ComboBox / Dropdown menu plugin available for testing

[cheathamlane]

This is a ComboBox or drop down menu plugin for FPP.

This will allow you to define the panorama names and links from within your FPP XML document. You won't need to hand-code a Flash ComboBox again! The panorama names you define show up as the label for the menu, and the links are used to load new panoramas into your presentation.

This plugin works like other FPP plugins -- you put it on a layer inside the <parameters/> element, then you give it some information in its own "<cl_dropdown_menu/>" element.

You can define:

* Width of the menu
* Height of the menu
* X and Y (left/top) position for menu
---- negative values (ex: -50) are figured from right and/or bottom edges of presentation
---- positive values (ex: 32) are figured from left and/or top edges of presentation
* Font for the menu
---- if font not installed on user's end, then it is whatever Flash defaults to
* Font size for the menu
* Font color for the menu
---- in format "000000" (no "0x" needed)
* Name that appears for each panorama on the menu
---- can include spaces or special characters
* Link to the respective panorama
---- can be local or on the Web
* Type of transition between panoramas
---- can be any of the standard FPP transition types
* Time for transition between panoramas
---- currently time/transition are for ALL panoramas
---- in the same format as for other FPP functions (ex: 1000 = 1 second)
* XML file loading (or not) for the panoramas
---- root: XML file is at at ROOT of tour
---- pano: XML is on same level as panorama file(s)
---- none: No XML
---- YourName: XML file is at some other place. Include path only. Note that xml will always have same filename as pano, unless "none"; also note that this is tour-wide: that is, whatever you define for xmlPath will happen for all of the panoramas. Include trailing slash "/" at end of path.
* Your panoramas

* Using capital letters, spaces or other characters is OK!

See example XML code below. If any parameter is omitted it has a default setting. Defaults are:

* Transition Time: 1000
* Transition Type: stripes
* XML Path: none
* Menu X: 20 (pixels from top left)
* Menu Y: 20 (pixels from top left)
* Menu Width: 150 pixels
* Menu Height: 22 pixels
* Menu Font: Arial
* Menu Font Size: 12
* Menu Font Color: 000000 (black)
* THERE ARE NO DEFAULT LABELS/LINKS. If you don't add your own panoramas, it won't work. :-)

note: setting a parameter to "" or empty is not recommended. simply omit the parameter entirely.

XML example (also available in download):

<panorama>
<parameters>
layer_80 = files/cl_dropdown_menu.swf
</parameters>

<cl_dropdown_menu>
transitionTime = 500
tranSitIonType = stripes
xMlPath = pano
menux = 50
menuy = 20
menuwidth = 400
menuheight = 22
menufont = Geneva
menuFontsize = 12
menufontcoLor = FF0000
My first Panroama=path/to/My/panoRama
Another neat panorama is=path/to/My/other/panoRama
My last and best 360 VR=super/cool/panos/just/for/me
</cl_dropdown_menu>

(11/27/2007 update: see http://flashpanoramas.com/forum/show...7&postcount=14 for updated parameters list)

Enjoy!

I had a lot of inspiration from zleifr's recent flurry of plugins and extensions -- and zleifr and I have gone back and forth a bit on the exact functionality to add to the ComboBox plugin. There is more that can be done with the ComboBox -- such as enabling it to call any FPP function (not just loadPano) -- but I thought this was good for a start; besides, not everyone wil need such higher-end functionality.

Let the testing begin!

Issues, concerns, questions, suggestions -- please respond here.

Cheers,

[neither]

great!thank you

have some examples?

[cheathamlane]

Originally Posted by neither

great!thank you

have some examples?

Here are two working examples. The first sets all of the parameters for the plugin, the second uses all the defaults.

http://www.cheathamlane.net/permanen...allParams.html

http://www.cheathamlane.net/permanen...anoParams.html

[jaaaab]

Hi Patrick,

Seams to be an interesting plugin you made there.

I got plenty of Flash errors when lording your example, you should fix that.

++

[cheathamlane]

Originally Posted by jaaaab

Hi Patrick,

Seams to be an interesting plugin you made there.

I got plenty of Flash errors when lording your example, you should fix that.

++

Thanks Jaaaab -- it might help to have an idea of what errors you're getting, on what platform, etc. I don't receive any errors at all... Testing on Win/Mac, IE, FF, Safari, and all looks good!

[cheathamlane]

* fixed XML parsing inconsistency
* hopefully fix issues with empty parameters

[jaaaab]

Well seems to work fine now

Cheers.

[HansNyberg]

Hi Patrick

Nice job. One of the things I have been missing.
I opened your .fla file in FlashCS3 (I hate this application) as I thought I could modify colors to match my site.
Finally found some parts which said upper skin etc and even got the colors changed.
Saved as a new SWF but no change.
Then I looked at your site and I can see that the only part of your Demo which is not matching in colors is the dropdown.

Am I stupid or is it ADOBE who just want me to use White dropdowns.
BTW I have not been able to find any other looks than the white dropdown menus on other flashpanorama websites as well

Hans

[cheathamlane]

Originally Posted by HansNyberg

Hi Patrick

Nice job. One of the things I have been missing.
I opened your .fla file in FlashCS3 (I hate this application) as I thought I could modify colors to match my site.
Finally found some parts which said upper skin etc and even got the colors changed.
Saved as a new SWF but no change.
Then I looked at your site and I can see that the only part of your Demo which is not matching in colors is the dropdown.

Am I stupid or is it ADOBE who just want me to use White dropdowns.
BTW I have not been able to find any other looks than the white dropdown menus on other flashpanorama websites as well

Hans

Thanks Hans...

Yeeeeesss, Adobe make it difficult to find how to change the "skins" for their UI components. :P

The ComboBox plugin I made creates the ComboBox at runtime, so there isn't anything on the stage for you to modify. For right now, you can alter only the things I have available to alter (width, text color, etc).

If you want to put your request on the wishlist, feel free (make a reply post with "wishlist" in the subject). I'm not sure, honestly, how much headway I could make on that anytime soon.

[cheathamlane]

Hey there:

Jaaaab -- thanks for the update that all is working well on your end!

I've started getting some questions about the plugin off-list... I encourage questions and requests, but I'd like to keep them on list in this forum thread as much as possible. This way all of us can benefit from any insights!

Cheers,