By susata on

Audio module 5.x-2.x-dev seems to provide the capability to either:

1) attach audio (link or player) at the end of a node (story or whatever), or
2) allow audio to be added to a node by way of an audio field, created in the content type and, therefore, the audio link or player is 'hard-wired' to a specific location in the layout.

But I'm creating music tutorials on my Drupal site, and an audio demo may be appropriate at any point in a tutorial. Is there a Drupal module that can enable adding audio files (link or player) inline?

Thank you,
s.

⋅ Categories: Drupal 5.x

Comments

faqing’s picture

faqing commented

Just install swf tools module, if your audio file is mp3 type.

susata’s picture

susata commented

faqing, After I read your post, I looked up the documentation on swf tools. I had somehow overlooked this module in all my previous searches--and it DOES look like just what I need--for video as well as audio! After I try swf tools out, sometime this week, I'll post a note back to this thread describing how that went.

Thank you so very much for this excellent tip!
s.

susata’s picture

susata commented

I would like to use swf tools to handle not just audio, but also video and maybe even images (if that's possible). I had already installed some modules to handle these media types, but which I have discovered do not provide the post inline / embedding feature that I now look forward to gaining from swf tools.

So I am concerned about redundancy and even possible conflict with modules already installed and wonder if I should remove and/or add any modules before proceeding to install swf tools. I do not see this info stated explicitly in any of the swf tools documentation.

Here is my question, stated concisely:

Before installing swf tools, should I remove:
-Audio
-Video
-Image
-Imagecache

Before installing swf tools, must I install:
-Upload
-Any other modules required by swf tools?

Many thanks for your excellent guidance,
s.

susata’s picture

susata commented

To say the least, swf tools is not at all a clearcut module to get up and rolling. The description of the swf tools module, including its description in the Flash Node module on the Drupal site, makes swf tools sound like it will be easy peezy to install and then one will be able to upload mp3 or flv files like magic.

But after a day of fruitless struggle with the incomplete documentation, I'm going to have to throw in the towel and go back to the stiff and stodgy video and audio modules--but at least I can get them to work.

s.

susata’s picture

susata commented

OK, guess I'm getting just a little bit cranky. I won't give up just yet.
s.

faqing’s picture

faqing commented

Hello,

Read this guide:

http://drupal.org/node/181998

And
http://thanhsiang.org/faqing/node/84

susata’s picture

susata commented

faqing,

Thank you for taking the time to provide these links--I had visited the first a few days ago, but I have never seen the second, which provides excellent info that may help me to further improve my site's video capabilities.

Since I wrote my last message, I made great progress, mainly by discovering the Flash Node module and how to use it in concert with SWF Tools.

Per my question about removing/installing modules (in the above thread): Before I installed SWF Tools and Flash Node, I installed Upload. I left everything else intact.

One of the first problems I noticed with SWF Tools occurred when I would attempt to play an mp3 with my chosen player, PixelOut. Instead of playing, I would get this message: "Error loading file". I found the fix for this on this page: http://drupal.org/node/154364 (item #8) Now my mp3s upload and play perfectly. I used the SWF Tools tags to insert the audio inline with other text, e.g., swf file="flash/ASongTuning1.mp3".

Then I decided to try to include videos as well.

My first obstacle was I needed to convert .wmv videos to .flv videos--then I discovered Flash 8 Video Encoder, which I hadn't even realized came with Flash 8. FVE does the job of converting .wmv files to .flv very nicely.

Next I tried to use the SWF Tools tags to insert the videos inline. They showed up inline okay, but the initial "poster image" would not display when the video node was posted inside another node--like a blog post. The area where the video displays would appear black until the play button was clicked. I found the solution was to use Flash Node macros instead of SWF Tools tags, e.g., [flashnode|nid=85]. You can read more about this revelation in this thread: http://drupal.org/node/216946

So now I am able to post audio files and videos inline, anywhere in a post--and I love that these are Flash files, since that is such a prevalent player.

Today I completely uninstalled the Audio and Video modules--I have all the audio/video power I want w/o them!

Thanks again for tipping me off to SWF Tools. That was solid gold advice.
s.

susata’s picture

susata commented

I am so pleased with how much I have been able to achieve with this great duo: swf tools + flash node. Yes!

But I admit one more snag that I haven't been able to figure out. To play an audio file, I must click the Pixel Out player TWICE. Could you possibly suggest any reason why audio won't play until the 2nd click?

And... I have another question that I hope someone can help me with. Is it possible to use swf tools and/or flash node to create a playlist that presents itself on the page as a neatly grouped listing - much like the XPSF Player? I have attempted to answer this question myself, unsuccessfully - and that is explained in this post here: http://drupal.org/node/218784

Thank you,
s.

faqing’s picture

faqing commented

Hello,

1. For Pixel Out Player: Click once only works in firefox, not Explore nor Opera.

2. I have no knowledge about Playlist. But you can try this:

<swflist files="My first Songs=01.mp3&My second Song=02.mp3&My third Song=03.mp3" player="wijering_mediaplayer" width="550" height="250" displaywidth="300">

My mp3 files are under files folder.

susata’s picture

susata commented

I tried this code, and I like a lot about the resulting presentation (esp. after I set the displaywidth to 0 so no image displays) - but I encountered 3 problems:

1. My browser sometimes (interestingly, this is intermittent) tries to open a separate page to play the audio in Quicktime and then Quicktime reports a problem with the version that I have (7.4) and then Firefox just quits the session completely. Even after I set my default player to be something other than Quicktime - Windows Media Player - this still sometimes happens.

2. There's no way for a visitor to stop play once initiated.

3. The song titles in the resulting display for My Second Song and My Third Song are preceded by "amp;" (without the quotes).

This last problem seems minor, but problems 1 and 2 have me thinking I may re-install audio with its playlist function, just to get a good playlist working. I'll definitely keep all the rest of the swf tools/flash node functionality for inline video and audio (my original interest that started this thread).

Here's a musician Drupal site, which very nicely presents track titles and plays samples - and I believe he is using the audio module: http://www.thefourofus.org/classified_personal

Thanks again for your excellent thoughts, from which I have learned so much.
s.

Anthony Pero’s picture

Anthony Pero commented

What should my directory structure look like in SWF Tools to add the 1-pixel out player? I can't figure out where to put the directory. I figured it out for the media player... Someone help me out, please!

Anthony Pero

Anthony Pero
Project Lead
Virtuosic Media
http://www.virtuosic.me/

point-1’s picture

point-1 commented

modules/swftools/shared/1pixelout/player.swf is the right path

Check out modules/swftools/shared/README.txt.

Cheers.

Anthony Pero’s picture

Anthony Pero commented

Found that after I posted. Still can't get it to work, but the problem is found at: http://drupal.org/node/202591

Waiting for this to get resolved in the module itself. Not comfortable hacking the files myself.

Anthony Pero

Anthony Pero
Project Lead
Virtuosic Media
http://www.virtuosic.me/

susata’s picture

susata commented

For me, this actually happens in any browser, not just IE. But it doesn't happen when I click on a pixelout player in anyone else's website - it's only happening in my site - so I've done something wrong. I have submitted a support request for this here, where a discussion has begun: http://drupal.org/node/218772

Thanks again,
s.

point-1’s picture

point-1 commented

Changing the 419th line of swftools.module from

$html = '<div class="swftools"><object'. $width_attr . $height_attr . $id .' classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version='. $vars->params['version'] .',0,0,0">'."\n" ;

to

$html = '<div class="swftools"><object'. $width_attr . $height_attr . $id .' type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="'. $P['src'] .'">'."\n" ;

makes the 1pixelout player to play with just one click.

I guess there is something wrong with "object" parameters in the first case.

susata’s picture

susata commented

point, I'm kind of surprised that your above fix resolves any player issue, just because I had thought the classid and codebase info were essential parameters for the player to operate... But, um, I have been wrong before (at least once). ;)

I resolved my own Pixel Out 2-click problem by switching to the Generic player. I only need to ever click the Generic player once to start play.

s.

digitalfreak’s picture

digitalfreak commented

didn't work on Swf tools 5.x-2.2

digitalfreak’s picture

digitalfreak commented

just found that need the check that "play immediately" box to get it work by 1 click

digitalfreak’s picture

digitalfreak commented

I want to have a "play sound" button on the right of a sentence.

Like "What sound is this ? [the button]", however, swftools always generate code that makes the out become "What sound is this ? [next line] [the button]", is a correct behavior or I can set it somewhere, because I really want the button to be "inline" with the sentence. I tried the "generic mp3 player" and "onepixelout", both has that problem.

digitalfreak’s picture

digitalfreak commented

maybe i have to put a style for the "div" tag of swftools

susata’s picture

susata commented

I did try to play mp3s using the Wijering Flash player... To eliminate the video display portion of the player I set the one parameter "displaywidth" equal to zero in the swf tool tag, like so:

swflist files="My first Songs=01.mp3&My second Song=02.mp3&My third Song=03.mp3" player="wijering_mediaplayer" width="550" height="250" displaywidth="0"

BUT I ran into problems with this method (as described in the above thread), and I finally decided to try the Generic Player for audio files (select this in the SWF tools setting "File Handling").

And I have been very pleased with the Generic Player for audio. It works great for single files. I have also found a way to use Generic to display lists of audio files. Here's how:

1. Create a Content Type, e.g., "Track from My CD".
2. Create a track - enter title and put the swf tag in the Body, like so: swf file="yourfolder/ASongTuning1.mp3"
3. Create the View:
- Select "Table View" for View Type.
- Select "Block".
- Specify only two fields, title and body.
- For Filters: Select Published, and Node Type is "Track from my CD".
4. Then go into Blocks and configure the Block to appear wherever you want it to appear.

point-1’s picture

point-1 commented

I haven't manage to eliminate video portion of the display by using displaywidth of zero. But, nevermind, I'll try to do it some way. But I have a problem with using 1 pixel out player and the generic one.

The generated code in the source of my html page looks like:
file=http%3A/%252Fdrupal.local/files/sound.mp3

instead of

file=http://drupal.local/files/sound.mp3.

I don't know where %3A/%252F comes from?

And because of that (I guess it's because of that) 1 pixel out player and generic player can't play the file.

faqing’s picture

faqing commented

Read here:

http://thanhsiang.org/faqing/node/84