Example Post

Posted Sun, Mar 8th 2009, 17:55
(2 Photos, 1 Video, 1 Audio)

This is an example post that has some media added to it. The media can be ordered so that the playlist will be built properly below the flash player. The flash player is FlowPlayer by default. Though really, any media player can be substituted. The media gets associated to a post and returned along with all the other necessary data for a post. So since the links to the files, titles, and descriptions are all returned...There's no reason why any other Flash media player couldn't be used. The reason for choosing FlowPlayer is because of it's flexibility, modularity, convenience in setup (javascript and json objects), and clean looks. The media player can be positioned in several pre-defined areas within the post. The previous solution was to make use of special syntax almost like a wiki. This would allow the editor/admin to insert multiple players anywhere they wanted. The problem with this is that it's not the easiest to understand, even though cases were put in for misspellings and the order for the commands didn't matter...It still allowed for visual problems, such as multiple players stacked next to each other in a displeasing way or text not flowing around the players properly. So since always having the media player appear in the same place was too harsh, the best solution was a compromise. Allowing the editor/admin to position the media player in certain areas. The template dictates where these areas are and new positions are easy to add if need be.

updates

February 10.
Working on back-end and UI for adding media items to a post. It is a slick drag and drop process.

March 8.
Finishing up core functionality. One known major, but easy to fix, back-end bug to fix with regard to editing posts. Back to working on front end view pages/template.

March 15.
Still one back-end bug to fix, but getting closer on templates. Clicking around the site is better now. Have to put in media players for video/audio view pages. Have to put in default thumbnail images.

March 17.
Cleaning up templates. Squashed bug on back-end when editing posts (the associated media coming in and ordering properly). Added in commenting via IntenseDebate for now. I dig it. Still want to have my own commenting system for other reasons. Still may be some platform dependent JavaScript issues...Gotta love it...Hmmm, not really.

March 29.
Fixed a major bug in the JavaScript code responsible for choosing media to go with a post. Now compatible (and tested) in Firefox, IE6, Safari, and Chrome. How's that for starters? Nearly went to a Flex admin interface (and still might so grabbing frames for video thumbnails, cropping images, and other advanced features for media are available).

 
 

Did you know...

That Minerva Blog's templates are highly flexible, easy to change, and only consist of just a few files?!

Everything is modular and encapsulated so you can carry over files, classes, templates, etc. from site to site. Even the media players are modular elements. Less code. Plug and play. Nuf sed.