Built using: Flash CS3 and ActionScript 3
Based on: ‘Flash video template: Dynamic video playlist‘
This Flash Video (.flv) player pulls video, thumbnail, and link locations from two XML files. The first XML file functions as the playlist and contains video file and thumbnail file links while the second XML file functions as the link list and contains links for the items in the left pane (facebook, link, email, and twitter).
Four panels surround the playing video which include: related videos, volume control, play controls, and playlist linking options. The related videos are pulled from the XML file and included in the related video panel. The volume panel uses a dot-type system as opposed to a slider-type system due to the fact that the sliders I attempted to implement were unreliable and glitchy. The play control pane is self-explanatory and include play, stop, and pause buttons as well as a progress bar. All of that pane fades when you aren’t rolled over except for the progress bar itself so that viewers can monitor the current video’s progress. The playlist linking panel on the left pulls four URLs from the link XML file and applies them to each of the four buttons. The facebook button links the viewer to a post to facebook page populated with the player URL. The link button copies the player URL into the viewer’s system clipboard to paste onto forums, chat clients, etc. The email button generates a mailto pop-up with the recipient field left blank; The body of the email includes a link back to the playlist page. The twitter button links the viewer to their twitter page with a status filled in that links back to the playlist page.
The player suffers from a few glitches that, at this point in the project, have not been completely resolved. The glitches revolve around mass UI fades. When clicking the play button or on a related video, all UI elements should fade from view and leave only the video playing. When clicking the play button this works about 95% of the time, but when clicking a related video there is about a 5% chance that all of the UI panels will not fade properly. Although this leaves UI elements scattered around the player, simply rolling over each panel and leaving it will allow the UI elements to fade properly. Very rarely, and it may have been eliminated completely at this point, the UI panels will become stuck on or off in the play area. I haven’t seen the glitch in a while and I’m assuming it has been eliminated at this point.
Future plans for this player include an embed option, a built-in email form instead of using mailto in the URL argument, linking straight to a single video instead of the entire playlist, and fixing the UI bugs.
very nice, some really slick features in this.
How much would it cost to license this player for a commercial gig?
It has too many issues at the moment to be used i anything commercial.