Adding links to multimedia files
Embedding multimedia
Audio and video files can easily be embedded into a Firefly page as there is now built in support for Flowplayer. A Media Player component must be added first:
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Media Player button |
Add content button |
Click the Media Player button at the bottom of a page (if the page already has content then you must click the Add content button first) to bring up the settings dialog as below
Media source: may either be set as a URL to play a file located on the internet, or to Resource to locate a file stored in the Resources area. Supported file types include flash video (flv) and H264 (mpeg) as well as the Windows Media (wma, wmv) and Quicktime formats (mov). Please note that if you embed Windows Media files, the viewer will need to have Windows Media Player installed to play them back. Likewise, If you embed QuickTime files, viewers will need QuickTime player. For flash video and H264 content, the viewer only needs to have Flash installed - most users have this so these are the most compatible formats.
Width and height: can be set to suit. The default is 450x350.
Streaming from a Microsoft Streaming Server
Firefly supports Windows Media files (.wmv and .wma) streamed from a Windows Media Server provided that the Firefly.NET installation has been configured to recognise the presence of the server. In this case, all Windows Media files should be saved to the Windows Media server, filed in an appropriate folder hierarchy. Links to media files, and also to markers created within those files, can be inserted into Firefly.NET pages so that the media file is played when the link is clicked. Multiple simultaneous accessing is possible too.
Note that the media share does not work like the Resources area in that it is not web-based. The most important implication of this is that links to files will be broken if filenames are changed or files are put into different folders.
- ensure that the file has been saved to the Windows Media server
- Select the relevant text (or graphic) - e.g. the word
"fusion" if a video about fusion is to be linked - and click on the link
icon
to display the Firefly Insert Link dialog box:
- Select Streaming Media from the Link to: option.
- Click on the Select... button to bring up the Media Chooser dialog box (see below for example)
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Navigate to where the file is kept and select it.
Linking to a marker within a media file
Named markers can be created within Windows Media files using third party video editing software. Also, the excellent but very limited free Windows Media File Editor. These markers enable media files to be played from the marked point and not from the beginning. The screenshot below shows how to directly access markers in a video about electrostatics in Windows Media Player 10:
To link to the same marker on a Firefly page:
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Bring up the Media Chooser dialog box (as above) and select the file which contains markers. The Media Chooser dialog box then allows selection of the required marker:-
Note that there is not yet the facility to select a marker to end the playing of the clip at a predetermined point.
