with the flashVars tag when viewed on minority browsers, and the
playhead will also accept a configuration file URL passed as a parameter to the SWF file
itself - this will work on any browser but means the playhead is downloaded each time the
configuration file changes. Here's an example of the embedding code where we want to force
the playhead to open "newvideo.xml" as the configuration file:-
<object id="fmp300" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
data="fmp300.swf?config=newvideo.xml" width="400" height="300">
<param name="movie" value="fmp300.swf?config=newvideo.xml" />
<param name="wmode" value="transparent" />
<param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" />
<div class="stirfry">
<h4>FMP300 Flash Video Playhead</h4>
<p>To listen you must <a href="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer/"
title="Click here to install the Flash browser plugin">install Flash Player</a>. Visit
<a href="http://www.draftlight.net/dnex/" title="Draftlight">Draftlight Networks</a>
for more info.</p></div>
</object>
With Flash Player 7 and above, enhanced security prevents a Flash document from loading text data (XML) from another website unless that site has given permission. This means that the server hosting your configuration and playlist files must also publish a small XML file named "crossdomain.xml", that informs Flash Player that they allow others to read their data. If this file is missing, your playhead will usually fail to operate.
This is only a concern where the PLAYLIST or CONFIGURATION FILE are on a different website domain to your SWF playhead. If they are on the same domain, then a policy file is not needed.
For example, if our playhead is at
http://www.mysite.com/users.smith/fmp256.swf
Then it tries to load a playlist from
Policy files are needed where users may access the files using a numeric URL (IP address), as even if this refers to the same domain name, Flash Player treats it as a different domain. Policy files are not needed to access your FLV data or JPEG images. For more information on the format of a Policy file, CLICK HERE.
You are solely and entirely reponsible for obtaining the permissions, licenses and agreements needed to play media files on your website. We accept no liability for the media you play, and any license or intellectual property infringements you may make. ALL commercial media is copyrighted and you MUST buy a license from the songwriters, studio, record label and/or Performer Rights agency before you can put media on a website, unless you are the sole owner of all such rights. Normally if you have written the media yourself, including all scores and lyrics, have performed it yourself and have not signed any agreement with a third party or agent, you are the rights owner and need no extra permission. For cover versions, recorded broadcast video or sampled works, you DO need permission. For detailed info on copyright and licenses, see our online guides at http://bandfoundry.draftlight.net/resources/copyright/. Draftlight does not supply licenses on behalf of our labels and artists, and will not assist in obtaining them.
Draftlight, DNeX and the Draftlight logo are Trademarks of Draftlight Networks
©2002-2007 Draftlight Networks all rights reserved