Question

Flash (swf file) into a Drupal Homepage

Asked by: livewirewebsolutions

I am building a Drupal site and want to put a flash header on the home page. I keep embedding the swf file in this file (page.tpl.php) but the movie does not run. Only a white image appears that represent the swf. Below is the regular code from drupal. How do I embed the swf file?

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="<?php print $language->language ?>" xml:lang="<?php print $language->language ?>" dir="<?php print $language->dir ?>">
 
<head>
 
  <title><?php print $head_title ?></title>
  <?php print $head ?>
  <?php print $styles ?>
  <?php print $scripts ?>
  <script type="text/javascript"><?php /* Needed to avoid Flash of Unstyle Content in IE */ ?> </script>
  <script src="../../../../Scripts/AC_RunActiveContent.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
</head>
 
<body>
 
<!-- Main Container Starts Here -->
<div class="main-container">
	<div class="container">
		<div class="header">
		
		  <div class="logo">
				<?php if ($logo) { ?><a href="<?php print $base_path ?>" title="<?php print t('Home') ?>"><img src="<?php print $logo ?>" alt="<?php print t('Home') ?>" /></a><?php } ?>
		  </div>
			<div class="slogan">
				<?php if ($site_slogan) { ?><?php print $site_slogan ?><?php } ?>
			</div>
			<div class="search-box">
				<?php if ($search_box) { ?><?php print $search_box ?><?php } ?>
			</div>
	  </div>
		<div class="leftbar">
			<?php if (isset($secondary_links)) { ?>
				<?php print theme('links', $secondary_links, array('class' =>'links', 'id' => 'subnavlist')) ?>
			<?php } ?>
	        <?php if (isset($primary_links)) { ?>
				<?php print theme('links', $primary_links, array('class' =>'links', 'id' => 'navlist')) ?>
			<?php } ?>
			<?php print $left; ?>
		</div>
		<div class="right-area">
			<div class="top-image">
				<div class="site-name">
					<?php if ($site_name) { ?><h1 class='site-name'><a href="<?php print $base_path ?>" title="<?php print t('Home') ?>"><?php print $site_name ?></a></h1><?php } ?>
				</div>
			</div>
			<div class="content-area">
	 
				<?php if ($mission) { ?><div id="mission"><?php print $mission ?></div><?php } ?>
				  <div id="main">
					<?php print $breadcrumb ?>
					<h1 class="title"><?php print $title ?></h1>
					<div class="tabs"><?php print $tabs ?></div>
					<?php print $help ?>
					<?php print $messages ?>
					<?php print $content; ?>
					<?php print $feed_icons; ?>
				  </div>
			</div>
		</div>
	</div>
</div>
<!-- Mian Container Ends Here -->
<div class="footer">
	<div class="footer-info">
	<?php print $footer_message ?>
	Powered by Drupal, Design and Developed by <a href="http://www.livewirewebsolutions.com" target="_blank">Livewire Web Solutions Inc.</a>,	</div>
</div>
<?php print $closure ?>
</body>
</html>

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Asked On: 2009-08-25 at 18:54:29ID24681895
Tags: Drupal
,; Flash
,; swf
Topics: Drupal
,; Adobe Flash
Participating Experts: 2
Points: 325
Comments: 8

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Answers

by: stephencolsonPosted on 2009-08-25 at 20:12:42ID: 25184181

Your javascript paths are wrong. Think of the page.tpl.php as really existing at the root of the webserver or at whatever level they get called at. To clarify, if someone accessed your home page, the page template would seem to be located at your site root for purposes of calculating relative directories. If you had a page located at the URL /about/contact-us, then page.tpl.php should refer to supporting assets relative to that URL.

At the end of the day, this really suggests that you can't refer to browser-rendered support files in a purely relative manner. You need to refer to them in a full root-relative context. So instead of:
../../../../Scripts/AC_RunActiveContent.js

You should have:
/Scripts/AC_RunActiveContent.js

Assuming your Scripts directory is in your Drupal root

by: DJmusicPosted on 2009-08-26 at 06:06:18ID: 25187105

livewirewebsolutions,

here are instructions on how to embed flash videos in your page, using the javascript function AC_RunActiveContent.js: http://drupal.org/node/80776#comment-148713.
There are also third-party players that can be used to display flash videos and other. I personally use the Flowplayer module (http://drupal.org/project/flowplayer) but this page (http://drupal.org/node/133611#comment-1045051) directs to another one.

I hope it helps. Let me know if more info is needed.

DJ

by: livewirewebsolutionsPosted on 2009-08-27 at 06:06:53ID: 25197551

I don't know if this makes a difference but......this is just a flash file. I do not want this displayed like a movie with the play button etc... Does this matter?

by: DJmusicPosted on 2009-08-27 at 06:26:32ID: 25197827

livewirewebsolutions,

it does matter. Although players such as Flowplayer can be setup to not display the controls, it may be an overkill.
So it seems that the first link (http://drupal.org/node/80776#comment-148713) is the way for you to go. I have never tried that way but mac-perlinski (the author of the comment at drupal.org) posted a code snippet that display how to insert a flash video in page.tpl.php. It requires the definition of 2 javascripts (AC_RunActiveContent.js and AC_ActiveX.js), and then the cal to AC_RunActiveContent().
I'd be glad to try the code myself to make sure it works, and to guide you through if you want.

DJ

by: livewirewebsolutionsPosted on 2009-08-27 at 10:16:03ID: 25200562

Hi DJ Music,

That would be great. Where do you put the js files. In the scripts folder? Anyway, if you could guide me through that would be great.

Thanks so much.

by: DJmusicPosted on 2009-08-27 at 16:13:43ID: 25203489

livewirewebsolutions,

it took me a little longer to troubleshoot the method but it works. Here's how to use the two javascript functions to insert SWF files in your template. First, the proof: http://vicbc.vanderbilt.edu/drupaltest. The ugly rolling picture is a SWF file (it worked on Firefox 3.5, IE8 and Safari 4, all on PC with Vista).

1- get the javascripts AC_RunActiveContent.js and AC_ActiveX.js. They are part of this archive (from Adobe site): http://download.macromedia.com/pub/developer/activecontent_samples.zip
2- copy the 2 javascript files in the folder "includes" of your drupal root directory
3- edit your theme page.tpl.php to add in the "<head>" section the following two lines (I inserted them right before the "</head>" tag):

<script src="/drupaltest/includes/AC_RunActiveContent.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/drupaltest/includes/AC_ActiveX.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

4- wherever in the code where you want to insert the SWF file, use this code:

echo "<script type='text/javascript'>AC_FL_RunContent('codebase','http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0','width','766','height','129','src','/drupaltest/sites/default/files/workshop1','quality','high','pluginspage','http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer','movie','/drupaltest/sites/default/files/workshop1','wmode','transparent');</script>";

This calls the function which will display the SWF file. On an important note, you need to specify your real path to your movie, starting from your drupal directory name (mine was "drupaltest") and you have to OMIT the file extension. Then, you can play with the width, height, etc to parametrize the display.

I also copy the full page.tpl.php code below. I used the one in the pushbutton theme. And it should work nicely. It did for me. Let me know if you have any troubles.

DJ

<?php
// $Id: page.tpl.php,v 1.25.2.2 2009/04/30 00:13:31 goba Exp $
?><!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="<?php print $language->language ?>" xml:lang="<?php print $language->language ?>" dir="<?php print $language->dir ?>">
<head>
  <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" />
  <?php print $head ?>
  <title><?php print $head_title ?></title>
  <?php print $styles ?>
  <?php print $scripts ?>
<script src="/drupaltest/includes/AC_RunActiveContent.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/drupaltest/includes/AC_ActiveX.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
</head>
 
<body>
<div class="hide"><a href="#content" title="<?php print t('Skip navigation') ?>." accesskey="2"><?php print t('Skip navigation') ?></a>.</div>
 
<table id="primary-menu" summary="Navigation elements." border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
  <tr>
    <td id="home" width="10%">
      <?php if ($logo) : ?>
        <a href="<?php print $front_page ?>" title="<?php print t('Home') ?>"><img src="<?php print($logo) ?>" alt="<?php print t('Home') ?>" border="0" /></a>
      <?php endif; ?>
    </td>
 
    <td id="site-info" width="20%">
      <?php if ($site_name) : ?>
        <div class='site-name'><a href="<?php print $front_page ?>" title="<?php print t('Home') ?>"><?php print($site_name) ?></a></div>
      <?php endif;?>
      <?php if ($site_slogan) : ?>
        <div class='site-slogan'><?php print($site_slogan) ?></div>
      <?php endif;?>
    </td>
    <td class="primary-links" width="70%" align="center" valign="middle">
      <?php print theme('links', $primary_links, array('class' => 'links', 'id' => 'navlist')) ?>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
 
<table id="secondary-menu" summary="Navigation elements." border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
  <tr>
    <td class="secondary-links" width="75%"  align="center" valign="middle">
      <?php print theme('links', $secondary_links, array('class' => 'links', 'id' => 'subnavlist')) ?>
    </td>
    <td width="25%" align="center" valign="middle">
      <?php print $search_box ?>
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td colspan="2"><div><?php print $header ?></div></td>
  </tr>
</table>
 
<table id="content" border="0" cellpadding="15" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
  <tr>
    <?php if ($left != ""): ?>
    <td id="sidebar-left">
      <?php print $left ?>
    </td>
    <?php endif; ?>
 
    <td valign="top">
      <?php if ($mission != ""): ?>
      <div id="mission"><?php print $mission ?></div>
      <?php endif; ?>
 
      <div id="main">
        <?php if ($title != ""): ?>
          <?php print $breadcrumb ?>
          <h1 class="title"><?php print $title ?></h1>
 
          <?php if ($tabs != ""): ?>
            <div class="tabs"><?php print $tabs ?></div>
          <?php endif; ?>
 
        <?php endif; ?>
 
        <?php if ($show_messages && $messages != ""): ?>
          <?php print $messages ?>
        <?php endif; ?>
 
        <?php if ($help != ""): ?>
            <div id="help"><?php print $help ?></div>
        <?php endif; ?>
 
      <!-- start main content -->
      <?php print "<br>HELLO!!!!!<br><br><br>";
 
/*You embed your flash movie using the following function you can place
the following code in page.tpl.php or inside the content of your node*/
echo "<script type='text/javascript'>AC_FL_RunContent('codebase','http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0','width','766','height','129','src','/drupaltest/sites/default/files/workshop1','quality','high','pluginspage','http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer','movie','/drupaltest/sites/default/files/workshop1','wmode','transparent');</script>";
print "<br><br><br>";
 
	  print $content; ?>
      <?php print $feed_icons; ?>
      <!-- end main content -->
 
      </div><!-- main -->
    </td>
    <?php if ($right != ""): ?>
    <td id="sidebar-right">
      <?php print $right ?>
    </td>
    <?php endif; ?>
  </tr>
</table>
 
<table id="footer-menu" summary="Navigation elements." border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
  <tr>
    <td align="center" valign="middle">
    <?php if (isset($primary_links)) : ?>
      <?php print theme('links', $primary_links, array('class' => 'links primary-links')) ?>
    <?php endif; ?>
    <?php if (isset($secondary_links)) : ?>
      <?php print theme('links', $secondary_links, array('class' => 'links secondary-links')) ?>
    <?php endif; ?>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
 
<?php if ($footer_message || $footer) : ?>
<div id="footer-message">
    <?php print $footer_message . $footer;?>
</div>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php print $closure;?>
</body>
</html>

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by: livewirewebsolutionsPosted on 2009-08-28 at 04:56:36ID: 25206592

Hey DJ Music,
The code worked brilliantly. Awesome help to. I worked on it for about an hour getting it right. Almost gave up and at the last second I got it. Your instructions and code work perfectly. Your an asset to this site.
Cheers.

by: DJmusicPosted on 2009-08-28 at 05:56:27ID: 25207035

livewirewebsolutions,

thanks for your kind words. I'm just thrilled I was able to help!

have a good one,

DJ

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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Flash (swf file) into a Drupal Homepage

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