Flash slideshow using XML

  1. Login to your site.
  2. Go to the Design Manager by clicking on Designs under the My Website dropdown menu.
  3. Click on the My Designs tab.
  4. Click the Edit link beneath the name of your template.
  5. Check to make sure your XML file is in with your other templates.  If it is not, you will need to upload it to your template via FTP, http://accountsupport.elementfusion.com/ftp to make sure you are able to see it.  We will need the XML file there for later steps.
  6. Now, go to the text element where your embed code is and click on settings to edit it.
  7. Click on the < > symbols at the bottom left of the text editor to put you into the HTML view.
  8. Add this attribute to your embed tag, base="/websites/WEBSITENAME/templates/TEMPLATENAME".  This will tell your Flash player where to find your XML file.  In step 5 we made sure that our XML file was in the template folder with our other HTML templates, so that is why we are using that address.

    • WEBSITENAME- This is the name of you site that you signed up for.  It is the name that is in front of .publishpath.com.  If your address was http://lightcms.publishpath.com then your website name would be lightcms.
    • TEMPLATENAME- This is the name of your template from the design manager.  If you need help finding what this is, go to your design manager and see what template has a check to the left of the name.  That is the template that your XML file needs to be and the name to use.
  9. Next, go to your XML file in the design manger.  Follow steps 1-4 above to get to the design manager.
  10. Open a new window and make sure you are logged into your website.
  11. Go to one of your text elements and upload your photos if you have not already.  We suggest making a special folder for it so that it is easier to update in the future.
  12. In the example below I have five images that I have in my FlashRotator folder.
  13. Copy the Image URL that is at the top of the Image Manger.
  14. Go back to your XML file and add this as the image location as seen in the image below.
  15. If you have done everything properly your Flash slideshow will be showing up

Posted on Wednesday, March 12, 2008 by Support