PICTURE PLATFORM AS3 - image gallery

Picture Platform ("PP") is a stylish image gallery which has been developed with the idea of users having complete control over all visual aspects by simply changing XML values. Thus making the need to edit .fla file not necessary. PP is also structured to be loaded into other flash movies, with routines checking where it's placed and if high resolution images will fit in the visual area or not (and reposition or rescale if needed).

Basically, PP's goal is to make itself useful and usable by anyone, anytime and in any situation.

PP mimics a 3Dimensional platform of thumbnails, completely created by calculations so no external complex 3D plugins or solutions are required. It offers different styles of buttons, movements, scaling and other visual aspects such as glossy, blurring, borders and so on. Everything is fully automated and the default visual is generated from a large number of xml configuration parameters, importantly the visual can be configured separately for each gallery category by overriding the default xml 'parameter' values within the category xml node. PP supports both PICTURE/MAGE formats as well as SWF ANIMATIONS, demonstrated in the preview.

Summing up some of the main customizable features:

- 3D platform
Number of rows and columns can be individually set for each category, as well as the distances horizontally and vertically between thumbnails and their 'offset' combined with the 'incline' factor (which together create the 3D platform effect). Also can be configured the up and down hovering speed and distance (by default turned off / set to 0) which makes thumbnails float up and down slowly giving a water-wave effect, and the thumbnail shadow-on-the-floor visual effects.

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- Visual, size and depth
Configurable top row and bottom row "scale", "masking" and "blur". From top to bottom row the values will be calculated accordingly. You can also set a general thumbnail scale parameter which defines the over-all size of thumbnails, or use the 'thumbwidth' parameter which will rescale all thumbnails to and equal width

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- Background and border
Configurable background color and transparency for the thumbnails, as well as a mouse-over and mouse-out border width and alpha transparency

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- Different High resolution options
Smart high-resolution zoomed image (after clicking a thumbnail) routines. If it does not fit in place, it will move to within canvas stage. If it will also not fit within canvas stage size, it will either (individually configurable per category in XML settings) do A, B or C;
A) turn high resolution image scrollable by mouse movement
B) rescale high resolution image to fit to exact stage size (checking if stage width or height is largest)
C) rescale high resolution image to fit within the exact stage size (checking if stage width or height is smallest)

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- Different layouts
You can set the size of the high resolution black border, distances or fixed-positions of the next/previous/close buttons and transparency of the dark stage cover

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- Intelligent AUTO PLAY
You can set PP to add an intelligent "Auto Play" option. The auto play feature can be customized to X number of seconds, set to either automatically start on click or wait until a thumbnail is chosen/clicked, and optionally set to keep its on/off status into memory ... this in case a viewer decides to click buttons (watch next/previous images or jumps forward or backwards a few category columns) while auto-play has been turned on.

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- Different Categories
The category-menu can be configured to appear in a fixed stage position or relative to the PP position (which can move if the browser is resized). It can be set to show categories stacked horizontally or vertically and aligned middle (and optionally match button widths to the largest) or right. You can also set its spacing and button height and choose if the number of items in the category goes before or after the category name.

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- Different jump styles
Different 'jump' styles when generating or removing the rows/columns of thumbnails. By default they appear/disappear on their final positions, but you can make them come in horizontally or vertically or from the center. You can also make the depth of the thumbnails adjust themselves when you go with your mouse from left to right, so that the front thumbnails move forward over the backward thumbnails.

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- Smart container routines
And finally, there are a number of different parameters which solve automation when loaded into certain positions or into container swf files and either loaded in html on left top or in middle. Most important are the "xoffset/yoffset", "setXtomiddle/setYtomiddle", "settoX/settoY", "flashhtmliscenteredX/flashhtmliscenteredY" and "canvaswidth/canvasheight" which have been precreated to resolve uncommon usage or loading PP into uncommon positions.

Parameter customization can be viewed on list
http://www.patrickjansen.net/stockflash/pictureplatform/customizationAS3.htm

Photos by photos8.com