Frequently Asked Questions

* Please make sure you are always running the most recent stable version. Bugs are being fixed as issues are uncovered.

Q: I see video, but have no audio! (Or, I have audio but no video)

Please check the filetype you’re attempting to play with the player. Currently only the following are supported filetypes: MP3/FLV/RTMP/JPG/SWF/PNG/GIF

Q: I have installed the plugin according to the directions on your website. However, when I view the post I see the “Get Flash to see this player” message.

A: Check the header template file of your current WordPress theme (usually called header.php). If you don’t see the code for <?php wp_head(); ?>, you will need to add it between the HTML <head></head> tags.

  • View the source code for your page, look at the
  • Copy the link for swfobject.js and paste it into your browser address bar. If that doesn’t display javascript, it’s not being linked properly — you may have a non-standard installation of WordPress (ie; no/renamed plugins directory). If that is the case, this issue will be resolved in a future release.
  • If you don’t see the script tag for swfobject.js, then your WordPress template probably isn’t calling the wp_head() tag. You can either add wp_head() it into the template file, or you simply add the script tag.

Q: Why do I see this code in my [search, category, archive, search, etc] pages?

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

var s0 = new SWFObject(”https://www.mac-dev.net/blog/wp-content/plugins/flash-video-player/mediaplayer.swf”,”n0”,”480”,”190”,”7”);
s0.addParam(”allowfullscreen”,”true”);
s0.addParam(”allowscriptaccess”,”always”);
s0.addVariable(”javascriptid”,”n0”);
s0.addVariable(”height”,”190”);
s0.addVariable(”width”,”480”);
s0.addVariable(”image”,”https://www.mac-dev.net/blog/videos/300-lg.jpg”);
s0.addVariable(”searchbar”,”false”);
s0.addVariable(”screencolor”,”0×000000”);
s0.addVariable(”logo”,”https://www.mac-dev.net/blog/images/mac-dev-logo.png”);
s0.addVariable(”overstretch”,”true”);
s0.addVariable(”showeq”,”false”);
s0.addVariable(”showicons”,”true”);
s0.addVariable(”shownavigation”,”true”);
s0.addVariable(”showstop”,”false”);
s0.addVariable(”showndigits”,”true”);
s0.addVariable(”showdownload”,”false”);
s0.addVariable(”usefullscreen”,”true”);
s0.addVariable(”autoscroll”,”false”);
s0.addVariable(”displayheight”,”240”);
s0.addVariable(”thumbsinplaylist”,”true”);
s0.addVariable(”autostart”,”false”);
s0.addVariable(”bufferlength”,”3”);
s0.addVariable(”repeat”,”false”);
s0.addVariable(”rotatetime”,”5”);
s0.addVariable(”shuffle”,”false”);
s0.addVariable(”smoothing”,”true”);
s0.addVariable(”volume”,”80”);
s0.addVariable(”enablejs”,”true”);
s0.addVariable(”linkfromdisplay”,”false”);
s0.addVariable(”linktarget”,”_self”);
s0.addVariable(”searchlink”,”http://search.longtail.tv/?q=”);
s0.addVariable(”file”,”https://www.mac-dev.net/blog/videos/300-lg.flv”);
s0.write(”video0”);

A: The WordPress theme you’re using uses a function in WordPress that shortens the post length for these types of pages. Since there is no standard (that I am aware of), it is impossible to fix this issue with the plugin. However, you can edit your theme’s template file to fix it.

  • Determine which page needs to be edited. The usual suspects are: archive pages, category pages, tag page and search pages.
    • For archive pages, the URL usually looks like either ?m=200606 or /2006/06/
    • For category pages, the URL usually looks like either ?cat=7 or /category/
    • Search pages use the ?s=searchword URL format
  • Next, you will need to edit the appropriate template file. You can do this by logging into your admin console and selecting “Design” (for WordPress 2.5), “Presentation” for WordPress 2.3
  • Click on “Theme Editor”. If you don’t see a button that says update file, you aren’t going to be able to edit the file using the admin interface due to permissions on the server. You can FTP or SSH into your server and edit the file manually — template files are located in the /wp-content/themes/yourtheme folder.
  • On the right side of the editor, locate the file you need to edit (determined in step one above). This will likely be either category.php, archive.php, search.php or similar. If you don’t see any of those, the file you probably need to edit is index.php (which is the default when those files aren’t present).
  • Select your file to load it into the theme editor.
  • Scan the loaded file for the line that looks like this
    <?php the_excerpt(); ?>
    and replace it with this
    <?php the_content(); ?>
    This will ensure that your page displays the entire post and will fix the issue.
    There is an alternative to editing the theme template to fix this problem.

The behavior of the <?php the_excerpt(); ?> function is to create a teaser by taking the first 50 or so words of the post only if the post has no excerpt.

If the teaser of a particular post gives you code, then you can edit that particular post and fill in the excerpt (under “Advanced Options”). Now that there is an excerpt, the function <?php the_excerpt(); ?> will use that text instead of creating a teaser.

Q: Why doesn’t my swf file play properly? (no volume, stops, skips)

A: Because the media player is a swf file, it can behave unexpectedly when playing back other swf files. Think of it this way, if the player is telling Flash to perform one action, and the embedded swf is telling Flash to do something else (play and stop, for example), the player may get confused and act erratically. The best solution is to embed flv files for video playback instead of swf if you’re experiencing problems.

Q: Why do I see “undefined” under my video?

A: Check the Options page – specifically the displayheight parameter under the “Playlist Appearance” section. You’re seeing the playlist below the player, but because it’s a single file, there is no name/icon. You can hide it by setting the displayheight directive equal to the height + 20 (if you want to show controls).

Q: Why do I get the following error [Error: Required parameter “filename” is missing!]?

A: You need to add the filename parameter to every tag, so the player knows what to play. This is the only required piece of information for this plugin to function. Here’s an example: [flashvideo filename=videos/my-video.flv /] You may also receive this error if you’ve forgotten to place a space after your filename (before the closing tag /]).

Q: I entered a remote (or fully qualified) URL as my filename parameter, but it’s not working.

A: The plugin has been updated to support remote files. Test that your link is correct by copying and pasting it into your browser.

Q: How do I override a default variable?

A: Simply add the variable as a parameter in your post tag. If you wanted to override the default width and height (320×240) you would do it inline like this: [flashvideo filename=”videos/my-video.flv” width=”480″ height=”480″ /] Every variable on the options page can be used inline as an override to the default value.

Q: Do I really need to add quotes around the values of the parameters?

A: Nope, it’s there for backward compatibility. However, any spaces in filenames or paths will not work. Example: [flashvideo filename=videos/my-video.flv width=600 /]

Q: Does this release work with permalinks enabled?

A: Yes! This release has fixed previous issues and now supports all permalink structures.

Q: Do you have any screenshots?

A: Yes. You can view many of them on the Flash Video Player Plugin Screenshot Page.

Q: I’m getting strange display errors in IE after refresh

A: The Stage dimensions are probably not properly set. You can specify “width” and “height” to force specific dimensions to the player and fix this problem. This plugin sets values by default — so this shouldn’t happen to you.

Q: Why doesn’t my JavaScript interaction work?

A: Due to security restrictions in the Flash Player, javascript interaction will not work when testing locally. Accessing remote media files or jumping to remote URL’s simply won’t work. Try from your web server and it should work properly.

Q: Why doesn’t fullscreen work for me?

A: True fullscreen only works if you have the Flash Player 9,0,28,0 or higher installed.

Q: Why doesn’t my progress bar work? Why are my dimensions messed up?

A: Your FLV file doesn’t have correct metadata inserted. You can fix this by using the small tool available at http://www.buraks.com/flvmdi/ or the windows alternative Ruby tool: flvtool2.

Q: My video doesn’t work when I upload it to the server!

A: If the player plays FLV files on your computer but not on your website and your website is running of an IIS server, then the FLV mimetype isn’t added to the server yet. You can check this by typing in the direct address to your FLV file in your browser. If you get a 404, you’re on IIS without mimetype. You can contact your server administrator or fix it yourself.

Q: Can I add the video player to my WordPress template file?

A: No. Because of the nature of WordPress plugins, they have to be part of a blog post and won’t.

Q: How do I link to an RTMP stream?

A: Example: [flashvideo filename=rtmp://rtmpvideos.com/my-video.flv /]

Q: How do I create a playlist?

A: Check out the documentation on Jeroen’s website: XSPF, RSS, ASX Playlist Formats

Q: Why aren’t my custom player colors working?

A: Try typing in the hex code by hand. Sometimes when you copy/paste, there will be special characters that look right, but aren’t. Make sure the codes begin with the 0x, just like the examples (that’s a ZERO then lower case x).

Q: Why do I see code in my RSS feed and search results for videos?

A: This is a known issue. It will be fixed in a future release.

In the interim (for search results only), you can change the template to display the post by:
removing <php the_excerpt> and replacing it with ?<php the_content?>

Q: How do I add a YouTube video?

A: Easy. Just use the full URL to the YouTube video page in the filename argument.

Example:
[flashvideo filename=http://youtube.com/watch?v=pShf2VuAu_Q /]

Q: What happened to the floating controls?

A: In version 2.1 of the plugin, this directive was removed, as it was non-standard for the mediaplayer. This allows more flexibility over display of the media player. To achieve floating controls, set the height and display height directive to the same value.

[flashvideo filename=myfile.flv height=240 width=360 displayheight=240 /]

To show the controls, set the displayheight variable to 20px more than the height variable.

[flashvideo filename=myfile.flv height=240 width=360 displayheight=260 /]

To show a playlist, set the the displayheight to the height of the video + the size of the playlist and controls.

[flashvideo filename=myfile.flv height=240 width=360 displayheight=340 /]

Q: How do I enable Google Analytics tracking on my videos?

A: There are a few fairly simple steps you need to take to track the plays of your videos.

Make sure you website is currently being tracked by Google. If you need to sign up, visit this webpage: Google Analytics. It’s free for private use. Once you’ve signed up and configured your website appropriate (and see your traffic data), you’re ready to track videos!
In the global plugin options page, set the Callback URL (under Interaction) to analytics.
Check to make sure Enable JavaScript is checked
That’s it! You should start seeing the stream_start and stream_end events in a day or two. Keep in mind, you will likely have to search for them, as video plays generate lower traffic than page views. The URL format will be (assuming the flv file is called 300.flv): stream_start/300.flv and stream_end/300.flv

* Note: You may need to add the urchinTracker() code before the flash video player for it to work. Google suggests you place the code at the bottom of the page, I have had good luck by placing it directly after the opening body tag.