FlashPanos

OK!

So, you want to make a Flash container with all your own graphics and buttons and load your Flash Panorama Player presentation into it? Here you go... a quick "embed pano 101".

What you'll end up with is a "skinned" player which displays your FPP panorama with an irregular outline (not a rectangle!) -- including buttons to load panoramas, buttons to pan/tilt/zoom, and a button to "go fullscreen".

Topping it all off you'll be able to go fullscreen and leave some of your buttons & graphics behind, then leave fullscreen and get your buttons back. This allows you to display what you want when you want it. The FPP XML in this example will show some thumbnails in fullscreen, which display larger photos.

As a bonus in this example, we will load lower resolution panoramas into the player when not in fullscreen; then, when going fullscreen, we will load higher resolution panoramas. Once loaded, these higher resolution panoramas will stay in the cache and be seen in fullscreen and not fullscreen. So, there's a lot packed into this 'little' example!

This is the first part of a multi part series of tutorials written by Zephyr Renner and Patrick Cheatham that will look at some of the advanced functionality a user can produce by getting beyond what can be accomplished with Flash Panorama Player's XML configuration files, and getting into programming Actionscript (AS3).

There are a number of ways to create Actionscript based interaction with FPP, and primary amongst them is with a plugin, so that is where we are going to start.

Submitted by FlashPanos fan and FPP user doubledrop.

This exercise has been written to help other novice users of FPP like myself, and who are struggling with the full screen function.

This is an example of creating an auto-presentation for your panorama. Contributed by Patrick Cheatham.

Using a short series of custom functions in your XML file, Flash Panorama Player can move your panorama through a series of pan, tilt and zoom movements.

This example also shows how to write and name your custom functions, keeping them grouped together in your global element. This way you always know where your functions are and how to target them.

Online FPP Documentation Update (12/15/2007):

I've created the infrastructure here at flashpanos.com for a comprehensive "book" of Flash Panorama Player documentation. This book will endeavor to provide "plain english" descriptions of each object, element and parameter available to FPP -- along with concrete XML and/or code examples for each entry.

Zephyr and I have begun the laborious task of writing the documentation:
See an example page here.
Some of this is taken from existing documentation, some is reworded, some is from experience. The idea isn't to replicate existing FPP documentation, but to rework and expand it.

Anyone who wishes to help out is encouraged to contact us! Whether you contribute one entry or several, you will be hugely helping to create an online resource which is available to all, in an easy-to-search (and update) format.

Over in the Flash Panorama Player Forums a while back, user jaaaab posted a "Simple Compass Tutorial". I've extended his simple solution to show you how to have a rotating nadir image! Demonstration links are below, and links to source files are included at the end.

• Rotating Nadir Cap, using a SWF & jaaaab's method
• Rotating Nadir Cap, using modified method
• Stationary Nadir Cap, using modified method