mClip - Movie Module

[Kendle]

I've recently completed a new module, initially developed for my step-son who races Stock Cars, (Oval Track "Legends" to be precise). He wanted a site on which to host movie clips of his races. In developing this I realised I could use it myself to build a catalog of movie clips from all over the web, specifically from YouTube and other such sources.

As this module effectively couldn't function without loads of free stuff provided by many cool sources I felt charging for it would be rather unethical, so I decided to release it for free!

There follows the text from the README that comes with it, but if you can't be bothered to read all that here's a couple of links where it's installed:-

www.cmsdreams.co.uk/Movie.html
www.legend114.co.uk/in...name=Movie

And here's where you can get it:-

www.cmsdreams.co.uk/Do.../id=1.html

Now for the README ...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Movie Module for DragonFly CMS
==============================
Copyright (c) 2007 www.cmsdreams.co.uk

A free program released under the terms and conditions of the GNU GPL version 2 or any later version.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

This module enables webmasters to add FLV formatted movies to their site and allow visitors to view them using the supplied "FlowPlayer" FLV movie player ((c) www.flowplayer.org). A copy of the basic FlowPlayer player is included in this module. There are others available from their website.

To use FlowPlayer (or any server side FLV player) you need to encode your AVI / MPG movies into FLV. I use (the also excellent) Riva FLV Encoder from www.rivavx.com

The module also comes with various other movie types pre-defined, specifically the type that allow you to embed movies in a web page that are hosted elsewhere, like YouTube.

Each movie type uses HTML code to embed a viewable movie object in a web page. The HTML is included in the "type" record stored in the database and is therefore completely definable (you might want to change size / quality settings etc.). This HTML includes a placeholder for the actual movie file / link.

In the case of FLV movies you will need to also supply the path to the player and the location of the FLV movies files. The defaults should do fine unless you particularly want to move them elsewhere.

Note: The module doesn't allow you to upload movies directly, you'll need to do so via FTP. The reason for this is that movies tend to be quite big and PHP upload isn't the most reliable (not to mention many shared hosting services severally limit the size of files that can be uploaded).

You can however upload images for Types / Categories and Movies. To enable this you'll need to make the following folders writable :-

modules/Movie/images/categories
modules/Movie/images/movies
modules/Movie/images/types

Movies
======
Eaxmple:-

To add an FLV movie -

1) Upload the FLV file to - modules/Movie/movies
2) Go to Admin -> Movie and click the Movies tab
3) Choose Type = FlowPlayer
4) Give the movie a Title
5) In Link/ID enter the name of the FLV file
6) Click Add

To add a YouTube movie -

1) Go to Admin -> Movie and click the Movies tab
2) Choose Type = YouTube
3) Give the movie a Title
4) In Link/ID enter the YouTube ID of the movie

note: if the URL to the YouTube movie is:-

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyz123

The Link/ID is:-

xyz123

5) Click Add

As you can see the module knows the URL to play YouTube movies and only needs the ID, the bit on the end of the URL. This is basically the same for all other movie types as well.

The exception is MetaCafe which uses an ID and Title. For example, if the URL to the MetaCafe movie is:-

www.metacafe.com/watch...title_here

You would need to supply a Link/ID of:-

123456/movie_title_here

Types
=====
The module comes with the following types pre-defined -

FLV (FlowPlayer) - local player + local movies
DivX - local movies (no local player required)
YouTube
Google
iFilm
MetaCafe
MySpace

To add other types use the Types tab of Admin -> Movie

You only need provide values for "Player" and "Movies" if this type plays locally hosted movies.

The HTML code used to embed this type in your site contains 1 or more placeholders, which are replaced when viewing the movie with data from the Type and Movie records in the database. These placeholders are as follows:-

{player} - this holds the name and path of the player (local only)
{movies} - this holds the name and path of the movies (local only)
{link} - this holds the name of the movie or ID of the link

{player} is only needed for FLV or similar files using a server-side player.

{movies} is only needed for locally hosted files (DivX perhaps), although if you leave this blank you can supply URLs to movies hosted elsewhere (with permission from whoever hosts them of course)

{link} is the name of the movie file, if it's local, of the ID of the movie if it's YouTube etc.

The HTML code must contain at least {link} and possibly the others. Look at the existing types to see how they're used.

Categories
==========
The module allows you to categorise movies however you like, with categories being sub-categories of others (including other sub-categories etc.) to as many levels deep as you like. You can supply an image for each movie Type, and for each Category, and for each individual movie.

The module uses a hierarchy to decide what image to use on the display pages.

* If the movie has an image associated with it, that's the one used.

* If not, if the Category has an image, that's the one used.

* If not, if the Type has an image, that's the one used.

Fields
======
The module allows you to add custom fields to a movie. These can be of various types, Character / Date / Numeric / Lookup lists etc. This is quite a powerful feature for extending the range of information you can store for each movie.

Options
=======
On the Admin -> Movie -> Config tab you can set some global options for the module, including how many movies to display across and down if using grid view. The main page will also by default show the most recent movies added, the highest rated, and the most viewed. You can disable these options, and / or change how many are displayed.

Example Sites
=============
This module is active on 2 sites I maintain, namely my DragonFly module site:-

www.cmsdreams.co.uk/Movie.html

and a site I made for my step-son who races Oval Track Legends, a kind of Stock Car racing only non-contact and way faster:-

www.legend114.co.uk/in...name=Movie

[chris5000]

Hey Kendle. Just tried installing and am getting this:

MySQL Error while executing:
INSERT INTO cms_config_custom VALUES ('Movie','version','1.0.1')

Duplicate entry 'Movie-version' for key 1

I had initially received another error, but when I clicked on install again, I got the one above.

[Kendle]

What was the initial error?

You're getting the one above because trying it again is attempting to do something it'd already done the first time. I'd need to know what the first error was.

edit: Also, what version DF? I've got the module installed on a vanilla DF 9.1.2 site without any problems.

[Eestlane]

Awesome, Kendle!

[PoKo]

Fantastic Kendle - I may have to order a mod on this one if you have the time (to fit my calendar)

[chris5000]

Kendle here is the error (tried to install on another site of mine). I am using DF 9.1.2.1.

MySQL Error while executing:
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS cms_movie_movie ( mid INT(11) NOT NULL auto_increment, cid INT(11) NOT NULL default '0', tid INT(11) NOT NULL default '0', uid INT(11) NOT NULL default '0', datetime VARCHAR(16) NOT NULL default '', mtitle VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL default '', mimage VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL default '', mshort TEXT NOT NULL default '', mextend TEXT NOT NULL default '', mlink VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL default '', mviews MEDIUMINT(8) NOT NULL default '', mscore MEDIUMINT(8) NOT NULL default '', mvotes MEDIUMINT(8) NOT NULL default '', PRIMARY KEY (mid) ) TYPE=MyISAM

Invalid default value for 'mviews'

[Kendle]

Ah, nuts, tripped up by the old MySQL 5.x wrong default again, how embarassing (that's why it worked for me and not you, I'm still using MySQL 4.0, which doesn't care if numeric fields don't have a numeric default)

I've fixed the installer and re-uploaded the package.

Also, this module uses my module comment plug-in and I forgot to include those files in the package, so anyone trying to use comments with this module will come a cropper as well.

Anyone who's downloaded this module please download it again, sorry about that!

[chris5000]

Okay, thanks Kendle. Now that I've tried to install it once before, I am getting that first error I posted once again. Don't know what to remove in order to get the installer to work cleanly again.

EDIT: Never mind. I saw those entries in the config_custom table and removed them!

[chris5000]

I installed and added a category and YouTube movie clip. I am getting database errors. I turned on debug and where I have the Most-Recent block loaded on the Home page, I get this:

CMS Warning line 75: On / While executing query "SELECT mid, mtitle, datetime FROM cms_movie_movie ORDER BY m.datetime DESC LIMIT 0,5" the following error occured: Unknown column 'm.datetime' in 'order clause' In: /home/pointswe/public_html/soundgab/blocks/block-Movie-Recent.php on line: 31

[jeffk]

installed with no errors 9.1.2.1

it would only be of use to me though if members could add there own links and not just admin

[Kendle]

@chris, sorry, didn't even test the block, consider it broken for now. I'll fix it and make some more hopefully later this week.

@jeff, I appreciate it would be lot more useful if that were the case (though then I'd have to add an approval mechanism and image upload name checking (or random name generation)), however it's currently what I needed for my own purposes and I figured it was quite a nice little module so decided to make it available. I'll probably do more to it in the coming weeks.

[rlgura]

@Jeff - thanks for asking the question - I was wondering that myself after reading Kendle's description.

@Kendle - great module as always - I'll have to think about the applications for this myself - user submitted would obviously be used - should we start a bounty for an "upgrade" of this mod to include user submission?

[Kendle]

No, I'll add it, just give me a while. I'm stupidly busy with "real life" stuff these days, I just made this because it was own step-son who wanted me to make a site for him and this is something he specifically wanted to do with it.

[jeffk]

bulldog is doing a social module , this includes a video component where members can submit there links , maybe worth a look at the code for ideas

[Kendle]

Oh well, I was probably going to struggle to find time to do anything this week, so strike while the iron's hot, as we English say...

v1.1.1 uploaded which adds facility for users to submit movies and for Admins to approve them. User submission and / or Admin approval can be set in the module config section. User submission is disabled by default so go to Admin -> Movie -> Config to enable it.

Wouldn't mind some feedback on this as I've only quickly added this feature and tested it. No doubt in my haste I may have broken something.

edit: As I had to add a field you'll need to upload the files and then go to Admin -> Modules -> edit Movie and click the "Upgrade to 1.1" link.