Skowronek

Posts Tagged ‘Development’

SWFObject Codebase Moves to Google Code

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While doing some Flash coding today I noticed the SWFObject homepage had a notice that all the code had moved to Google Code as the new and improved (lowercase) swfobject. For anyone not familiar with swfobject, it is (IMHO) the de facto JavaScript library/API for embedding and enabling Adobe Flash applications on the web. Version 2.0 has been completely revamped with a pretty steep upgrade path, so do not do it lightheartedly.

<swfobject> google Project Page

Skowronek.org Facelift

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It’s been a couple of weeks since I finished the final design, and now, after a day or so of coding and fussing with WordPress, it is finally done. Completely rebuilt with widgets (I’ll post my twitter and other such widgets later perhaps) and dynamic everything. Now time for bed.

Custom, Undocumented YouTube Player Parameters

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Apparently, YouTube has a few undocumented parameters that can effect the display of certain elements of an embedded player. I ran across this post in their developer forums following a request by a work associate to figure out how to hide the options displayed at the end of a played movie. Here is the list of known parameters along with the URL to the actual post:

  • rel = 0/1 -> value for showing related videos
  • color1 = hexadecimal color code -> value for the base color
  • color2 = hexadecimal color code -> value for the over color
  • border = 0…x -> value for the border width
  • autoplay 0/1 -> value for automatically starting the video to play
  • eurl = http://www.yourwebsite.com -> I believe this is the referring URL. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
  • iurl = Path to the thumbnail image (I believe)

Custom URL parameters for YouTube embedded players

Silverlight Live Streaming

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While reading another Silverlight development articles, I ran across a new service/feature Microsoft is offering for Silverlight developers/practioners. They claim to offer 4GB streaming services for free. I’m not sure all the stipulations and/or limitations, but hey, it’s not YouTube!

Index of /wp-content/uploads

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Tonight, whilst experimenting with the various advanced Google search techniques (hacks) to locate web content, I had an epiphany. Any web directory/folder that has indexes enabled (show an index of the contents of the folder of no directory index file exists) will list the contents of said directory with the phrase “Index of” followed by the actual root-relative path to available list of assets. This is due to the fact that the directory/folder does not have an index document/file present, so the web server spits out the entire list of the folder’s content. But I digress.

I have been using WordPress as my blogging platform for a few years now. Before that was a hybrid of PHPBB and custom PHP application I wrote. WordPress works great and has robust features that make blogging a snap for the more technical (such as myself, ehem) and also for the less technical netizens out there. Now, one of these great features is the ability to upload pictures and files (content) through a web interface. What a great concept (this is where the epiphany came in) except if you weren’t planning on listing up the contents of your entire uploads folder to the world. which happens to be the case with some (okay a lot of) default installations of WordPress.

Lets say you “Google” the “Index of” any WordPress uploads folders (/wp-content/uploads). You don’t have to be a rock scientist (yes, that was a joke) to realize the possible implications. Let me give you an idea of the figure as of tonight: 4,143,000 indexes. That’s 4,143,000 WordPress installations that have directory indexes enabled and are completely wide open to crawlers and spiders that can pilfer (argh) their content.

Try it yourself: http://www.google.com/search?q=Index+of+%2Fwp-content

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Encoding and Downloading FLV Media

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One of the greatest features of Flash is the ability to encode video for online playback. For those that have not done this, the quick notes version:

  1. Create a blank Flash movie (somewhere near the dimensions of the source video)
  2. File | Import | Import to library…
  3. Select Windows | Library OR CTRL + L for those key-jockeys out there
  4. Select the imported movie from the library
  5. Right-click | Properties
  6. In the Embedded Video Properties dialog box, click Export.
  7. Save the movie for later use

Now, what if we want to be able to download an FLV movie from somewhere on the web. Lately I have been researching ways to leverage various online social media provider’s technologies (and uhm, assets.) In doing so, I rely heavily on Fiddler, an HTTP debugging proxy which logs all HTTP traffic between your computer and the Internet (that is all IE traffic.) By listening to the HTTP requests being sent from any embedded Flash application from your local computer, FLV assets from YouTube, Brightcove and others are easily retrievable. Although there are freely available plug-ins for Firefox and Internet Explorer that occasionally work, oftentimes it becomes necessary to dig in and get your hands dirty. Let’s dirty up…

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Using Visual Studio.NET to Debug JavaScript

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I have been using the Visual Studio JavaScript debugger for years (since VS 6.0). Apparently, a lot of developers with which I have spoken are oblivious to the fact that, in fact, you can debug many things from VS.NET (JS being one of them). Rather than put up a lengthy tutorial, I figured I would at least share what the keystroke combination is to access the Script Explorer from within VS.NET.

First, you’ll need to actually be attached to Internet Explorer (will not work with Firefox, at least to my knowledge) in script mode. Once attached, you then hit the CTRL + ALT + N keys to bring up the Script Explorer window. This will list out all the files IE has loaded at that time. You can then open up any HTML, JS, etc. files and set breakpoints to debug at runtime.

Amazing and pretty dang useful at the same time. Feel free to comment if you find this useful.

Doug Crawford on Google Gears and Mashups

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Ran across this video of Doug Crawford (JSON, JSMin, JSLint, etc) talking about Google mashups and Gears. Very boring to those non-coders. Somewhat interesting to some coders. Very interesting to those of us who live and breath code.