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   1  
   2  The players are located in the root flowplayer directory in the distribution package. 
   3  * The player flash components are: FlowPlayer.swf, FlowPlayerWhite.swf, FlowPlayerBlack.swf and FlowPlayerLP.swf
   4  * Sample HTML files + JavaScript for embedding the players are in the html directory. 
   5  * Extra example files for special cases in the extras folder
   6    (example suggestion.js, example external configuration file).
   7  
   8  Installation
   9  ============
  10  
  11  To install the player copy html/flashembed.min.js and one of the player SWF files into
  12  your Web server. Only the SWF and flashembed.min.js is required! For further info please
  13  see the installation instruction in our Web site http://flowplayer.org
  14  
  15  See html/FlowPlayer.html for a simple example!
  16  
  17  FlowPlayer Version history (latest release on top)
  18  =================================================
  19  
  20  2.1.2
  21      - New example.html included, old example files were dropped from the distribution package
  22      - New version of flashembed.min.js, it has some bugs fixed 
  23      Fixes:
  24      - Sometimes the buffering animation was left running in the beginning of videos.
  25      - Scaling problems fixed. You can use showOnLoadBegin: false in the clips to prevent them from showing before
  26      they have been scaled properly.
  27  
  28  2.1.1
  29      Fixes:
  30      - Buffering animation was left visible when pausing and resuming using the control-bar's
  31      pause/resume button
  32  
  33  2.1
  34      - Hardware Scaled video in full-screen mode
  35      - New buffering rotation animation
  36      - New option controlBarGloss
  37      Fixes:
  38      - The control bar hiding is now based on mouse move delay, works much better that way
  39      - Calls onFlowPlayerReady() also when you use the configInject option.
  40      - Does not show NaN's in the time display when playing MP3 clips with autoPlay: false
  41      - The stop button behaves correctly for MP3 clips
  42      - Replay button in the suggestions view fixed
  43      - Does not produce sound in the beginning of clip when autoPlay: false and autoBuffering: true
  44      - Now shows the first frame of video when autoPlay: false and autoBuffering: true
  45      - Fixed: was not possible to set the clip's duration just using the 'end' parameter
  46      - Does not show the buffering rotation animation at the end of playList
  47  
  48  2.0.1
  49      - Arranges the buttons to the left if the scrubber is not shown (when using showScrubber: false)
  50      - Does not show the video link in the Embed popup unless videoLink is specified in config
  51      Fixes:
  52      - Email sending works now by default, it sends the data to flowplayer.org's email sender
  53      - Menu bar is now always correctly opened above the control bar
  54      
  55  
  56  2.0
  57      - Now uses the "native full screen" by default, no need to specify useNativeFullScreen: true to enable it
  58      - Shows the big play button overlay image by default, new config option 'usePlayOverlay' that can be
  59        used to disable it.
  60      - New button to mute and unmute the sound volume
  61      - Possibility to show/hide every button and widget in the control bar
  62      - New overlay play button graphic
  63      - New rotating buffer animation
  64      - Added a new callback onFlowPlayerReady() to the JavaScript API.
  65      - New default skin 'air'
  66         * New controlsOverVideo config setting
  67         * new config setting controlBarBackgroundColor (controlAreaBorderColor setting was removed)
  68      - Removed the loop button (unnecessary)
  69      - The initial volume level is now 50%
  70      - The popup menu automatically hides after 10 seconds if not closed by the user.
  71      - Added new "onPlaybackTime" callback to the JavaScript API. Reports the current time
  72        in the video timeline.
  73      - setting autoPlay: true now starts playing when the 'play' button overlay is used as the first clip
  74        in the playList. Setting autoPlay: false will make the player pause on and show the splash.
  75      - Embed view shows a direct link to the current video file
  76        * added videoLink config option that can be used to override the default
  77          that is taken from the playList or the videoFile option
  78      - Email-a-link functionality:
  79        * added emailPostUrl config option
  80        * added emailVideoLink config option
  81        * added emailDefaultMessage config option (all occurrences of [video_link] tag in the message
  82          are replaced with the value of emailVideoLink)
  83      - AdServer functionality:
  84        * added following clip specific configuration options: id, keywords
  85        * added enableAds, publisherId, adServerUrl, adServerAuth, countryCode config options
  86      Fixes:
  87      - autoRewind now rewinds to start and stops if loop is false
  88      - The initialScale config option works correctly when the controls are hidden using hideControls: true
  89      - playList support with RTMP streaming servers was broken
  90  
  91  1.21.1
  92      Fixes:
  93      - FlowPlayer prevented page elements from loading properly when the page was refreshed in IE. Now fixed!
  94      - setConfig() JavaScript API function is initialized as early as possible to
  95        fix some timing issues on IE.
  96      - does not load the fullscreen.js from flowplayer.org when using the native full screen mode    
  97      - volume level was reset back to 100% when scrubbing
  98  
  99  
 100  1.21
 101      - MP3 playback (following are not supported yet: Protection codes (a.k.a. anti-leeching))
 102      - Google Analytics support
 103      - Extensions to the JavaScript API
 104          - Added the possibility to play a clip via JavaScript
 105          - Added possibility to set programmatic cue points using JavaScript
 106          - Added possibility to play a clip having a RTMP url
 107      - Player initializes without specifying any config. After that you can use the JavaScript API
 108        to configure it and play clips.
 109      - Embed code does not include child configs any more. Only the configuration set by
 110        flashVars or injected is included in the embed code configuration.
 111      - Possibility to supply the embed code in config
 112      - Possibility to load a page for suggestions instead of just playing them in the same
 113        player instance. Done with the linkURL and linkWindow clip specific fields.
 114      Fixes:
 115      - Seeking is more accurate so that it seeks exactly where the scrub bar is released
 116      - You can now seek to the beginning or the end of a video using the scrubber
 117      - Setting a new config using JavaScript via setConfig() now re-creates the UI so that it properly
 118        reflects the new config
 119      - baseURL was not used if it was specified in a parent config and the playlist was specified in it's child config.
 120      - does not load the fullscreen.js from flowplayer.org when using the native full screen mode
 121      - doubleclickin on the "play" overlay at the beginning of a playlist caused the player to pause. Now doubleclicks
 122        work the same as single clicks.
 123      - Fixes to suggestions:
 124          - Does not unnecessarily load the suggestion URL several times.
 125          - Suggestions loading did not work when using an external config file. Caused the player to initialize over and over.
 126  
 127  1.20
 128      - Suggestions a.k.a. related videos
 129      - Loading of configuration using RTMP from a streaming server
 130      - The native full screen ads were removed and replaced by a flowplayer.org logo
 131      - Added a new clip type 'video' that ensures correct playback for h.264 videos supported
 132        by the latest Flash player 3 update codenamed "Moviestar"
 133      Fixes:
 134      - RTMP recorded streams were not played to the end
 135      - Fixed the sample HTML files
 136  
 137  1.19
 138      - Skinning kit
 139      - Added all dependencies to the source distribution package
 140      Fixes:
 141      - videoHeight does not have any effect in full screen mode any more, now resizes to fit the full area
 142      - configured progress bar, buffering bar etc. colors were ignored
 143  
 144  1.18
 145      - Smoothing of FLV videos (antialiasing of scaled video)
 146      - Native Flash full screen mode added.
 147      - The Long Play version (FlowPlayerLP.swf) now resizes to full screen
 148      - Addes mouse over states to buttons.
 149      - Added 'overlay' to image clips. Can be used to overlay a play button image on top of another image clip.
 150      - Addes a built-in Big Play Button overlay.
 151      - Added new clip specific configuration variable 'liveStream' to specify that the clip is a live stream
 152        played from a media server.
 153      - Changed the background of the video area to be black. Now the player does not show the video (shows the black
 154        background instead) before the buffer is filled an the playback starts.
 155      - Added new clip specific setting 'showOnLoadBegin'. Turn this to false and the video will not be shown
 156        before the buffer has been filled and the playback starts.
 157      - All methods of the JavaScript API are now available in LocalConnection API as well. You can now
 158        control FlowPlayer from another Flash movie.
 159      - By default the loop button is no longer shown. You have to specify showLoopButton: true to make it visible.
 160      - New maximum play count for clips in the playlist. Controlled with a clip specific 'maxPlayCount' setting.
 161      Fixes:
 162      - Progress bar now better seeks to the end of videos.
 163      - The embed area is centered horizontally also in full screen mode.
 164      - The time display was corrupted with videos longer than 60 minutes. Now uses a smaller font so that
 165      the time values fit properly.
 166      - JS full screen works with external config file
 167      - Setting showFullScreenButton to False Shortens Progress Bar - now fixed
 168      - The Long Play version does not redraw the thumbs strip unnecessarily
 169  
 170  Older releases in in version number order:
 171  
 172  0.9     Initial public release. All basic features are in place.
 173  
 174  0.9.1   Added 'autoPlay' variable that can be used to specify whether the
 175          playback should begin immediately when the player has been loaded into
 176          the Web browser.
 177  
 178  0.9.2   Bug fixes.
 179  
 180  0.9.3   Added new 'bufferLength' variable that can be used in the HTML page to
 181          specify the length of the buffer in seconds when streaming FLV. Fixed a
 182          bug that prevented playback after an FLV was completely played.
 183  
 184  0.9.4   Added a 'baseURL' variable that can be used to specify the location of
 185          the video file to be loaded by Player.swf. See Player.html for an
 186          example.
 187  
 188          If the 'videoFile' variable's value contains a '.flv' or '.swf'
 189          extension, the standalone player (Player.swf) will NOT append this based
 190          on the detected flash version. If a prefix is not present, the player
 191          always appends either one of these prefixes.
 192  
 193  1.0
 194      - Displays a "BUFFERING..." text when filling the video buffer.
 195      - Fixed playback of the start and the end of the video where the player
 196        was errorneously cutting off some of the video.
 197      - Added a new start() function to the FlowPlayer class.
 198      - Fixed Sample.fla
 199  
 200  1.1
 201      - Added ability to loop; Contains a new toggle button to control looping.
 202        Default looping state is defined in 'loop' parameter. Thanks Jeff Wagner
 203        for contributing the initial looping support.
 204      - Now resizes according to the size defined in the HTML page
 205      - Fixed some flaws in the graphics
 206      - The color of the progress bar is now gray by default (more neutral). The
 207        color can be customized by parameters.
 208      - Removed support to play videos in SWF format.
 209  
 210  1.2
 211      - Added a 'autoBuffering' option and welcome image support.
 212      - Added a 'hideContols' option to hide all buttons and other widgets and
 213        leaving only the video display showing.
 214      - Added support for welcome images
 215      - Most of the UI is now built dynamically with ActionScript instead of using
 216        pre-drawn images. This results in 50% smaller download size.
 217  
 218  1.2.b2
 219      - Fixed binary build that contained an old buggy FlowPlayer.swf
 220  
 221  1.3
 222      - Fixed resizing problem that occurred with Internet Explorer: The video was
 223        not resized when the page was refreshed.
 224  
 225  1.4
 226      - Removed the blue the background color of the player. The light blue color
 227        became visible when using only the obect-tag to embed the player into a page.
 228        By using only the object tag it's possible to author valid XHTML. The sample
 229        FlowPlayer.html now shows this kind of markup.
 230  
 231  1.5
 232      - Support for playlists
 233      - Extenal configuration file that enables configuring all the existing
 234        settings. All settings defined in this configuration file can be
 235        overridden using flashvars in the HTML object tag.
 236      - Basic skinning support: Images for all buttons (play, pause, looping
 237        toggle, and dragger) can be loaded from external JPG files. Smaller
 238        versions of the default buttons are provided as an example.
 239        FlowPlayerLiht.swf is meant to be used with skinning: it does not contain
 240        any button images in itself and therefore is slightly smaller in download
 241        size.
 242      - 'hideBorder' option
 243      - visual improvement of control buttons
 244      - dragging can be now done by clicking anywhere in the progress bar area
 245      - clicking on the video area pauses and resumes playback
 246      - scaling the splash image is now optional. Alternatively it can be centered
 247        into the video area.
 248      - removed the border surrounding the video area
 249      - plus some more minor changes
 250      Bug fixes:
 251      - Seeking using the dragger button is more accurate. Now it is possible to
 252        seek to the very beginning of a clip.
 253      - Stops playing in the launching player when the full screen player is opened. This
 254        way the full screen player can begin buffering the video immediately. Previously
 255        the launching player was paused and continued buffering and it prevented the full
 256        screen player from buffering.
 257  
 258  1.6
 259      Bug fixes:
 260      - Does not buffer unnessessarily if looping through one clip again and again
 261      - Playback can be started normally again when the clip is done and looping
 262      is off. There was a bug that prevented this.
 263      - Clicking on the video area did not start playing if splash not used and
 264      when autoPlay=false
 265      - The seeker button aligned to the right from the mouse position when it was
 266      grabbed using the mouse button. Now it stays on the same position it was in
 267      when the mouse button was pressed down.
 268      - It was not possible to use characters 'y' and 'Y' in the names inside 
 269      the playList. Now following characters are available: 
 270      "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz?!/-:,. 1234567890"
 271  
 272  1.7
 273      Fixes:
 274      - baseURLs are not appended to file name values that are complete URLs
 275      - minor visual enhancements
 276      New features:
 277      - Support for long videos: Initial support for streaming servers (tested with red5) +
 278      thumbnails corresponding to cue points.
 279      - Video duration and time indicator
 280      - Resizing of the video area through a menu
 281  
 282  1.7.1
 283      - Now the original FLV video dimensions are detected from the FLV metadata. The different resizing options are based on those. Initially the size is maximized according to the 'videoHeight' setting and preserving the aspect ratio.
 284      Fixes:
 285      - progress bar now goes to the start position (left) even when autoPlay=false and autoBuffering=false [1574640]
 286      - resizing menu does not toggle pause/resume anymore [1581085]
 287      - fixed missing audio on some FLV files [1568612]
 288      - Flash Media Servers seems to send the FLV metadata again and again when seeking. This caused unnessessary rearranging of the thumbnails.
 289      - Thumnail list's scrollbar is now hidden if all thumbnails fit the available visible space.
 290  
 291  1.8
 292      - Initial JavaScript API (Requires FlashPlayer 8 or above):
 293          * Possibility to configure the player using JavaScript and a configuration object
 294          similar to the external config file (using JavaScript Object Notation, JSON)
 295          * Possibility to move the playback to different clips in the playlist using JavaScript
 296      - Changed the format how thumbnails are specified in the config object
 297      - The numbers from the playlist's clips were removed
 298      - Unnamed clips are hidden from the playlist
 299      - Possibility to have images in the playlist. Now the splash image is internally handled
 300      as being the first clip in the playlist.
 301      - Adjacent clips are played as one stream when using a streaming server
 302  
 303  1.9    - More complete JavaScript API
 304      - Hierarchical configuration
 305      - New config variable "initialScale" to control the initial scaling of the video
 306      - New resizing option "fill window" that will fill all available space (does not care about preserving the aspect ratios)
 307      - Changed the default buffer to 10 seconds
 308      - noVideoClip config setting that can be used to specify a video clip or an image to be played when
 309        the primary clip is not found
 310      Fixes:
 311      - Fixed buffering indicator, did not show the buffer lenght correctly when not using a streaming server
 312      - It was not possible to pass an empty string in baseURL when using setConfig() in the JavaScript API
 313      - loop config setting was broken
 314      - Clip is now better recognized as completely played
 315  
 316  1.10
 317      Changed to use the same configuration syntax with flashVars as with external configuration files. Now
 318      the same configuration style is used consistently everywhere.
 319      Fixes:
 320      - It was impossible to disable autoPlay and autoBuffering
 321  
 322  1.10.1
 323      - Fix for the message on IE: "Object doesn't support this property or method' Line 48, Char 3". This
 324        was caused by two method names in the new JavaScript API. As a result, these methods are now renamed
 325        in the JavaScript API.
 326      - Inlcuded javascript.txt (documentation for the JavaScript API) in the distribution packages.
 327  
 328  1.11
 329      - Finally added a volume control slider
 330      - Made all progress bar and volume slider colors customizable
 331      - Added a possibility to hide the playlist control buttons (next clip and previous clip buttons)
 332      - Fixed the sample html files to work in Internet Explorer. The pages now use SWFObject
 333        (http://blog.deconcept.com/swfobject/) to embed the player.
 334  
 335  1.11.1
 336      - Changed volume slider to change the volume while the slider is being moved. The previous version changed
 337        it only after the mouse button was released.
 338      Fixes:
 339      - Now resets the play/pause button correctly when the clip ends and looping is not used
 340      - Looping does not go to the splash after the last clip in the playlist is finished. Instead the playback loops
 341        to the first clip after the splash. This is valid also when only one video is configured to be played using
 342        the 'videoFile' config option.
 343  
 344  1.12
 345      - Protection scheme to prevent inline linking (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inline_linking) 
 346        of video and image files.
 347      - Images in playlist are resized according to the menu options. Images also respect the 'initialScale'
 348        config option.
 349      Fixes:
 350      - If loop is off the player stops on the last frame of the clip
 351  
 352  1.13
 353      - New config options to hide the loop button and the size options menu.
 354      - Possibility to disable transport control buttons using a clip specific option.
 355      - Possibility to have hyperlinks for clips. Will open the linked URL into the browser when the clip is clicked.
 356      - Possibility to disable pause/resume behavior associated to clicking the video area. This is done
 357        by specifying an empty hyperlink URL to a click.
 358      - New animation that plays on the progress bar area when the video is buffering
 359      - The setConfig() method in the JavaScript API can be used over and over again to replace the configuration
 360  
 361  1.14
 362      - Two new skins included (black & white)
 363      - Initial support for lighttpd
 364      - Ability to include Flash movies (swf files) in playlist
 365      - Added a type property to playlist clips so that the URLs don't need to have an extension (swf, flv or jpg)
 366        any more.
 367      Fixes:
 368      - playlist control buttons (next & prev) did not fade out when disabling them for a clip
 369  
 370  1.14.1
 371      - dragger (scrubber) now causes immediate seeking when it is moved
 372      Fixes:
 373      - JavaScript API's setConfig() did not work correctly
 374      - allows seeking to unbuffered areas when streaming with lighttpd
 375      - removed unnecessary error logging
 376      - volume slider goes all the way to the right edge
 377      - fixed regressions in LP version: Thumbnail scrollbar was not shown, 
 378      duration labels did not have the grey background
 379  
 380  1.15
 381      - Added several event callbacks to the JavaScript API. See javascript.txt for details.
 382      - Added a new "thermometer" skin, ends up in FlowPlayerThermo.swf (does not include the playlist
 383        control and loop buttons yet)
 384      - Andrew Rice: Faster seeking with lighttpd by using a binary search to find the keyframes.
 385                     A fix to the Seek() method in the JavaScript API now works correctly with lighttpd.
 386                     
 387  1.16
 388      - Added full screen support. Opens a new browser window that occupies all screen estate.
 389      - Added a new view that shows the HTML code for embedding the video in blogs etc.
 390      - Changed the looks of the menu. The menu is now shown when the user hovers over the area
 391        where it is displayed. 
 392      - Added more event callbacks to the JavaScript API. See javascript.txt for details.
 393      - Changed the splash image to use the 'baseURL' variable that is used with all other types of clips.
 394        'skinImagesBaseURL' is only used for external skin images
 395      - Removed the playlist view (the list that showed the playlist contents under the control buttons)
 396      Fixes:
 397      - Volume slider sometimes was errorneusly placed on top of the video area
 398      - a SWF in a playlist is not loaded on top of the control button area (new the control area
 399      border stays on top of it).
 400      - initialScale parameter did not work when the controls were hidden
 401      - pause/resume by clicking the video (or the linkUrl behavior) did not work in the upper left
 402        corner of the video area
 403      - The player now dynamically resizes itself if the size is changed in the embedding HTML. This
 404        is utilized by the fullscreen feature.
 405  
 406  1.16.1
 407      Fixes a bug in the new full screen feature, it was not able to dynamically add the required 
 408      JavaScript to the opening page's DOM on Internet Explorer.
 409  
 410  1.16.2
 411      Fixed the embedding feature so that the displayed code works in MySpace.
 412  
 413  1.17
 414      - Added a button to open the full screen page.
 415      - Removed the menu auto-popup.
 416      - Added a 'autoRewind' option that is used to rewind to the first clip in the playlist. The old
 417      'loop' option keeps the playback looping without returning back to the first splash image
 418      (if there is a splash).
 419      - Added ability to include png files in playlists. Especially useful for creating transparent splash images
 420      that have a big play button image.
 421      - Added a per clip parameter 'allowResize' that can be used to override the scaling setting.
 422      - Changed the font used in FlowPlayer to be non italics
 423      - Added possibility to fix the control buttons area width. Now the controls do not fill the whole
 424        width in the full screen mode.
 425      Fixes:
 426      - Embed provided hardcoded width and height values. Now it takes those from the parent player.
 427  
 428  1.17.1
 429      Fixes:
 430      - Fixed user interface problems introduced in 1.17 
 431      (see: http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id=1733937&forum_id=453550)
 432  
 433  
 434        
 435  How to use it
 436  =============
 437  
 438  Please see http://flowplayer.org/documentation
 439  
 440  Support, comments, bug reports and feedback:
 441  --------------------------------------------
 442  Please post support requests and feedback to the forums at http://flowplayer.org 
 443  You can also contact the author directly: api@iki.fi