SWFPut — Flash Video Player Plugin for WordPress

•

Fill form from editor: When the post (or page) already contains a SWFPut flash video object (i.e., shortcode), this will find it in the editor and fill the form with its details. A post may contain any number of SWFPut video objects. If there is more than one, then repeatedly using this button will cycle through each in turn.

•

Replace current in editor: When the form has been filled with the details of a video object using “Fill form from editor” (described above), or if it contains the details of a new video object that has just been added, the form items may be changed, and this button will edit the associated shortcode (video object) with the changes.

•

Delete current in editor: As described above for “Replace current in editor”, except that rather than changing the details of the shortcode, it is deleted.

•

Place new in editor: After making sure that the cursor (insertion point) in the editor is at the desired position, and setting the form items, use this button to add a new shortcode (video).

•

Reset default values: Except for the “Caption” text field, all form items are set to default values, or cleared. It is assumed that text typed into the “Caption” field would be better maintained by hand, so that field is not cleared.

•

Caption: A video object is set in a page as an image would be, with the same border, and an optional caption, which may be set here. If this field is left blank, there will be no caption.

•

Url or media library ID: A fully qualified URL may be given here, or an ID valid for the WordPress database. Or more conveniently, this field may be set from the two drop-down lists described next. Acceptable protocols are HTTP, HTTPS, and RTMP. Support for RTMP is only partial and very limited. See “Playpath (rtmp)” below. Acceptable file (media) types are FLV, MP4 (video), and MP3 (audio) 1 .

•

Url from uploads directory: This is a drop-down list from which the “Url or media library ID” field may be set. The WordPress uploads directory is searched recursively for files with the suffixes FLV, MP4, and MP3, and for each a URL is placed in this list. This has the advantage that it will find files added by hand (rather than with the ‘add media’ interface) if they are placed in uploads or a directory under it.

•

Select ID from media library: This is a drop-down list from which the “Url or media library ID” field may be set, as above, with the difference that it searches the WordPress media database, and presents the suitable filenames their media IDs.

•

Playpath (rtmp): If the “Url or media library ID” field is given an RTMP URL, the ‘playpath’ is given here. Note that only the simplest RTMP connections are supported: those requiring only the playpath.

•

Url of initial image file (optional): An HTTP or HTTPS URL for an image file may be placed here. When the player is loaded, if it is not set to play on load, this image is displayed until the play button is invoked. Accepted image types are JPEG, PNG, and GIF, and SWF 2 .

•

Load image from uploads directory: This is a drop-down list from which the “Url of initial image file (optional)” field may be set. The WordPress uploads directory is searched recursively for files with the suffixes listed as acceptable for that field, and for each a URL is placed in this list. This has the advantage that it will find files added by hand (rather than with the ‘add media’ interface) if they are placed in uploads or a directory under it.

•

Load image ID from media library: This is a drop-down list from which the “Url of initial image file (optional)” field may be set, as above, with the difference that it searches the WordPress media database, and presents the suitable filenames their media IDs.

•

Medium is audio: To determine whether to play video or audio, the file suffix of the medium is checked. If the file suffix is not known, the medium is assumed to be video. If the medium is an mp3 audio file, but it does not have the MP3 suffix, check this.

•

Pixel Width × Height: set these to the desired size of the player’s embedded window. This does not need to be the same as the display size of the video to be played, but the appearance will be best if the aspect of the player’s display is the same as the display aspect of the video. For example, if set for a video with a size of 400×300, then setting these to fields to 320×240 would look good (the width:height ratio is the same). In any case, the player will scale the video to fit within its display, but it maintains the aspect ratio, so horizontal or vertical black (unused) areas will be visible if the aspect ratios do not match. It is also important to note that the browser will (probably) honor a maximum width for a page column set in CSS, and force the browser’s flash plugin to display at a smaller width than the user specified. For example, if you set these fields to 640×480, but the column in which posts appear has a width of 600, the display would be at 600×480. In such a case, you might try 600×450 to maintain the aspect so that the video matches display size. The above assumes a 4:3 aspect; you would use the correct numbers, of course.

•

Auto aspect: This enables a feature meant to be helpful when the video to be played might have been prepared as DVD-Video (NTSC or PAL) for standard (non-widescreen) 4:3 display. Such video has non-square pixels; i.e., its actual width×height does not match its intended display aspect. With this check enabled, the video player will force display at 4:3 ratio if the video dimensions match one of the DVD-Video pixel sizes. This is not suitable for widescreen DVD-Video, which has one of the expected DVD-Video pixel sizes, but is meant to be displayed with a 16:9 aspect.

•

Display aspect: Set the intended display aspect ratio in this field if you know that the video has non-square pixels. A value of 0 (zero) disables this field; otherwise, a value may be given as a decimal number (e.g., 1.33333333) or as a ratio using ‘:’ or ‘x’ or ‘/’ as separator (e.g., 4:3, or 16x9, of 20/11, etc.—several other characters will also be accepted as a separator, but it’s sensible to use those listed here).

•

Pixel aspect: Similar to “Display aspect” above, but this field takes the source (pixel) aspect ratio rather than the display aspect in the unlikely event that that value is more readily available. For example, video prepared for NTSC DVD at 720×480 pixels intended for standard (4:3) display has a pixel aspect ratio of 8:9, and at 352×240 a pixel aspect ratio of 10:11. As above, ‘0’ disables this field.

•

Initial volume: The video player has a volume control that visitors can adjust, but this field will set a default volume. If the web browser flash plugin is permitted to save values locally on a visitor’s machine, then their adjustment will be saved, and will be used rather than the default when they visit again (or reload the page).

•

Play on load: This will cause the video (or audio) to begin playing as soon as the player program is loaded. When this is not set, the player waits for the play button.

•

Loop play: This will cause the medium to play again from the beginning each time it ends. When this is not set, the media plays once, and then pauses.

•

Hide control bar initially: This will cause the control bar to hide a few seconds after the player loads (e.g., so that it does not obscure an initial image). Note that this also changes the control bar behavior in general: the bar will show whenever mouse movement is detected within the embedded window, and hide again when there has been no mouse movement for a few seconds. When this is not set, the control bar is left showing when the player loads, and thereafter is always shown when the mouse is within the embedded window, and is always hidden when the mouse is detected leaving the window (when the mouse is moved out of the player window with rapid motion the browser plugin often fails to deliver a ‘mouse has left’ event to the player program, so hiding the bar is not always reliable).

•

Hide and disable control bar: Enable this if the media should play through without interruption.

•

Allow full screen: This enables a control bar button that will place the video in full-screen mode.

•

Control bar Height (20-50): The control bar height can be adjusted with this. Actually, there is a fixed number precompiled sizes in the player binaries that are distributed with the package, and this field causes the nearest size to be selected. If the WordPress host’s PHP configuration includes the Ming extension, then you may select an option on the SWFPut configuration page called “Dynamic SWF generation”. This produces the video player on the fly, and in this case the value of this field builds the control bar at the requested size rather than using a near match.