SlideShowPro News

05.23.06 | SlideShowPro Director 1.0.1 Released

How about that? Barely 48 hours after 1.0 was released comes version 1.0.1. A couple of small tweaky things were patched, plus a new feature that will certainly come in handy for those with large amounts of photos -- XML caching.

Here's how it works. When SlideShowPro requests gallery data from Director, Director returns the XML data, but also caches a static version of the document. So if Director receives another request from SlideShowPro and the data from the first request hasn't changed, Director points SlideShowPro to the cached version instead of generating an entirely new XML file. This considerably speeds up the parsing of your XML, especially with large galleries. All of it is done automatically so you don't have to change a thing.

In addition to the caching of XML on the server-side, Director 1.0.1 also resolves the hassle of XML caching in web browsers. Director now appends a unique variable onto the end of XML file path when it's sent to the Flash Player; fooling the player into thinking that the XML data is new so it doesn't use a cached copy. This ensures that your users always receive an up-to-the-minute version of the XML; not a version that's been cached on their local machine.

Comments and suggestions for future versions are appreciated. Head on over to the Director forums if you have a tip. To download the update, login to your member page.