FAQ - Page

Answers

• I got my mp3 player to work except the speed at which it plays is way too fast or too slow. What happens ?

  Avoid any sample rate that isn't a multiple of 11,025Hz. Many hardware and software MP3 players including those ones using Adobe/Macromedia Flash won't play anything that isn't a multiple of 11,025. The recommended ratio are 11, 22 or 44 KHz. Any other can give you speed conflicts when using Flash Music Players.

  The bitrate you use when exporting your .swf files depends on your needs, here are some of the common bitrates and their quality levels:

  • 16 kbit/s - Minimum (Ideal for voice)
  • 32 kbit/s - Intermediate
  • 64-96 kbit/s - Recommended
  • 128 - 256 kbit/s - Best (CD Quality)
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• Are the .FLA sources included with the purchase ?

  No, the .FLA sources are not included. However, you can request a quote for custom changes.

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• Is the extension MAC compatible ?

  Yes, our extensions are tested, approved and published in the Adobe Exchange site by the Adobe Exchange Team. This assures compatibility with most Dreamweaver versions, browsers and platforms.

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• What is the cost of a custom skin design ?

  The cost for a custom skin design is US$149.
  
  First step: you send us your request details (design guidelines, url of your web,...).
  
  Second step: Pay the amount of US$149.00 (cost of the development service). In case you are not satisfied with the final product, we will refund the 85% of the payment. Payment via Paypal (credit cards accepted) or MoneyBookers.
  
  Third step: Within 2 days we will send you two design proposals. You select one for revisions and development.
  
  Fourth step: The selected design will go through as many as three revisions before the elaboration of the final product (the player skin).
  
  Fifth step: You get your custom player skin (1 more day for the final development).

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• Do I need to know about XML in order to use the player ?

  No. If you insert the player from Dreamweaver, the XML files will be generated automatically. No hand coding is required.
  
  However, even if you need further edition to the configuration or playlist files, you can do it using Dreamweaver or any other text editor like Notepad. If you need additional info, you can contact our support service.

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• Is there a way to change the player's colors ?

  FLA sources are not included. We have various skins with different styles available. You can select the skin that better matches your site.
  
  As alternative you can request a quote for custom changes or a custom skin.

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• I like the player but I don't need a secure version. Do you have an alternative ?

  The "secure" feature is optional in SecureTSPlayer, however if you are looking for a player with a similar look and a lower price you can take a look to our standard TSPlayerV2.1 or our MiniPlayer, they have less features than SecureTSPlayer but maybe contains all what you need.

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• I'm looking for a thin or smaller Flash music player. Where can I find it ?

  You can configure the SecureTSPlayer skins to show without the playlist, making it smaller.
  
  However, if you are looking for a really thin music player, then take a look to our Mini Flash Music Player.

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• Can the music player be made to "float" in a separate window so that it can remain open and moved around the screen while visiting other pages on the website, or does it have to remain embedded in the page?

  Yes, you can put the SecureTSPlayer on a popup Window, so you can visit other pages and the player remains open.
  
  Another solution is to put the player on a top or bottom frame on your page.

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• Can I insert the Flash Music Player into another Flash movie (ex: in my movie timeline)?

  At this moment it is not possible to insert it directly into another Flash movie because the player require its own parameters. If you are familiar with HTML, you can place a floating layer over your Flash movie in order to place the player over your site. This can be achieved by using absolute positioning.

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• Are any programming skills needed for using TSPlayer?

  No, no programming skills are required. SecureTSPlayer is available as Dreamweaver Extension; you can insert it from the Dreamweaver Commands menu just with a few clicks.

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• The title of the track currently playing says 'unknown' or the file name. How can i fix it?

  SecureTSPlayer reads the song names from the ID3 Tags inside the MP3 files. Some applications, like Winamp, allow editing the names inside the ID3 tags. If no information is present inside the ID3 or ID3v2 tags, then the playlist shows the file name and the actual track 'unknown'.

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• Can I play radio stations with the player?

  Not yet, we are working on this feaure....

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• Is it possible to database drive the playlist ?

  Yes, you can generate the playlist using some server side script (PHP, ASP, ...)
  
  The playlist is an text/xml format file, and the name of the playlist file is passed as parameter to the Flash (TSPlayer), so it can be "playlist.php", "playlist.asp", .... see the following example:
  
  Code on your page:
  
  <object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,29,0" width="355" height="316">
  <param name="movie" value="SECURE-TSPlayerV3.5.swf">
  <param name="quality" value="high"><param name="wmode" value="transparent">                                                     
  <param name="FlashVars" value="playlistfile=playlist.php&configurationfile=configuration.xml">
  <embed src="SECURE-TSPlayerV3.5.swf" quality="high" wmode="transparent" flashvars="playlistfile=playlist.php&configurationfile=configuration.xml" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="355" height="316"></embed>
  </object>
  
  Playlist file (PHP sample):
  
  <?php echo "<"; ?>?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8' ?>
  <playlist version='1' xmlns='http://xspf.org/ns/0/'>
      <title>SECURE-TSPlayerV3.5 Generated Playlist</title>
      <info>http://components.developers4web.com/</info>
      <trackList>
          <?php  while (.... [some buckle condition] ....) {?>
          <track>
              <location><?php echo [the file name form the database row]; ?></location>
          </track>
          <?php  } ?>
      </trackList>
  </playlist>
  
  
  You can pass a GET parameter to the playlist file, or just use a session cookie to identify the user profile.

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• Can I put more than one SecureTSPlayer on the same page?

  Yes, there is no limit. You can specify an individual playlist for each SecureTSPlayer on your page.

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• Can I database drive the playlist using ASP?

  Yes, you can do it. See this example:
  
  Code on page ("id" is passed as GET parameter):
  
  <object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,29,0" width="355" height="316">
  <param name="movie" value="SECURE-TSPlayerV3.5.swf">
  <param name="quality" value="high"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"> <param name="FlashVars" value="playlistfile=playlist.asp%3Fid%3d<%=Request("id")%>&configurationfile=configuration.xml">
  <embed src="SECURE-TSPlayerV3.5.swf" quality="high" wmode="transparent" flashvars="playlistfile=playlist.asp%3Fid%3d<%=Request("id")%>&configurationfile=configuration.xml" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="355" height="316"></embed>
  </object>
  
  The playlist file:
  
  <%
  ' here load the recordset form database into RS var
  ' note: "id" was passed as GET parameter
  %>
  <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8' ?>
  <playlist version='1' xmlns='http://xspf.org/ns/0/'>
      <title>SECURE-TSPlayerV3.5 Generated Playlist</title>
      <info>http://www.tsplayer.com/</info>
      <trackList>
      <% While (Not RS.EOF) %>   
          <track>
              <location><% Response.Write RS.Fields.Item("SongFileName") %></location>
          </track>
          <% RS.MoveNext %>
      <% WEnd %>   
      </trackList>
  </playlist>
   
  
  Note: You can create a similar code using ASP or any other server side script.

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• Can I use the player with my own site background?

  Yes, you can achieve this goal by using the transparent property for flash objects. Take a look to this sample:
  
  <object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/ shockwave/cabs/flas/swflash.cab#version=6,0,29,0" width="355" height="316">
  <param name="movie" value="SECURE-TSPlayerV3.5.swf">
  <param name="quality" value="high"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"> <param name="FlashVars" value="playlistfile=playlist.xml&configurationfile=configuration.xml">
  <embed src="SECURE-TSPlayerV3.5.swf" quality="high" wmode="transparent" flashvars="playlistfile=playlist.xml&configurationfile=configuration.xml" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="355" height="316"></embed>
  </object>

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• Is your webbased player completely independable of audio players on the pc, like media player etc..?

  Yes, it's completely independent.

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• Player does not work. What happens?

  Before contacting our support service, please check the following:
  

  1- Please, be sure to upload all required files, including the Secure-TSPlayer folder, the SWF files and your songs.
  
  2- Please, be sure that you are using the right paths in your page source (into the object tag parameters) and into the files "configuration.xml" and "playlist.xml".
  

  If you are using Dreamweaver, this files and paths are generated automatically.
  
  If the problem persists, contact our support service offering information about the error, example, your test page URL. Our support service will check your page and tell you how to fix it.
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• Can I play a single dinamycally selected song with TSPlayer?

  Yes, of course. For example, if you are using PHP, try this:
   
  <object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,29,0" width="355" height="316">
  <param name="movie" value="SECURE-TSPlayerV3.5.swf">
  <param name="quality" value="high"><param name="wmode" value="transparent">                                                     
  <param name="FlashVars" value="playlistfile=playlist.php%3Fmp3file%3D/myurl/mysong.mp3&configurationfile=configuration.xml">
  <embed src="SECURE-TSPlayerV3.5.swf" quality="high" wmode="transparent" flashvars="playlistfile=playlist.php%3Fmp3file%3D/myurl/mysong.mp3&configurationfile=configuration.xml" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="355" height="316"></embed>
  </object>
   
  Note the change (encoding) of "?" per "%3F" the change of "=" per "%3D".
   
  The "playlist.php" file will be:
   
  <?php echo "<"; ?>?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8' ?>
  <playlist version='1' xmlns='http://xspf.org/ns/0/'>
      <title>SECURE-TSPlayerV3.5 Generated Playlist</title>
      <info>http://components.developers4web.com/</info>
      <trackList>
          <track>
              <location><?php echo $_GET["mp3file"]; ?></location>
          </track>
      </trackList>
  </playlist>
  
   
  You can create a similar code with any other server side script.

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• I have installed the extension it and works when I test it locally, but when I upload the files to my online website, it does not work. What should I do ?

  Please, be sure to upload the "Secure-TSPlayer" folder. This folder is generated automatically when inserting the extension and contains the required scripts for the component. If you don't see the "Secure-TSPlayer" folder in your Dreamweaver file list, then click the refresh button (see image for details)

  
  Refresh Files and Folders
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• What browsers does it support?

  We have tested this player on the following browsers:
  
  - Safari
  - Firefox
  - Opera
  - Internet Explorer for Windows
  - Netscape
  - Mozilla
  
  The extension is MAC compatible. Our extensions are tested, approved and published by the Adobe Exchange Team at http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/exchange/index.cfm
  

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• How do I remove the "Click to activate and use this control" message that loads with on the Flash item?

  This is a security restriction of some Internet Explorer 7 configurations. The problem is not related with our player, but with the IE 7 browser configuration.

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• Can I load the flash music player inside a different flash application?

  Yes you can load the music player from a different flash application, but you need comply with some restriction:

  • The SECURE-TSPlayerV4.5.swf movie must be loaded (using the action script function "loadMovie" in the root of your flash application).
  • The variables "playlistfile" and "configurationfile" must be present in the _level0 of your flash application ("playlistfile" and "configurationfile" contain the path to the playlist and configuration files respectively ).
  • The path to the mp3 music files must be relative to your flash application(if you use the music player in non secure mode) or relative to the "getPlayData.php" (if you use the music player in secure mode).
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• How to make SECURE-TSPlayer 100% secure?

  The security features implemented in the Secure TSPlayer are:

  1. The audio player never accesses the files (.mp3 and .jpg) directly; instead, it does so through a proxy in PHP (getPlayData.php).

  2. The playlist is transmitted from the server side to the audio player in coded form, using the password entered during the insertion process. Whoever manages to get through to the playlist, will not be able to make any use of these data.

  3. Queries from the audio player to the server are realized in coded form, in the same way as with the playlist. Their security is even more increased. A query to the server is useful once only, once it is responded, it is invalidated.

  We recommended some simple rules to increment the security in the music player

  1. The folder with the actual files (.mp3 and .jpg), can be located outside of the public website folder, this way, whoever gets access to the audio file folder address, will not be able to download it through the browser.

  2. Upload a .htaccess file, used to limit the access to the files, inside the directory where the .mp3 and .jpg files are stored. The content of the .htaccess file can be:

     Order deny,allow
     Deny from all

  3. To achieve total security, we recommend using Secure Socket Layer (SSL). Using SSL, the transmission of audio and image files is realized in coded form, preventing the third parties from accessing the information that travels via the net.

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