Boonex, Rayz, and flash app skins

houstonlively posted 3rd of October 2010 in Community Voice. 27 comments.

Every D7 site is stuck with the same white flash app skins, no matter what template you are using. If you are using a dark template, the white flash app skins, are just plain ugly. I have seen countless forum posts asking how to change the flash player for music and videos. The main reason people want to do this, is to have the flash players blend in with the template design.

I have brought this up on several occasions, and I have asked Rayz about creating flash players that can be skinned via xml. I've had ZERO luck getting any attention to this matter. A lot of people want easily skinnable flash apps, and I think it's about time somebody at Boonex paid some attention to this. If Rayz isn't willing to do it, then find somebody that is.

This is the year 2010. We have the technology to do this. Develop flash apps for D7 that can be skinned via an external xml file that resides in your sites template directories, so that changing the site template, also changes the flash app skins to match. This way, template designers can skin the flash apps to match their template.

I bet I know what you're going to say Boonex. It too much work... right?

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LightWolf

LightWolf•3rd of October 2010

I totally agree. For us that have black templates, the white backgrounds on the sounds is very ugly, and would also like to be able to change flash apps skins as well. First time I have ever seen a seller not have different skins.

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JasonVan

JasonVan•3rd of October 2010

I would definitely be willing to spend a few dollars on new flash skins. I'm sure almost everybody here would.

I'm also hoping that Rayz or somebody else would consider creating an anti-flooding mod for the chat.

Imagine this scenario: You have a handful of people in your chat all having a great time. Then along comes some schmuck who hits one letter and enter as fast as his/her fingers can go. Now nobody can use the chat. Everybody moves to another room but this schmuck follows. Think see more

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mchauhan

mchauhan•3rd of October 2010

i agree 10000%. it seems pointless creating a new template when some features on site stays white all the time.
and i have seen HL crying for it in the past aswell, but i wonder why no one at boonex pay any attention to it ...

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hd4real

hd4real•3rd of October 2010

@ HL, we sure need a way to match the apps skin to our sites template. It is ugly for sure.
@ Boonex, please do something about it. Like HL said, it's 2010.

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silverado350

silverado350•3rd of October 2010

I agree with you HL. I've wanted that for so long.

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LightWolf

LightWolf•3rd of October 2010

Well I got to say this...As a developer,Rayz would probably have more customers if he also provided skins for his apps (not for free of course). And if you look at other developers of apps and templates, they all have options of color changes. You my friend seem to be in the stone age where all the neighbors homes (sites) look the same..lol When a clothes designer creates fabrics, they make different colors, same with car makers,appliances,houses,,ect,,ect..Get my point?

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houstonlively

houstonlively•3rd of October 2010•to LightWolf

I am not suggesting that Rayz provide skins for his flash apps. I'm only suggesting that he/Boonex build in a method by which they can be skinned without having to recompile the flash source code every time you want to do something as simple as change a color. There's enough demand for this to warrant attention.

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Nathan Paton

Nathan Paton•3rd of October 2010

I would like my Flash apps to come with a low, fixed-rate.

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houstonlively

houstonlively•3rd of October 2010•to Nathan Paton

Huh?

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houstonlively

houstonlively•3rd of October 2010

It's too bad I'm not allowed to call people idiots any more, because some opportunities to do so are so very tempting, ad difficult to pass up.

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Nathan Paton

Nathan Paton•4th of October 2010

@houstonlively's reply: I don't know why they only allow the ones who made the blog post to directly reply to people.

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houstonlively

houstonlively•4th of October 2010

Probably for the same reason I have no way of deleting useless commentary as exemplified by Bambie, in what is supposed to be my personal blog. I just don't know what that reason is.

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pierrehs

pierrehs•4th of October 2010

There is a black theme for flash on the store but it is the only :(
http://www.boonex.com/unity/extensions/entry/Black_Flash_Apps_Skins_For_Dolphin_7

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houstonlively

houstonlively•4th of October 2010

I bought that one a long time ago. It wasn't quite right for my main theme, but it was better. I did create a new skin for the music player, and I will create matching skins for the other flash apps when I have the time.

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LightWolf

LightWolf•4th of October 2010

Houstonlively I will be your first customer. Please make black for chat and for music lol Don't mind Magnussoft,just ignore him like I do most of the time like he was one of my sons. (they are grown, calm down).

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houstonlively

houstonlively•4th of October 2010

Now, for anyone else that wants to take a lame shot at me for bringing this issue up, keep in mind that I'm not doing this for myself. I am quite capable of working with Adobe CS5 to create my own flash app skins. Anyone with a working brain should realize that I have always called attention to issues that I believe require attention, and improvements that will benefit many others, and the core product. This would be one of those issues.

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Andrew Boon

Andrew Boon•4th of October 2010

@bambie
Please, behave yoruself. Express your arguments and stay away from attacking people. All your comments are now removed.

@HL
Please, stay calm and nice, as you can be. Some of your comments are now removed.

@all
Easy theming of Flash apps is a good thing to have and we'll work on it for 7.1. At least we'll investigate at what could be done in 7.1. http://www.boonex.com/trac/dolphin/ticket/2197

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houstonlively

houstonlively•4th of October 2010•to Andrew Boon

Sorry... I don't do calm and nice.

Thanks for the ticket though. I use a flash app callled slideshowpro http://slideshowpro.net/products/slideshowpro/

Just about everything about it can be customized by changing params in a single xml file. What D7 really needs, is a similar system where the param.xml file for flash apps can reside in the sites templates directories, so that it changes when the site template is changed. This will allow template designers to provide a more complete see more

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houstonlively

houstonlively•4th of October 2010•to Andrew Boon

Maybe someday, you'll even consider this a bit more than a "Trivial" ticket.

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Andrew Boon

Andrew Boon•4th of October 2010

Thanks HL, we'll get back to this post when working on this ticket.

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Andrew Boon

Andrew Boon•4th of October 2010

re:Maybe someday, you'll even consider this a bit more than a "Trivial" ticket.

Maybe.

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naluv4u2

naluv4u2•18th of October 2010

Okay now here's a dumb question. . . does any ever plan on ANSWERING the original question with a useful answer? SMH The main issue is the included flash player app and skin suck, are ugly and clashes with many website schemes. Can we cut to the chase and leave the personal attacks out of it?

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houstonlively

houstonlively•18th of October 2010•to naluv4u2

Andrew did answer it. It might not be the answer we all wanted, but at least this is now on the radar screen. In the mean time, we have no choice but to edit te flash source files and recompile the swf.

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naluv4u2

naluv4u2•19th of October 2010

@ houstonlively ahhhhh the kind of answer I have become accustomed to on here. . . Well will u share with me the specifics of what u did so I can dump the current player and replace with one I prefer? I would really appreciate being empowered with that information, thank u.

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houstonlively

houstonlively•19th of October 2010

This blog is not about replacing the Boonex supplied flash players. It's about re-skinning the existing players and widgets. To change the existing skins, you must download the flash source files from Boonex svn, then edit/compile the skins with a suitable flash editor such as Adobe Flash CS5.

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Drexell

Drexell•4th of November 2010

does anyone know how to change the default volume skin on the video player? I changed the default.fla skin and it changed the volume on the recorder but not the player side. I am assuming it's in the player.fla but can not publish it since I do not know how to add the action script back into the player.swf.

is there a .flp (Flash Project file) for this?

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SkyForum

SkyForum•4th of February 2011

Ok, I just ran across this problem as I am putting the finishing touches on my site. Who's brain fart was this anyway? There is nothing worse than big, blank white spaces with white text on a skin that is basically black in nature!. I know you guys are in love with your Uni template (what does that stand for anyway?)
Putting this off till 7.1 is like trying to have a conversation with Rayz. Ain't never gonna happen. You really need to take care of this now (and now, I mean by 7.05 would be grand) see more

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