Texterizer Documentation

About Texterizer

Texterizer is a small flash application to create text-based "shows" from an XML file. It shows text centered in the screen for as long as you specify, then shows more text.

Requirements

To use texterizer you need :

• a web site where you can upload files
• a way to upload files there
• the ability to edit an XML file

(An FTP program and a text editor will do.)

Installation

Unzip texterizer.zip and you will find:

1. readme.html - this documentation
2. texterizer.html - the HTML page that runs texterizer
3. texterizer.swf - the Flash file
4. texts.xml - the XML file to control texterizer

To get started with texterizer, edit texts.xml. The format is described below. When you're finished editing, open up texterizer.html in a web browser to test it. Finally, upload texterizer.html, texterizer.swf and texts.xml to your web site.

texts.xml format

A simple texts.xml file looks like this :

	<texts color="0xFF0000" font="Courier New" soundtrack="mysoundtrack.mp3" forwardurl="mynextpage.html">
		<text time="3">hi</text>
		<text time="4">you can change colors</text>
		<text time="2" color="0xFF0000">i'm red!</text>
		<text time="2.2" color="0x00FF00">i'm green!</text>
		<text time="2.5" color="0x0000FF">i'm blue!</text>
		<text time="5">i'm a multiline&lt;br;&gt;piece of text</text>
	</texts>

<texts>

The top level <texts> element has the following attributes, all are optional -

soundtrack

the optional URL of a sound file to play. Example: http://yoursitenamehere.com/background.mp3

streaming

Whether to stream the soundtrack or wait until it loads entirely before playing. Valid values are 1 (for streaming) and 0 (don't stream.) The default is to stream the soundtrack.

forwardurl

The URL to redirect the browser to after the texterizer is done playing. If none is specified, no fowarding will occur.

againbutton

Whether to show a "play again" button after the animation finishes. Valid values are 0 and 1. 0 hides the button, 1 shows it. If not specified, the button will be shown by default.

color

Default color for the text. Must be in ugly RGB hex format. Example: 0x0000FF

font

Default font for the text. Example: Courier New

size

An integer specifying the default size of the text in points. Example: 15.

bold

Whether the text should be bold. Valid values are true and false. Default is false.

If you don't specify a font, color, or size, they will default to 20pt black Verdana.

<text>

Each text element will be displayed on the screen for as long as you specifiy. You can also override the default font, color, and size on a per item basis. Valid attributes of a <text> element are:

time

Required. A number specifying the number of seconds to display that piece of text. Examples: 2, 3.5, 10

font, color, size, bold

Optional. These override the default values specified at the top level.

Putting texterizer in a web page

See texterizer.html for an example of the EMBED and OBJECT and PARAM tags you need to include in your HTML.

They are reproduced here for your convenience:

	<OBJECT classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" 
	codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,0,0"
	WIDTH="550" HEIGHT="400" id="texterizer" ALIGN="">

		<PARAM NAME=movie VALUE="texterizer.swf">
		<PARAM NAME=quality VALUE=high>
		<PARAM NAME=bgcolor VALUE=#FFFFFF>
		<PARAM NAME=FlashVars Value="xmlfile=texts.xml">

		<EMBED src="texterizer.swf" quality=high bgcolor=#FFFFFF  WIDTH="550" HEIGHT="400" NAME="texterizer" ALIGN=""
		TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash" PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" 
		FlashVars="xmlfile=texts.xml">
		</EMBED>

	</OBJECT>

Advanced Topics

Changing the background color

By changing the "bgcolor" attribute in the PARAMS and EMBED tags, you can change the background color of the flash animation. You must change it both for it to work.

Using an alternate XML file

You can override the default XML filename (texts.xml) to be whatever you want. In texterizer.html, look for "texts.xml" and replace it with your own filename. You need to replace it twice - once in a PARAM FlashVars tag and once in the EMBED tag.

This allows you to have one copy of texterizer.swf, but many pages and XML files for different animations.

Line Breaks

Line breaks are possible, but I currently don't recenter the text vertically for multiple lines.

Regardless, to insert a line break in your text, you need to add &lt;br&gt; where you want the break to occur. (You can also do it using real br and p tags, but only if you enclose the text in CDATA first, and that's beyond the scope of this document, and probably overkill for this.)

Contact Information