I've been working on a site that is hosting a fairly large number of flash videos. I've been using static html widgets and pasting in the html to display the flash player/video for each. Each flash video consists of its own directory containing four files (a .swf, an .mp4, a .png and a .js).
It works, but there are two problems:
- The html has to be edited for each widget to set the correct path and file name which is time-consuming and error-prone
- If the format (e.g. the size, etc..) of the videos were to change, all the widgets would have to be edited.
To get around this, I created a custom widget type that has two configuration variables: a path and a swf filename. The widget code generates html from these two parameters and displays it. I would like to package this as a mod, but I don't know how to do that yet. Maybe someone could give me some pointers...?
This article:
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/entry...page3#comments is a bit out of date, but gave me a starting place.
Here are essentially the steps I used.
Database
PHP Code:
Insert Into product(title, description, version, active, url, versioncheckurl)
values ('amutil', 'Agedman Utilities', 'Agedman Custom Widget Types', '1.0', 1, '', '');
Insert into package(productid, class)
values ('amutil', 'AmUtil');
Insert into cms_widgettype(class, packageid)
values ('AmFlash', last_insert_id());
AdminCp
Add a new phrase with
type: 'CMS Widget Types'
product: 'Agedman Utilities'
varname: 'widgettype_amutil_amflash'
text: 'Standard Flash Video'
Create two templates (modified versions of the ones used by the static html widget type):
1. Display template for displaying the widget in a section (this is actually an exact copy of the one for the static html widget type).
title: amutil_widget_amflash_page
template:
HTML Code:
<div class="cms_widget">
<div class="block">
<div class="cms_widget_header">
<h3>{vb:raw widget_title}</h3>
</div>
<div class="cms_widget_content">
{vb:raw static_html}
</div>
</div>
</div>
2. Configuration template for editing the widget (modified -- removed 'statichtml' field, added 'path' and 'filename' fields.
title: amutil_widget_amflash_config
template:
HTML Code:
<div id="overlay1" style="height:190px;width:400px">
<div class="cms_widget_config">
<div class="fullwidth">
<label for="path" class="label">Path w/o Final Separator:</label>
<textarea name="path" id="path" cols="50" rows="2">{vb:raw path}</textarea>
<label for="filename" class="label">SWF Filename w/ suffix:</label>
<textarea name="filename" id="filename" cols="50" rows="2">{vb:raw filename}</textarea>
</div>
<div class="fullwidth">
<label for="template_name" class="label">{vb:rawphrase template_name}</label>
<input class="button" name="template_name" id="template_name" size="40" value="{vb:raw template_name}" tabindex="1" />
</div>
<input type="hidden" name="do" value="config" />
<input type="hidden" name="item_type" value="{vb:raw item_type}" />
<input type="hidden" name="item_class" value="{vb:raw item_class}" />
<input type="hidden" name="item_id" value="{vb:raw item_id}" />
<input type="hidden" name="s" value="{vb:raw session.sessionhash}" />
<input type="hidden" name="securitytoken" value="{vb:raw bbuserinfo.securitytoken}" />
</div>
</div>
File System
Make directories: /packages/amutil/widget/ and /packages/amutil/item/widget/
Copy class definition file (use the static html widget code as a starting place)
cp /packages/vbcms/item/widget/static.php /packages/amutil/item/widget/amflash.php
Copy main class file (use the static html widget code as a starting place)
cp /packages/vbcms/widget/static.php /packages/amutil/widget/amflash.php
Edited Item Class File (most original comments removed)
PHP Code:
// Modified this line to add the package and class names
class AmUtil_Item_Widget_AmFlash extends vBCms_Item_Widget
{
// Modified this line with my class name
protected $class = 'AmFlash';
// added 'path' and 'filename' fields. Note: we need to keep the 'statichtml' field, here or nothing will display on the page...
protected $config = array('statichtml' =>'','path' => 'Enter Path here...','filename' => 'Enter Filename here...', 'template_name' => 'amutil_widget_amflash_page');
}
Edited Main Class File (most original comments removed)
PHP Code:
// Modified this line to add the package and class names
class AmUtil_Widget_AmFlash extends vBCms_Widget
{
// Modified this line with my package name
protected $package = 'AmUtil';
// Modified this with my class name
protected $class = 'AmFlash';
protected $canconfig = false;
// Returns the configuration view for the widget.
public function getConfigView()
{
$this->assertWidget();
// 'do' and 'template_name' should be included; add any additional input fields you may need to this array
// For this widget type, I added 'path' and 'filename'
// statichtml still needs to be there for the widget to update correctly
vB::$vbulletin->input->clean_array_gpc('r', array(
'do' => vB_Input::TYPE_STR,
'path' => vB_Input::TYPE_STR,
'filename' => vB_Input::TYPE_STR,
'statichtml' => vB_Input::TYPE_STR,
'template_name' => vB_Input::TYPE_STR
));
$view = new vB_View_AJAXHTML('cms_widget_config');
$view->title = new vB_Phrase('vbcms', 'configuring_widget_x', $this->widget->getTitle());
$config = $this->widget->getConfig();
// This ugly html is the same for all the Flash videos on the site. Just hard-coded here...
$sample_html = ' <div id="media" style="margin-left: 20px;">
<object id="csSWF" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="640" height="498" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,115,0">
<param name="src" value="YOUR_PATH/YOUR_FILENAME"/>
<param name="bgcolor" value="#1a1a1a"/>
<param name="quality" value="best"/>
<param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/>
<param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/>
<param name="scale" value="showall"/>
<param name="flashVars" value="autostart=false"/>
<embed name="csSWF" src="YOUR_PATH/YOUR_FILENAME" width="640" height="498" bgcolor="#1a1a1a" quality="best" allowScriptAccess="always" allowFullScreen="true" scale="showall" flashVars="autostart=false&thumb=YOUR_PATH/FirstFrame.png&thumbscale=45&color=0x000000,0x000000" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed>
</object>
</div>';
if ((vB::$vbulletin->GPC['do'] == 'config') AND $this->verifyPostId())
{
// get the posted data from the ajax form into the $config array, constructing statichtml from the data
$config['path'] = str_replace('%u0025', '%' , vB::$vbulletin->GPC['path']);
$config['filename'] = str_replace('%', '%' , vB::$vbulletin->GPC['filename']);
// construct the html from the sample html, the path and the swf filename
$config['statichtml'] = str_replace('YOUR_FILENAME', $config['filename'], str_replace('YOUR_PATH', $config['path'] ,$sample_html));
$widgetdm = $this->widget->getDM();
if ($this->content)
{
$widgetdm->setConfigNode($this->content->getNodeId());
}
if (vB::$vbulletin->GPC_exists['template_name'])
{
$config['template_name'] = vB::$vbulletin->GPC['template_name'];
}
$widgetdm->set('config', $config);
// try to save to the database
$widgetdm->save();
if (!$widgetdm->hasErrors())
{
if ($this->content)
{
$segments = array('node' => $this->content->getNodeURLSegment(),
'action' => vB_Router::getUserAction('vBCms_Controller_Content', 'EditPage'));
$view->setUrl(vB_View_AJAXHTML::URL_FINISHED, vBCms_Route_Content::getURL($segments));
}
$view->setStatus(vB_View_AJAXHTML::STATUS_FINISHED, new vB_Phrase('vbcms', 'configuration_saved'));
}
else
{
if (vB::$vbulletin->debug)
{
$view->addErrors($widgetdm->getErrors());
}
// only send a message
$view->setStatus(vB_View_AJAXHTML::STATUS_MESSAGE, new vB_Phrase('vbcms', 'configuration_failed'));
}
}
else
{
// create a configuration view object
$configview = $this->createView('config');
if (!isset($config['template_name']) OR ($config['template_name'] == '') )
{
$config['template_name'] = 'amutil_widget_amflash_page';
}
// add the config content
$configview->template_name = $config['template_name'];
// the current data to be populated on the configuration form
$configview->path = $config['path'] ? htmlspecialchars_uni($config['path']) : '';
$configview->filename = $config['filename'] ? htmlspecialchars_uni($config['filename']) : '';
// item id to ensure form is submitted to us
$this->addPostId($configview);
$view->setContent($configview);
// send the view
$view->setStatus(vB_View_AJAXHTML::STATUS_VIEW, new vB_Phrase('vbcms', 'configuring_widget'));
}
return $view;
}
// Fetches the standard page view for a widget.
public function getPageView()
{
$this->assertWidget();
$config = $this->widget->getConfig();
if (!isset($config['template_name']) OR ($config['template_name'] == '') )
{
$config['template_name'] = 'amutil_widget_amflash_page';
}
// Create view and set variables -- this is where the flash video player gets rendered on the page
$view = new vBCms_View_Widget($config['template_name']);
$view->class = $this->widget->getClass();
$view->title = $view->widget_title = $this->widget->getTitle();
$view->description = $this->widget->getDescription();
$view->static_html = $config['statichtml'];
return $view;
}
}
Note: you may need to clear the CMS Cache before you will see the new Widget Type show up in the drop-down list -- I did.
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