A Guide to Drupal eCommerce and Site Development

This appears to be a tricky module  to get up and running. For those individuals not using drush, or otherwise are having issues getting the OSM Player to work, here's my configuration I just got working. Note that I do not need audio with my video yet, so I've not included the MediaFront Audio module, and it's requirements. When I do add audio support, I'll update this tutorial.

Setup:

• Drupal 6.22
• CCK 6.x-2.9, with Embedded Media Field/Thumbnail & Video Field 6.x-1.26
• Views 6.x-2.12
• MediaFront, Open Standards Media Player, MediaFront Embedded Media Field modules are all 6.x-1.1

Introduction:
I'm sure there is a good reason why the OSM Player requires the use of a View to function; at this point in time, I do not know why. (This tutorial will be updated as soon as I learn this information.) From my understanding at this time, it looks like the minimal configuration required for the OSM Player is:

• A Content Type to operate as a holder, or container, for a video clip
• A MediaFront Preset that describes an OSM Player configuration
• A View that both:
  • Creates the 'playlist' played by the OSM Player, as well as...
  • Exposes Blocks and Pages hosting the OSM Player

It is the Content Type (the MediaFront install instructions suggest you name it 'Video') that one uses to upload an individual video clip and store it for use as a self-hosted video for one's site. Thie idea being that one uploads as many video clips as they want on their site through the Video Content Type. Then those Videos can be referenced by a View, and fed to a MediaFront Preset that has been referenced by that View's configuration. Finally, this View can expose both Blocks and Pages. Such Blocks and Pages will play these Videos when site visitors go to URLs where that Block can be seen or is a Page generated by that View. (Fun how confusing explaining these things are...)

In this tutorial, I explain setting up a Block based OSM Player. I like Blocks because they are so easy to place anywere. In my working example, I put this Block on a Page, and then link to the Page through Lightbox2. This creates a 'Video Window Popup' of sorts that I think looks nice. Your preference may be different, but that's not the point here. Let's get this video player working!

First, get familiar with these instructions:
http://www.mediafront.org/documentation/drupalmediafront-osm-cms-integra...
I'll be referencing them, adding details where needed.

In those instructions, everything up through Step 4 worked fine for me. For Step 5, something seemed to be missing, View Pages or Blocks created from the View simply showed no player. After some research, the following View and MediaFront Preset configuration worked:

For the View, I have two displays being generated, one being a Block and the other being a Page.

Two things of note here: first, the Style needs to be the OSM Media Player. Second, you'll notice a third Filter over on the right hand side; that is simply a CCK string field I created for use with my Video Content Type. Here, that CCK string field is simply used to filter the videos that get into the OSM Player when exposed as a Block.

Next, a configuration for the MediaFront Preset that works for me:

• Presentation Settings:
  • Theme: dark-hive; note that some themes seem to simply not work.
  • Template: default; simpleblack does not seem to work.
  • Flash Player Skin: default.
  • Player Width & Player Height have integer values, Fluid checkboxs are not selected.
  • Initialize FullScreen checkbox is not selected.
  • z-Index: 400.
  • Show Title Bar, Show player when empty, & Force Overflow checkboxes are not selected.
  • Flash Window Mode: window.
• Media Settings:
  • All settings were left at their intitial, never altered values except:
  • Both Auto Start & Auto Load checkboxes are selected. (However, their function appears unstable.)
• Playlist Settings (note, this must be enabled, or the player never appears.)
  • Scroll Settings:
    • Show Scroll Bar checkbox is not selected.
    • Scroll Mode: Auto Scroll
  • Display Settings:
    • Disable Playlist, Show Playlist, & Playlist Only checkboxes are not selected.
    • Default Playlist: the machine name of the View of which this Block is exposed
    • Auto Next & Loop checkboxes are selected, while the others are not.
  • Node Settings: empty
  • Controller Settings: only Show Controller is selected.
  • Voter Settings & Logo Settings: empty.
  • Other Settings: Enable Player Debugging is not selected, and seems to break the player if selected.
  • Player To Player: untouched.

Note that if you do not see a working video player at the top of your Preset's configuration page after saving your Preset, you have a problem. At this point, you should have a Block that plays videos which can be placed anywhere on your site simply by placing the Block exposed by the View defined at the top of this page on any site Page.

I think this actually covers the critical aspects of getting the OSM Player to work, at least a little. I am really pressed for time, so this is going to have to be it for now. (note: already did one update to this post.) But I need to use the OSM Player for a lot of things in the immediate future, so stay tuned to this tutorial...

Oh, you can see the working player at this page. Simply click on the "Examples of HDR Renders" icon in the middle top of the page. Expect more details of using the OSM Player soon...

New: I've added an attached file to this post that is the Export of the working MediaFront Preset detailed above. Note on the Preset's configuration page the player works perfectly, but once in use where the public gets access, the play functionality appears unstable - requiring more than one click on the play button to get playback, and the play button centered over the video content does not seem to work. I'm sure these things will work once I figure this module out...