SlideShowPro News
09.02.08 | Slew of Director updates
We've just released updates to SlideShowPro Director (1.2.4), the Lightroom to Director plugin (1.0.2) and the DirectorPHP class (1.0.1).
The fixes are fairly minor and mostly address an issue with the Lightroom to Director plugin and Director installs with large amounts of content. Users experiencing an empty album list in the Lightroom exporter should upgrade their Director install as well as update to the latest version of the Lightroom to Director plugin.
To get the latest version of Director, login to the Account Center. To grab the latest versions of the Lightroom to Director plugin and the DirectorPHP class, visit the SlideShowPro Director extras page.
08.27.08 | Lightroom to SlideShowPro Director 1.0.1
We've just updated the Lightroom to SlideShowPro Director plugin to version 1.0.1 with a few small fixes. This version should trap errors a bit better and also includes a mechanism to check and see if you are using the latest version. To download 1.0.1, visit the SlideShowPro Director extras page.
08.15.08 | Lightroom to SlideShowPro Director plugin updated
An update for the Lightroom to SlideShowPro Director plugin has just been released. The update should resolve issues that been affecting users when using the plugin with Lightroom 2. Also, based on user feedback, we've added some optional controls to the exporter that allow you to set image quality and dimensions on export.
You can download the update from the SlideShowPro Director Extras page.
Director 1.2.3
We've found and fixed a few more bugs in the new Director 1.2 release and Director 1.2.3 is now available in the account center. This upgrade is recommended for all users running any version of 1.2. For a list of changes, see the version history page in the wiki.
08.14.08 | Announcing SlideShowPro for Facebook (beta)
Believe it or not, Facebook is considered by some market watchers to be the number one photo sharing site on the web. It's something most people probably don't even think about, considering how many other things there are you can do with a Facebook profile, but the numbers don't lie. There are millions of people using it everyday for all their social interactions, not to mention having a spot to upload their photos to share with friends.
Because of their popularity, we've been asked numerous times how to embed SWFs at Facebook, to which we responded with an admittedly laborious walkthrough detailing how it can be done. It was shortly thereafter that we thought...hey...this would be so much easier to do if SlideShowPro was compiled as a Facebook app instead so that by clicking a single button a Facebook user could have a nice slideshow of their photos on their profile.
So we've done just that with SlideShowPro for Facebook. You simply install the app and add it as a tab to your profile. When loaded, SlideShowPro for Facebook automatically pulls in all your Facebook albums and presents them in a single interface. For simplicity, the app only displays photos you've added to your profile, so if you want to share images from SlideShowPro Director or otherwise, you'll (still) need to embed your own.
And best of all? The app is free. It's considered a beta for we're tweaking some things and adding more themes, but if you'd like to give it a try before the app goes final, go right ahead. And please do contact us if you have any thoughts, issues or suggestions.
08.11.08 | Director 1.2.2, Lightroom to Director
Earlier today, we released Director 1.2.1 with a few bugfixes. Unfortunately, we introduced a new bug, so 1.2.2 is now out. If you are having issues with 1.2.1, try upgrading to 1.2.2 to see if that helps.
Also, we've released a final version of the Lightroom to SlideShowPro Director plugin. This plugin allows you to add imagery to your Director install straight from Lightroom. For more on the plugin, check this page at the wiki. To download the plugin, visit the extras page for SlideShowPro Director. The plugin requires the latest version of Director or an account with the SlideShowPro Director hosting service.
08.06.08 | SlideShowPro Director 1.2
After more than six months of development and testing, SlideShowPro Director 1.2 is now available in the Account Center.
If you've been following the 1.2 development and beta cycle, you probably know that the key addition to 1.2 is the new API. Now well documented on the SlideShowPro wiki, the API allows you to connect to Director's data and the on-demand image publishing system from outside of Flash. The possibilities are endless and we'll be showing you some examples of what users have already done in the coming days.
Apart from the API, Director has received several user interface tune-ups, including custom buttons, pagination on the albums and galleries index pages, a more functional album content tab and much more. For a full list of the changes, see the version history over at the wiki.
One important note before upgrading to 1.2. You must be running Director 1.1 or later in order to upgrade to 1.2. If you are running a pre-1.1 install, you will need to upgrade to 1.1.9 first, then upgrade to 1.2.
Happy upgrading!
07.24.08 | Director 1.2 RC2
The second (and probably final) release candidate is now available for Director 1.2. It contains a few fixes to the installer as well as various performance improvements. If you are running the beta or first release candidate, please upgrade and report any issues you see. We expect a final release of 1.2 early next week.
07.23.08 | AS3 component update
A number of weeks ago we mentioned that an ActionScript 3 version of SlideShowPro for Flash was in development. We haven't mentioned anything about it since, so here's a quick update.
Development continues at a brisk pace, with nearly all of the main component functionality up and running. There are a couple of big pieces left to code, but it's coming together really nicely. If all things continue as they are with no major hiccups, we should have a downloadable beta about a month from now.
As for how the AS3 version will fit into our product lineup, the AS3 build will share the same version number as the current (AS2) build of SlideShowPro for Flash, which is 1.8.9. It will offer all the same functionality, and for all intents and purposes should be indistinguishable from the AS2 build.
Once final, the AS3 version will be included (for free) in the same download as the current AS2 version; allowing users to choose which extension they'd prefer to use. Flash MX 2004 and Flash 8 users will continue using the current AS2 build, while Flash CS3 users will have the option of using either in their projects.
As for SlideShowPro for Lightroom, it will use the AS3 version of SlideShowPro once all the kinks have been worked out and the component is no longer in beta.
If you'd like to be notified of the AS3 version's availability, subscribe to our RSS feed or follow us on Twitter through the links displayed at the top right of this page.
07.22.08 | Director 1.2 Release Candidate
After a lengthy and productive beta cycle (thank you beta testers!), Director 1.2 has reached the release candidate stage. At this point, we are feature-locked and barring any unforeseen bugs this will be the version that goes final in the coming days.
So, if you have been testing, please give this version a try and let us know if something doesn't behave as expected. For a full list of the changes, see this thread in the beta forum. As always, the release candidate is available for download in the account center.
07.18.08 | Director 1.2 Beta 8
Thanks to some valuable feedback from our beta testers, we've closed a few more lingering bugs in the Director 1.2 beta and released beta 8 in the account center. For a list of fixes, see this thread in the beta forum.
We'll monitor this over the weekend and if all goes well, you should see a release candidate for 1.2 sometime next week. Thanks for testing!
07.15.08 | Director 1.2 Beta 7
Hot on the heels of beta 6, beta 7 is now available for those of you participating in our public beta for 1.2. This release fixes a few small issues that popped up in beta 6, particularly with our old friend Internet Explorer.
We're getting quite close to a production-ready release of 1.2, so you're feedback is more important than ever. Help us find those last few bugs before 1.2 goes final by posting over in the beta forum.
07.11.08 | Director 1.2 Beta 6
We're inching toward a release for the next major version of Director. Beta 6 is now available in the account center.
This beta continues to refine the new API (including adding a helpful Cache class to the DirectorPHP class). We've also added the ability to add tags to content in Director as well as fetch content by tags from the API. To upload the newest API Demo, click here.
Otherwise, we've done quite a bit of fine tuning to the Director interface. In particular, we've overhauled how the content tab works as well as adding custom buttons to the entire interface. Another change (based on user feedback) is pagination for both the albums and galleries index pages, useful if you have large amounts of content.
As always, we'd appreciate your feedback in the beta forum. Happy testing!
06.27.08 | New third party script: Fetchr4SSP
Developer Steve Mooradian has just released a new PHP script for loading Flickr photosets in SlideShowPro for Flash. Named Fetchr4SSP, the script accesses Flickr's API, and allows you to load more content than what's available through SlideShowPro for Flash's RSS parsing. The script is sold for $4.95 (personal use) and $9.95 (commercial use), and comes with a free trial as well. Check it out.
06.18.08 | View SlideShowPro Director content on your iPhone
Even though internal work continues on SlideShowPro Director 1.2 public beta, that hasn't stopped a number of developers from finding creative things to do with the product's new (and still in development) API. Case in point: iShowPro from Visual23. It's a free (and in beta as well) template Director 1.2b users can use to display Director content on their iPhone. The developer is looking for feedback, so if you're running 1.2b, we suggest you give it a try!
05.30.08 | Back online
The slideshowpro.net server experienced about 2 hours of downtime this afternoon, but is now back online. Sorry for the inconvenience.
If you sent any email between 1:30pm and 3:30pm Eastern time, you may want to send it again just to be sure we received it.
Hosting accounts on slideshowpro.com were not affected, as the hosting platform now resides on a separate server.
05.23.08 | Director 1.2 Beta 5
After taking a unexpected break from 1.2 development to give our Director hosting service some much needed attention, we're back in business with beta 5.
This beta fixes a few small issues uncovered in beta 4, but the major changes are with the API. It's been completely reorganized and documented on our new wiki. We've also updated the API demo to match, so be sure to check that out.
For a full list of the changes, see this thread in the beta forum. Feel free to give feedback or ask questions about the beta in that forum as well.
05.07.08 | New help wiki launched
A couple of months ago we mentioned that a new help wiki for our products was in development, and today we're launching it. The wiki collects together all the content in our PDF-based user guides, how-to forum topics, forum stickies, API documentation, and more. We're hoping that the new format makes finding the content you need easier and faster.
Another reason for moving everything to HTML is to provide documentation in more than just English. Every document has an "Other Languages" box at the top right for alternate translations in Spanish, French and Italian. Right now pretty much everything is in English, and that's where we could use your help. Anyone can help translate a document by clicking a language link and entering their login and password to the account center. You'll then have full access to the non-English version of that document.
As for our existing documentation, we will continue to include the PDFs with our product downloads for at least another few weeks. That will give us time to fix any wiki issues, and hopefully get everyone accustomed to using the wiki to find the information they need before pulling the plug on everything that's been moved.
So when you have a chance, give it a look and let us know how it can be improved, or if you spot any mistakes / omissions.
04.17.08 | Director 1.2 Beta 4
As betas usually go - two steps forward, one step back. With the new metadata functionality we introduced in Beta 3, we inadvertently broke the link template functionality. Also, the new EXIF/IPTC dialogues were not showing up in IE 7. We've fixed both of these issues with Beta 4, now available via the account center.
As always, we appreciate your feedback (good or bad) through the 1.2 beta forum.
04.16.08 | Director 1.2 Beta 3: EXIF/IPTC support expanded
Although the major focus for Director 1.2 has been implementing the new API system, there was one other thing we have been itching to improve for some time now. As many of you have pointed out, most images are embedded with a rich set of metadata about when the image was taken and what settings were used. This valuable data is known as EXIF and is inserted into the file by the camera itself at the time the image is taken. Likewise, it is common for images to include IPTC data, which is data that is input in imaging software such as Photoshop or Lightroom. Many photographers use this data to identify the copyright owner, give the image a caption, and so on.
Up until now, Director has been mostly ignoring this data. However, starting with 1.2 Beta 3, we've revamped the album settings tab to expose quite a few EXIF and IPTC fields. We've also exposed more Director data, allowing you to quickly create dynamic captions and titles with a mix of Director, IPTC and EXIF data.
Director 1.2 Beta 3 is now available in the users area. Please do remember it is still in the beta stage, so use with care. Screenshots of the shiny new stuff:
03.27.08 | Director 1.2 Beta now available
We've finally chased down the last few issues with Director 1.2 and have released it in beta form via the Account Center here at slideshowpro.net. The regular disclaimers about using beta software apply.
Before we get to the exciting stuff, a word of warning about 1.2. You can only upgrade existing installs of Director to 1.2 if the existing install is running Director 1.1 or later. So, if you are still running 1.0.9.9 (or an even earlier version), you will first need to upgrade to 1.1.9 (the latest release of the 1.1 line), then you can upgrade to 1.2.
So what's new? At first glance, Director 1.2 looks quite a bit like Director 1.1. It's beneath the surface that the most notable change has been implemented, as Director has been fitted with a new API that opens up Director's data and imagery to just about anything you can dream up.
There are a few notable fixes and additions in Director itself. First, Director now exposes more data to link templates, allowing you to create more useful, custom link templates. The link template system now also has access to the on-demand image publishing system, so you can link to an optimized copy of the image. To illustrate this, a new link template is included in the update that opens an optimized copy of the image at 800x800 in a chromeless popup window. One final fix that is noteworthy - we've finally found a fix for the batch selection issue on Mac browsers. Yeah!
There's more too, so be sure to check out the full changelog for your favorite change/fix.
03.05.08 | New button pack: "Pearl"
Now available for purchase/download is a brand new button pack for SlideShowPro for Flash users named "Pearl." This pack is just like the popular "Quartz" pack in that it comes with 18 icons in both 16px and 24px sizes, with the smaller size optimized for use with the "Numbers" navigation link appearance and the larger optimized for "Thumbnails." The set is comprised of 24-bit semi-transparent PNGs with subtle outlines and highlights that look great when set on top of all kinds of colors.
"Pearl" is just 9 bucks, and really easy to implement in your SWFs. Check out the "How Button Packs Work" screencast video for a bird's eye view, or hop on over to the purchase page to download your copy.
02.26.08 | Trials available across the board
After far longer than I'd care to admit, we finally have a free, fully functional trial of SlideShowPro for Flash for people to download, test out, and kick around. Containing both the Flash extension and the standalone version (in SWF form), the trial is exactly like the real product except it's limited in the amount of content it can load (three pieces of content total).
With that, all three of our products now offer free trials for new users to try out. This isn't exactly useful news for existing users, but hey. Better late than never, as they say.
02.14.08 | Twitter user? Follow SSP.
Perhaps you've heard of Twitter. If so, chances are you have an account and use it to keep up with friends, news and whatever else you fancy. So to keep Twitter users in touch with all things SSP, today we added a Twitter profile that automatically receives published news from here on the site, and will be updated from time to time with random links and things that don't necessarily warrant a news post here.
Want to follow along? Click here to visit our profile and click on the "Follow" button under our logo. And if you're in need of a Twitter client and use OS X, check out Twitterrific. Tweet tweet.
02.12.08 | Director API Public Alpha
We've had a great response to the Director API since we announced it a few weeks back. To make things easier, we are turning the 1.2 alpha of Director into a public affair. So, any interested Director users who want to try out the API can do so and discuss it via the forums. To get started, read this post in the newly minted Director API forum.
02.08.08 | Export/Import Parameters Command (Beta) now available
One of the things that's always driven me crazy about the Component Inspector panel in Flash is that it doesn't provide a way to save settings. There's simply no built-in way to copy the parameters of one instance of SlideShowPro over to another in a separate FLA, or share your settings with another user. So, I decided to experiment with creating my own parameter copying utility, and before I knew it had built just that.
Using the JSFL engine in Flash CS3, I've built a couple of commands that make the exporting/importing of parameter settings fast and easy. Parameters are exported as an xml file, which can then be imported back into Flash, parsed, and assigned to a separate instance of SlideShowPro. You can even share the XML file with someone else, and they'll be able to take a default, new instance of SlideShowPro and convert it (size, color, behavior, everything) to an instance that's identical to yours.
These will also make upgrading to new point releases easier. The scripts are purposely written so that any parameter in SlideShowPro that matches one in an imported configuration file are modified, and any that do not are left alone. This way you'll only have to modify new/changed parameters between point releases.
Last but certainly not least, an exported parameter file can also be used with the "standalone" version of SlideShowPro for Flash that comes with the extension download. So you could technically build your slideshow in Flash, export a parameter file, use that file with the standalone version, then update the parameters in the XML whenever you need to change something (without returning to Flash and publishing a new SWF).
Both scripts require Flash CS3 (simply not possible in earlier versions, sorry), and will be included as part of the extension installation when they're no longer beta. If you'd like to try them out, download here (login required). Note: commands no longer beta and are now part of the SlideShowPro for Flash installation package.
01.30.08 | Announcing the Director API
Update (2/10): The Director API is now in public alpha.
While the introduction of the on-demand image publishing system in Director 1.1 made it much easier for you to publish slideshows using SlideShowPro, it did limit your ability to use Director's imagery and data outside of SlideShowPro. Because of the complicated way in which the URLs were published for the on-demand system, it was virtually impossible to get your optimized images for use in other areas of your website. To bridge that gap, Director 1.2 will feature a simple API that allows you to access your galleries, albums and images via PHP or any other web programming language. We'll begin beta testing Director 1.2 in the coming weeks, watch this space for an announcement.
To show you just a glimpse of the possibilities, I've created a simple Lightbox2 example using the API. It makes a direct request to our slideshowpro.net Director install for the "Open Road" album. In the process of making the request, we tell Director we want two different versions of the images for the Lightbox display. Just like with SlideShowPro, we can request them at a certain width and height, cropped to fit or proportionally scaled and at whatever quality and sharpening settings we desire. The Director API puts the full power of the on-demand image publishing system at your fingertips.
Of course, this will also be available for the Director hosting service at slideshowpro.com. The API for both versions of Director will be released in public beta form in the coming weeks. If you are well-versed in PHP, have a Director install (whether on your own server or the hosting service) and would be interested in a private beta for the API, shoot me an email (brad[at]slideshowpro.net) and you can get started even sooner!
01.23.08 | Director 1.1.9
If you have upgraded to 1.1.8 and are suddenly having issues with thumbnails not showing up, Director 1.1.9 is your ticket back to stability. Turns out some of the new ImageMagick parameters we are utilizing were only introduced in ImageMagick 6, so if your install was using an older version of ImageMagick the image processing was failing.
That's the only change, so if 1.1.8 is working as expected you can sit tight.
01.22.08 | Director 1.1.8 released
Primarily a bug-fix release, Director 1.1.8 is now available for download. Along with the minor bug fixes, it includes two changes that are worth noting here.
First, as more and more of you have taken advantage of using ImageMagick for image processing, we've noticed that most hosts use the 16-bit, default version of ImageMagick. While 16-bit image processing is useful for editing imagery, it really has no use when displaying optimized images on the web. Director 1.1.8 now automatically uses 8-bit processing for its on-demand image publishing, which in many cases will drastically reduce the file size of the optimized imagery. As always, your originally uploaded imagery remains untouched, only the optimized copies Director creates are affected.
Lastly, when the beta for SlideShowPro 1.7 was released, the new "vidpreview" parameter was not supported in Director. We've added that functionality in Director 1.1.8, so if you are testing out the new SlideShowPro beta your existing video previews will now also be published as the larger video preview.
For the rest of the changes, check out the Director version history.
01.05.08 | Say hello (again) to Antonio
If you posted a thread in our user forums anytime recently, there's a good chance Antonio Farias (a.k.a "afrmx") replied to your query. Antonio has been a consistent presence in the forums; answering questions from fellow SlideShowPro users with information that's always accurate, clear, and friendly. He's been such a great help, as a matter of fact, that we've decided to add Antonio to our team.
Antonio will continue assisting other users in the forums, but with an even more consistent presence than before. He's also tasked with setting up a new wiki for all of our help documentation (so there's a single source for everything we offer, instead of spreading information across PDFs, the forums, etc). The wiki will also enable us to offer international translations of our help documentation; a frequent request from our non-English speaking customers.
Welcome aboard Antonio!
12.17.07 | Hosting milestone
It's been three weeks to-the-day since we launched hosting for SlideShowPro Director, and as luck would have it we crossed a notable milestone today as well: 10,000 images uploaded! Granted, it's small potatoes compared to some other photography related web sites out there, but we feel it's a fantastic beginning.
12.07.07 | Email trouble
Sometime around midnight last night our mail server decided to take a nap, and any emails sent to "@slideshowpro.net" or through our Contact page were ignored and lost. So if you sent us an email late last night or early this morning, please resend. Thanks.
12.05.07 | Director 1.1.7
A change introduced in the latest releases of PHP precipitated a quick bug-fix release of Director this afternoon. If you are using PHP 5.2.4 or above, this update specifically addresses a variable collision problem with the new versions of PHP and Director's on-demand image publishing system.
We've also taken the opportunity to close up some holes in the upgrade process for older Director installs coming to the new 1.1.x line. For a full changeset, visit the Director version history.
12.03.07 | SlideShowPro for Lightroom now available
After a short delay to workaround a late-breaking issue, SlideShowPro for Lightroom is now available for purchase and download.
Most everything I'd type here about the product you could just as well read on the page linked above, so I'll take this opportunity to write about something else. First, my thanks to John Nack, Tom Hogarty and especially Andy Rahn at Adobe for their accessibility and assistance during the development cycle. Considering how little I knew about Lightroom's API and available functionality, it was incredibly useful to have a team of people "on the inside" to provide support when needed.
Second, if you already have Lightroom installed, you will need to grab the new 1.3 update first before installing. There are some particular things that went into the 1.3 build (as part of our beta testing involvement) that are required in order for the gallery to work, so be sure to grab that in advance.
Third, even though SlideShowPro for Lightroom contains the latest version of SlideShowPro for Flash inside (1.6.8 as of this writing), everything else is considered 1.0, so we'd love to hear your feedback on how you feel the gallery could be improved or any issues you have using the software.
Fourth, we'll soon be posting a screencast video that demonstrates how SlideShowPro for Lightroom works, so stay tuned for that.
That's it for now! Head over to the new SlideShowPro for Lightroom page if interested.
11.30.07 | SlideShowPro for Flash 1.6.8 Released
A new release of SlideShowPro for Flash is now available. This is another small point release that doesn't introduce anything all that new, but does fix a few small issues related to transitions, audio volume, etc. I went ahead and added one new request (since it took all of two seconds to add), and that's a key command (F) to pop SSP into full screen mode. The SWF has to have focus in the browser for it to work, and you still have to press ESC (or click the normal screen button in SSP) to get out, but at least it's there to get it going.
This should be the last release in the 1.6 series before starting work on the next major version, 1.7. I've been talking to a number of SSP users about how 1.6 could be improved, and am rolling as much of that as I can into 1.7. More details on that down the road.
For now, here's the release notes for 1.6.8 if interested.
11.29.07 | New licensing options for developers
For quite a while now, the single user license agreement for SlideShowPro for Flash (which you've read, right?) has disallowed the embedding of SWFs created with SlideShowPro for Flash inside a proprietary software application for redistribution. It's provoked a fair amount of confusion, so we decided to do something about it. Today we're offering a new OEM license for SlideShowPro for Flash that grants permission to software developers interested in using SWFs as a component of their own software. You can read more about the OEM license here. The license sells for $499, and may be obtained by emailing us.
Additionally, we've also been asked by developers if bulk licensing is available for SlideShowPro Director. So today we're offering a new SlideShowPro Director Developer Pack that includes 20 licenses / keys for Director at a specially discounted price (approx 20% off each license). The pack will generate all 20 keys at once, so anytime you need to install Director on a new domain you simply login and grab a key from your profile page.
Developers can contact us with any questions about these new licensing options.
11.27.07 | Microsoft to ditch "Click here to activate..." annoyance
Good news for those die-hard Internet Explorer users out there: Microsoft will be removing the "Click here..." dialogs from Internet Explorer, for they have (finally) licensed the plugin technology Eolas sued them over for a few years ago.
The dialog was especially troublesome for Flash content, for as many SlideShowPro users know, the only way around it was to embed SWFs using Javascript, which wasn't easy for beginner web developers. But with this update, behavior will essentially return to how the browser behaved before.
Good news for Flash users everywhere.
11.26.07 | SlideShowPro Director hosting now live!
Brad and I are pleased to announce that web hosting for SlideShowPro Director is now up, running, and available! Head on over to the SlideShowPro Director Hosting page for more information about pricing, features, and other details. There's also a new FAQ on hosting that should answer most common questions, but you can also drop us an email with your query.
If you've always been curious how SlideShowPro Director works, or have never been able to install the downloadable version, now's your chance to see what Director has to offer. Subscribe now for 6, 12 or 24 months, or try before you buy with a 14-day free trial. We firmly believe that once you use Director to manage your content and publish imagery for your slideshows, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it!
11.21.07 | Thanksgiving holiday
Tomorrow is that grand American holiday known as Thanksgiving, so we'll be "on vacation" for the next couple of business days, plus the weekend. If you post an entry in the forums, or send us an email during that time, please be patient. We'll be sporadically answering questions and providing support whenever time allows (which we don't expect to be that often). Then we'll be back in full force on Monday. Happy holidays!
11.16.07 | Announcing SlideShowPro Director Hosting
I hinted earlier at something "else" coming on Monday, November 26th, and here it is: Director hosting!
Beginning the 26th, everyone will be able to use SlideShowPro Director to manage their slideshow content. You'll get your own subdomain (you.slideshowpro.com), unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, and the peace of mind knowing your SlideShowPro Director installation will always be up to date with the latest version, securely backed up, and constantly watched over.
Hosting will be affordable, purchasable in chunks of time (6 months, 1 year, 2 years), and completely automatic. Your space will be setup automatically after your subscription, so you'll be able to login and immediately get to work. We'll also be offering a 14-day free trial so everyone can kick the tires. We expect the service to be popular with those who'd rather not install server-side software, or those who simply have better things to do.
For those using Director on their own web servers, don't worry. The hosted version of Director will be nearly identical to the downloadable version, with the only differences being an extra utility or two in the hosted version for managing access, etc. So whether you purchase Director and install it on your own box, or one of ours, you're getting the same application.
More details will be announced on the 26th.
Director 1.1.6 now available
Another bug-fix update (full changelog) for Director is now available. The main fixes in this release put an end to issues with avatar uploads, how content was ordered after it was uploaded and a particularly nasty bug that caused several things to break when using a language other than english.
SlideShowPro for Lightroom release date
Last night Adobe released version 1.3 of Adobe Lightroom, which we were beta testing as part of our SlideShowPro for Lightroom development. Now that 1.3 is "final" and available, we'll be spending the next few days kicking the gallery around to ensure everything still works, then eat some turkey and drink copious amounts of red sauce to round out the week (it's Thanksgiving next week, for those not in the US). After all that, SlideShowPro for Lightroom 1.0 will be released on Monday, November 26th. Pricing and other details concerning the differences between the Flash/Lightroom versions will be explained then.
But that's not all. Something else is being released on the 26th as well. More details a little later today.
New, free PHP XML Builder
By popular request, we've added a new free script to the Extras page for those who need a quick, painless way to compile an XML file -- dynamically -- by reading the contents of a directory. The free PHP script can be linked to from SlideShowPro for Flash, and builds all the requisite markup for both slideshow imagery and video, plus thumbnails you've created, and returns it to SlideShowPro for loading. Then the next time you need to update your slideshow, you simply upload new images and the script takes care of the rest.
Full instructions can be found in the download. Script requires PHP 4 or 5, and works on web servers running Apache or Windows. Hit the extras page for the download link if interested.
11.14.07 | How times change
When I first started working on SlideShowPro about three years ago, I had no idea I'd still be working on it today. Or for that matter, subsequently quitting my full time day job as a Creative Director at Turner (specifically the Super Deluxe video comedy site) to work exclusively on SlideShowPro (and related products). I always thought it would be a fun side project to experiment with, and maybe a few people would use it. Well, times have certainly changed, and as a result there will be a small, but symbolic name change.
If someone asked me 2 years ago what "SlideShowPro" was, I would have replied, "a Flash photo gallery and slideshow component." Which, as you may have noticed, is how I'm using the name in the first paragraph. But today that doesn't hold true anymore. "SlideShowPro" is much more than that. It's rapidly becoming a publishing platform, mainly because of the work Brad and I have been putting into SlideShowPro Director. "SlideShowPro" is also a collection of exporting utilities for Photoshop and iPhoto, not to mention the Adobe Lightroom web engine that'll be released in the coming weeks. Today the name is spread across multiple products and has outgrown its original definition.
So with that, what some people (especially older users) may associate with "SlideShowPro" will be changing to "SlideShowPro for Flash." It's a small change, but a very notable one, for it frees the brand "SlideShowPro" from being just a Flash component for expanded use in all kinds of things. It'll also help clarify how our products work, for new users will be able to choose from "SlideShowPro for Flash" or "SlideShowPro for Lightroom," and instantly understand which version they require.
There will be small tweaks here and there to the site, as well as all the documentation, to incorporate the updated name. May feel a little weird (it's taken me some time to get used to it), but going forward it's the best thing to do.
11.13.07 | SlideShowPro 1.6.7 released
Wasn't planning on releasing a new update so quickly after the last one (which came out only 4 days ago) but one of my favorite old bugs from the early days of 1.6 crawled back in, so I had to push this out quickly. The bug I'm referring to is the nasty little piece of unformatted text that would appear in the Content Area if Media Player Appearance was set to "Hidden." Rather unsightly. Version 1.6.7 fixes that.
While I was working on the media player I found a couple of other little things that needed updating, so I was able to get those in as well. You can read the full version history here.
11.07.07 | SlideShowPro 1.6.5 released
Just a small patch to fix a mouse tracking issue that caused the media player to not show/hide at the correct time when Content Frame Padding was set to a higher value than 0. Hardly something that would affect most users, so most can skip this release. But if you use video or audio in your slideshow and are applying padding to your content, this one is for you.
Login your account center profile to grab the latest version.
11.06.07 | Director 1.1.5
A bug-fix release for Director is now available, fixing several minor issues along with a bug that caused emails sent from Director to fail on some servers. For a full list of the changes, visit the Director version history.
11.01.07 | SlideShowPro 1.6.4 Released
The latest and greatest version of SlideShowPro is now available for download in the Account Center. This is a point release that fixes a few issues that popped up since the latest point release (including most notably) a content scaling fix when using inline captions, and the ability to playback audio when the media player is hidden. You can read more about this release in the forum's version history thread.
Flash Player 9 for Leopard updated. Director uploads work again.
Yay! Adobe has come through with an update to Flash Player 9 for OS X 10.5 (Leopard) that fixes the upload breakage in SlideShowPro Director. So if you're using 10.5 and Director, head on over here to grab the latest version.
10.30.07 | iPhoto 7 compatible plugin now available
As promised, the free SlideShowPro Export for iPhoto plugin has been updated to work with iPhoto '08 (aka iPhoto 7, and part of the new iLife '08 suite of apps). Visit the extras section to download (you must be logged in to your account, and will be notified accordingly if need be).
Because of all the changes Apple made to iPhoto, it was impossible to continue offering a single plugin for all versions of iPhoto. With that, there are now two versions available: 1.0.4, which is the same plugin as before, and 1.0.5, which only works with iPhoto '08.
The 1.0.5 version is pretty much exactly the same as 1.0.4, but with one notable difference. By popular demand, we've added a little more control over how image caption fields are populated. In previous versions, the caption field for every image in an album automatically filled with the filename and modification date of the image. This was fine for most, but it was a pain for those who wanted to manually enter their own. So in 1.0.5, the caption fields are empty by default, and if you want to auto-fill them there's a button to click that'll do it for you. It also includes a "Clear" button to get rid of them all, in case you change your mind.
At any rate, apologies for the long delay, but numerous factors preventing it from happening as quickly as we'd like. The good news is that it's finished, and now available for all SlideShowPro users.
10.26.07 | Director and Leopard
We're just as excited as anyone about receiving our copies of Leopard, Apple's latest iteration of Mac OS X. However, there does seem to be a glitch in Leopard with regard to uploading content into Director. We haven't seen this firsthand, but several users who've already received their copies of Leopard have wrote in to report the issue.
So, if it is absolutely necessary that you be able to upload to a Director installation from your Mac, you might want to hold off on upgrading to Leopard until we can isolate and fix the issue. We'll be grabbing our copies of Leopard later on today, and getting Director into line will be a top priority. More to come...
Update (10/27/2007): We've since confirmed this problem ourselves, and learned that the issue is with the Flash Player in Leopard (10.5), and affects any web site out there (of which there are plenty) using Flash as an upload gateway. Adobe is apparently aware of the issue and working on an update.
10.24.07 | Coming soon: SlideShowPro for Adobe Lightroom
A frequent request from many, I'm pleased to announce that in the coming weeks we'll be offering a plugin for Adobe Lightroom, the Windows / OS X photo management and editing software developed for professional photographers.
The SlideShowPro plugin fits right into Lightroom's "Web module" workspace, which is where you can export/upload HTML/Flash photo galleries using your Lightroom content. You simply decide what size you want your slideshow to be, how you want it to be styled, and Lightroom publishes all the XML data, HTML, and imagery for you. It all works beautifully, and will (hopefully) be of interest to new customers (especially those without Flash or web development experience) as well as existing users of the Flash component.
With that, there will be two versions of the plugin — a "complete" version that ships with everything a new customer (without Flash or SlideShowPro) needs, and an "incomplete" version designed for existing users of SlideShowPro. For the "incomplete" version, you simply publish a SWF containing the component and add it to the SlideShowPro for Lightroom's plugin folder. Your "incomplete" version will then be "complete," and ready to go.
Both versions will be purchasable, with "incomplete" obviously costing less than "complete," but we haven't figured out exact pricing yet. Expect more information on that, including screenshots, in the near future!
10.23.07 | New demo posted: SlideShowPro with Lightbox2
A few people in the forums asked recently how to use SlideShowPro with the Lightbox2 javascript library so that slideshow content can be clicked and opened inside Lightbox. So I sat down and knocked out a demo that shows how to setup your HTML file so that data can be passed from SlideShowPro to JavaScript to popup Lightbox. You can use this to pop open the same image loaded in SlideShowPro, or a completely different image. You can also assign a different image caption for use in Lightbox.
Here's a preview. To download the source files, visit the SlideShowPro download page in the Account Center (requires login).
10.18.07 | Director 1.1.4 now available
Well, the factory is running at full tilt lately and another bug-fix release for Director just rolled off the line. The main issue resolved in this release was a problem with how portrait images were being scaled down and optimized for your slideshows. This bug also manifested itself by not honoring the focal point setting for the affected images. Both issues are now resolved, as well as a few others. For full details, check the version history.
SlideShowPro 1.6.3 Released
A little pesky display issue with the media player popped up after 1.6.2 went out the door yesterday, so I quickly patched the problem and pushed out a new release. If you're not using video, or if you are (but always include the media player interface), there's no real need to update. But if you're using 1.6.2, and are hiding the media player when using video, it's recommended.
10.17.07 | SlideShowPro 1.6.2 Released
A few more glitchy things popped up from version 1.6.0, so version 1.6.2 of the component is now available for download. To read what's changed / fixed in this release, check out the version history.
10.15.07 | SlideShowPro 1.6.1 Released
A new point-release for SlideShowPro is now available for download. This version fixes a few little things that popped up during the course of people using 1.6.0 over the past couple of weeks, including a couple of footer positioning errors, the dissapearance of the media player (when playing back audio) when entering / exiting full screen mode, and a Firefox video playback problem.
Also, due to several comments from end-users, I've revised the "Hidden When Gallery Open" option for the Navigation Appearance parameter so that the navigation is invisible when the gallery slides up, but is then visible again on the way back down. This way you don't see the navigation bar animating upward with the gallery.
I've also added a new method to handle xml file swapping after the component has initialized: setData(). Using this, you can assign new XML File Path / XML File Type to SlideShowPro through an external button and SlideShowPro will reload with that new data. This brings back functionality that existed in earlier SlideShowPro versions where assigning a new XML File Path would reload the component with that data (but in a more formal, method based way).
Anyway, if you'd like to read more about the changes, the version history has been updated. To download, click the "User Login" link at the top-right of this page to grab it from the Account Center.
10.10.07 | Director 1.1.2: Client-side caching is back
With all the advantages of Director's new image publishing system, there is one downside that has always bothered us. Since the images are being returned dynamically, browser side caching is being ignored, meaning that no matter how many times you watch a slideshow, the server still sends the image over the wire, even if it already exists in your browser's cache. Many of you have noticed that the preloaders in your slideshows are always visible, and this is why. Not only is this bad for user experience, it also can cause quite a spike in bandwidth on your server, which we experienced here at slideshowpro.net.
So after reading up on the HTTP spec, we've rolled out Director 1.1.2 which bridges the gap to your (or your user's) browser and smartly detects if the image exists in the browser's cache. If it does, Director instructs the browser to use it and virtually no data has to travel from the server to the browser, saving a lot of bandwidth.
Also new in 1.1.2, two new translations: Italian and French. Director is now available in six languages: Dutch, English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. Thanks translators!
For a full changelog for 1.1.2, visit the version history. To download, hop on over to the Director product page.
10.04.07 | New (and free) Photoshop scripts
In addition to the updated versions of SlideShowPro and SlideShowPro Director, we're also releasing a new pair of export scripts for Photoshop CS2 / CS3. What do they do? Well, they either take a bunch of images already open in Photoshop, or an external folder full of images, and spit out slideshow / thumbnail imagery plus an XML file. And if your images have metadata embedded in them, the metadata will be used when populating image captions.
After export, all you have to do is link to the XML file it created from SlideShowPro and you're done. It's a similar concept to our iPhoto plugin, in that it's designed for quick, one-time batch export of content to quickly build a slideshow, but these scripts are cross-platform, and work with either Photoshop CS2 or CS3.
Visit the new Extras to download a copy!
10.03.07 | SlideShowPro 1.6 and SlideShowPro Director 1.1 now available
Title says it all! SlideShowPro 1.6 and SlideShowPro Director 1.1 are now available for purchase / download. As noted before, these updates are free for all current users of both applications, and can be downloaded through your profile here at the site. Click on the "User login" link at the top of this page to enter the new Account Center.
Couple of important notes concerning these releases:
One, if you're upgrading to either product, be sure to read the update notes included with both. A lot has changed in both of these releases, so it's important that you take the necessary precautions to avoid problems.
Two, we've decided with these new releases to revise our product pricing. This will only affect new users, for both products are free updates for all existing users. That said, we're sure there are some people out there who were holding out on obtaining Director 1.1 (or additional installation keys) until the final version was available, so to be fair we're offering a special Director coupon code that'll allow existing users to purchase Director for the old price. To obtain the coupon code (which is available for the next two weeks), login to your profile, and if you purchased SlideShowPro before today you'll see the code at the top.
Thanks go out to all our beta testers and language translators who helped us make these releases even better.
10.01.07 | We're done
I'm pleased to announce that after numerous weeks of private / public beta testing, SlideShowPro 1.6 and SlideShowPro Director 1.1 are "final" and ready to roll. In tandem with the updates will be a new design for slideshowpro.net, updated screencast videos (which will now be available as a podcast), completely new documentation (all user guides rewritten), a new Photoshop CS2/CS3 script (will write more about this later), as well as updated demonstration files using the latest version of SlideShowPro.
We'll be sending out an email blast when everything is complete, which we're guesstimating to be either sometime tomorrow or Wednesday. We just have a few little things to take care of before then.
Thanks to all the beta testers who helped kick the tires!
09.26.07 | What's up with the iPhoto plugin?
The ol' mail inbox has been filling up with people asking when an update will be released for the SlideShowPro iPhoto Plugin to make it compatible with iPhoto '07 (part of the new iLife 08 suite -- not the least bit confusing). So here's the deal. Yes, an update will be forthcoming. At this point we are researching what exactly has changed in the new release that's causing the plugin to fail, and once the problem is remedied we will release an update. When you ask? A conservative estimate would be sometime in October.
For what it's worth, the whole iPhoto plug-in breakage is hardly unique to us. Every time Apple releases an update to the product, they break plugins, and developers don't receive any fair warning or developer builds to work with in advance. It's simply a matter of downloading it like everyone else, and noticing that your plugin doesn't work anymore.
Thankfully, Apple has finally produced a API / SDK for iPhoto 07 plugin development, which is a whole lot better than it used to be (which involved complete hackery, to be honest). So hopefully this won't be as big a deal going forward whenever the next version of iPhoto comes out.
At any rate, we hear you. It's a pain. But an update is in the works.
08.29.07 | Content aware image resizing
This isn't SlideShowPro related per se, but I thought it would be of interest. Check out the crazy video demonstration below of software that resizes images, but without resizing the content contained therein. Huh? Yeah, just watch.
08.27.07 | Release candidates now available
After a full summer of development, and a couple of weeks of private beta testing, we're finally able to publicly offer release candidates for both SlideShowPro 1.6 and SlideShowPro Director 1.1. Feature wise, a lot has changed in both products, but that's only half the story. We've also put a considerable amount of time into under-the-hood improvements. You know, the kind of stuff that never gets a fancy bullet point, but is there nonetheless.
With that, if you're feeling brave, you can now login to your user profile and download the first release candidate of both products (assuming you own both, of course). But before you do, please remember that both are still considered betas. We've spent a lot of time kicking the tires on both, and feel strong enough about their stability to offer both publicly. But we fully expect there to be issues that will require resolution before going final with both products.
SlideShowPro 1.6.0 RC1 installs as a separate extension in Extension Manager, so installing that is pretty straightforward. SlideShowPro Director 1.1 RC1 on the other hand, because we're dealing with server-side software, isn't so straightforward. If you download Director 1.1, refer to the sticky entries in the Director 1.1 Release Candidate forum before attempting to install / update your existing installation of Director, or install a new build.
New forums have been setup for both products as well. We encourage anyone who downloads and uses these releases to provide feedback through those channels.
Before I go, one last thing. Many thanks to our private beta testers who were kind enough to help kick the tires. Their time and feedback was more than helpful.
08.17.07 | Got video? Show us!
As demonstrated a week ago, the next update to SlideShowPro will support FLV playback. With that, we'll soon be updating this site with an example of SlideShowPro playing back video. That's where we could use your help. We could lift some movie trailers or other stuff that doesn't belong to us, but that's not nice. So we're turning to you! If you've got some video we could use for demonstration purposes, we'd be happy to give you credit and a conspicuous link back to your web site.
What kind of video are we looking for? Anything that's production quality, 16:9 aspect ratio, and around two or three minutes in length. It can't contain profanity, or anything offensive. We'd also prefer something non-promotional/advertorial (otherwise it might look like we're selling something else). Short films, music videos, experimental stuff, whatever you're willing to share!
If you'd like to help out, email us a URL to your masterwork(s). You can also shoot us an email if you have any questions.
Thanks in advance.
08.15.07 | Screenshots of Director 1.1b
For those who aren't beta testers, here's a couple of screenshots of SlideShowPro Director's "Snapshot" page, which is your central hub for overseeing recent activity, copying data feeds, and other tasks. Here's a couple of hi-res previews:
Snapshot page: black (default) theme
By the way, these screenshots were grabbed using a private beta of Skitch, a cool new utility for OS X. We actually have 4 beta invites (gone!) we're not using, so if you're a Mac user and would like to try the app out, hit me up.
08.10.07 | Beta testers needed!
Would you like to help "kick the tires" of SlideShowPro 1.6 and Director 1.1? If so, jump over to our beta signup page and send us your email address. Please be sure to use the same email address that's part of your slideshowpro.net user profile so that we can verify your identity. The beta is open to any user who owns a license for either product, but we will stop asking for participants once we feel the room is full enough. So if you're interested, signup now, and make sure you read the Terms & Conditions first. Thanks!
08.08.07 | SlideShowPro 1.6.0 Beta video demo
Remember all those times when I said that "video wasn't supported" in SlideShowPro? And that loading FLVs was a bit of a hack? Well, not anymore. The next update to SlideShowPro, version 1.6.0, will support direct linking to FLVs from your XML file, just like you would an image. So all you have to do is create an FLV, link to it in the XML, or upload it to Director. Here's a little demonstration I whipped up using a trailer for the movie Ratatouille.
The demo doesn't show this (cause there's only one piece of content), but if SlideShowPro is set to "Auto" Display Mode when reaching a video, the video will temporarily switch Display Mode to "Manual," and after completion of the video will switch it back to "Auto" and progress to the next "image." This way you could line up more than one video, or mix videos with photos, and they'll playback in a loop.
As for the media player, it appears at the beginning of a video for 5 seconds, then slides out of the way. If you want it back, move your mouse down towards where it would normally be, and the player will appear. And like all other parameters in SlideShowPro, you'll have complete control over its color, text size, scale, etc. You can also turn off the navigation to just show video and the media player if you'd like.
And one last thing -- your videos will scale just the same as images. So if they don't fit exactly, you can proportionally scale them, downscale larger videos only, or scale and crop to fit.
So there you go! Back to work!
08.01.07 | SlideShowPro / Director update pricing and features
Alrighty everyone! After a considerable amount of work, here are a few highlights from the next versions of SlideShowPro and SlideShowPro Director.
SlideShowPro 1.6.0
- FLV playback support
- Integrated media player for handling video and audio
- Transition pause countdown animation
- Revised play/pause feedback element
- Ability to remove navigation bar from view when gallery is open
- Centered text in captions, album titles and descriptions
- More parameters to control the width, height and scale of thumbnail pop-up previews and album previews
- Ability to peruse links in the navigation without snapping back to current image in view (when in auto playback mode)
- Lots of visual improvements to live preview mode to make editing easier
SlideShowPro Director 1.1
- Complete user interface and design overhaul
- Vastly improved organization of content
- New on-demand image publishing system
- Image sharpening
- Ability to copy/move images between albums
- Ability to batch copy/move/delete images in any album
- Editable template system for assigning hyperlinks to images
- Automatic reading of IPTC caption metadata (if available) on image upload
- International language support
- One-click copying of XML file paths
- Interface themes (comes with two - black and white)
- User avatars
- Integrated server/installation information
- Ability to "remember me" when logging in
And now for the best feature of all! Both updates will be free of charge to all current users. Yes, free. Why? Because we're crazy. No, seriously, we could have easily up-ticked both to "2.0" and passed around the collection plate, but we don't roll like that. Consider it a "thank you" for your constructive feedback, word-of-mouth support, and for taking a chance with us in the first place.
All that said, there is one small caveat for a small percentage of Director users. SlideShowPro Director 1.1 will feature a new key authentication system (and revised license agreement) that will allow you to install the software at one domain, and one domain only. If you need to install Director under a second domain (or more), you will need to purchase a new license for each additional domain. Most people use Director at only one domain anyway, so this won't impact the majority of users. But everyone else will need to purchase additional licenses if they administer Director installations on multiple sites.
If you're one of the affected people, you may be thinking "W-T-F." But hear us out. The reason for moving to a system like this is to prevent the escalating issue of software piracy, license agreement abuse, and to ensure that everyone pays their fair share. We dislike these type of systems just as much as anyone else, but for the continued development and support of Director it's simply unavoidable.
Alright, so now that we have that out of the way, the next series of blog posts will highlight some of the aforementioned features, including a demo of SlideShowPro playing FLVs, and a thorough explanation of how Director's new "on-demand publishing system" works. We'll also be offering a private beta for both product updates, which we'll announce more information about in the coming days.
07.24.07 | Product update news to be announced soon
I know, I hate "coming soon" blog posts more than anyone, but a number of people have written in asking how things are going with the next version of SlideShowPro Director (which we've posted a couple of preview videos for). Our "to-do" list is getting slimmer, and the light is beginning to appear at the end of the tunnel. With that, we'll soon be offering a private beta to a limited group of Director users. More information about how you can be involved is forthcoming.
Additionally, there will be a private beta for the next version of SlideShowPro, which will also be updated to coincide with the Director update. There's actually a technical reason why the component will require updating alongside Director, which I'll talk more about soon. Trust me, it's pretty cool, and will completely change how both products are currently used together.
Sorry to be a tease, but I want everyone to know that we're busting our tails making both product updates the very best they can possibly be. More news coming soon.
07.14.07 | We've moved!
This morning we threw the DNS switch and pointed slideshowpro.net to our new home -- our very own home -- at Media Temple. This site is now hosted on a dedicated box, which means no more shared hosting instability caused by rowdy neighbors.
This site used to be hosted at Dreamhost, and up until a few months ago it served us extremely well. The uptime was acceptable, the support was great, and you couldn't beat the price. Then things got a little...wacky. Databases crashed at least once every three days (not from anything we were doing), and server administrators were constantly messing around with our server configuration and IP address. The result was steady beat of uptime and downtime that got old pretty fast.
All that should be behind us now (crossing fingers). Thanks to the people at Media Temple for not only their assistance in getting our new home built, but for sponsoring our digs as well.
07.02.07 | iPhone
Someone sent me an email yesterday asking why SlideShowPro doesn't work on something called an "iPhone." Perhaps you heard of it? Anyhoo - in case you're wondering, the answer is no. Why? Because the iPhone doesn't have a Flash Player. It does have the "real internet" according to Mister Jobs, but that comes without the ability to display a SWF. Man, I'm glad hardly anyone embeds those things! ;)
Sarcasm aside, half a million of those little buggers were moved over the weekend (I personally know almost 10 people who bought one on Friday), and that number will only grow over the next few months. Here's hoping we see a plug-in from Adobe sooner rather than later.