Cascade Crew

Dewey316

Hey everyone. As it gets to be the time of year were it starts raining, I'll have more time to sit down and work on the website.

I have been working on revamping the video section slowly for a while now.

So, I have a couple of questions about what everyone would prefer on how I go about doing it, and what direction I should.

A couple of key things. Do you guys want an player built into the video section (like youtube), or do you want just file downloads, or both? I have been working on ways to make it a little easier for me to manage, but if people prefer just downloads of video's like we have now, I won't spend too much time working on a streaming enbedded player.

Currently, I have an embedded silverlight player setup on the test version of the site I have, but with that option it doesn't allow for downloads (you can see the test version by going to http://beta.cascadecrew.org).

The other thing, is should I work on making it so users can upload videos (I am a little restant to doing this, just because I don't want someone to create an account, and post video that isn't related to thier car).

So, if you could please respond with how you would like the video section to work, I'll be working on that as I have time/motivation to get that done.

I also have a copy of the board running on phpBB3 on the test site, I haven't yet gotten it working with "Garage" funtion of the site, I am working on that, and will continue to work on getting that working. At some point, when I get the garage stuff fixed, and do some testing, I will likely upgrade the board to version 3. So, if you see a feature in there that you use regularly, that is not in the phpbb3 stuff, please let me know so I can work on a solution to that before I do any upgrading.

Thanks, and I hope to get some good feedback.

--John

TecherB · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 11:29 am Post subject:

i like the video player like youtube.

Quasi-Traction · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 11:29 am Post subject:

I'm all for the built in player Dew.

Xophertony · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 1:10 pm Post subject:

i like the built in player, however, i would still like the feature of being able to download the video. even if it's just a "click here to download" link below the video player. in fact, that sounds like the perfect solution. i am a huge fan of your choice in players, silverlight looks good, and has a similar style as the photo section. i like the controls ass well.

as far as the phpbb3.. it's different. i like most of it. i prefer the user info on the left, just because the eye (if you are from a western nation) is trained to read from left to right, and while there is a little user name on the top left, i usually just look at the pictures to see who is posting. but i could get used to it.

iansane · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 2:47 pm Post subject:

I tend agree with Tony (wow, scary Razz

). If the phpbb3 used the left side for usernames I'd like it more just because I'm used to it. Although I do like the smoother lines of the posting bubbles. If each has a pinstripe frame it'd make separation even easier.

I can't view the movie player at work but the embedded and downloadable options interest me most.

Other than that, just graphics beautification would be cool. I'm not too familiar with how it's coded but in the image gallery maybe having one of those flash-style windows to display and scroll through photos using a polaroid-esque theme somewhat like when you click on each members car on this page http://www.teamexotik.com/about/members ?

Maybe a rotating CSS style banner for the top of the forum that incorporates a panoramic photo of a members or group of members cars and shows the links to the mainpage, garage, search, etc.

aaron_sK · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 3:34 pm Post subject:

I'm not real big on the phpbb3 either. In addition to the right-side user info, I also don't like how it crops wide images down instead of creating a scroll bar.

Opera doesn't like Silverlight, but it's a really cool built in player. Hopefully someone down there will get their ass in gear and make Opera compatable with it.

Dewey316 · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 4:29 pm Post subject:

Ok, so it sounds like both an embeded player, and a download option seems to be what people want, so I will work on that.

As for the phpbb3 stuff, I have the subsilver style installed there, that puts the user info back on the left hand side. I will look into disabling the auto resize/cropping of images at attachments. Or, just not mess with upgrading.

Ian, I can look into some other gallery options, but the one we have has the advantage of being able to upload to the high-res versions for people to download, I will do some looking around at other gallery options and see if there is one that I like. The one we have now, also makes it very easy for me to update and manage, which for me is a big plus.

As for making the site pretty, If anyone has sites that the really like the look/function of, let me know so I can get some idea's. I can sure work on making it look better. I have tried to stay away from making it too graphic intesive or flash intensive, so that it is dial-up friendly. But, I don't know that we have any dial-up users anymore.

--John

iansane · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 4:49 pm Post subject:

Xophertony · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 11:55 pm Post subject:

slowest i get is the 3G cellphone internet.

Dewey316 · Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 7:54 am Post subject:

Ok, made some progress on the back end, of making getting the database stuff going. I'll work on getting mysql and silverlight to play nice together, and get the enbedded player working with the new database program I wrote.

http://beta.cascadecrew.org/Video This is the output from the database, with what will be a download link (the link is there, and works, but it isn't only download, it actualy opens the .wmv file). I will make it so that clicking on the thumbnail, will play the enbedded player, and there will also be a hyperlink/graphic to play it. Along with a download link.

So, once i get the functionality all working, then I'll work on making it look pretty, and such. But, I am making progress.

Of course, if anyone has any silverlight / xaml / JS, experiance, let me know. The next trick I have to do, is get the variables created in PHP, that I get from the database, to be passed over to the silverlight player, so that it plays the right video file. I can't seem to find if the basic StartPlayer.js script outputed by Microsoft Expression Encoder, has any variables like that. Looking at it, it doesn't seem to, so I will have to modify the JS stuff to accept variables.

I also created an VERY VERY basic upload script for the video files, I will work on that also, and try to tie it into the message board user authentication, so that you all are avle to upload video's too. We will see how that goes. But, for now, I have a upload script that I can use, so it makes it really easy for me manage now. This should help me be able to get updated video's up and online as I get them, just like I do with the images.

blue89 · Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 8:35 am Post subject:

haha,

I forgot about that video. I like the way its looking dew. The right-click save-as is really handy but the auto video layer thing works good. I like that much better than the embedded stuff.

Xophertony · Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 10:36 am Post subject:

you are one crazy dude Travis. Very Happy

and yeah, prety much everyone has WMP, i guess if you can't get silverlight working we can just open it in our own player.

Dewey316 · Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2008 4:33 am Post subject:

Ok, working nights has it advantages...as I had to stay up all night tonight, so I can sleep during the day.

The results.... I have the silverlight media player working with the database I created. woot!!!!

So, you can check it out on the beta site, it should all be functioning now, I only have three video's though, and the graphics haven't been completed yet. I'll work on the layout and such next.

If anyone has any ideas for layouts, please let me know, otherwise it might not change all that much from what you see. The last stuff i need to write, is to force the download link to download the file, instead of playing it, but that should be super easy to do.

--John

Dewey316 · Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 9:05 am Post subject:

Alright guys. I think I got this pretty close to good enough that I can think about moving it into the main site. There are just a couple of small changes I still have planned to make, but unless anyone has suggested for layout changes, etc. I think it is probably going to be working as you see it. All the changes I still need to make are all on the back-end of things.

So please, take a chance to look at it, and tell me if you think that will work, or if it is better than what we have now, etc. Everyones feedback is important, and I want to make a video section that people will use.

As of right now, I am not giving access to upload video's out, but if you have a video feel free to PM me, I can add it, or on a case by case basis give out access to upload utility.

I am currently in the middle of uploading all the video files that I have on my PC, so you can get an idea of what it looks like with a bunch of video's in there.

http://beta.cascadecrew.org/Video

Thanks, and I look forward to getting some final feedback.

--John

aaron_sK · Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 10:05 am Post subject:

John, you're rockin it man. Thumbs up

We could use a lot more vids though. I think I have a few of the Cows08 cruise on my HDD somewhere.

Dewey316 · Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 10:08 am Post subject:

Yes, we do need more!!!!

If we get more, I may need to change the layout to make it easy to browse through more video.

--John

Quasi-Traction · Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 3:29 pm Post subject:

Both the silverlight and the WMP File won't work on my computer...

WTF Confused

Dewey316 · Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 4:16 pm Post subject:

What does it do? or not do?

And are you using FireFox V3? I saw today that there is an issue with silverlight and firefox.

--John

Al Hasse · Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 6:41 pm Post subject:

There is an issue. From Firefox 3 release notes:

iansane · Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 7:13 pm Post subject: