free package
Fully functional, no restrictions
Easy to install on any website
XML customizable
GPL Licensed
Watermarked :
paid package
NO watermark:
plus a Flash component which can be used in Flash projects
Features
- fully customizable flipping countdown
- you can enable/disable the days, hours, minutes and seconds and put them in any order you like
- you can customize the overall width and height and each item's width and height
- shadow properties like distance, angle, color, blur, alpha
- font faces, sizes and colors
- multiple languages support
- item corner radius, spacing, border width, split size
Installation instructions for:
How to install this Countdown on your website
Step 1. SWF embedding
Download the countdown.zip package and put all the files from this package into the same folder with the HTML file in which you want the component to be embedded.
You should know first of all that the SWF file is the one that actually represents the component, while the other files (settings.xml) are the assets that the SWF file uses.
A short explanation on how SWFs and XMLs interacts you will find here.
Open your HTML file with a text editor and insert somewhere between the <head> </head> tags the following lines:
<script type="text/javascript" src="swfobject.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var flashvars = {};
var params = {};
params.scale = "noscale";
params.salign = "tl";
params.wmode = "transparent";
var attributes = {};
swfobject.embedSWF("countdown.swf", "CountdownDiv", "600", "260", "9.0.0", false, flashvars, params, attributes);
</script>
For a fast and easy publishing, the best thing to do is to have the SWF file, the HTML file which embeds the SWF, the swfobject.js file, and the assets that the SWF uses (XML files) in the same folder.
If that is not possible, please read this detailed article on how to specify the paths correctly.
The above code itself isn’t enough to publish the SWF file on your webpage. You just need to add a div somewhere in the body section of your page (between the <body> </body> tags of your HTML file).
So, in a specific location of your HTML body section insert this div:
<div id="CountdownDiv"></div>
Step 2. Customization
You’ll be able to define a maximum size of 1680 in width and 1050 in height in the 3rd and 4th arguments of the swfobject.embedSWF() function above. Usually the same values as for width and height (which you will set below).
Now you will have to define the properties of your Countdown.
You can do that by editing the settings.xml file, or much simpler, set your values on the Live Demo above and press Generate button, then click copy and paste over the existing content of settings.xml file.
If you intend to have multiple Countdowns on the same page, for the same countdown.swf file you’ll need to have different settings. Please read here how publish a component twice on the same page.
If you’ll want to use the Countdown in Flash projects (FLA files), the Countdown FX is available as a Flash component (MXP file) in the commercial package
Instructions on how to use the Countdown component in Flash you will find here.
To be able to remove the FlashXML.net label from the top-left corner you will need to purchase the commercial package
Make sure your Wordpress version is greater than 2.8 and your hosting provider is using PHP5.
1. There are two files to download:
a. WordPress Plugin that you have to install and activate
b. Free package
2. Create a new folder inside your wp-content folder called flashxml, inside this folder create a new one called countdown-fx and copy the content of the free package there
3. If you copied the free package to a location different than the one above, go to Countdown FX from the Settings tab from your WordPress Dashboard and update the path accordingly
4. Add [countdown-fx][/countdown-fx] where you want the Flash to show up in your post/page.
5. If you want to make the Countdown FX part of your theme, edit the template files and add <?php countdownfx_echo_embed_code(); ?> where you want it to show up
6. Customize your Countdown FX using the Live Demo from the top of this page. Generate the settings.xml text and use it to overwrite wp-content/flashxml/countdown-fx/settings.xml
Additional settings file
To embed the Countdown FX more than once, you will need another settings file. Let's assume your new file is called settings2.xml. Add [countdown-fx settings="settings2.xml"][/countdown-fx] where you want the Flash to show up in your post/page. If you made the Flash part of your theme, add the file name as the first argument of the countdownfx_echo_embed_code() function call (for example <?php countdownfx_echo_embed_code("settings2.xml"); ?>).
No Flash support text
To support visitors without Adobe Flash Player, you can provide alternative content by adding the text between [countdown-fx] and [/countdown-fx]. If you made the Flash part of your theme, add the text as the second argument of the countdownfx_echo_embed_code() function call (for example <?php countdownfx_echo_embed_code("","Alternative content"); ?>).
If you have PHP4
To make it work with PHP4, add [countdown-fx width="600" height="300"][/countdown-fx] where you want the Flash to show up in your post/page. If you made the Flash part of your theme, add the width and height as the third and fourth argument of the countdownfx_echo_embed_code() function call. Don't forget to provide your own width and height values, since 600 and 300 are just examples.
Getting rid of the FlashXML.net label
To remove the FlashXML.net label from the top-left corner you'll need to buy the paid package. Once you'll do that, simply use the SWF file from the paid package to overwrite the SWF file from the wp-content/flashxml/countdown-fx/ folder.
Make sure your Joomla version is 1.5 and your hosting provider is using PHP5.
Joomla Module Instructions:
1. There are two files to download (both under GPL License):
a. Joomla Module that you have to install and enable
b. Free package
2. Create a new folder inside your Joomla folder called flashxml, inside this folder create a new one called countdownfx and copy the content of the free package there
3. If you copied the free package to a location different than the one above, update the Path from module's parameters accordingly
4. Customize your Countdown FX using the Live Demo from the top of this page. Generate the settings.xml text and use it to overwrite flashxml/countdownfx/settings.xml
Joomla Plugin Instructions:
1. There are two files to download (both under GPL License):
a. Joomla Plugin that you have to install and enable
b. Free package
2. Create a new folder inside your Joomla folder called flashxml, inside this folder create a new one called countdownfx and copy the content of the free package there
3. If you copied the free package to a location different from the one above, update the Path from module's parameters accordingly
4. Add {countdownfx}{/countdownfx} where you want the Flash to show up in your article
5. Customize your Countdown FX using the Live Demo from the top of this page. Generate the settings.xml text and use it to overwrite flashxml/countdownfx/settings.xml
6. The default name for the settings file is settings.xml, but if you want to use another file (for example settings2.xml), specify the name like this: {countdownfx settings="settings2.xml"}{/countdownfx} where you want the component to show up in your article
7. In some cases the width and height will not be read from the settings.xml file but you can specify them like this: {countdownfx width="400" height="300"}{/countdownfx}. Don't forget to provide your own width and height values, since 400 and 300 are just examples.
Getting rid of the FlashXML.net label
To remove the FlashXML.net label from the top-left corner you'll need to buy the paid package.
Once you will do that, simply use the SWF file from the paid package to overwrite the SWF file from the flashxml/countdownfx/ folder.
Below you will see instructions on how to install and use the Countdown Component in Flash (available for Flash CS3, CS4, and Flash Player 9 or later).
For basic instructions on how to integrate the Countdown’s SWF file into HTML/PHP, click here.
You can watch an installation video tutorial of a very similar component in Flash (3D Carousel Menu FX) by clicking here.
In this video you will see:
- how to create an instance of the component on the stage: from the Components panel (Ctrl+F7) drag & drop the component on the stage
- how to give a name to that instance for further use in ActionScript: click on the component instance on the stage and from the Properties panel (Ctrl+F3) enter a name in the text input
- how to access the properties of the component (read or modify) during different moments of your Flash application
Any property of the Component could be accessed that way. The names of the properties are identical with the ones from the settings.xml file.
The properties of the component can be of any of the three types: Number, String, Boolean. We assume it’s intuitive of which type each property is.
Warning! Setting the parameters of the component in the Component Inspector window (Shift+F7) and in the same time having a settings.xml file populated with different values for each property, the properties from the settings.xml file will have priority (meaning that a parameter set in the Component Inspector will be ignored if that parameter is also defined in the XML file)
For now, this component doesn't dispatch events, but stay tuned for an update.
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Do you have a question?
you will get an answer in 24 hours, tops.
arivazhagan
Posted YesterdayHi,can we use different component in a single page,for example news reader,image scroller and news ticker.
Hello,
Yes, you can , you’ll find a tutorial for that here , only use it for 2 or 3 different component, instead of the same component.
JDL
Posted 5 Days AgoThis is really cool, but when i go to generate XML, always get the defualt. What am i doing wrong?
Hi,
Have you tried to clear your cache?
Rick
Posted 6 Days AgoI have just purchased a copy and cannot change the background color no matter what happends. I am running wordprss 3.01. When I go to your xml edit page and edit the colors and embed the xml that it generates which I replace witch existing settings.xml, the colors do not change. Do you guys know whats going on.
Hi,
Have you tried to clear your cache?
Dave
Posted 10 Days AgoSupport – www.ECCW.com, scroll down slightly on the right side.
Thanks.
Dave
Posted 11 Days AgoSupport – I think I see the problem with the embed code. I am using the Smart Youtube plugin which is called to the same CSS as your plugin:
#sidebar embed, #sidebar object {
height:250px;
margin:0;
padding:0;
width:300px;
}
If I change the height to 100px, the video is too small but the white space under your plugin is removed. If I leave at 250px, the video in the sidebar looks fine but the white space under your plug is massive.
Is there a way to solve? Using HTML code perhaps?
Thanks.
Hi,
Could you give me a link to your website?
I’ll check it out.
Dave
Posted 12 Days AgoSupport – thanks for your response below:
That’s because it does not have a background color (as this is the default value for it). It is most probable that after you edited the settings.xml file, you didn’t edit the embedding code as well, and the browser still embeds it as 200 px, at this line :
swfobject.embedSWF(“countdown.swf”, “CountdownDiv”, “600”, “260”, “9.0.0”, false, flashvars, params, attributes).
I am not really sure where or how to make the edit you suggest. Can you explain a bit more?
Thanks.
Hello,
In the line you see there, the 260 attribute should be 200 in your own webpage. Change that value to 100, and revisit your page after emptying your cache.
harlem
Posted 14 Days Agoi would like to change the time zones i see the default is “2” but what exactly does this mean?? and what is the numerical equivalent of eastern time, central time and pacific time (USA).
i would also like to add more text on the bottom that indicates what the clock is counting down to. something to this extent “Til the next podcast” . do i jsut add that to the english.xml file?? not sure how to go about this.
Hi,
The default time zone value is 2 and it means GMT+2. For US time you’ll have to change that value to -5 because the time zone is GMT-5. The same for any other time zone you want to use.
About that text you want to add on the countdown, it’s not possible from within our component but you can add it as any other text on your page.
Dave
Posted 14 Days AgoSupport – I did play with the height attribute. It is currently at 140px. When I change to 100px, the clock moves up under your logo and the size of the white space under the clock remains.
Here is the code:
<settings> <Settings> <settingsXML value=“settings.xml”/> </Settings> <General_Properties> <clockType value=“flipClock”/> <width value=“300”/> <height value=“140”/> <spacing value=“7”/> <backGroundColor value=“0”/> <buttonMode value=“true”/> <sound value=“false”/>
<phpFile value=“time.php”/> </General_Properties> <Item_Properties> <itemWidth value=“15”/> <itemHeight value=“42”/> <itemSpacing
value=“2”/> <cornerRadius value=“7”/> <splitSize value=“1.5”/> <borderWidth value=“0”/> <borderColor value=“0xeeeeee”/> <backColor1
value=“0×000000”/> <backColor2 value=“0×777777”/> <glowColor1 value=“0×000000”/> <glowColor2 value=“0×000000”/> </Item_Properties>
<Shadow_Properties> <distance value=“4”/> <angle value=“42”/> <color value=“0”/> <alpha value=“0.25”/> <blurX value=“4”/> <blurY
value=“4”/> <strength value=“0.86”/> <quality value=“1”/> <inner value=“false”/> </Shadow_Properties> <Text_Properties> <fontFace
value=“Arial”/> <fontColor value=“0xFFFFFF”/> <fontSize value=“42”/> <padding value=“12”/> </Text_Properties> <DescText_Properties>
<descFontFace value=“Arial”/> <descFontColor value=“0×000000”/> <descFontSize value=“13”/> <language value=“english.xml”/>
</DescText_Properties> <Countdown_Properties> <targetYear value=“2010”/> <targetMonth value=“8”/> <targetDay value=“28”/> <targetHour
value=“0”/> <targetMinute value=“0”/> <useServerTime value=“false”/> <targetTimeZone value=“9”/> <finishText value=“The waiting is over”/>
</Countdown_Properties> <Countdown_Format> <days value=“true”/> <hours value=“true”/> <minutes value=“true”/> <seconds value=“true”/>
</Countdown_Format>
</settings>
Hello,
That’s because it does not have a background color (as this is the default value for it). It is most probable that after you edited the settings.xml file, you didn’t edit the embedding code as well, and the browser still embeds it as 200 px, at this line :
swfobject.embedSWF(“countdown.swf”, “CountdownDiv”, “600”, “260”, “9.0.0”, false, flashvars, params, attributes).
Patrik
Posted 15 Days AgoHi guys! Thanks for your splendid work.
I´ve just installed your countdown-component and I have a slight problem with it:
When I add the {countdownfx}{/countdownfx} to my article but all I get is the actual typing of the letters…
I`m working with a Joomla!-site, enabled the module and as you can see in the link it works fine within the module, but I´d really like to be able to publish the clock elsewhere without a module attached to it
Hi,
In order to be able to use the component in posts, you actually need to install the plugin as well, the module is only for integration into the template.
Dave
Posted 15 Days AgoThere is roughly 160px of white space under the clock. How can I eliminate this?
I would like the entire output of the clock to be 100px in height. Right now with the white space is 260px.
Thanks.
Hello,
Open the settings.xml file and change the value of the height attribute.