SlideShowPro Account Center: User Forums / Flash alternative?

Etnier · 2010-01-29 11:55:33

Any chance of the SSP variants moving away from Flash? One thing which became abundantly clear from the iPad intro is that mobile devices are using other, less intensive technologies to achieve the same end. It would be nice to have my SSP slideshows viewable on those mobile devices which are not Flash-capable

tmcfadden · 2010-01-30 01:53:56

We don't have any intention of moving away from Flash. As an iPhone user myself, I know the feeling.

dreamdancer · 2010-01-30 22:17:28

^ Well that is too bad then.

SSP has been an answer to all of my prayers until today. After spending hours researching the Flash issue on the internet that past few days I can only conclude that it will be going away, sooner now that Apple has made such a strong stance against it being on it's device that is "the internet in your hand" I spent many hours this winter putting together portfolio sites for artists using WordPress. None of the themes use Flash. At first I kept thinking that it would be so much easier to do this project (in collaboration with a University teacher) if the students could use SlideShowPro. Now I am glad it was all done with javascript and no Flash. I can't even think of re-doing the twelve sites we put together and the proposal for the next portfolio design class being offered.

And now I have to reconsider what I am going to use for the several SSP slideshows on my clients' sites. I can't have huge holes in my webpages on Flash disabled sites (and there are more folks out there than I ever imagined who have posted that they use Flash blockers on their computers) just not an option.

Fatorisha · 2010-02-05 10:42:41

Exactly my question, exactly my conclusion. I love SlideShowPro and SlidePress but I can't have people coming to my site and not being able to access the content.

Last edited by Fatorisha (2010-02-06 12:20:49)

dgiuliana · 2010-03-17 01:24:55

I have been asking this same question myself these past few days - by looking on the web for a non-flash version of a slideshow generator. I am design director at a major northeast news website and we already began to retreat from flash more than a year ago. For simple slideshows we use JQUERY javascript libraries and it works on all kinds of devices, its search engine friendly, fully accessible and operates and loads very quickly. I am not saying flash is dead, but I think slideshow pro folks should really consider the alternatives to flash. No I dont think everyone will have an ipad, but I think mobile or embedded (in a car, fridge, TV) computing is going to replace 50% of the PC market and more and more manufacturers will have similar concerns over stability that Apple has.

Etnier · 2010-03-17 01:36:40

Well, at least there are some HTML alternatives in Lightroom itself. Maybe one or two more in the released V3?

digitalfusion · 2010-03-20 19:33:01

tmcfadden wrote:
We don't have any intention of moving away from Flash. As an iPhone user myself, I know the feeling.

I don't think anyone is asking SSP to move away from Flash, but it seems, more and more, like a dual Flash + Non-Flash path is the way to go.

Does SSP really want to shut out customers that want a flash alternative?

Obviously SSP has built their business on flash up until now, but the Web is going to evolve, as it always has, and though Flash may never die, it's dominance in interactive content may very well diminish, especially for "simpler" things like slide shows.

I think it'd be in SSP's best interest to stay ahead of the curve, and offer an alternative, rather than keeping all their eggs in the Flash basket.

It seems that if SSP offered a simple and intuitive way for people to implement both flash and non-flash display mechanisms, deployed based upon the user's need on-the-fly, they can continue to be the premier slide show provider out there.

-mpm

dreamdancer · 2010-03-31 19:25:35

There already is a system created by Webassist that creates javascript slideshows much like Director but are web standards compliant. It isn't as nice as SSP and it is more expensive, but obviously it is doable. I just wish instead of being told we can use the php ap that someone would talk about creating something that can make javascript slideshows and have it for sale. I don't have the time or the knowledge to program php, javascript and CSS is enough for me.

Only one of my clients was okay about staying with Flash for their gallery/slideshow, for everyone else I am using a MooTools slideshow and doing it by hand coding. That is fine for me, but if I have a client that wants to manage the slideshows themselves and only wants javascript slideshows I can't recommend them investing money in SSP. Too bad. At this point I am not using my license for Director either.

ddolde · 2010-04-05 16:05:15

This attitude may kill SSP eventually. The lack of support for iPhone and iPad totally sucks.

tmcfadden · 2010-04-06 21:36:11

I think Todd addresses this issue nicely:
http://slideshowpro.net/news/archive/20 … uture.php/

On a personal note, I think Apple's complete lack of Flash support is inexcusable. It's all about business, but come on.

-Tim

dreamdancer · 2010-04-07 06:04:54

^ It is more than business, I can get Flash to play on my iPod touch by using a work around, it is painfully slow! Javascript slideshows play fast, video not embedded in Flash will play fast, no glitches, hangs, crashes. Flash is the problem, I have to make crash reports almost every other day because I watch a lot of programs on Hulu on my MacBook Pro. Thank goodness Hulu is making an app for the iPad that will not be using Flash. (I am only waiting to buy one because I want the G3 model)

Since it seems that the response to requests to have an Ajax, javascript slideshow as an alternative to Flash is not going to be addressed that I need to move to something else. I have SSP/Director licenses for sale. My clients don't care that the Flash player will still be gimping along, they want something that all devices can use. And after seeing what can be done with javascript, I think for the most part Flash is not the best way to show slides of images. I really have liked Director and would like to see the API used to create a non-FLash alternative, but I can't do that myself so telling me to look at the API over and over again is meaningless.

All I need to see, in order to hang in with this system is that someone is at least interested in addressing the need for another form of slideshow for those who want it, and would pay for it. Certainly there are other systems out there, but I have already invested a lot of money with this one, but if I have to eat it, I have to, but no more and no more selling my clients on this system if the only answer is we will only have Flash. period.

johnbeardy · 2010-04-07 09:23:01

But rather than this doom and gloom evry time, why don't you read what Todd actually said? "[We] intend to grow our business and expand our product lineup to provide alternate publishing solutions that aren’t reliant on Adobe, Flash, or any third party / proprietary technology for that matter. We’ve actually been quietly working towards that goal for a while now, and should soon have more tangible information to share with you."

Second, you keep saying you can't use the API, and let's assume that you have given it your best shot, and really do need something like a component which you can drop in to your design. API-based solutions already "on the market" include a couple of iPhone galleries - iShowPro and another whose name I can't recall. Then there are more complete HTML-based solutions based on integrating WordPress with Director - there's SlideShowPro Director Connector which is a WP plug-in, and there's my own WordPress template which you seemed to like. In each case, the solution is shrink wrapped and the designer has to know almost nothing about the API.

John

Last edited by johnbeardy (2010-04-07 09:58:32)

bill@edgedesign.net · 2010-04-07 17:04:17

Very happy to see Todd's post and hear that there may soon be a non-Flash solution for viewing slideshows. There are a few 'work-in-progress' solutions now, but I'd prefer to use something from the developer here.

I agree, the current Flash solution offers the best experience and I will continue to implement it. However, a re-direct to a non-Flash solution for iPad, iPhone and others would be optimal.

Please HURRY!!

------------------

Todd's post:
http://slideshowpro.net/news/archive/20 … uture.php/

Third party 'work-in-progress' solutions:
http://apps.visual23.com/ishowpro/
http://www.jaipho.com/content/using-jaipho-iui

Last edited by bill@edgedesign.net (2010-04-07 17:04:34)

dreamdancer · 2010-04-07 22:42:47

johnbeardy wrote:
But rather than this doom and gloom evry time, why don't you read what Todd actually said? "[We] intend to grow our business and expand our product lineup to provide alternate publishing solutions that aren’t reliant on Adobe, Flash, or any third party / proprietary technology for that matter. We’ve actually been quietly working towards that goal for a while now, and should soon have more tangible information to share with you."

Second, you keep saying you can't use the API, and let's assume that you have given it your best shot, and really do need something like a component which you can drop in to your design. API-based solutions already "on the market" include a couple of iPhone galleries - iShowPro and another whose name I can't recall. Then there are more complete HTML-based solutions based on integrating WordPress with Director - there's SlideShowPro Director Connector which is a WP plug-in, and there's my own WordPress template which you seemed to like. In each case, the solution is shrink wrapped and the designer has to know almost nothing about the API.

John

I feel gloomy because I have invested money in technologies before that are left in the dust, several were plugins for GoLive. The developers for one of those projects is STLL trying to get it to work in Dreamweaver, but it has taken over three years and it is STILL not available. Meanwhile most of the users of the product have moved on.

I haven't given the API my best shot because: one, I am not a php programmer and, two, I have no time to mess with it. I see bits and pieces of solutions floated throughout the forums, but not in a way that I personally can easily use. Nor have I yet seen a slideshow in a non flash format. I have liked what I have seen, but my clients want real slideshows, not thumbnails that open in light box. So instead of waiting, I have been changing all of my slideshows to javascript (which is something I know how to do) That has taken me a good deal of time to do, because they don't want to wait, they want a solution now.

And, I am sure you are thinking fine, you don't want Flash, then go find something else. And I have and my clients like the javascript slideshows. But if they want to manage their images instead of having me handcode into a web page then there is an issue. I could of course just go and buy Webassist's slideshow program, it works like Director and the slideshows it creates are completely javascript. But I would rather stick with Director because of the time and money I (and several clients) have invested in it. My wish is to use Director to provide content to a javascript slide show, preferably one with MooTools which seems to have nice transitions.

What would be good and would help to keep me and perhaps others invested in SSP is there to be one spot to find the alternatives that are being put together, some instruction would be good for non-programmers. Also some sort of a time-line. For now I have put in a stop gap for the most demanding clients, but I am not willing to wait three years for something to begin to materialize, nor do I care to hear that Apple is at fault blah, blah, blah. The issue with Flash has been around a long time, just Google it and you will see people have hated Flash for years and a good many use Flash blockers in their browsers. What Apple has done has only brought the issue to a head. For the record, I never knew that Flash was so hated, I personally find it easy to make slideshows with it, but there are now many more people who either can't use it, don't want to use it or haven't upgraded their Flash player and can't see the slideshows because of that. It has become cumbersome and troublesome, much more than it is worth.

johnbeardy · 2010-04-07 23:27:58

You know, if you can handle JS, you're half way to knowing PHP. If nothing else it uses + to concatenate text and ; at the end of lines. Even if statements use similar syntax. So I'd encourage you to give it your best shot.

Equally, I'm no Flash enthusiast and only decided to make a real effort to learn AS3 at exactly the same time when Apple decided it wasn't in their commercial interests. I block Flash ads, but because I'm a BBC-loving flashing ad-hater rather than because they are Flash and supposedly don't run well on the Mac I'm using to write this post. The Flash-hating blocking crowd are an irrelevant niche - they're probably using Linux rather than the prosperous types on their iWhatevers.

I appreciate how things have come to a head, but I think you overestimate the difficulty of a mixed HTML/Flash solution. After all, you did say you liked my site. Let's see if I can come up with a slideshow you like too....

John

dreamdancer · 2010-04-09 02:19:56

^ John, I am totally interested in what you can come up with. There is only so much I have time to do. I can do some php, I have to modify shopping cart php files for clients. So really it is only a matter of having time to learn and to work on something like this.

Actually I do understand the difficulty of mixing Flash and html, so that is why too I have been just thinking if I have to have client managed javascript slideshows then I would have to change to a system that already supports that. (as I said, there is one now)

However, since at this moment the clients who need to manage their own slideshows are okay with them being Flash for the moment and since I am the one that doesn't like my sites having non functioning bits, I am okay with having an alternative to a real slideshow for those sites. All the others I am porting to javascript slideshows (SlideShow 2 to be precise) because I am managing the images anyway.

At this point I certainly can be more patent for slideshows using Director to drive them and it seems there is interest in this community to make it work, and that is all I was really looking to find.

Thank you for your replies and willingness to talk it out.

tommyz · 2010-04-10 06:03:14

Guys - to add to this "developer" dialog - sorry - but php and js and css and whatever other 2 or three letter acronym you guys choose you use means nothing to me. Had I wanted to be a developer - I would have learned coding - instead I'm a photographer - so I take pictures. Learning SSP was easy - took about 2 weeks of time - and I was able to customize my shows. What I most like is I can use my non-apple pc's to upload my pics and control my site. I really don't give a hoot about which technology is used on the front end. All I want is to keep my Director platfrom so I can manage my photo's and have them automatically show up on my webiste in a nice smooth way - the way SSP works for me.

What I do care about is that people can't see my site on the iphone. There are millions out there - I have one - if I'm at a client and want to show them samples - I can't without loading them into my photo viewer - which works for now - but I suspect the Ipad will be as popular - and many of my clients seem to be apple enthusiasts... so why would I spend more money on something that 10% of the world - and lets face it soon 20% can't see? Especially when that 10% seems to be making up 30-45% of my potential clients???

I'm anxiously awaiting an alternative - and Todd - if you're reading - please make it work with director, please give me a tool with a nice drop down list of options so I can tailor my slideshow.

I went to the WP slideshowpro connector all excited - only to click on screenshots and see none. No examples of usage - no examples of how to use... so - forget it - I was away from the page in under 1 minute.

I figure I can wait about 6 more months - then I'll have to seriously look at alternatives - or have my site rebuilt and lose Director - none of which seem to be attractive options to me.

johnbeardy · 2010-04-10 08:34:54

tommyz wrote:
I went to the WP slideshowpro connector all excited - only to click on screenshots and see none. No examples of usage - no examples of how to use... so - forget it - I was away from the page in under 1 minute.

I've been looking at SlideShowPro Connector a lot over the last day or so, and I think that is fair criticism.

That said, you'll find there are some screenshot JPEGs in the plug-in zip file, and there are some details of the shortcodes you'd need for inserting image grids or displaying single pictures. At least, such information is there if you know what you're looking for.

There's obviously a need for the screenshots to be obvious, and for step by step instructions. For instance, the WP template itself needs links to Lightbox, since they aren't added by the plug-in. That took me a minute or two to figure out, but should be made equally obvious to you.

Page formatting is also a little awkward and I suspect Ruggero would acknowledge that this aspect is unfinished. I might understand how to modify the CSS stylesheet so the thumbnails have nice big borders, and I might also know where to look so the thumbnails don't crop - but I'd much prefer to make such changes in a more shrink-wrapped way which would also be suitable for you.

So I see some rough edges, but I also see something that's got a lot of potential and is very close to being a great solution. I've contacted Ruggero to see how we can take it forward.

John

morganica · 2010-04-20 18:43:17

I'm very happy to hear that Mr. Dominey plans to release iPhone-compatible solutions...but a little more information about what and when and how would be very helpful. Whether Flash is going away or not, or Apple's being stubborn or not, not having an alternative is beginning to pinch my business. I can't tell a prospective client to go find a Flash-compatible machine so he can see my website--it's my job to accommodate his needs, not the other way 'round.

(And I'd agree with John and tommyz about SlideShowPro Connector. I tried it about six months ago, had no end of trouble with it, even in a barebones WordPress template. It's simply not an option without significant rework. I'm using Kimili Flash Embed instead, but it's a duct-tape solution.)

ccakebre · 2010-05-03 15:59:45

It would be great to have some working code (until the new option is available) that could:
1) tell if the page is being viewed on a mobile device and if yes,
2) take advantage of the of the existing thumbnails that are available and show the images without the need for Flash
Has anyone already created this code? Are you willing to share?
Thanks - Cathy

krhuey · 2010-05-07 00:39:55

Cathy, you might check out iShowPro. It's been in beta for some time now, but it seems to do what you want. I haven't yet completely figured out how to implement it, and I'm DESPERATELY HOPING that Todd Dominey & Co. will come up with an official SSP solution to the iPad problem, but in the meantime, iShowPro might be your best bet.

v23apps · 2010-05-08 04:18:39

Hi all,

I just wanted to let everyone know that iShowPro has been updated to support iPad and the latest build of Director.

We're working hard on the awesome full version. We'll let you know when it's ready for purchase.

Header over and get a copy of the latest version.
http://apps.visual23.com/ishowpro/

Thanks,
Robb

Etnier · 2010-05-08 05:55:24

This being the SlideShowPro for Lightroom Feature Requests forum, I just want to clarify: IShowPro doesn't work with our plug-in, right?

johnbeardy · 2010-05-08 08:27:26

No it doesn't - Robb only posted in this forum section for the sake of completeness

igonzale · 2010-07-06 06:45:01

SHAME ON YOU DOMINEY! as well as APPLE! Both for not given their customers what they need!

I was very disappointed when I saw the video of the iPad/iPhone edition of slideshowpro.

Everything in life is about priorities. I believe you should look at the "sites of the month" that you publish and ask yourself how we use your product. We use them for SLIDE SHOWS!.

From this deduction then the first priority should have been a javascript player that could mimic the functionality of the flash player. Do not take me wrong, I think the mobile "viewer" is great, it is just that from what I read in this forums, everyone was waiting for at least a 1:.5 replacement to be able to port our current websites to the iPad (the iPhone/iPod is another beast, I use slideshowpro in everyone of them >30). I do not care about apple/adobe war. I just have a bunch of impatient customer that want to have their sites working on the iPad and I my job is to make them happy otherwise they will get someone else. Now I have to start using another product. I think it was dumb of me to focus completely on slideshowpro.

I have spent a month testing just about every slideshow solution out there and I believe I found the product I was looking for, it is called SLIDESHOWBOX available at www.slideshowbox.com by the people of jumpeyecomponents. They do have a flash/javascript solution that uses xml files. I am going to have to write the PHP code to obtain the images from director.

I just hope this save some people all the time that I spent looking for an alternate player.

I will be publishing soon the PHP code, I hope everyone else that goes for this solution does the same.

gtrotter · 2010-12-01 12:13:02

Has anyone got anywhere with this? igonzale how did you get on with www.slideshowbox.com? What about http://galleria.aino.se ? I am looking for a non-flash/javascript player that can use the ssp director.

dakster75 · 2011-03-22 17:34:33

It a pain but its a really simple solution - use slidshow pro as default gallery viewer and program in a no-flash javascript slideshow fallback for iOS/no flash. If you can parse the xml doc and share this between the two its a perfect solution for managing dynamic content. I did it on this page: http://www.bijouweddingvenues.co.uk/botleys-mansion/

#1 2010-01-29 11:55:33

Flash alternative?

#2 2010-01-30 01:53:56

Re: Flash alternative?

#3 2010-01-30 22:17:28

Re: Flash alternative?

#4 2010-02-05 10:42:41

Re: Flash alternative?

#5 2010-03-17 01:24:55

Re: Flash alternative?

#6 2010-03-17 01:36:40

Re: Flash alternative?

#7 2010-03-20 19:33:01

Re: Flash alternative?

tmcfadden wrote:

#8 2010-03-31 19:25:35

Re: Flash alternative?

#9 2010-04-05 16:05:15

Re: Flash alternative?

#10 2010-04-06 21:36:11

Re: Flash alternative?

#11 2010-04-07 06:04:54

Re: Flash alternative?

#12 2010-04-07 09:23:01

Re: Flash alternative?

#13 2010-04-07 17:04:17

Re: Flash alternative?

#14 2010-04-07 22:42:47

Re: Flash alternative?

johnbeardy wrote:

#15 2010-04-07 23:27:58

Re: Flash alternative?

#16 2010-04-09 02:19:56

Re: Flash alternative?

#17 2010-04-10 06:03:14

Re: Flash alternative?

#18 2010-04-10 08:34:54

Re: Flash alternative?

tommyz wrote:

#19 2010-04-20 18:43:17

Re: Flash alternative?

#20 2010-05-03 15:59:45

Re: Flash alternative?

#21 2010-05-07 00:39:55

Re: Flash alternative?

#22 2010-05-08 04:18:39

Re: Flash alternative?

#23 2010-05-08 05:55:24

Re: Flash alternative?

#24 2010-05-08 08:27:26

Re: Flash alternative?

#25 2010-07-06 06:45:01

Re: Flash alternative?

#26 2010-12-01 12:13:02

Re: Flash alternative?

#27 2011-03-22 17:34:33

Re: Flash alternative?

Board footer