• Website settings & Configuration
• Language Settings
• Email Settings
• Manage Template
• Manage Players
• Manage Pages
• Manage Comments
• Conversion Queue Manager
• CronJobs Helper
• Videos Manager
• Users Menager
• Groups Manager
• Advertisement Manager

Website Settings & Configuration

it has four sections

1. Website Settings
2. Uploading & Conversion Settings
3. Display & Listing Settings
4. User Settings & Registeration

Website Settings

Uploading and Conversion Settings

for example

if you want to call code under your video player, you will simply create or write an anchor after your player code as follows

{ANCHOR place="after_video_player"}

now if you want to call code at this anchor, you will simply “register anchor code” or “anchor function”

there are two functions for registering codes for anchor points

1. register_anchor
2. register_anchor_function

Register_Anchor

register_anchor(String[text you want to display on this anchor point], String[Anchor place]);  

now if you want to show a text “Hello World!” , you simply have to do is

 register_anchor("Hello World!","after_video_player");

Register_Anchor_Function

register_anchor(String[function name], String[Anchor place]);  

now if you want to execute a function on place “after_video_player” , here how you will do that

register_anchor_function("my_function","after_video_player");

and you also have to write my_function code such as

 function my_function(){ echo "Hello World!"; }  

Passing Parameters To Function Via Anchor

if you want to pass paramters to function via anchor, its really simple. First you have to add a paramter in anchor function

{ANCHOR place='after_video_player' data="This is me, Mickey!"}

and the function you want to call is my_function($text) , you just have to do is

register_anchor_function("my_function","after_video_player");
function my_function($text){ echo "Hello World! ".$text;  }

it will show the whole phrase as “Hello World! This is me, Mickey”;

Hope i have cleared the mystery of our Anchor points, need more help regarding this , please leave a comment or discuss it on forums.clip-bucket.com

Well, lets do some practical work,in this tutorial i will create an advance Global Announcement Plugin for ClipBucket that will be displayed all over in ClipBucket with Database and Admin Control Panel

Things we cover in this tutorial

1. Setting Up The Files
2. Editing Plugin Details
3. Writing Basic Plugin Code
4. Setting up an anchor
5. Adding Admin Control
6. Enhancing Editor with WYSIWYG
7. Author’s Tip

Setting Files is very basic, please review my file setup tutorial here

1. create a folder in /plugins directory named “my_global_announcement”
2. create a file in this folder named “my_global_announcement.php” (main file)
3. now create two more files “install_my_global_announcement.php” and “uninstall_my_global_announcement.php”

as their name tells, “my_global_announcement.php” is the main file that has basic details of a plugin that we will add later in the file. and install and uninstall files are related with the main file.

now we will add details in our main file “my_global_announcement.php”

/*
Plugin Name: My Global Announcement
Description: This Plugin will display an announcement on every page of the website
Author: Arslan Hassan
Author Website: http://clip-bucket.com/arslan-hassan
ClipBucket Version: 2
Version: 1.0
Website: http://clip-bucket.com/
Plugin Type: global
*/

now, goto admin panel > Manage Plugins , you will see your plugin listing there, ok now lets move to real thing.

things we need in our plugin

• Displays on each page
• Easily Editable Via Admin Panel
• WYSIWYG editor
• Pop-up announcement, if required, for new visitors

lets write down our very basic code that deals with our announcement.

if(!function_exists("my_global_announcement"))
{
	/**
	 * This function is used to display an announcement on
	 * each page
	 */
	function my_global_announcement()
	{
		echo "<div align='center'>This is our test announcement</div>";
	}
	register_anchor_function("my_global_announcement","global");
}

ok, great, good work so far. we have successfully created a plugin that alteast do something, now its time to go little dynamic, in order to do this. we have to uninstall the plugin, write the installation code that will actually do is, create new table in database which will be used to store the global announcement.

now, open “install_my_global_announcement.php” and write down the following code.

<?php
  //Creating Table for announcement if not exists
  function install_global_announcement()
  {
  global $db;
  $db->Execute(
  'CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS '.tbl("my_global_announcement").' (
  `announcement` text NOT NULL
  ) ENGINE=MyISAM;'
  );
  //inserting new announcement
  $db->Execute("INSERT INTO  ".tbl('my_global_announcement')." (announcement) VALUES ('Hello World!')");
  }
  install_global_announcement();
?>

as you can see, it only does is create new table in database, nothing special, you can write your own codes such as create new directories, setting up the configurations etc, if you are planning to create other plugins.

ok , now we have finished with the installation file, lets write down some uninstallation code, we just have to write things that will undo the installation.

<?php
//Function used to uninstall Plugin
	function un_install_global_announcement()
	{
		global $db;
		$db->Execute(
		'DROP TABLE '.tbl("my_global_announcement")
		);
	}
	un_install_global_announcement();
?>

Your global announcement installation and uninstallation code is done, now lets edit our main code that will get announcement from database.

our main object is to load global announcement from database that we can update any time. so heres how we will do that, first we will right code for getting data from database and then we will write admin area code for updating global announcement

now, we will update our main file and it will be look like this

<?php
/*
Plugin Name: My Global Announcement
Description: This Plugin will display an announcement on every page of the website
Author: Arslan Hassan
Author Website: http://clip-bucket.com/arslan-hassan
ClipBucket Version: 2
Version: 1.0
Website: http://clip-bucket.com/
Plugin Type: global
*/
if(!function_exists("my_global_announcement"))
{
    /**
     * This function is used to display an announcement on
     * each page
     */
    function my_global_announcement()
    {
    	global $db;
    	$result = $db->select(tbl("my_global_announcement"),"*");
    	$announcement = $result[0][0];
    	echo '<div>'.$announcement.'</div>';
    }
    /**
     * Simply gets the announcement from database
     */
    function get_my_global_announcement()
    {
    	global $db;
    	$result = $db->select(tbl("my_global_announcement"),"*");
    	return $announcement = $result[0][0];
    }
    /**
     * Registering function so that we can call it in our SMARTY TEMPLATES
     */
    $Smarty->register_function('get_my_global_announcement','get_my_global_announcement');
    /**
     * Registering Anchor Funtion
     */
    register_anchor_function("my_global_announcement","global");
    /**
     * Addin Admin Menu
     */
    add_admin_menu('My Global Announcement','Edit My Announcement','admin_global_announcement.php','my_global_announcement');
}
?>

Now

1. Uninstall the plugin (if installed)
2. Reinstall it

now, you will see “Hello World!” on every page under menu.

ok, now we have almost accomplished the goal, now lets add some admin controls, to add admin menu we use this function

add_admin_menu(STRING[menu head],STRING[menu name],STRING[file name],STRING[file path relative to plugins directory (optional)]);

This function is used to add menu in admin panel
1 parameter creates menu head i.e "Videos"
2 parameter create menu name i.e "Videos Manager"
3 Parameter used to tell the file name i.e "video_manager.php"
4 Parameter is optional, it tells the path of the file , relative to PLUGINS directory, if it is empty, file will be loaded from admin_area folder

we will create two more files

1. admin_my_global_announcement.php (File that will handle global announcement form)
2. admin_my_global_announcement.html (Template of the php file that will display the form)

we will add pretty simple code for admin panel which will update the global announcement, here is the code for admin_my_global_announcement.php

<?php
  /*
  * @author : Arslan Hassan
  */
  //this will check weather logged in user has admin_access or not , otherwise block the page
  $userquery->login_check('admin_access');
  //setting redirect page cookie
  $pages->page_redir();
  //if form is submit then follow the code inside the parenthesis
  if(isset($_POST['update']))
  {
  //retrieve data from "announcement" field
  $text = $_POST['announcement'];
  //Update the database
  $db->Execute("UPDATE ".tbl("my_global_announcement")." SET announcement='$text'");
  //Add announcement message
  $msg = e("Announcement has been updated",'m');
  }
  //Add Subtitle of admin panel
  subtitle("My Global Annoucment Manager");
  //Loads the template file
  template_files('admin_global_announcement.html',PLUG_DIR.'/my_global_announcement');
?>

we have finished the admin code, lets work with its template, open admin_global_announcement.html, and paste the code below

<h2>Edit My Global Announcement</h2>
<table width="99%" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td>
<form id="form1" name="form1" method="post" action="">
Announcement<br />
<label for="textarea"></label>
<textarea name="announcement" id="announcement" cols="75" rows="6" style="width:100%;">{get_my_global_announcement}</textarea>
<br />
<input type="submit" name="update" value="Update" />
</form></td>
</tr>
</table>

Ok, now save and goto admin panel, you will see My Global Announcement Menu, if you can see it, it means, you have done a perfect job.

we have created a global announcement plugin, what if we want to add some JS and some WYSIWYG editor? its pretty simple. ClipBucket already has some JS plugins such niceEDIT so it wont be a difficult task. all you have to do is, open your “admin_global_announcement.html” and paste the code below

<h2>Edit My Global Announcement</h2>
<table width="99%" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td>
<form id="form1" name="form1" method="post" action="">
Announcement<br />
<label for="textarea"></label>
<textarea name="text" id="page_content" cols="75" rows="6" style="width:100%;">{get_my_global_announcement}</textarea>
<script type="text/javascript">
	  	{literal}
			new nicEditor({fullPanel : true,maxHeight:350}).panelInstance('announcement');
		{/literal}
		</script>
<br />
<input type="submit" name="update" value="Update" />
</form></td>
</tr>
</table>

finally, you are done with a fully featured Global Announcement Plugin. Hope you have understand the basic idea of “How to create clipbucket plugin”

here is a tip for you guys

$Cbucket->add_admin_header(STRING[path to file you want to include in head tag],STRING[file scope](optional))

This function used to include files in <head> tag, in-case you want to execute some javascript or style sheet etc.
this will help you without modifying the original source
1st Parameter is to pass Include File
and 2nd parameter is to tell the file scope
default value of this parameter is "global" which means, it will be included in every page
but if you set it like "my_global_announcement", it will only include in your page where you have defined
THIS_PAGE as "my_global_announcement"

ClipBucket Player system allows you to add any kind of web player to integerate with ClipBucket easily. Using our core code, asll you have to do is to add code of bunch of lines as we will guide you how to do that but first let me tell you how our system works..

• Write your player function, that will load player
• Register your player function using ‘register_actions_play_video’
• ClipBucket calls ‘flashPlayer’ that simple checks if there is already registered function then load it otherwise let the default player do the job

please check following diagram for reference.

ClipBucket Flas Player Flow Chart

our “how to add new player in clipbucket has 5 steps”

1. Player Source
2. Writing Plugin Code
3. Setting Up The Functions
4. Something Extra
5. Testing & Debugging

Player source

first part of your player plugin is to find some good flash player, i am using JWPlayer as its the most basic and easy player that you can integerate and use. you can download it from http://www.longtailvideo.com/players/jw-flv-player/ , please will have following files

- media
–\ player.swf
–\ preview.jpg
–\ readme.html
–\ swfojbect.js
–\ video.flv
–\ yt.swf

for this player plugin, we only need “player.swf” and “yt.swf” , player.swf is used to player videos as it is meant to be while yt.swf is used to player youtube’s video in JW player. Lets just setup our source , now create new folder in “players” folder called “jwplayer5″ and create “jwplayer5.php” file under that folder. Now copy “player.swf” and “yt.swf” to newly created folder. Finally your plugins folder will have

ClipBucket Player Plugin Tree

Writing Plugin Code

well, lets just start writing player plugin, code, its not as difficult but first you have to add comments so that ClipBucket can understand its a Player Plugin. Simple copy and paste the following code in your jwplayer5.php

  <?php
/*
	Player Name: JW Player v5
	Description: Jw player for clipbucket from longtail.com
	Author: Arslan Hassan
	ClipBucket Version: 2
	Plugin Version: 1.0 - JW 5
	Website: http://clip-bucket.com/
*/
?>

Setting Up The Function

Now, lets setup a call video function, first lets just copy and paste the following code in your jwplayer5.php before ?>.

if(!function_exists(jwplayer5))
  {
  function jwplayer5($data)
  {
  $vdata = $data['vdetails'];
  global $swfobj;
  $vid_file = get_video_file($vdata,$no_video,false);
  if($vid_file)
  {
  $hd = $data['hq'];
  $swfobj->width = $data['width'];
  $swfobj->height = $data['height'];
  $swfobj->playerFile = PLAYER_URL.'/jwplayer/player.swf';
  $swfobj->DivId = $data['player_div'] ? $data['player_div'] : config('player_div_id');
  $swfobj->FlashObj();
  //Writing Param
  $swfobj->addParam('allowfullscreen','true');
  $swfobj->addParam('allowscriptaccess','always');
  $swfobj->addParam('wmode','opaque');
  if($hd=='yes') $file = get_hq_video_file($vdata); else $file = get_video_file($vdata,true,true);
  $swfobj->addVar('file',$file);
  $swfobj->CreatePlayer();
  return $swfobj->code;
  }else
  return false;
  }
  add_js(array('swfobject.obj.js'=>'global'));
  register_actions_play_video('jwplayer5');
  }

Each player function ie “jwplayer5()” must be unique, incase it is not, we added “!function_exists()” so that it wont create conflict .

function functioname($data array);

$data is an array which has following values

  $data['player_div']; //Player Div Id
  $data['key']; //Video Key
  $data['flv']; //Flv Name (file name)
  $data['height']; //Player Heigh
  $data['width']; //Player Width
  $data['hq']; //Boolean : if you true, then play HQ video otherwise player normal
  $data['autoplay'];  //Auto Player
  $data['vdetails']; //Video Details array ie $data['vdetails']['title'] will return video data

this $data is passed from flashPlayer($data) function so you dont need to worry about it, just focus on your function

function get_video_file() is used to get video file, if there is any, it will return file otherwise return false, read more about get_video_file here

get_video_file($vdetails,$return_default=true,$with_path=true,$multi=false,$count_only=false,$hq=false)

i used swfobject class to order to make this player run, you can read more about how to use this class here, it simply works the same as swobject.js does..

add_js();

this function is very simple, just add swfobject.js in our player page, please read more about this here

register_actions_play_video()

this function register “jwplayer5″ function so that flashPlayer() can call it…

Something Extra

now, your payer is ready to go, if you want to add admin control in this player so that you can control your player from admin panel , you can read a tutorial later.

if you want to add a preview for the player, right now only image preview is available so lets use it, create a preview image called preview.jpg and save it to your player folder “/player/jwplayer5/preview.jpg” , image dimensions should be 175×105 in pixels..

Testing and Debugging

now goto admin panel > players > manage player, you should be able to see your player, Activate it and test it, if you get any problem please right add your coment..

ClipBucket has a very useful function that is used to add Js file in ClipBucjet template so that you dont need to add js file in each template seperately, all you have to do is to add a little code and your file will be included in all templates

usage

add_js(array[]);

explanation

array(“file”=>”scope”);

file

Make sure your file is placed in /js directory, e.g if you want to call my.js , you first place it in /js directory and then add array(“my.js”=>”watch_video”); , similarly if your file in /js/somefolder/myfile.js , you will add it array(“somefolder/myfile.js”=>”watch_video”);

scope

scope basically tells the clipbucket in which files we should include this file , ie , watch_video, home, view_channel etc…  or say for each file_name.php scope name is file_name. ok , if you add

array(“my.js”=>”watch_video”); array(“my.js”=>”view_channel”); array(“my.js”=>”view_group”);

it will include my.js file in all these “watch_video” , “view_channel” and “view_group” files..
if you want to add my.js in all files, simply, call function as follow

array(“my.js”=>”global”);

- ClipBucket v2
- Curl Enabled PHP Hosting

Installation

- Download ClipBucket Mass Embedder Plugin From client area
- Unzip the file, you will get “upload” folder
- Upload all files under “upload” folder to your ClipBucket root folder
- After Uploading, Goto Admin Panel > Plugin Manager > Find Plugin in “Available Plugins” and click Install
- Once install, Goto Plugin Settings Page, Enter your CBMass Embbed License which you will get once your order is fully activated.
- Thats All, you are ready to use ClipBucket Mass Embedder

How To

- You can change ClipBucket Mass Embed Settings by Going to “Mass Embed Videos Page” under “Videos Manager” menu
- Click on “click here to edit settings” to change settings
- Keywords are used to search videos based on saved keywords
- You can set Times ie “All Time” “Today” “This Month” Etc
- You can set Sort Type ie “Top Rated” “Most Viewed” etc

Auto Categorize

- to make this feature possible, all you have to do is, enter keywords for each category,
clipbucket will check for each keyword in videos tags, if it founds any matched keyword, then category will be assigned automatically.

e.g, If you want to assign category “Celebrities” to video with the title “Angelina Jolie” having “angelina, jolie, hollywood, actress” tags,
all you have to do is , add tags “actress” in Celebrities Category. it will be automatically assigned.

Auto Channel Creation

- If you check Create Channel, a channel will be automatically created based on either the keyword or text field, whatever you select. if channel already exists, it will insert videos in the channel.

Trouble Shooting

- PHPShield Error, if you get any error like PHPSheild, please ask your Host to install PHPShield Loaders
- Channels Not Created automatically
Make sure you are using ClipBucket v2.0.4 or above
- Videos Not Embbedding
Make sure cURL is installed on your server
- Mass Embedder Crashes on several Keywords
Make sure you are using latest version of Mass Embedder

For other problems, please contact as at http://client.clip-bucket.com/

Note : This Article is added on Feb 11, ClipBucket v2.0.4 will be out pretty soon.

Overview of Cue Points: A cue point is any significant moment in time occurring within a video clip. Cue points enable you to access different segments of a video clip. With Flash Video, you can create and manage cue points in a variety of ways. This series provides a comprehensive guide to the use of cue points in Flash Video. In this first installment, you learn the basics of cue points and the requirements to create cue point data.

So in short FLVTool2 improve the quality of video what FFMPEG produced.

• Requirements
• Installation
• After Installation
• Troubleshoot & Support

Requirements

1. PHP 5.2.x & MySql 5.x.x
2. PHP with Background Processing and Exec Enabled
3. GD Library For Captchas and Other Image Manuplation
4. FFMPEG – FLVTOOL2 – MP4Box

Installation

• New Installation
• Update from v2.x
• Upgrade from v1.x

first extract downloaded file, you will find “upload” folder , LICENSE and README file

New Installation

• Upload all files of /upload folder to your website folder
• Now Open your website as http://yourwebsite.com/install
• Click on “Fresh Installation” and Follow instructions

Upgrade from v2.x

• Backup your database
• Backup your template or rename its folder if you have done any customization (only for Default Template)
• Upload and overwrite existing files
• Remove /files/install.loc file from your website
• Point your websie URL to /install folder
• Click on “Update from 2.x”
• Follow the instructions

Upgrader from v1.x

• Must Create BACKUP OF YOUR DATABASE
• Only VIDEO – MEMBERS and VIDEO COMMENTS will be imported
• Upload all files of /upload directory to your website clipbucket folder, overwrite existing
• Now point your website to /install folder
• Click on “Upgrade from v1.7″
• Follow The instructions
• Upgrading is done via AJAX, please keep following Instructions until you find Admin Panel

After Installation

now once you have done a successfull installation, you must read following instructions in order to work ClipBucket properly

• Setting Up Admin Panel
• Setting Up Crons

Setting Up Admin Panel

• Ask your Web Host for following modules paths
  1. FFMPEG
  2. FLVtool2
  3. Mp4Box
  4. PHP
• You can also get these patsh by clicking on “Server Modules Info” in Tool Box Menu
• Once you Get these paths, Goto Website Configurations > “Upload and Conversion” > Enter Paths and Save them accordingly
• Once you save your settings, go back to “Server Modules Info”, you will find all modules status OK in form of CHECK icon
• Now Edit your settings accordinly

Setting Up Crons

cron jobs are required to do automation jobs such as conversion, generating stats, file manipulation etc…

• Our cron jobs require PHP path to run
• Please refer to following screenshote for graphical demonstration
• A Video tutorial will be posted soon for setting cron jobs on cPanel and other Control Panels

crons jobs will be set like * * * * * /path/to/php -q /path/to/file, path to php are mostly like either only “php” or “/usr/local/bin/php” or “/usr/bin/php”, please ask your host for setting up crons cause they better know their servers and paths

1) Every Minute, Every Hour, Every Day, Every Month, Every Weekend (or set accordingly)

* * * * * php -q /relative/path/to/clipbucket/actions/video_convert.php

2) Every Minute, Every Hour, Every Day, Every Month, Every Weekend (or set accordingly)

* * * * * php -q /relative/path/to/clipbucket/actions/verify_converted_videos.php

3)0 Minute of Hour, 0,12,23 Hours of a Day, Every Day, Every Month, Every Weekend

0 0,12,13 * * *
php -q /relative/path/to/clipbucket/actions/update_cb_stats.php

ClipBucket Cron Jobs Demonstration

thats all for now

Troubleshoot & Support

• Forums (recommended)
• Documentation
• Contact