Documentation

Using the Audio Library add-on

It's easy to use the Audio Library add-on. First, upload the files you would like to use to the Concrete5 file manager. Once you upload a file, or by clicking on a file and selecting Properties, you can customize the Title and Custom Thumbnail for each music file you upload. The Audio Library add-on will use these properties when listing and playing audio tracks.
Next you should make sure your files are all members of the same File Set. If you didn't already associate your uploaded songs to a Set, you can click on a single file or use the checkboxes to select multiple files, then assign them to a new or existing Set. This will be your playlist. The Audio Library supports sorting by date or by title, or by display order. Concrete 5.4.1 introduced the ability to drag-and-sort File Sets in order to create your own display order. If you are using Concrete 5.4.1 or greater, this will likely be the best approach to managing your playlist.

Once your playlist is ready, go to the page of your choice, edit the page, then add a new Audio Library block. Select the File Set you have already created, and you should be good to go! If you have further changes to make to the order or selection of songs, you can manage that from the File Manager without editing your Audio Library block again.

If you would like to use a different player color, or a custom template you have created yourself, click on an Audio Library block (while in Edit Mode) and select Custom Template. There are several additional colors available by default by using a custom template. You can also select Design when clicking on an Audio Library block to add padding above or around the player, or to make other design changes.



Customizing the Audio Library add-on

The Audio Library add-on has been created to make it easy to customize the look-and-feel of the player. The best approach to customizing your own version of the player is to use a custom template. Go to /packages/audio_library/blocks/audio_library/templates, and you will find several directories which make up the default templates included with the add-on. Copy one of these directories to get started with your own template. When you are ready to test them on your server, you should place it under /blocks/audio_library/templates, using your own custom name for the template you have customized.
If you open one of the default templates, you should find three files: view.php, view.css and a SWF file. The view file can be customized if you would like to change the HTML which displays the track listings. You can also edit the CSS file to apply your own custom styles. Be aware that these CSS styles may modify other instances of the Audio Library if you have multiple Audio Library blocks on the same page, so you may need to edit the CSS class names if you intend to have multiple players on the same page with different styles.

There is an FLA file included in this archive which includes the graphics for the default skin. If you have the ability to open and edit FLA files, this is an easy way to make the graphics exactly as you see fit. You can change the text and progress bar color, or you can do something much more drastic. If you have created your own SWF file to use as the presentation layer of your custom template, place it in the same directory as view.php and view.css in your template folder, and customize view.php to point to the correct file name.

The Audio Library has been designed to be flexible with a custom SWF skin you may create. If you wish to support the standard features of the library, make sure that you have MovieClips which have the names of the features you wish to implement, like ProgressBar, ProgressBarBackground, NextButton, PlayButton, ImagePlaceholder, etc. If you do not wish to support one of these features, you do not need to include them, and the Audio Library will ignore that feature.

Through a combination of CSS, some HTML or some changes in Flash, you can completely customize the look and feel of your add-on. It has been designed to support graphic changes without requiring any knowledge of Flash Actionscript or even PHP, depending upon the degree of changes you wish to implement. If there are ways you wish to customize the add-on, but are unable to, please let me know and I will be happy to consider improving the add-on to facilitate your idea.

Thank you for supporting my development and family with your purchase. I hope the Audio Library fits your needs well, and that you may consider purchasing again for your future projects. Thanks, and happy coding!