Design Tweak - Audio Player- Search Results

[YoPo Music]

Hi I'm trying to overhaul my site with Version 8.

I'm looking for someone who might be able to help me with some design tweaks on a professional basis or a few tips on here!

Basically I sell music tracks for use on tv and radio commercials. The site sells these as digital downloads. The tracks are previewed by embedding a flash audio player in the general description which plays an MP3 of the track. I am in the process of replacing the audio player for all of the download tracks/products to one which works much better in terms of quality and ease of use.

To change all of this is quite a labour intensive process as it involves going to each product and inserting the code for the player and the link to the preview file. The preview files are just MP3s stored on the server that the audio player plays. I'm just wondering whether there is a better more economical way to do all of this....before I spend hours copying and pasting! You can see the new embedded audiuo player on the first page of www.yopo.co.uk

I'm also wondering whether with V8 there is a way to set up a search results page that would include the title of the track but also the embedded audio player from the general description??? Ideally I think people would like to search say for "jazz" - get single lines of results and be able to quickly audition each title that looked promising.

Last year as a work around we tried to change the results options to include the full description but there was an issue with the size of the index file that was created and we never found a solution to that one...even after talking to Actinic Tech Support.

If anyone wants to discuss tweaking the design of the site please do get in contact and I can send you a snapshot of the new site in V8. The current site from V7 is at www.yopo.co.uk.

Cheers,

Jonny
Yopo Music

[leehack]

You could have a layout with the code embedded into it already to save putting it in manually each time, then perhaps a variable which would hold the audio files name.

You would just select the layout with the embedded player when you are listing a file with a sample and use a layout without the embedded player when there is no sample.

[YoPo Music]

That sounds interesting...Thanks

So for someone like me not too smart around Actinic - create a "new" product layout and include the code..!!<< player>>!!

Then where that code links to the file i.e www.yopo.co.uk/preview/**tracktitle.mp3 you say have a "variable"...Could you take me through how to do that please?

Many thanks

Jonny

[leehack]

So for someone like me not too smart around Actinic - create a "new" product layout and include the code..!!<< player>>!!

Along those line Jonny, but not quite like that. The "!!<<" you refer to is for embedding into the product detail, to tell actinic to process info between those tags as html. What i have suggested you do is actual html coding direct in the layout within the design tab. Within the design tab you are coding directly in html, not embedding it.

Then where that code links to the file i.e www.yopo.co.uk/preview/**tracktitle.mp3 you say have a "variable"...Could you take me through how to do that please?

I'd suggest reading the actinic help on creating variables. You will only need file names as the base HREF, will bring in the URL for you.

[YoPo Music]

ThanksLee - excellent got that working. One thing I forgot which is that the first instance of the player has an extra line of code:

<script language="JavaScript" src="http://www.yopo.co.uk/audio/audio-player.js"></script>

Then any further instances of the player dont require this line. So I made this first line a variable and was trying to set it up so I could select it for the first product - then without for the rest. I tried doing it as a "choice" but when I enter that line of code above as the text for that choice and OK it - it chops that line into 4-5 choices - I think on the occurrence of the symbol " - is there a way round it. Also is it possible to have "nothing" i.e blank as a choice?

And lastly....to make the audio player stop playing when you select another one on the same page of products each player needs its own unique ID number in the code. i.e within the code the first player would be "audioplayer=1" then "2" for the next one etc. I've put this in as a variable which is fine but just wondering whether it's possible to make it automatically increment by 1 each time you add a product...?

Thanks for youe help.

Jonny

[leehack]

Thanks Lee - excellent got that working. One thing I forgot which is that the first instance of the player has an extra line of code:

<script language="JavaScript" src="http://www.yopo.co.uk/audio/audio-player.js"></script>

Include that JavaScript into the head part of the exterior layout. Just put it on the line directly above the </head> tag. It will then be available on all of your pages, if required.

Then any further instances of the player dont require this line. So I made this first line a variable and was trying to set it up so I could select it for the first product - then without for the rest. I tried doing it as a "choice" but when I enter that line of code above as the text for that choice and OK it - it chops that line into 4-5 choices - I think on the occurrence of the symbol " - is there a way round it. Also is it possible to have "nothing" i.e blank as a choice?

If the above code is embedded into the head section of your page, this is where you would ideally want it anyway, each product you list will have it's own individual player. If one is playing and somebody selects one on a different product, i would expect the original one to stop and the new one to start. That would be my approach to it anyway.

[NormanRouxel]

Put the line

<script language="JavaScript" src="http://www.yopo.co.uk/audio/audio-player.js"></script>

Into your Overall Layout (just above the </head> tag).

As to the unique ID. You can do this via the Actinic ListIndex variable (this counts each Product on a product page).

E.g.

audioplayer=<actinic:variable name="ListIndex" />

[YoPo Music]

Cheers - yeap good plan.

The thing about the one playing stopping when you start another doesnt work unless each one has a unique ID. It's no major drama to have this as a variable that I manually change for each new product.

Thanks again.
J

[leehack]

So can we start loads on one page and pretend to be DJ's?

[YoPo Music]

Yeap without the unique ID you can mix your own stuff...>!

Norman - that's very interesting, could you tell me a bit more how to do this?

Thanks,

Jonny

[NormanRouxel]

I just did. If you have some code in a Product Layout and you want it to have a unique value, then do as above.

Can't help further without seeing more than the tiny fragment "audioplayer=1".

[YoPo Music]

Thanks Norman,

Got it -the Linkindex works great. Superb.

Off this subject but I'm also trying to see if it would be possible to give the buyer an option to purchase either an MP3 or a WAV file as a digital download?

Cheers,
Jonny