About The Laszlo SoundBlox

SoundBlox is an MP3 audio playing Internet application that can be embedded into a personal blog template or Web page, and displayed in any modern Web browser.

Laszlo Systems provides SoundBlox free for non-commercial use, to spread awareness of Laszlo's XML-native platform for rich Internet applications. The code behind SoundBlox is freely available under the same terms as the Apache Open Source license

Please put SoundBlox to good use. Respect the letter and spirit of content copyrights. Support the efforts of the Creative Commons.

Embedding SoundBlox in your blog or web page

You can embed SoundBlox by copying two script tags into your HTML page or blog template, one in the page header, and one in the page body. The html page source of the following example shows the simplest embed setup:

Default SoundBlox in web page

How SoundBlox Works provides a conceptual overview of how SoundBlox works over the Internet.

You may also view source on this blog page to see how the SoundBlox on the right was embedded. Search for the string "<!-- soundblox -->" to find the embed tags.

Customizing the soundbloxdata.xml configuration file:

If you're comfortable editing XML files with a text editor, and know how to post files on a Web server (GeoCities or Tripod would suffice), then SoundBlox gets really interesting. SoundBlox can be customized by modifying a copy of the default xml file, and specifying the URL location of the modified SoundBlox XML file. The HTML page source of this example shows how:

Customized SoundBlox in web page | Using this customized XML file

Note: embedding URL string parameters in the script tag requires URL encoding, since parameters passed in the URL string can only contain certain characters. To see examples of such tags with encoded URL strings, view source on the above example page. An URL encoding Web form is available at: Albion Research

FAQ

  • Client CPU requirements: Viewers of the SoundBlox should have a broadband internet connection, 400 Mhz Pentium-class CPU or better, 128 Mb RAM or more, and a modern Web browser enabled with the Flash Player (version 5 or higher).

  • MP3 encoding limitations: To play properly over the Web, MP3 audio files for SoundBlox must be encoded at a fixed bit rate of 160 kbps or lower, and at a sample rate of 11025 hz, 22050 hz or 44100 hz. Lower bit and sample rates will yield substantially smaller file sizes and improve Web playback performance. Some users report best Internet playback for music at 64kbps.

  • Initial load & play delays: There is a longer delay when playing an MP3 file for the first time. This occurs because the source MP3 must be transferred from the original URL location to the server hosting the SoundBlox application, and from there to the requesting client Web browser. After the first request of the MP3, it is cached on the SoundBlox server to speed up subsequent requests. MP3 files are also cached at each requesting Web browser, speeding up any replays of the file at the requesting client computer. To speed response for your users, you may wish to invoke the first play of each song in your playlist.

  • Customizing the app skin: Background 'skins' need to be 180W x 420H pixels, and saved in JPEG, PNG or GIF format. Please compress your skin graphics to minimize load time of your site page. Post your custom skin on a public web server, and enter the absolute URL path into your soundbloxdata.xml file

  • Customizing the art display area: The album art display area is 164 x 164 pixels. Images will be scaled to fit the display region. Enter absolute URL paths in the appropriate tags of your soundbloxdata.xml file. The default image in this display area can be changed in the same manner.


KNOWN ISSUES:

  1. IE 5.2 on Mac OSX does not display SoundBlox. Apple Safari does work.

  2. Linux users: Flash 5 Player for Linux OS performs somewhat poorly. An upgrade to Flash 6 on Linux will improve playback performance.

  3. Playback glitches may appear if your browser cached an out-dated version of Soundblox. Clear your browser cache to update to the most current SoundBlox.

  4. Embedding in Radio Userland: when pasting the 2nd script tag into the HTML template body, all the parameters in the lzEmbed function need to be double-quoted rather than single-quoted. Otherwise, the Radio system automatically attempts to convert the URL into an in-line hyperlink in the blog page, which results in browser script errors.


    5. For example:

    lzEmbed({url: 'http://www.mylaszlo.com/lps-krank/my-apps/
    soundblox/soundblox.lzx?lzt=swf&data_url=http%3A%2F%2F
    www.geocities.com%2Flyndon_wong%2Fsoundblox%2Fsoundbloxdata_plantskin.xml',
    bgcolor: '#ffffff', width: '180', height: '420'});

    must be changed to:

    lzEmbed({url: "http://www.mylaszlo.com/lps-krank/my-apps/
    soundblox/soundblox.lzx?lzt=swf&data_url=http%3A%2F%2F
    www.geocities.com%2Flyndon_wong%2Fsoundblox%2Fsoundbloxdata_plantskin.xml",
    bgcolor: "#ffffff", width: "180", height: "420"});


Need Help? Visit the BlogBox Support Forum


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About The BlogBox Project: SoundBlox is part of a series of BlogBoxes that provide rich Internet functionality for bloggers while showcasing the merits of Laszlo's declarative XML development approach. Application code in this series is available under an Apache-style open source license.



// posted by Lyndon W. Wong @ 4:48 PM