This chapter provides more detail on the types of images and videos you can upload, as well as options for getting your content into Director. Let's get started on the ground floor with file formats.
With images, Director accepts GIF, PNG, or JPG. The images may be any DPI, and should always be larger (in dimension and optionally DPI) than your slideshow. This way published images are downscaled, as opposed to upscaled, which can have harmful effects on image quality. As for video, you may upload FLVs, F4Vs, or videos encoded in H.264 including MP4, M4V, M4A, MOV and/or 3GP. We recommend encoding all videos using H.264 for compatibility with the mobile player.
Lastly, you may also upload SWFs, but not SWF videos. The SlideShowPro player treats SWFs like images, and only engages its media player if one of the video file formats listed above are delivered.
When photos are requested, Director publishes web-optimized duplicates that are tailor-made for the target dimensions. When videos are requested, Director returns the same video asset that was uploaded.
If using the self-install version of Director, you may upload content through a web browser, via FTP to an existing album, or by importing an existing SlideShowPro player gallery. If a subscriber to our SlideShowPro Director Hosting service, all uploading is handled through your web browser.
The easiest and fastest way to upload content is through your web browser. Click on the "Upload" sub-navigation link inside any album, then select the type of content you want to upload. After selection, click the "Browse" button. A window will open in your operating system for you to select images and/or videos on your local machine. Select as many as you want, then click "Okay." Your selections will appear on the right side of the "Upload" page. Click "Upload" to confirm. A progress bar will appear (shown above right) to let you know when you can expect the upload to be complete.
Once an album has been created in Director, and if you've installed Director on your own web server, you have the option of uploading content to it with an FTP client. Here's how.
Navigate to the "Settings" screen for the album you want to upload content to. Note the "Album id" assigned to it in the "Album Information" module. Next, navigate to your Director installation via FTP, open the "albums" directory, then open the folder with the same id. Inside will be two folders: "cache" and "lg" (see left for example). The "lg" folder is where the original content you upload is stored for that particular album. Upload your content here.
When complete, return to Director in your web browser and click the "Upload" sub-navigation link for the album you uploaded content to. A message will appear informing you that new content has been found and imported automatically.
If you've created a slideshow using SlideShowPro for Flash or SlideShowPro for Lightroom and would like to import a gallery of images, you can. Here's what you do.
Navigate to your Director installation via FTP. Create a new folder named anything you want inside the albums/imports/ directory. For this walkthrough, we'll name it "my_import." Upload your XML file and slideshow content to albums/imports/my_import. You do not need to upload your SWF, HTML, or FLA.
Next, return to Director in your web browser. Click on the "Galleries" tab in the main navigation. At the top of the Galleries index page you should see a dialog similar to the one pictured below.
Make sure you have the correct folder selected, then click "Import now." New albums will be created in Director for each album in your imported gallery, as well as a new gallery that contains all of the albums it just created.