Panorama loader customization
The default loader of Flash Panorama Player is functional, but it’s not very pretty. This tutorial describes how you can change the default view of the loader, make loader for your own language or remove it at all.
Define 3 new parameters in the XML param file (http://flashpanoramas.com/player/parameters) to change the text of the loader:
<param name="loaderText" value="..." />
<param name="loaderTextFailed" value="..." />
<param name="loaderTextDenied" value="..." />loaderText is a main text template for the loader.
loaderTextFailed is a text message if your image unable to load.
loaderTextDenied is a text message if your image is inaccessible for security reasons.
Other two parameters specify the loader text color and the background color:
<param name="loaderTextColor" value="#FFFFFF" />
<param name="loaderBackColor" value="#000000" />Only difficulty to use loaderText, loaderTextFailed and loaderTextDenied parameters is parameters representation, they should be “URL-encoded” to be placed inside the XML format.
But I created a simple tool to encode/decode text:
Top text field contains decoded text, the bottom text field contains the encoded version of text for the XML file. Change the text template in the top text field as you wish, then copy and paste encoded version to the XML file like this:
<param name="loaderText" value="%3Ctextformat%20tabstops%3D%27300%27%3E%3Cfont%20face%3D%27Arial%27%20size%3D%2740%27%20color%3D%27%23%240%27%3E%0DLoading%20front%3A%09%241%0DLoading%20right%3A%09%242%0DLoading%20back%3A%09%243%0DLoading%20left%3A%09%244%0DLoading%20up%3A%09%245%0DLoading%20down%3A%09%246%0DLoading%20total%3A%09%247%0D%3C%2Ffont%3E%3C%2Ftextformat%3E" />
Some comments about format if the decoded version still looks “encoded” for you. 
1. Text template contains variables $0-$7. They will be replaced with actual info during the loading process: $0 - text color (described in loaderTextColor parameter), $1 - loaded for front side image in percents, $2 - loaded for right side, $3 - back, $4 - left, $5 - up, $6 - down, $7 - loaded total for all images.
2. Text template can contain simple html tags (Flash supported tags):
<b>, <i>, <p align="">, <font face="" size="" color="">, <textformat blockindent="" indent="" leading="" leftmargin="" rightmargin="" tabstops="">
Example: if you want to create a simple loader, say, in French, use this HTML code:
<font face="Arial" size="30">Chargement: $7</font>
Use widespread fonts (like Arial or Times) to be sure that user computer has this font. Or use comma delimited list to specify several fonts:
<font face="Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">...</font>
It’s a good idea to make multi-language loaders:
<font face='Arial' size='40' color='#$0'><p align="center">
ローディング
loading
$7
</p></font>If you want to remove the loader text completely, use empty string for loaderText parameter:
<param name="loaderText" value="" />
This entry was posted on Sunday, December 31st, 2006 at 1:14 am and is filed under Flash Panorama Player. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
on January 1, 2007 at 6:32 pm jab wrote:
hi,
we’re now able to customize loader text, that’s very cool
just an idea: instead of writing all faces states on each cube face, why now try to write each face % on itself?
i mean a front loader for the front face, left loader for the left face…
regards
on January 2, 2007 at 5:24 pm af wrote:
You may want to rethink the loader. While those familiar with projections can relate the messages to the faces, your average user has zero interest in this. The concern is simply: when do I get to see the panorama? A single percentage of the combined download based on current bytes and total bytes, in the Flash tradition, would be more useful. Also, the ability to load an animated movie clip, aka AJAX loader, or generate a graphical bar to match the progress would be useful. Both are trivial to implement and would better “complete” the player.
on January 2, 2007 at 5:43 pm cvh wrote:
I strongly agree with pm af.
The current loader is interesting for panorama geeks, but the average user will feel that they are using a complicated and unfamiliar interface.
on January 20, 2007 at 6:49 pm wns wrote:
A also agree with af and cvh.
It would be much more reassuring to the user to see a familiar percentage type loader.
wns
on January 30, 2007 at 2:35 am Denis V. Chumakov wrote:
Yes, you are right, all of you. Next version of the player is able to use external graphical loaders. Give me examples of your dream loader.