Off-Topic : Video clips can now be included in forum posts

All things flight-related for Hang Glider and Paraglider pilots: flying plans, site info, weather, flight reports, etc. Newcomers always welcome!

Moderator: CHGPA BOD

Locked
chgpa
Site Admin
Posts: 129
Joined: Fri Dec 05, 2003 12:50 am

Off-Topic : Video clips can now be included in forum posts

Post by chgpa »

I've enabled the display of video clips that are stored at Vimeo.com within
forum posts. An example, using Dan Tuck's latest (go Dan!), is included below.
To view it right here, within the forum, just click on the Play button/arrow.

But before you do that, read on:

Caveat #1: I've tested this only with the Firefox web browser on a
Windows XP/SP2 platform, and have no idea what the results will be like
with other browsers (eg, Internet Explorer) and/or other platforms (eg, Mac,
Vista, Linux).

Caveat #2: You have to have the Adobe Shockwave Flash player
installed on your computer (or, possibly, some other competing Flash player
product; I haven't tried that yet). I don't know what happens to posts with
videos when a Flash player isn't available. Hopefully nothing super-irritating.

Any posts of videos that are pornographic, or that advocate a hate-group's
philosophy (religious, political, gender, whatever), will be grounds for an
immediate ban from the forums.

Only videos that are Hang Gliding or Paragliding related are allowed in the forums
reserved for flight-related topics.

If people want to link to other fun videos, that should be done in the General Discussion
or Ground-Bound Fun forums.

The player object, as seen from within a forum post, isn't quite as nice as
what you get by accessing a video directly at the Vimeo site. For example,
contrast the embedded video below to the version at Vimeo itself.

The display of posts that include video clips requires a little extra time,
since the player object has to be initialized by your web browser. But don't
worry, the video won't actually be downloaded and played until/unless
you hit the Play button in the player.

I'll extend the capability to other video sites (YouTube, Google, etc) if it seems
like this first attempt is going well.

The method for embedding a Vimeo video goes like so:
  • Create a new topic (or reply to an existing one)
  • Type in the numeric clip ID for the Vimeo video of interest in the body of your post
  • Double-click the Vimeo clip ID, so that it is highlighted
  • Single-click the 'vimeo' button that you see above the text area for your post.
  • That's it!
Ok, what you've been waiting for, here's what it looks like in action:


Please report any problems via the Forum and Website HelpDesk.

Enjoy!

MarkC
chgpa
Site Admin
Posts: 129
Joined: Fri Dec 05, 2003 12:50 am

Re: Off-Topic : Video clips can now be included in forum posts

Post by chgpa »

Here's an embedded YouTube video of Cragin's.

Same idea applies as for vimeo: Copy/paste the YouTube identifier
of a video (in this case, that identifier is 7Mp9s8G2KJo) into
your forum post, double-click on it, and then hit the 'youtube' button
that is available on the posting form.

Toughest part is finding the YouTube identifier... It is the alphanumeric
string that follows "v=" in a YouTube URL, and up to any ampersand (&)
that might be present.

Example:

chgpa
Site Admin
Posts: 129
Joined: Fri Dec 05, 2003 12:50 am

Re: Off-Topic : Video clips can now be included in forum posts

Post by chgpa »

And lastly, here's an embedded Google Video for the 2007 ECC's
at Ridgely. The google video identifiers are 18-digit strings, like
this one: 7619765159709725749

It appears after docid=- and before any ampersand
character (&) in the URL.

Locked