Help with Dash Player Configuration

I was in the same situation as you and I tried with the JW player. It worked for me.

http://www.jeroenwijering.com/?item=JW_FLV_Player

I am curious what problems you are seeing. Just saying "It doesn't work" does not really give me any clues since I know for a fact it works with Drupal 6.6 since that is what I use on several of my sites.

Same here Travis. I followed the installation instructions to the letter where possible, although there are several ambiguities which could be the cause of the problem, but when it's done no player loads, I just get a blank page. I tried changing various settings, went through your checklist of possible problems, I even uninstalled everything, re-installed and started again from scratch, making sure every step was exactly as you describe in your instructions (where this was possible), and still no player loads at the end of it. I've treble-checked all the obvious such as the key, URLs and so on, plus all the other possible errors that you mention and additional ones too. But the instructions aren't accurate for Drupal 6 in a lot of places, and it's not clear exactly where to put some files or what the file paths should be, but in the end I came to the same conclusion, that it doesn't work with Drupal 6.6.

From what you say, clearly it does work with 6.6 so the problem must be with the instructions... well, I know that as I've had issues with trying to follow them! The Dash Media Player looks great and it's just what I need but I've started to look at alternatives now. If you're interested though in clearing this up, I would be happy to go through them with you and rewrite or clarify where necessary - I'm a journalist and technical writer with a fairly basic knowledge of Drupal (enough to construct and run this site www.ashonbikes.com but no more!) which puts me in a good position to do this - I'd not be assuming any knowledge (which I think is the problem here) and hopefully should be able to communicate it clearly.

Kevin

That would be a great service! I have spend countless hours trying to figure out which step I must have missed (in D6) to enable this potentially very useful module and get the S3 part right. Travis has done a ton of work on this module, seems a shame that one punctuation mark could prevent noobs like me from getting it to work.

Hello everyone!

First of all, I just want to thank everyone for being very patient with my instructions. I understand completely that there might be some holes, but please know that I am VERY motivated to clear it all up so that it is very easy for someone to install this player.

Since it seems that the problem is with my instructions, I want to figure out what the missing piece is... Since I am very comfortable with Drupal, it is very easy for me to take something for granted in the process of installing the player and obviously make some assumptions....

So, here is what I have to offer.... Whoever is willing, I offer a FREE service to get this player running on your site as long as I can tell that an effort has been made to walk through my tutorial. This offer is not for those who just want me to install the player for them, but for those who seem to have gotten stuck somewhere and missed a piece. Only then will I realize where the mistake was made and then make sure that my tutorial is modified so that the next person who comes around does not fall into the same problem.

So, if you guys are willing to let me dive into your server and figure it out, please just shoot me an email and I promise I will take care of you. I am a pretty busy guy, but like I said earlier..... this is my #1 priority right now to make sure this is right.

Thanks again, everyone for your patience.

Travis Tidwell

Very generous offer, Travis. The difficulty for some of us is that we think we have followed all the instructions through, but don't have a clear idea of where it went wrong, where we are blocked, or for us non-techs - how to troubleshoot the problem.

I understand Michael, and I really think that is why I will need to dive in and see what happened. It would really be a wild goose chase if we bounce back and forth with a bunch of "well have you tried this?" emails.... Once I find where the error occurred, I will not only update my tutorial but also notify you as to what was step was not quite right to get the player running.

Again, I really do appreciate your patience. I can tell that you have already put in a ton of effort trying to get this to work, which is why I am more than happy to help you out for free.

Hi Travis,

I'm happy for you to dive into my server, and what I'll do is go through the instructions step by step again and let you know exactly which parts I'm unsure of or which I think aren't completely clear to relative Drupal novices like me. I'll get in touch by email and we can report back here. You're right, it'd be such a waste if all your work was foiled for a lot of people at this stage.

Kevin

Thanks Kevin,

I look forward to hearing from you. Of course, I will be away for Thanksgiving, but when I get back I will dive in and see what happened.

As for Michael, I did find one place where a mistake was made which was the dashconfig.xml file setup. I updated my tutorial to give an example of what it should look like since the error was that the XML file was invalid after his modifications. Hopefully, if a person actually see's what a valid dashconfig.xml file looks like, then they might have better luck configuring this module.

On the same note, I have discovered that about 80% of all problems are with the configuration file (dashconfig.xml). Whether it be that the path for AMFPHP is wrong, or the baseURL is not right, I have found that this is one place where many people struggle. I might break apart my tutorial and address the dashconfig.xml file separately just to help people realize it's importance to get this player operational.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Travis.

I am in the exact same boat. I am running 6.6 and have gone through the steps a dozen times including redoing API keys, changing config file etc. Please let me know what you all find. I would also be up for letting you check out my site as it is all test stuff. I am a newbie to Drupal but I can follow directions and I am definitely not seeing something that is obvious to experienced users. One guess is that the FlashVideo path is not seeing the Dashplayer in the folder we created called player, or the FlashVideo module is not pointing to the sites/default/files folder. However, I cannot get the player to show up anywhere, including just throwing the HTML on a page so I eagerly await your results. Have a happy holiday. I guess I will try to move on to other things until you expose what we are all missing.

Just to keep you updated, I've been in touch with Travis but Thanksgiving on his side of the Atlantic, Christmas on both and the rest of our work has meant nothing's happened yet, though hopefully early in the New Year we can get it moving, and I'll report back here. Enjoy the rest of the break!

I am in a similar boat at tfmiller65. I have redone my api code, setup my config, etc but still not working. I am subscribing to this post and also will allow Travis access to my server to try to clear this up. Once you get back Travis and you have some time let me know your contact info and I'll send you the login information.

Good Evening Travis,

Like some other prospective DashPlayer users - I have not been able to successfully initiate the wonderful module you've created. I absolutely love the module- and think it would really enhance my site - although I am yet to reap the benefits. I am hoping that your offer (to manually dissect the problem) is good. I really need your help - if at all possible.

Please contact me at your earliest convenience so I can send you my sites configurations.

Thanks,

Angel2383

Hi, I just want to note for the record that the instructions for the Dash Player installation are too ambiguous to install the player correctly. Some notations on the instructions:

Under "Install the Required Modules" you tell the user to download and install the Services module and then download the AMFPHP module. In the next step you say, "Now before you install both of these module in your Drupal system, you will also need to download the AMFPHP services gateway," but you just told the user to download Services and install it in the Drupal directory.

Next step:

"Now that you have the code in the right place, the next step is to install these modules in your Drupal Administrator. You will need to install the following... "

Code in the right place where? Which code are you referring to? Which place? How would the user know? You also give the user a list of things to install but you say if these are modules or if they're folders the user already has or where they're supposed to go. The only option seems to do a search on Drupal to find out what and where the files are in order to download them.

The "Install Support Modules" section was clear.

"Download and Install the Flash Player in Drupal"

Once you have the package downloaded, you should extract the file on your local hard drive. In this file you will see the following...
* dashPlayer.swf - The actual video player that does all the magic
* README.txt - A readme file that directs you to come here...
* skins(directory) - A directory of any skins used for the Dash Player.
* config (directory) - A configuration directory. We will go over this later.

The file happens to be a zip file with several folders and files. "In this file" doesn't tell the user which folder too look for. The folder I downloaded and unzipped had several directories and folders to open before I could find the Drupal 6.x file and even then I wasn't sure where the files were (apparently they're located under "dashplayer_127).

You then instruct the user to place the contents on the root directory of their server but the user has to assume they're supposed to put the entire "dashplayer_127" folder there or just those components you listed.

"Configuring the Services Module"

Once you have the services module installed, the next step is to allow all users to use the Services module. You do this by going to your Administrator section under Access Control

I don't have an "Access Control" page under "Administration". Do you mean ""Permissions" under "User Management"?

I had no problem creating a key but then you instruct the user to do the following:

Now that you have the API Key in your clipboard, your next step is to set up the configuration XML file for your player to associate with your Drupal Site. To do this, you will need to go to your Dash Player directory and look for the config directory. In there, you will (by default) open up the dashconfig.xml file.

I'm assuming that you're referring to the Dash Player Directory that the user uploaded to the root directory. The rest of the instructions for changing the keys is confusing because wouldn't it have been more convenient to put the keys in first before uploading to the root directory?

I can't comment on the rest of the instructions although for me, administering views is not a problem; it's the confusion on installing the files on particular directories that confusing.

I'm sure this is a great player and perhaps the hardcore Drupal programmers feel that if a user can't follow the instructions, then they shouldn't be administering a Drupal site, but I think a lot of us novices with basis php and html learn from good instructions and are capable of doing more advanced tasks once we understand the basics of working with the root directory and modules.

superdiva,

Thank you so much for your comments. I will take them constructively. I actually plan on updating my tutorials to take smaller steps and less ambiguous. I agree that they are probably not for the beginner / novice, and they really should be. I might make this my #1 priority when I get back from DrupalCon this next week.

Again, thanks for the comments.

Travis.

Hi,

I was trying to use the dash media player but it says conversion failed every time I upload videos. I am using drupal 6.10. Please help me.

Thanks.

I had no further contact from Travis after some mail swopping in November and a promise to look further into the issues so I'm now looking at alternatives.

I agree with Superdiva... the instructions are very confusing..
looking forward to your new instructions Travis so I can start using this fantastic player :-)

Thanks,

Hi,
The flash video module is a kind of blessing for the solution that I have been looking for. I am trying to use the Dash player on my testsite initially and if all goes well I need to port it to www.diggandhra.com. As of now my testsite is located on www.saptechnet.com/pictest.

I have followed the tutorials Travis provided and they were very helpful (even though some minor missing here and there which is understandable with so many drupal versions). As of now my dash player shows up on front page and while keeps spinning without showing any playlist or videos. I rechecked the instructions twice and confirmed I followed them to the best of my knowledge.

I have not even used any FFMPEG or anything , I am only uploading flv videos as of now and still my dashplayer could not load the playlist. Any help is much appreciated. I can send you the login info and details if someone willing to help me. Please email me on nmadhukar@yahoo.com and plz help me as I need to still fix amazon S3 and all once I have dash media working.

To see my problem please check the url www.saptechnet.com/pictest and you will understand my issue easily. I just get a rotating clock kind of...with no playlist.

Regards
Madhukar

Madhukar,

Please send me your details using my Contact form and I will take a quick look and see if I can figure out what is going on.

Thanks,

Travis.

Travis,
Have you had a chance to check my issue. Can you please let me know if I need to make any changes to make it work. I did email you the login details.

Please email me on nmadhukar@yahoo.com if you need anything from me please.

Regards
Madhukar

Hi,
Any help is much appreciated as I am struck as of now. Also I tried another site with mediamover, and JW Flash player which seems easier to setup then the flash video. but again my JW flash player on that site also give me 404 #2002 error. May be I am making some common mistake for these 2 good video players not picking my playlists.

Can someone please help me . Can pay some small cash for quick fix and advise.

Regards
Madhukar

How to install Dashpalyer in Drupal?

Kindly let me know the step by step process.

Hi,
Can someone help me fix my Dashplayer. My Amazon S3 and Flashvideo/FFMPEG works fine, and I can play videos using JW player. But I am interested in Dashplayer and I cant seem to make it work. It does not load my playlist and gives me a rotating wheel all the time. Appreciate your help if somecan take a look.

Email me on nmadhukar@yahoo.com

Regards
Madhukar

I tried following the directions, but then was unable to once I reached Configure the Services Module and the Dash Player.
"Once you are in the permissions section, you will then look for the access services, load any node data, load own node data" None of these exist in Drupal 6.1.3
"The next step is to go to your Administer >> Services section." There is no key tab there in my Drupal 6.1.3

These are not covered by the step-by-step, so I can't go any further.

Thanks if you can help.

Larry

Kindly let me know the Dashplayer installation in Drupal.

Processe for insttaling Dash player in Drupal.

Hello Everyone,

Please take a look at the new Installation and Configuration videos. These will be a huge help to anyone having a problem getting this player installed correctly.

http://www.tmtdigital.com/node/37

Thanks,

Travis.

Hi

I have followed the video which i thought was excellent but the player still won't view. I get to the stage in the installation where you say test the location of the media player player/dashPlayer.swf but all I get is a balnk screen and not the player as your demo shows. Any ideas of where it is going wrong

Thanks

Guy

This is a Dash Media Player project issue. And it is not critical. Moving to the Dash Media Player project.

I'm also having this problem. Dash Player shows up but no playlist, no video. What am I missing?

Dash Player was working fairly well for me, but recently stopped, and I have no idea why.

I'm using

Drupal 6.14
Dash Media Player 6.x-1.7
Services 6.x-0.15
AMFPHP 6.x-1.0-beta1

The player loads, but no videos, no images, no playlist--nothing but a perpetual spinner. I haven't changed anything that I can recall. I've even gone over the video tutorials step-by-step to make sure all the configurations are correct, but still nothing.

I'm not sure if its related to the Services module, as I can't seem to load the services browser anymore. But I also have a localhost site copy, where Dash Player still works perfectly even though the services browser no longer loads. This is pretty confusing for a non-tech like me. :)

Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated.

BTW--great module. I LOVE it. :) Thanks for all your hard work on it.

If you haven't changed anything and the player just spontaneously stopped working then it could be a problem with your server. Have you tired contacting your host to see if they've changed anything?

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