FLAPI viewer beta : Next version 0.5

We've decided to launch our next version of the FLAPI viewer. I think flapi viewer made some great improvements if you compare it to our previous version, but still it's full of bugs. If you find one, please let us know. Mail, comment, ...

People who know their way around Flash and want to help us with FLAPI. You're welcome, let us know. Start with taking a look at our Flash source.

INSTALL
A more extensive help is on the way. For now you have to do it with this:

The package contains 2 files now: the swf viewer and a config.xml file. You only need to edit the xml file to get it working. It's important that you keep the config.xml and flapi_viewer.swf in the same directory.
Open config.xml:

• setid : this is the default set id, so the set that the viewer displays first if you choose overview mode. If mode is specific it will display only this set.


• userid : your flickr id number (click on the rss 2.0 feed below on a users page, you'll find the id in the url, it will look like 95967205@N00)
• api_key: get yourself an api key (http://www.flickr.com/services/api/misc.api_keys.html)
• showsets : specific(display 1 specific set) - overview (all your sets) - recent (recent photos)
• recentnumber : if showsets = recent , number of images you want to display
• showslideshowlink
  


• randomplay


• shownavigation : show the thumbnails or not true - false
• transition : not working yet !


• thumbstyle : always - never - hiding


• the colors ... speaks for itself
  
• infosettakentime : not yet
  
If you edited the xml just integrate the swf in your html or flash(can be buggy). Remember that the xml has to be in the same directory as the swf.

DOWNLOAD




• 
  FLAPI viewer 0.5 beta
  


• FLAPI viewer 0.5 beta fla source



By downloading FLAPI viewer you agree with the flickr terms of use and you are responsible for the photos you load into the FLAPI viewer.

FEATURES



• View flickr photo's,
3 modes : View a users recent pictures, view 1 specific photoset view, overview of all your photosets.


• Scalable, this means you can integrate it at any size. The viewer can be width:100% height:100% as well as width:300px height 200px.
  


• Change colors of text, backgrounds, border, ...
  


• Choose between : always visible thumbs, no thumbs, hiding thumbs
  


• Slideshow
  


• some resizing and position problems and strange sizes, but it will probably just work if you choose the right size.


• Slideshow function on/off


• Link to flickr image page


• ... some more...
  


• something else ... do tell us !!
  


Still a lot to do, but we're a step further ! More to come on the todo list.

BUGS




• Some problems with relative and absolute link to the config.xml, if you load it from an other location then your own directory.
  


• Thumbstyle always stays hiding.
  




LICENSE
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

FLAPI viewer public beta

The first beta version of our Flickr image viewer in Flash is ready. We're not going to make the .fla available for now, but hang on a week and you can find him here.

What's now important is that we can get some good feedback from you. So we can take that into account for our next beta version which is scheduled for a week.
This beta has some restrictions that the next won't have, we just want you to focus on the user experience and usability of the current version.

Introduction
-----------------------
Why would you spend money on expensive photo hosting if you can have a Flickr account? But still want to integrate your images into your own site? Well we had the same problem. So we started to develop this viewer, but we wanted to make it as customizable as possible so we could use it on different kind of sites with different styles. Now if you're still interested, we would love if you could test it out for us. Give us some feedback, if you want to use it, where and how? what has to change? If you don't want to use it, tell us why?
Next to our own needs for this viewer, we were able to integrate it in an assignment for our last year C-MD. So believe me, the more feedback, the better.

Where can I use this photo viewer
-----------------------------------------------

• Integrate in your html site
  
• Integrate in your flash site
• Integrate in a blog post
  
• Standalone 100%*100% slideshow viewer
  

Current features
--------------------------
*not available in current live beta

• View flickr photo's, 3 modes : View a users recent pictures, view 1 specific photoset view , overview of all your photosets.
  
• Scalable, this means you can integrate it at any size. The viewer can be width:100% height:100% as well as width:300px height 200px.
  
• Change colors of text, backgrounds, border, ... *
• Choose between : always visible thumbs, no thumbs, hiding thumbs *
• Customizable photo info panel: link to flickr page of photo, photo title, photo description, date taken, ... *
  
• Slideshow *

TODO
------------

• If we resize the images in flash, they loose some quality. With a new class (bitmapData) in flash 8 we hopefully can fix this, where looking in to this.
  
• It would be nice if you could have more control over the thumbnails, make them smaller, position them where you want.
  
• View your favorites, a bit tricky (needs authentication)
• some resizing and position problems and strange sizes, but it will probably just work if you choose the right size.
• Make active image thumb visible.
  
• On full screen size, limit the 1024 size.
  
• On size bigger then 500 test first of the 1024 image is available, give error message is it isn't available.
  
• Slideshow of original pictures.
• Slideshow function on/off
• Link to flickr image page
  
• Choose your transition
• Authenticate user, make private sets visible in viewer. Optional password protection for sets.
  
• something else ... do tell us !!

Demo's
---------

• http://lancemccord.com/archives/some_of_my_favorite_pictures.php
• http://blog.f4l.be/
  

Current beta
--------------------

Go to the following url and help is on that page. You can fill in your own parameters, so the viewer can display your images:

http://cmdstud.khlim.be/~ldetrez/form/index.php

Bugs
----------

• some resizing and position problems at full screen
• Large image doesn't display if your flash movie is bigger then 540*540px and 1024px version is not available on flickr.
  
• some other small and bigger bugs...
• Loads wrong photoset in internet explorer, doesn't give the get vars to swf.
  

We cannot be held reponsible for any kind of use of flapi viewer. The end user decides which photos he loads into the viewer.

Again if anything went wrong, something didn't worked anymore please leave a comment on this post with your problem. If you just have a comment or a new feature, always welcome. We'll look into it.

Thanks,

Lev, Frederik and Jesse

Our viewer design

thbothover_view
Originally uploaded by SePPeR.

First mockup of the design is ready, our standard viewer will look a bit like this.

For more screenshots : http://www.flickr.com/photos/sepp/sets/1316382/

Flickr user feedback (2)

Onze voorstel op het flickr forum heeft weinig feedback gekregen, misschien door het feit dat we het te hard specifieerden, ofdat de mensen het nut er niet van inzien. Een andere thread op het forum leert ons wel veel namelijk :

What is your ONE most wanted functionality upgrade?

Enkele dingen waar onze img viewer de users eventueel mee van dienst kan zijn :

- private pictures paswoord beveiligd kunnen weergeven aan non-flickr members
- original size browsing
- meerdere img tegelijk kunnen bloggen, via onze viewer plaatsen ze die images gewoon in een aparte set, en linken of embedden de swf in hun blog.

goed om rekening mee te houden.