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BIlly James Special user 991 Posts |
Hi folks,
First off let me say that I'm technologically challenged OK. I built my own website with Microsoft Frontpage, it's been fine for a few years, but now I'm trying to add video to my site and I'm having problems. The video is in a media player format, and everything plays fine on Frontpage (offline) but when I publish it to the web the video doesn't work, in fact there is just a small box on the page and when I right click it, it says 'unavailable' all over it. Can anyone here help? Many thanks in advance guys, Billy |
Hideo Kato Inner circle Tokyo 5649 Posts |
Isn't it a linking error? Did you link it with relative addressing? If you link it by Absolute addressing, it works on your computer, but doesn't work on the web.
Another possibility : Did you uploaded the movie in correct segment on your site? (I'm sorry my technical terms on linking were incorrect. I hope you understand the meaning). Hideo Kato |
BIlly James Special user 991 Posts |
Thanks for your reply Hideo.
According to microsoft frontpage, there's only 2 possibilities to play the clip - One, for the video to start playing as soon as someone opens the page, or two, to start playing when the cursor rolls over it. I didn't like the cursor option, so I set up a page with the titles of three videos so that when you clicked on the title name it would take you to a new page which had the video on it and the video would then play straight away. I really don't mind if it opens in a new window or if it plays from where it is, at the moment though I can't seem to get it going at all. Anyway, here is the pasted instructions from frontpage - Add a video You can add a video to your page. You can add any type of video that can be played by the Windows Media Player. In Page view, position the insertion point where you want to insert a video. On the Insert menu, point to Picture, and then click Video. If the video clip file is not in a web, click the File button . Browse to the video file and select it. Tip If Microsoft Internet Explorer is installed on your computer, you can click the Preview tab to preview the video. I followed those instructions but it still didn't work. I hope all of that makes sense. Any suggestions? Many thanks Billy :) |
sidesteal New user 12 Posts |
Hi, I am a web designer so I will do my best to help you.
Front Page puts an awful lot of needless proprietory code when you create an event with it, and this can hinder any success when published on a server. When doing anything like this, you have to consider ALL the different types of browsers, operating systems and Media Players that people use, and making your design look and play the same in each one - its a FACT - not every one uses IE or uses Micro $oft OS or Players. You should be familar with the code view of Front Page ( FP ) That code is what is created each time you push a button making something happen when you are WITHIN the DESIGN mode of FP. Go to Split View ( half design and half code ) and locate ( on the design portion of the screen ) the place you which to insert your video ( click the cursor on desired locale ) Within the Code View above the Design View - a corresponding cursor placement will be made. Now - you can do this one of 2 ways and it depends on how seriously you take my statement about compatibility above...... You can use the Dynamic Source Tag - <img border="0" dynsrc="filename.wmv" start="fileopen"> or the Embedded Source Tag - <EMBED SRC="filename"></EMBED> However, both have advantages and disadvantages..... ###################### Dynamic Source Method: ###################### Pros --------- You can "call" an image to replace the big black area you are left with when the movie ends If you use the "call" for an image as described above - the "alt" tag is available - when you put your cursor over a picture it can show text to aid the user regarding information ( useful for web users who need a screen reader - you need to cater for accessibilty also ! ) Cons ------- Only works in Internet Explorer - all other browsers display a rubbish little box If user is visiting the page for first time - the video needs to load - and even in Internet Explorer it will show a rubbish little box until it loads You have NO control over playback, pause, position, speed or volume - for the user to see the video again they would need to refresh the page ( but as the video has now been loaded and in the cache, it will show instantly - unless they empty their cache - in which case back to square one ) ####################### Embedded Source Method: ####################### Pros ------ Works in Internet Explorer, NetScape Navigator, Mozilla-FireFox, Opera and Safari web browsers Full controls avaiable - Playback, Speed, Pause, Volume etc - to see again user presses play No ugly little rubbish box before video loads Cons ------ No availibility to "call" an image to replace the empty black area No use of the "alt" tag Only viewable by people using Micro $oft Windows Media Player - so only about 90% then OK - so now its up to you to decide ( please go for embed ) ---------------------- use this for DYNSRC ---------------------- <IMG SRC="screenshots/name.EXT" DYNSRC="videos/name.EXT" START=FILEOPEN ALT="This is a great video - to see again, refresh the page"> this line of code will produce an still image that dissappears when the video loads and plays - the still image then returns when the video finishes. When users put their cursor over the image - a piece of text appears saying "This is a great video - to see again, refresh the page" The opening part of the code deals with calling and locating the still screenshot. In my example I have used SRC="screenshots/blabla" - this is a folder location - create a new folder called "screenshots" in your root directory and use that to store your screenshots. Following SRC="screenshots/" is "name.EXT". This is the name of the screen shot and the type of file it is - this will either be .jpg or .gif ( usually .jpg for stuff like screenshots ) The exact same applies to the DYNSRC="videos/name.EXT" tag. But this is regarding videos, so the EXTENSION will be associated with video file types. This will be up to you to discern ( usually RIGHT clicking a video and looking at its properties can tell you its file type ) On my site http://www.Magic-Showcase.co.uk - we cater just for .wmv file types ( windows media video ), and when you know the type you would add its EXTENSION Popular video file types are .avi - .mpeg - .wmv - .asf So, to write up a corrrect example of the above would be: <IMG SRC="screenshots/cupandballs.jpg" DYNSRC="videos/cupandball.wmv" START=FILEOPEN ALT="This is a great video - to see again, refresh the page"> ----------------------- use this for EMBEDDING ----------------------- <EMBED SRC="videos/cupandballs.wmv"></EMBED> The same applies to the EXT on this method as it does to the method above. Please read the DYNSRC method above to understand the SRC="FOLDER LOCATION/blabla" Hopefully this should help somewhat - I created a page at http://www.MagiBay.com/vidpage.htm with both examples on... if you right click on an empty space on the page - choose - View Source - and look at the code that I wrote to get an idea of how its structured. Many thanks, |
BIlly James Special user 991 Posts |
Hi,
What a brilliant post!!! Thanks so much for taking the time to give me all of that info mate, that is fantastic. I'm going to print this off and sit down with front page and work through it (just to make sure I understand it all). When I uploaded to the web, it showed up as the crappy little box that you are talking about, hopefully I can fix that now by going with the embedded option. Thanks again mate, I'll give you a yell when I get it working so you can take a peek at the vids and let me know what you think. If you're ever in Australia you're definitely welcome around for some beers and a barb-e! Cheers Billy |
sidesteal New user 12 Posts |
Hi there,
I got your PM, its staurday @15.25 - I have to go out for entire evening. I will sort this out for you on sunday afternoon or monday. sorry I cant do it earlier... just one thing..... do you have Front Page Extensions on your server? pat |
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