Joomla! with Flash
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About this ebook
Suhreed Sarkar
Suhreed Sarkar is an IT consultant, trainer and technical writer. He studied Marine engineering, served on board the ship for two years, and then started journey in to IT world with MCSE in Windows NT 4.0 track. Later he studied business administration and earned MBA from University of Dhaka. He has a bunch of BrainBench certifications on various topics including PHP4, Project Management, RDBMS Concepts, E-commerce, Web Server Administration, Internet Security, Training Development, Training Delivery and Evaluation, and Technical Writing. He taught courses on system administration, web development, e-commerce and MIS. He has consulted several national and international organizations including United Nations, and helped clients building and adopting their web portals, large scale databases and management information systems. At present he is working on building a framework for education sector MIS, and promoting use of ICTs in education. Suhreed is renowned technical author in Bengali - having a dozen of books published on subjects covering web development, LAMP, networking, and system administration. He authored Zen Cart: E-commerce Application Development, Joomla! E-commerce with Virtuemart, and Joomla! with Flash, published by Packt Publishing. While not busy with hacking some apps, blogging on his blog (http://www.suhreedsarkar.com), reading philosophy of Bertrand Russell or management thought of Peter F Drucker - he likes to spend some special moments with his family. Suhreed lives in Dhaka, Bangladesh
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Joomla! with Flash - Suhreed Sarkar
Table of Contents
Joomla! with Flash
Credits
About the Author
Acknowledgement
About the Reviewers
Preface
What this book covers
What you need for this book
Who this book is for
Conventions
Reader feedback
Customer support
Errata
Piracy
Questions
1. Get Started with Flash in Joomla!
Why use Flash in Joomla!?
Creating Flash objects
Some tools for working with Flash
SWiSH Max
Ajax Animator
Wink
Flash charting tools
Animated Charts
amCharts
Open Flash Chart
FusionCharts
ActionScript libraries
Riva FLV Encoder
sIFR
PowerPoint to Flash converter
Setting up the development environment
Web server
Database server
PHP
Example website
Summary
2. Enhance Your Joomla! Content with Flash
Have a look at the site!
Adding slideshows
Using RokSlideShow
Showing captions and descriptions for images
Adding the slideshow to Joomla! articles
Showing Flash in modules
The Flash Module
Joomla! Random Flash Module
Adding Flash movies using Simple Video Flash Player
Showing Flash movie in a module
Showing a Flash movie in content
Summary
3. Creating Attractive Menus with Flash
The existing Joomla! menu system
Making menus attractive using Flash
Flash Floating Menu
Using the component
Using the module
Super Web Flash module for Joomla! 1.5
Some other extensions for creating Flash menus
Summary
4. Creating Flash Photo Galleries
Building Flash photo galleries
Expose Flash Gallery
Configuring Expose gallery
Creating collections and albums
Adding photos and videos to albums
Showing the album
Showing the Expose Scroller module
Using the Expose plugin
Ozio Gallery
Showing photos from Flickr
Showing photos from a folder
Configuration for skins
Tilt 3D skin
Flickr Slideshow skin
Flickr Photos skin
Image Rotator skin
LustMosaico skin
Flickr Slideoo
Accordion skin
FlashCategory skin
FlashGallery skin
Carousel skin
Imagin skin
New Gallery
Simple Flash Image Gallery (SFIG)
Dynamic Flash Gallery
Summary
5. Flashier than Ever: Maps, Charts, Custom Fonts, Multimedia, and More
Showing maps using YOS amMap
Installing and configuring YOS amMap
Adding map files
Creating a map
Map data file
Map settings file
Publishing a map through the module
Showing the map in content using a plugin
Showing charts using YOS amChart
Configuring YOS amChart
Creating a chart
amChart settings file
amChart data file
Publishing the chart through the module
Embedding the chart in content using a plugin
Showing the content in any font using sIFR
Using Flash uploader
Creating a streaming media site
Installing and configuring JVideo!
Adding videos to your site
Showing videos in the frontend
Adding videos to content
Adding Flash MP3 players
Simple MP3 Bar
UnMP3 for Joomla! 1.5
Flash MP3 Player
Visual mind mapping with Joom!FreeMind
Summary
6. Flash Decorations: Flashy Templates, Headers, Banners, and Tickers
Adding Flash in templates
Structure of a Joomla! template
Using Flash logos
Using Flash headers
Using Flexheader3
Creating a module position
Configuring the module
Using Web Flash Module to show headers
Using Flash banners
Flash tickers
Summary
7. Playing with Code
Using Joomla! content in Flash
Using content from a database in Flash objects
Developing Flash content using J-AMFPHP
Configuring J-AMFPHP
Designing services
Using services in Flash
Ensuring accessibility of Flash content
Identifying accessibility issues
Addressing common accessibility issues
Summary
8. Troubleshoot Your Applications
Issues related to Joomla!
Problems with installation of extensions
SEF problems
Issues related to Flash
Flash 10 and Joomla! Flash Uploader
Inserting a Flash object in the Joomla! header
Issues related to individual extensions
Expose Flash Gallery
YOS amChart
The Random Flash Module
Ozio Gallery
Dynamic Flash Gallery
JVideo!
J-AMFPHP
Summary
A. Resources for Joomla! and Flash
Resources for Joomla!
Resources for Flash
Summary
Index
Joomla! with Flash
Suhreed Sarkar
Joomla! with Flash
Copyright © 2009 Packt Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.
Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.
Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
First published: November 2009
Production Reference: 1231009
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
32 Lincoln Road
Olton
Birmingham, B27 6PA, UK.
ISBN 978-1-847198-24-2
www.packtpub.com
Cover Image by Vinayak Chittar <vinayak.chittar@gmail.com>)
Credits
Author
Suhreed Sarkar
Reviewers
Jose Argudo
Sonia Muñoz
Acquisition Editor
Usha Iyer
Development Editor
Swapna Verlekar
Technical Editor
Kartik Thakkar
Copy Editor
Leonard D'Silva
Editorial Team Leader
Akshara Aware
Project Coordinator
Srimoyee Ghoshal
Indexers
Monica Ajmera
Hemangini Bari
Proofreaders
Kevin McGowan
Chris Smith
Production Coordinator
Adline Swetha Jesuthas
Cover Work
Adline Swetha Jesuthas
About the Author
Suhreed Sarkar — an IT consultant, a trainer, and a technical writer—after completing Marine engineering, he served on board a ship for two years and then started his journey into the world of IT with an MCSE in Windows NT 4.0 track. Later, he studied business administration and earned an MBA from the University of Dhaka. He has a bunch of BrainBench certifications on various topics including PHP4, Project Management, RDBMS Concepts, E-Commerce, Web Server Administration, Internet Security, Training Development, Training Delivery and Evaluation, and Technical Writing.
As a trainer, he has taught courses on system administration, web development, e-commerce, and MIS. He has consulted for several national and international organizations including the United Nations and has helped clients in building and adopting their web portals, large scale databases, and management information systems. At present, he is working on building a framework for the education sector MIS and is promoting the use of ICTs in education.
Suhreed is a renowned technical author in Bengali having dozens of books published on subjects covering web development, LAMP, networking, and system administration. He authored the Zen Cart: E-commerce Application Development, and Joomla! E-commerce with VirtueMart books. Both of them are published by Packt Publishing.
While not busy with hacking some apps, blogging on his blog (www.suhreedsarkar.com), reading the philosophy of Bertrand Russell or management thoughts of Peter F. Drucker, he likes to spend some special moments with his family. Suhreed lives in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Acknowledgement
Firstly, I am grateful to the Joomla! community and the developers and maintainers of the extensions discussed in this book, as without them, the book could not have been written.
I would like to thank the Packt team for their excellent professional support, and a special thanks to Usha Iyer, Swapna Verleker, Srimoyee Ghoshal, and Kartik Thakkar who have helped me throughout the whole process. I express my heartiest gratitude to the reviewers for providing their insightful comments on the first draft of this book. I thank my family and friends for being patient while I was working on this book.
About the Reviewers
Jose Argudo is a web developer from Valencia, Spain. After finishing his studies, he started working for a web designing company. After six years of working for that company and others, he decided to start working as a freelancer.
Now, after some years have passed, he thinks that it's the best decision he has ever made, a decision that lets him work with the tools he likes, such as Joomla!, CodeIgniter, CakePHP, JQuery, and other well-known open source technologies.
For the last few months, he has also been reviewing some of the books for Packt Publishing, such as Magento 1.3 Theme Design, Magento: Beginner's Guide, Magento Development with PHP, Joomla! SEO, and Symfony 1.3 Web Application Development.
If that weren't enough, he is also writing a book on CodeIgniter for Packt Publishing — a book he is putting all his efforts on.
To Silvia and Luis.
Sonia Muñoz is a web developer from Spain. She has completed the Superior Computer Systems Management course and is now willing to start with another of Superior Development's computer application courses. She has worked with tools like PHP, MySQL, HTML, CSS, jQuery, JavaScript, CodeIgniter, Joomla, Photoshop, and Dreamweaver.
After finishing her studies, she would like to set up her own web development business.
I dedicate this book to my father-in-law, Abul Hossain
Preface
Joomla! is an award winning Content Management System with lots of features. It is useful for almost all types of websites. It has an object-oriented, modular architecture with lots of extensibility features. You can build almost any kind of a website using Joomla!. It has a strong security, authentication, and authorization framework, a content management framework, and a templating system.
There are thousands of Joomla! components, modules, and plugins to extend the functionality of Joomla!. A component for Joomla! can be compared to an application for Joomla!. Similarly, modules are extensions to display the data on Joomla!-based websites. Plugins are also extensions for performing special tasks, such as pre- and post-filtering of content for Joomla!-based websites. With all these features of Joomla! that provide ease of administration and options for customization, sometimes you may think of integrating other technologies, such as Flash, into it. This is because Flash provides great features for animation, which is otherwise not possible using only Joomla!, HTML, or JavaScript.
Flash is unique in creating animated objects, and this adds an extra flavor to your Joomla!-based website. Besides stunning graphics, design, and layout, Flash can definitely add interactivity and value to the website. Some of the features, such as animations, small videos, and interactive games, are only possible through Flash. Considering these unique features of Flash, Joomla! developers have long been trying to use Flash content in Joomla! websites. This book shows you how to use Flash objects with Joomla! content with minimal efforts and maximum output.
What this book covers
Chapter 1: Get Started with Flash in Joomla! begins with a discussion on why one should opt for using Flash in Joomla! and what are the benefits of doing this. Next, it introduces us to the different types of Flash objects and various tools that will be useful for developing Flash and Joomla!-based sites.
Chapter 2: Enhance Your Joomla! Content with Flash teaches us how to use Flash-based image slideshows in our Joomla! website and display them at different module positions. As the chapter progresses, we learn to embed Flash animations into articles and finally learn to embed Flash movies at different module positions and within articles.
Chapter 3: Creating Attractive Menus with Flash begins with an introduction to the built-in menu system of Joomla!. It then illustrates the use of two extensions, Flash Floating Menu and Super Web Flash module for Joomla! 1.5, for embedding Flash-based menus into our Joomla! website and also lists a few other extensions.
In Chapter 4: Creating Flash Photo Galleries, we are introduced to the concept of building Flash photo galleries for our Joomla!-based website. This chapter begins with an illustration of the Expose Flash Gallery component and proceeds to the use of the Expose Scroller module and the Expose plugin. Next, we learn to embed a 3D Flash-based photo galley in our website with the help of Ozio Gallery. We also learn how to embed images from Flickr, as well as from our web server, and which of the skins available with Ozio Gallery can be used for doing so. Finally, we learn to use three simpler extensions for embedding Flash photo galleries — New Gallery, Simple Image Flash Gallery, and Dynamic Flash Gallery.
Chapter 5: Flashier than Ever: Maps, Charts, Custom Fonts, Multimedia, and More extends the use of Flash on our Joomla!-based website. Firstly, we learn to build interactive Flash-based maps and charts using the YOS amMap and amChart components respectively. Then the chapter illustrates the use of sIFR with Joomla! for displaying the contents of a Joomla! site in fonts that are not installed on users' computers. The use of the Joomla! Flash Uploader component is also illustrated. Further, the chapter takes us through how to create streaming video sites with the use of the JVideo! components and discusses various extensions for adding an MP3 player on your Joomla! website.
Chapter 6: Flash Decorations: Flashy Templates, Headers, Banners, and Tickers deals with using Flash templates for decorating our website with Flash logos, headers, banners, and tickers. In this chapter, we are introduced to the two ways of showing Flash objects in a Joomla! site, namely, by embedding the Flash object in a Joomla! template showing it permanently on a Joomla! website and by using a suitable module. Furthermore, the use of Joomla! modules like FlexHeader3 and Web Flash Joomla! for displaying Flash objects is also discussed in this chapter.
Chapter 7: Playing with Code focuses mainly on the issue of how we embed Joomla! content into a Flash site, which is exactly the opposite of what has been done in the previous chapters, using the J-AMFPHP component. In this chapter, we also take a look at some of the accessibility issues and ways to address these issues.
Chapter 8: Troubleshoot Your Applications deals with the most common problems with Joomla!, Flash, and the Joomla! extensions that have been discussed in this book. Besides pointing to the probable solution for such problems, the chapter also provides references to relevant websites and forums that can prove to be helpful in solving problems.
Appendix: Resources for Joomla! and Flash gives you a list of some more resources that can be useful for using Flash with Joomla!. Firstly, it shows some resources for Joomla!, and then it lists some Flash extension-specific resources.
What you need for this book
First of all, you will need the Apache-MySQL-PHP environment for running Joomla!. For this book, we have used Joomla! 1.5.14. All the descriptions and screenshots are based on this version of Joomla!. If you do not have access to any web-hosting service, then you still can use Joomla! and learn about it on your own computer. In that case, you need to set up the development environment by installing WAMP on your Windows machine. Further information on setting up the development environment on your Windows computer is provided in Chapter 1. To get the exact results, this book should be followed from the beginning to the end, and you should perform the tasks as described.
It is assumed that readers of this book have knowledge on Joomla! and a basic knowledge of Flash. Besides knowledge on the Apache-MySQL-PHP environment, Joomla!, and Flash, familiarity with HTML, CSS, and PHP will be an added advantage.
Who this book is for
If you are a Joomla! web developer and want to integrate Flash into your websites, then this book is for you!
Conventions
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text are shown as follows: As you can see, the tag can contain child elements.
A block of code is set as follows:
{yos_amchart chartid='4' width='500' height='500' flashv='8' bgcolour='#ffffc0' plugin='1'}
When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:
...
New terms and important words are