In Director, create an album and copy the XML file path (it's on the Summary page).

Now, export a slideshow from Lightroom (make sure to set the XML file path in the settings and the type to Director) and put the files it created (except the images.xml file and the images folder) where you want them.

You can now upload images in Director and change all their settings, and SSP will change accordingly.  It has saved me loads of time.

I almost went out of my mind a couple of weeks ago trying to find documentation and ended up just emailing TD directly. Although I found his emails also to be a bit cryptic, I played around with the trials of SSPLR and SSPD and find they work VERY well together. Read On.

This is how it works:
Lightroom (LR) is used ONLY to design your Slideshow, how it works and how it looks. All the content (images) are uploaded to Director and your Slideshow is linked to them.

That means when you are in LR choosing SSP options and making adjustments it makes absolutely NO difference what photos you have selected when you are in the web module. That also means that it makes NO difference what photos are selected when you export because your slideshow will not use them, it will use the linked photos from Director. BUT you do have to have at least one photo selected for LR to export your SS, because that is the way LR was built (makes sense since LR is catering to the images within it's database. Why should it think it will ever build a web gallery without images!). Since the more images you have selected the longer it will take to export and since you are not using those images there is no reason to have more than one photo selected when building your SS.

OK, now that you know that you want to know how to go about linking your SS with Director, right? At the bottom of the SS module in LR click on the tab "Output Setting" find "Data"-XML File Path. Now open a new web page and login to Director (DR from now on) and open the album that has the images you want included within this SS. Goto the album "Summary" and find the XML File Path on the lower left. Copy it (click copy) and paste it in the aforementioned space back in LR. Then change the XML File Type below to Director. Magically the images you had selected in LR disappear and the images from DR appear. Really cool stuff.

So now you can upload your SS from LR to any location you want and the images will follow. Feel free to delete the exported image. Really, it won't hurt anything.

Now that you know how to do this you may still be wonder WHY to do it. Why not just export the images from LR, what is the point of DR? You may ask "In order to get images into DR you have to first export them from somewhere, probably LR, so why not just do it in one step. It seems like using DR is an extra step since you now have to upload your SS and images separately". Great question, and it has, as far as I can tell, three great answers:

1. Detaching the images from the SS allows you to edit them separately, saving time and making the whole process far more flexible. Let's say you have a set of 10 images that you want to upload to a gallery. If you will never include them in any other gallery, never reorder them, add images to them or take any out of your SS then you amy be right, there may be no benefit to separating them. It would, indeed, take less time to just upload the SS with the images embedded within it. But only the first time. What if you made a mistake or simply want to make a change. Imagine this, without using DR you upload ten images with your SS and then decide to take out an image. Since the images are attached you have no choice but to open LR and re-upload the whole SS. But if you use DR you instead can just deactivate an image. Or reorder the images. Or add one. OR use them elsewhere linked to a different SS. Fantastic!

2. Same as answer1 but this time you are happy with the images but want to make an adjustment to you SS, change some options. Instead of having to process and upload your 10 (or worse 30 or 100) images all over again along with you SS now you just make your adjustments, and only upload the SS (with required image) and all the images follow! Amazing!

3. If you aren't excited by answers 1&2 this one is killer. Having DR linked to SS allows you to have a gallery of MULTIPLE ALBUMS in you SS from LR!!! Instead of linking the XML File Path of a single ALBUM link the File Path of the GALLERY in DR. Just use the same easy steps! It's incredible how DR along with SS change the fundamental way you are able to display albums from the web module. AND FOR LESS THAN $60!! Plus, just like before when you link the path the galleries actually show up while you are still in LR before you upload it! It's killer cool.

I hope that was helpful-wish I had this post a couple of weeks ago. I should have stayed at a Holiday Inn!

I have set up my DR. I have my LR, I have done everything, the page should be ready, but no images showing... can someone help me by taking at look at my site and tell me what must I do to have the images showing... I have already uploaded photos to DR and have also set the path inside LR to the DR xml link.  I have also set up the cross domain folder etc. So I don't know what is wrong that the images are not showing at all.

Please help me... someone, The SSP team gave up on replying to my request. I have done all the advices that was given to me... no luck at all. There's nothing wrong with my LR accept occassional freezing that force me to restart.

Once and for all:

Http://www.playingwithlights.com (this is hosted on http://www.singaporetheatre-productions.com)
The crossdomain file points to both.

Http://www.playingwithlights.com is a registered URL. It has its own domain but sharing the same IP as singaporetheatre-productions.com

I have one gallery and 2 albums in DR. I have copied the gallery path to LR and the photos from DR do show in my LR. I was able to do setting and adjustment, except there are some limitation to the size of the content area and position of header etc. (if the content area is bigger, the header will get cropped at the top)

http://www.singaporetheatre-productions … p_director

Directory for playingwithlights.com is in public_html/playingwithlights

When you go to this address: http://www.playingwithlights.com/ you will see the slideshow interface, just header and a black grey box there are no images.

I cannot preview the slideshow when I clicked on preivew in LR also.

Any help to solve the riddle much appreciated.

Last edited by stageducky (2008-03-05 10:50:23)

Yes, its Active and yes it is director XML file type. I followed the instruction through... so I have no more clue what when wrong.

I have cleared the cache many many times... laughing... seriously... I don't know what's going on... I have even updated my flash player... shockwave player... whatever that would allow me to see my own work... no luck still... I am still looking at a blank grey square.

Anyone else can see the images?

Thanks for telling me you could see it. Now I'm totally puzzle. I know someone is going to suggest that I look at it from another computer... I did... last night... I have not tried tonight.. so I shall go do it now.

Regards to all who bothers to answer to me.

Geoffb, I'm suppose to have 1 gallery with 2 albums. I don't understand what exactly you mean but I shall check with the other computer a little later... its time for bed... I still can't view from my own laptop. Weird...

If I go to http://www.playingwithlights.com/ I see this:



If I go to http://www.playingwithlights.com/slideshowpro.swf I see this:



Do you see what I mean now?

Last edited by geoffb (2008-03-05 19:53:34)

When using the Lightroom version you need to target the loader.swf, if you open the slideshowpro.swf file it will open with all the default settings of the slideshow. The loader.swf parses the params.xml file and assigns the preferences to the slideshowpro.swf file.

I've come across a similar type of issue, and need some guidance as to what may be the cause.
I've generated the swf's using the LR plugin ver. 1.0.6 and then uploaded content to Director 1.1.9. Most of my albums function well--in fact, on several of my  XP SP2 machines using IE7 and FF 2.0.0.12 the slideshows work perfectly. However, I've now had 2 users call me and tell me they can't see any images in their browser.  They both have reported to me that the html loads ok, and the "play"  triangle appears for a couple of seconds, then nothing--no images or thumbs appear.

Investigating further, I discovered this thread and tried loading the slideshowpro.swf files directly into my browser, and sure enough, the page stops loading before accessing any content. Interestingly, accessing the loader.swf file does indeed trigger params.xml parsing and the slideshow loads normally. I have observed this behavior in both IE7 and Firefox2.

I will contact the more experienced of the 2 users and try to get her to load the .swf's directly to observe the results. What am I missing?

The files in question are here:
http://www.perceptions-unlimited.com/pr … _page.html
http://www.perceptions-unlimited.com/pr … howpro.swf
http://www.perceptions-unlimited.com/pr … loader.swf

Thanks,

Bruce Albrecht

Bruce, I'm also getting that page to display properly, does this issue is specific to an OS or browser?

MKruter wrote:

I'm actually having the exact same issue. No images are showing up from director in a slideshow that I uploaded to my site. They are, however, showing up when linked to the slideshow in Lightroom. I thought it may have something to do with cache so I uploaded to a new location and same deal. Any suggestions?
http://weddings.kruter.com/sarashloimy/

You need to setup a crossdomain.xml file: http://forums.slideshowpro.net/viewtopic.php?id=1967

medic583 wrote:

Is there anyway on these forums to make MKruter's post (#4) a stickey???

I bought the LR edition of SSP and Director but could not find ANY information in the documentation on how to create multiple galleries.  I gave up after 2 weeks of trying.  I don't know how to use Flash... but since I liked the looks for SSP and what I did manage to get up in ONE BIG GALLERY, went ahead and bought that version of SSP to try it as well...   Neeless to say... wasted those $$$

OMG... what a pain just trying to get multiple galleries online... wishing I would have known that SSP was made for Flash users mostly....

After banging my head against the desk repeatedly and saying a few choice words about how SSP is not user friendly at all... Post 4 worked like a charm!!!

There seriously needs to be some information in the documentation for us rookies whom don't use flash... and if it wasn't for searching hours on end here I'd have deleted this program in it's entirety.

Thanks MKruter... 

On the documentation for SlideShowPro for Lightroom, it is explained how to have more than one album on the merging more than one slideshow section.

We are working on some adjustments on the integration of Lightroom with director, and we will be providing updated and extended documentation for this.

Well done.

I have just purchased SlideshowPro programs and thought that it will be easy getting a slideshow running in my website since I am no programmer. I was wrong. The Help and Wiki are not as thorough and helpful as it should be especially for people like me. In fact the simplicity of the instructions served only as an attractive marketing strategy. Lesson learned, but I'm not giving up . Please help me too. I use Lightroom 2, Vista Home Premium, Firefox 3 and my host server uses the new PHP v5.2. The Mysql database has been setup properly, and the director test was a success. I still haven't been successful putting up my slideshow. Here goes:

1. I make all my image selections in Lightroom
2. I now go to the web module and pick SlideShowPro
3. I go to Director, create the Album and copy the XML file path.
4. I make sure to set the XML file path in the settings and the type to Director

When I copy the xml file path from Director and paste it in LR and change the type to Director, nothing happens like the selected images magically disappearing in LR and appearing in Director, like MKruter (Post #4) described. Its just pasted there. There is no magic happening.

5. So nothing happens. I export a slideshow from Lightroom to my desktop
    Lightroom creates these files:



Questions:
Which files do I need? Post #2 (geoffb) says: except the images.xml file and the images folder, what about the the 'popup' and 'thumb' folders? and the other files?

So where do I put the files I need? Do the files I need have to remain in my local desktop or do I upload it to a remote folder in my host server via an FTP program? - because the Director uploads images only, not folders, SWF, HTML, nor XML. Surely all these files have to be somewhere in the server, right? Please correct me if I'm wrong, I'd appreciate it.

When I go back to director, I don't see the images that LR exported to my desktop. This is because there was no upload that took place in the first place. This brings me right back to the questions above - which files do I need and where do I put them?

6. When I go to ALBUMS tab in Director and pick the album I just created, in the drop down list and click view (upper right button), I get an Oops! message:



This even when I have already set the type to 'Director'. But I can't blame Director for this because the XML file path just sits PASTED there in LR doing nothing. Plus the fact that I used LR not Flash! I really don't know what I'm missing. Please bear with my ignorance. I see that many members here help other members successfully. I'd very much appreciate any help.

Thanks,
ian

Last edited by ianfrancisco (2008-08-28 06:36:20)

That was really nice of you, I hope the staff takes note.