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Hello,
I would like to have an album that starts with a particular image (i.e. a title slide), then transitions randomly to one of the other images in the album.
I have set the randomizeImages property of the album to "true" in the XML file, and set the startWithImageID to the correct image ID ("firstImage"), however MSS does not appear to register that it should start with this particular image, instead it seems to override this behaviour by just displaying a random image.
Could this be a bug in MSS?
Also, I wanted to say what version of MSS I have installed on my site, but I can't tell which version just by looking at the SWF file. Is there any way to find out?
Many thanks in advance.
Matthew
Sorry, I just checked and I had set showVersionInfo to "false" :)
I am using version 1.32 of MSS.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Kind regards,
Matthew
Matthew,
I never tried the combination of properties you describe, but obviously it doesn't work that way.
According to the manual, monoslideshow can call other Flash movies and images, so my idea is:
1) Create a MSS with just two entries: The title and a second MSS. Do not activate "randomizeImages".
2) Create a second MSS with your images and activate "randomizeImages" here.
This will most likely work, and equally likely it'll require a lot of thinking around paths and xml names and so on. If you feel up to the task, I'd be delighted if you could put up a link to your result here.
Christoph
Hey Christoph,
That's a nice piece of lateral thinking, right there. I gave it some thought myself, and decided to solve the problem using PHP. I'm not quite finished with the code yet, but I've got a basic working version that's good enough for my needs.
Basically, I got PHP to "shuffle" an array of filenames read from the file system. The only downside to this is that it's a "once only" shuffle each time you run the PHP script (i.e. each time you instantiate MSS). The work-around here (which I haven't implemented ... yet) is that you could randomize the array multiple times and repeat the img tags in the XML output in a different order, perhaps even specifying how many times you wanted this done on the URL.
For now, I'm keeping things simple. I may post my work if I feel it's warranted ... although I'm rather buried right now just trying to get this new site online.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Matthew
Matthew,
why don't you make your life easier by creating 10 or so "pseudo random" xmls and then let php just rename one of it to "monoslideshow.xml"?
Christoph
Thanks Christoph. Another good suggestion.
I've now finished my PHP script, and I'm pretty darn proud of it. The script allows you to nominate a "template" XML file, and dynamically creates the necessary XML based on the file system. It also reads the IPTC information from the JPEGs, and uses this to create the link, title, description, etc (i.e. all the attributes you can normally add to an IMG tag, you can embed into the IPTC and my script will read it).
So now, all I have to do is prep my image (with appropriate IPTC info) and FTP it into the relevant directory, and the template system takes care of the rest. I can create an unlimited number of templates which enables me to use MSS in a variety of different ways. So far, I am using it for the header banner on my new website, as well as to display a gallery of images - both of which have very different properties.
It's a pity that Monokai don't seem to be maintaining MSS anymore, as I would be happy to submit my script to them for inclusion in the next version as an "example" of what can be achieved.
Ah well...
Thanks for your help.
Cheers,
Matthew
Matthew,
personally, I would be very interested in the .php. Would you mind posting a link or sending me an email? c h r i s t o p h (at) h o r s e c o m p e t e n c e . d e
Thank you,
Christoph
<blockquote>The script allows you to nominate a "template" XML file, and dynamically creates the necessary XML based on the file system. It also reads the IPTC information from the JPEGs, and uses this to create the link, title, description, etc (i.e. all the attributes you can normally add to an IMG tag, you can embed into the IPTC and my script will read it).</blockquote>
mdporter, this is <strong>exactly</strong> what l have been looking for and haven't been able to find.. do you intend to release the script?
liamboon-AT-msn.com
I wanted to start with a specific image and then randomize the remaining pictures in the album. Here is what I did:
- I created an second album with a single picture (the one I wanted to start with)
- I use startWithAlbumID and specified the name of this album
- I changed my onFinished = "loop" to onFinished = "loadNextAlbum" on my preferences tag
- Finally I parse the parameter to Flash so.addVariable("startWithImageID", "idName");
You can see it working on my Palacio Del Mar website.
Hope this helps other MSS users.
I'm in the Baja real estate business and I also do websites. Drop me a line anytime.1 to 9 of 9
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