EXT: WEC Flash Presentation¶

What does it do?¶

The Web-Empowered Church Flash Presentation Extension produces a synchronized slideshow/media presentation through a Flash movie. Media can be in the form of MP3 audio only or Flash FLV files containing both audio and video. Both low bandwidth and high bandwidth FLV files can be provided, with automatic bandwidth detection serving the correct file to the user. Currently, video must at a resolution of 320 x 240 or less.

Silde images and timings are entered through the TYPO3 backend to enhance the MP3 or FLV media. As the media plays, the displayed slides are updated to reflect the information being presented through the MP3 or FLV.

The Flash movies contain all of the functionality for controlling slides, audio, and video; TYPO3 is only used to provide a means for entering data and passing that data to Flash. This data passing is accomplished by embedding FlashVars in the HTML of a pages.

What is the Web-Empowered Church?¶

The Web-Empowered Church (WEC) is a ministry of the Foundation for Evangelism ( :underline:`www.evangelize.org <http://www.evangelize.org/>`_ ). The mission of WEC is to innovatively apply WEB technology to EMPOWER the worldwide CHURCH for ministry.

WEC will help churches around the world expand evangelism, discipleship, and care through the innovative application of Internet technology. WEC web-based tools and training will help make church ministries more efficient and effective, and will extend ministry impact to a world in need of Jesus (See :underline:`www.WebEmpoweredChurch.org/Jesus <http://www.webempoweredchurch.org/Jesus>`_ ). We want to fuel a worldwide movement using the Internet to point the world to Jesus Christ, to grow disciples, and to care for those in need. Our desire is to use the web to empower the Church to become a truly 24 hours per day 7 days per week ministry that is not constrained by walls or distance or time.

If you would like to find out more about WEC or our tools, or support us in any way, please go to our website for users: :underline:`www.webempoweredchurch.com <http://www.webempoweredchurch.com/>`_ and for software/web developers: :underline:`www.webempoweredchurch.org. <http://www.webempoweredchurch.org/>`_

Screenshots¶

Installation¶

The WEC Flash Presentation extension can be installed through the typical TYPO3 installation process using the Extension Manager. It is highly recommended that it is installed as a Local extension in the typo3conf folder however. A local install is required for the slide/timing wizard and for the default Typoscript configuration of file paths.

Once installed, adding the audio or video version of the Flash Presentation plugin is as simple as adding a frontend plugin to the page where you wish for the data appear. If the plugin is added through the new content wizard, special rows will be displayed for adding the Flash Presentation plugins, as shown below.

After selecting the version of the Flash Presentation Plugin that you want to appear on your page, you will be presented with a FlexForm- based page for data entry. The FlexForm will contain two tabs; the first tab contains information about the audio or the video depending on which plugin you selected while the second tab is used to enter pairings for slides and timings.

The sections immediately below provide a brief overview of the fields that are available while the Configuration section of this document provides a more detailed explanation of each field.

Video Settings¶

If the Flash Presentation -Video plugin was selected, the first tab in the FlexForm will be Video Settings, as shown below. This tab lets you specify the title of the presentation, as well as actual files to play for low bandwidth and high bandwidth users.

Each field in the FlexForm must be filled in for the extension to work properly. If you try to save an incomplete form, a yellow exclamation mark will appear to indicate the incomplete data. The error could be anywhere in the FlexForm and is not necessarily in the field next to the exclamation mark.

Audio Settings¶

If the Flash Presentation – Audio plugin was selected, the first tab in the FlexForm will ba Audio Settings, as shown below. This tab lets you specify the title of the presentation along with the MP3 file that will be played as a soundtrack for the slideshow.

Each field in the FlexForm must be filled in for the extension to work properly. If you try to save an incomplete form, a yellow exclamation mark will appear to indicate the incomplete data. The error could be anywhere in the FlexForm and is not necessarily in the field next to the exclamation mark.

Slide Images and Timings¶

Both the Flash Presentation – Audio and the Flash Presentation – Video have a second tab where pairings for slide images and slide timings can be entered. These pairing indicate the time in the audio or video file at which a new slide should be displayed.

By default, data is entered in a free form mode, with a space between slide images and timings and a return separating image/timings pairs. However, on the right side of the Slide Images and Timings text area is an icon that will put data entry in wizard mode, as shown below.

For more information on the slide image and timing formats accepted by the extension, please see the Configuration section.

Constant Editor¶

In addition to the FlexForm based values, there are several additional variables that may need to be changed on rare occasions. These variables, such as movie size, path, background color, etc are all available from the Constant Editor within the TYPO3 Template module.

Video Only Parameters¶

Each video parameter can be found within plugin.tx_wecflashpresentation_pi1

Example: plugin.tx_wecflashpresentation_pi1.videobase.value = fileadmin/video/

Audio Only Parameters¶

Each audio parameter can be found within plugin.tx_wecflashpresentation_pi2

Example: plugin.tx_wecflashpresentation_pi2.audiobase.value = fileadmin/audio/

Common Parameters¶

Common parameters can be found in both plugin.tx_wecflashpresentation_pi1 and plugin.tx_wecflashpresentation_pi2, depending on whether you want to set the parameter for video (pi1) or audio (pi2)

Example: plugin.tx_wecflashpresentation_pi1.flashPath.value = filead min/flash_video.flaplugin.tx_wecflashpresentation_pi2.flashPath.val ue = fileadmin/flash_audio.fla

Setting Fields Dynamically¶

As alluded to above, it is possible to set extension parameters dynamically through Typoscript. By default, the title of a Flash player is assigned in the Frontend Plugin's FlexForm. In this default configuration, the following Typoscript setup is defined.

plugin.tx_wecflashpresentation_pi1.classtitle = TEXT
plugin.tx_wecflashpresentation_pi1.classtitle.value =

If you'd like to set a static value in Typoscript, simple change the second line.

plugin.tx_wecflashpresentation_pi1.classtitle.value = My Class Title

More interesting is a dynamic value. The following example will set the class title to the title of the current page.

plugin.tx_wecflashpresentation_pi1.classtitle = TEXT
plugin.tx_wecflashpresentation_pi1.classtitle.field = title

For each of these example, a value in the FlexForm will take precedence over any special Typoscript configuration you may perform.

It is also possible to set up the entire extension via Typoscript, following similar concepts as shown above. The following Typoscript would render the Flash Video presentation.

page.10 < plugin.tx_wecflashpresentation_pi1
page.10 {
  classtitle.value = My Class Title
  intromessage.value = Loading...
  bgbase.value = fileadmin/introvideo
  bgimage.value = background.jpg

  videolow.value = low.flv
  videolowEC.value = 128
  videohigh.value = high.flv
  videohighEC.value = 256

  imagesbase.value = fileadmin/introvideo
  slides.value (
    slide01.jpg 0
    slide02.jpg 5
    slide03.jpg 10
 )
}

Calling the Flash Presentation via HTML¶

In addition to the dynamic, Typoscript-based configurations, it is also possible to use the Flash Presentation within a static HTML page. The disadvantage of using static HTML is that many of the default values provided by TYPO3 must now be manually entered so it is recommended that you use Typoscript whenever possible. An example of using the Flash Video Presentation from a static HTML context is shown below.

<div class="tx-wecflashpresentation-pi1">
  <embed src="typo3conf/ext/wec_flashpresentation/res/video_chart.swf" flashvars="textcolor=#000000&classtitle=My Class Title&intromessage=Loading...&bgbase=fileadmin/&bgimage=bg.jpg&bwbase=typo3conf/ext/wec_flashpresentation/res/&bwimage=100k.jpg&videobase=uploads/tx_wecflashpresentation/&videolow=low.flv&videolowEC=128&radioLabelLow=Low&videohigh=high.flv&videohighEC=256&radioLabelHigh=High&imagesbase=fileadmin/&slideImages=01.jpg,02.jpg&slideTimes=0,5&baseurl=http://typo3.dev/&lastloaded=true" width="760" height="400" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" quality="high"  pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed>
</div>

There are a couple things worth noting in this example. There are several values (src, width, height, bgcolor, etc) that are not passed along to the Flash movie and are only used in generating the HTML. In the table of parameters above, the special variables are noted. Aside from these special cases, all parameters are passed to the Flash movie inside the flashvars attribute. The parameter names used in the HTML are identical to those described in the table above. Parameters and their values are separated by an equal sign while parameter / value pairs are separated by an ampersand.

In addition to those parameters described in the table above, there are two paramters that are always included automatically by TYPO3: baseurl and lastloaded. When generating the Flash movie from static HTML, you'll need to set lastloaded to true and baseurl to the root URL of your site.

Extension¶

No validation is performed on the Slide Images and Timings when the form is saved. The extension attempts to modify incorrect image/timing pairs to produce usable data, but this may not always be successfully.

The backend data entry wizard only works correctly if the script is installed as a local extension at typo3conf/ext.

FLV videos are currently limited to a resolution of 320 x 240 or less.

Adobe Flash Player¶

The Adobe Flash Player plugin has a known issue with MP3 Playback where certain pairings of bitrate and frequency result in playback at double speed. Please see http://loudblog.de/forum/viewtopic.php?id=46 for a list of bitrates and frequencies that are known to work.

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EXT: WEC Flash Presentation - 10