Program: SWiSH Jukebox / SWiSH Studio
Build Date: 2006.05.04+ / 2005.09.23+
Introduction
This project uses SWiSH Jukebox and SWiSH Studio to burn your
favorite tracks and one of our player interfaces to a CD, or create a
standalone exe you can store on your computer. If you use the trial installation,
you should note that your tracks will be truncated in the final output
(this is a standard limitation of the trial installation of SWiSH Jukebox).
As you will have discovered by now (if you have browsed the Help files,
or the product page on our web site), SWiSH Jukebox is a simple tool to
convert MP3 audio files into SWF or FLV files and stream them from your
own server space using the published player SWF file, which acts as a
jukebox player for your audio files (now converted to SWF or FLV).
You can successfully use the 'loadMovie' function to load your jukebox
into a sprite or new level in SWF, so in SWiSHmax they can be incorporated
into your SWF website...but, by using SWiSHstudio, you can also convert
your jukebox players and audio files to standalone exe files, which can
be used on your computer, or burnt to a CD, to allow easy transport of
your favorite music selections to other computer locations (laptop and
work for example).
I will cover the production of your Jukebox Player only briefly, the process
is well explained in the Help files and it is basically a 1-2-3 process...select
your MP3 files for conversion, select your player and controls, select
your output folder and publish settings.
As this software exports a number of files which need to stay together,
I recommend that you create a new, sensibly named folder for each Jukebox
project, it will avoid any confusions when you need to add files to SWiSH
Studio in the second part of this tutorial, and is just plain good planning
that will save time and grief in the future.
MAKING YOUR JUKEBOX
Step One - Adding your MP3 files
Open SWiSH Jukebox, select 'File | New Project' (Ctrl+N), and
then press the 'add files' button 
to add your music tracks.
...or select 'File | Add file'.
It will open a browse window so you can browse to your file locations.
(you can multiple select in the normal fashion by pressing and holding
your 'shift' or 'Ctrl' keys while selecting your files').
Once selected, check the 'status' of your files in
the list.
If a file is 'unsupported', you might need to remove it, or convert it
to a more SWF friendly form in an audio editor before it will play (convert
it from 32000Hz to 44100Hz for eg).
(note that I added the star highlight in the image below)
Editing title and artist information
If you are choosing a player that will display Artist
and title information, R-clicking on the files you added to the list will
allow you to edit the 'title' and 'artist' information presented in the
players (that have those display functions), and you can also specify
the use of existing ID3 tag values.
Note that you might need to edit the length of track and artist info depending
on which player you choose, and how much space is available for display...some
have more or less room for the artist and title information than others.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Using SWF or FLV to publish
your MP3's...
There is an inherent limitation with the SWF format. A SWF file can have
only 16000 frames. If any of your audio tracks (after being converted
to .SWF format) have more than 16000 frames, the remainder of the track
will be truncated (cut-off). SWiSH Jukebox shows you the maximum length
of the track possible based on the refresh frequency you select.
So why use FLV? ...There are no limitations
on file size or frame rate for FLV files, and, from Flash Player version
7, you can directly load an external FLV file. See the Help topics 'SWF
Limitations' and 'What is FLV' in your Help files for more information.
Step Two - Select your player
Select your player from the dropdown list (images of
selected players allow you to easily choose, they are listed only by number)
and choose your settings.
For this project, I suggest Player003 Copper with 'Play on start' and
'Play next track' checked.
With other projects, make sure you choose a player that has the functions
you want. The range of players goes from the most simple start/stop/pause/next
& previous controls, to players that will display the title, artist,
duration and elapsed time as well as spectrum bars and volume controls.
Some have image or object backgrounds which will appear if loaded into
a sprite or new level. Others might have transparent backgrounds which
will show only the actual controls when loaded into sprites or levels.
You may need to edit title and artist information if they are long names,
some of the players have limited room to display long names (see 'Editing
title and artist information...' above at step 1).
Step Three - Select your Output location
& Publish Settings
I would recommend a new folder for a new project, and you can create a
new folder from the 'browse' dialogue.
Publish Settings
It is here where you choose to show spectrum data if you have chosen a
player that has this function, and specify whether to create SWF or FLV
and adjust your refresh rates if needed (see the Help topics 'SWF Limitations'
and 'What is FLV' in your Help files).
For this project...
1) Check the 'Generate spectrum data' option.
2) Check the 'Generate HTML page' option.
(Note: an HTML file is NOT needed for this project, but,
if you do not have a standalone Flash Player installed, you will need
it to review your Jukebox after publication.)
3) Select 'SWF' as the default publish format.
(Note: Make sure the 'duration' displayed is longer than any of your selected
MP3 tracks. If it is not, adjust the Refresh frequency down until it is.)
4) Select 'Force conversion on all files'.
Once you press the 'Publish' button, Jukebox takes over. It converts all
your MP3 files and creates a player SWF file (the interface), and a playlist
.xml file which contains the data to locate and stream the audio.
All of those files need to be in the same location for your jukebox to
work. The files that should be included in that folder after creation
are -
a) Playerxxx.SWF (where xxx is the number of the player chosen)
b) xx number of SWF files (where xx is the number of MP3 files you selected
to be included with your jukebox).
c) playlist.xml (this is the xml file created from the list of MP3's you
imported)
d) index.html (not needed if you are converting your SWF to an exe file,
but helps with preview if you have no standalone player installed)
NOTE: When converted to SWF, your MP3's will be similar sizes, and, if
converting to FLV, perhaps a little bigger than the original MP3. You
should be aware of this if your final product is to be a CD, and limit
the number of tracks so you do not exceed the capacity of the media. Somewhere
around 2-6Mb per track is normal.
Check that your jukebox works by going to your project folder and double-clicking
the player.swf or index.html to see it in action. If it works, congratulations
:) ...you have finished the first stage of this tutorial.
AND NOW TO SWiSH STUDIO TO CREATE THAT
EXE FILE AND BURN IT TO A CD...
I am presuming here that you did as I suggested
and created a project folder to contain all the files that are created
when you publish your player.
Launch SWiSH Studio...
Step One- Adding your files...
The first step is to add the actual player SWF
file that was created when you published your jukebox.
Use the '+ File' icon 
on the right of the Select panel, or 'File | Select Playlist File(s)'.
Browse to, and select ONLY your
Player SWF (you will add the other required files to the dependencies
palette in the next step.)
Next, open the 'dependencies' palette by hitting
F9 on your keyboard, or selecting 'Tools | Dependencies Palette'.
Use 'Add Files' to add all of your music SWF
files and also, importantly, the playlist.xml file.
Step Two - Specifying your projector
Settings...
Select Tab 2. This is where you specify
the settings for your exe projector file (in case you didn't know, a projector
file packages a Flash Player with your production and uses it instead
of the plug-in or ActiveX control in a web browser). Select each item
in turn in the menu on the left.
The first menu option is Window Style...
Window Style is where you set the
appearance of your player.
Here you can add a caption to the title bar, and also
select to display an icon (search your system for *.ico to find all icons
on your system...you can also find many free icon sets around the WWW).
You can specify a shape for the window and whether to show a border (this
affects whether you see a title bar as well)
NOTE: The project we are engaged in will look better without a title bar,
and we can control whether it appears when we choose whether to show a
border.
Project Settings
Title Bar: Give your player a Caption even though for this project we
will not have a Title Bar (the name will appear in your task bar along
with an icon..if you choose to use one).
Shape: Rectangle.
Background: No Color.
Border: None.
General: Show in task bar
The next menu option is Size and Position...
Size and Position is where control
you control the window size and position of your publication.
Project Settings:
Window Size: Same
as first playlist item.
Window State: Normal/Maintain aspect ratio.
Window Position: Primary desktop only.
Alignment: Choose where on the desktop you want the player to appear.
You can choose a precise pixel location on the screen, or choose from
the dropdown selector.
The next option is Mouse and Keyboard...
Mouse and Keyboard is where you specify
how a user interacts with your player exe by specifying mouse and keyboard
events.
Project Settings:
Left Mouse Button: Send to Flash (this will allow the user to use the
volume control).
Right Mouse Button: Drag window.
Key Press: Ignore.
Exit Key: ESC.
The next option is Playback Control...
Playback Control is where you specify
how your publication will play. we do not need to be concerned with Screen
Saver Behavior or Expiry for this project.
Project Settings:
Playback: Auto play (leave this unchecked if you do not want the player
to start as soon as it is launched)
The next option is Menus and About...
Since we have not specified a Right Mouse click context
menu, we can safely ignore this Menus and About option
for this project.
(NOTE: In other projects, where you do choose to have a context menu on
R-click, this is where you would specify what is displayed.)
The next option is Product Description...
Product Description is where you would
enter information that would appear under 'Properties' when you R-click
in Explorer. Enter any information you want to here. There are no specific
project requirements.
The final menu option on the Settings tab is Watermark.
Again, for this project, we do not need to apply any settings here. If
you had a project that you wished to watermark, then this is where you
would specify an image or text that would overlay your project.
Step Three - Publishing your Project...
This is the last step in this project. Here is you
choose whether to just create a Projector exe, or take it that step further
and burn it to a CD.
Producing an exe for local use...
The image below shows the publishing options for creating
a Projector exe file. Simply browse to the location where you wish to
save the Projector and name it.
Press Publish to produce the exe file.
Burning your project to a CD...
The
image below shows the publishing options for burning your project to a
CD. Select your CD drive from the dropdown selector, and name the project.
Project Settings:
Quality: High
Check: Make this an autorun CD
Check: Write as a Projector (EXE)
Once you have added the settings above, all that is
left is to insert a blank CD into your CD burner, and press that Burn
CD button. |
