************************************************************************** * BluPlusPlus - JAlbum Skin * * * * * * By: Armond Avanes (Armond555[at]yahoo.com) * * http://bluplusplus.armondavanes.com * ************************************************************************** Usage Tips =========== Complete documentation for the current version of BPP is available at the following address and highly recommended: http://bluplusplus.armondavanes.com/docs.html Usages, applications, definitions, FAQs along with numerous examples are included. The site can also be easily reached through the "About" tab on the BPP user interface in JAlbum. Credits here go to my friend, Robert Camner, for his outstanding job on the documentation site. * Multilingual Support: ------------------------ If you want to generate your album in a langauge other than your system's default one (actually for forcing a language), you can use "user.language" parameter when launching JAlbum. Example for Italian language: java -Duser.language=it -jar jalbum.jar Example for German language: java -Duser.language=de -jar jalbum.jar * User Variables & Their Corresponding GUI: -------------------------------------------- Please refer to the following address for a complete guide on BPP variables and how to customize them via a corresponding Graphical User Interface. http://bluplusplus.armondavanes.com/docs.html * Per-Folder User Variables Customization: ------------------------------------------- All of the user variables can be overriden for each of the album folders and their subfolders (via "variables.properties" file which can be placed within any folder) - aka per folder customizations. For example having "style=Bluish.css" in variables.properties will override the default style chosen by the suer in JAlbum's "Main" tab. * Metadata Support (Folder-Level): ----------------------------------- - The entire folder metadata can easily be entered into a single file ("meta.properties") inside that desired folder. You can specify the title, voice annotation, background image, header, footer and icon of the folders as well as the titles, voice annotations, background images, and descriptions of their containing files. The meta.properties format should be as following: folderTitle=a title for current folder folderHeader=some header information for current folder folderFooter=some footer information for current folder folderIcon=relative/path/to/icon-file.ext folderVoice=relative/path/to/voice-file.ext indexBackgroundImage=relative/path/to/background-image.ext slideBackgroundImage=relative/path/to/background-image.ext title.filename1.ext=slide title 1 description.filename1.ext=some slide descriptions 1 voice.filename1.ext=relative/path/to/voice-file1.ext title.filename2.ext=slide title 2 description.filename2.ext=some slide descriptions 2 voice.filename2.ext=relative/path/to/voice-file2.ext title.filename3.ext=slide title 3 description.filename3.ext=some slide descriptions 3 voice.filename3.ext=relative/path/to/voice-file3.ext NOTE 1: 'slideBackgroundImage' is overriding the 'indexBackgroundImage' value so 'indexBackgroundImage' will be used for slide pages too if 'slideBackgroundImage' is not defined. NOTE 2: 'indexBackgroundImage' & 'slideBackgroundImage' values are inherited in sub-folders so defining any values for a specific folder will apply them on its containing sub-folders too. - For overriding any of the global/album-level user variables for a specific folder (and its subfolders), you can just put "variables.properties" meta file within that folder and override there whatever user variable you want (in key=value pair format). - For making some comments at the header of any desired folder's page, just put a file named "header.inc" in that folder. The file content will be automatically picked up and inserted in that folder's home page as header comment. NOTE: This is an alternative way to meta.properties. - For making some comments at the footer of any desired folder's page, just put a file named "footer.inc" in that folder. The file content will be automatically picked up and inserted in that folder's home page as footer comment. NOTE: This is an alternative way to meta.properties. - For adding some comments to any desired image, just put add a file with the same name of the image but with ".txt" extension right beside it in the same folder. NOTE: This is an alternative way to meta.properties. - For adding voice annotations to any desired image, just name the voice file (.wav, .mp3, .voc or .mid) as your image file and put it right beside the image in the same folder. It will be automatically picked up and inserted in that image's slide page so will be played as backgroud sound when you view that slide. NOTE: This is an alternative way to meta.properties. - For adding voice annotations to any desired folder, just name the voice file (.wav, .mp3, .voc or .mid) as your folder file with "_" prefix and put it within the same folder. It will be automatically picked up and inserted in the first index of the folder so will be played as backgroud sound when you view that index page. NOTE: This is an alternative way to meta.properties. - For adding thumbnails for your movie clips, you can easily put whatever image you like beside the clip (used as thumbnail) and name it the same movie name followed by a ".thumb" suffix. For example if you have "test.mpg", the thumbnail will be "test.mpg.thumb" or as for "test.avi" it will be "test.avi.thumb". * Keyboard Navigation Support: ------------------------------- Keys: RIGHT Arrow : Next page LEFT Arrow : Previous page Page UP : Index page HOME : First page END : Last page S, s : Toggle start/stop slide show (not in index) ESC : Stop slide show (not in index) I, i : Toggle exif info (not in index) H, h : Toggle help tips Tested on: IE6, Mozilla 1.4, Netscape 7.1, Opera 7.2 Bugs: - HOME and END do not work in Opera