April 9 th – Jeff Galak (CMU)

Programming Behavioral Experiments in FlashSession 3 of 3Advanced Topics if Flash (Sounds, Videos, and Real Time Ratings) April 9th – Jeff Galak (CMU)

Agenda for the Week • Session 1: Thursday, April 8th (10-12pm): Intro to Web Programming, PhP, and Flash • Session 2: Thursday, April 8th (2-4pm): Building Your First Flash Experiment • Session 3: Friday, April 9th (10-12pm): Advanced Topics if Flash (Sounds, Videos, and Real Time Ratings) Session 3 - 04/09/2010

Agenda for Today • How to play sounds • How to collect real time ratings • How to play videos • How to convert videos to Flash format • How to “rip” videos from YouTube Session 3 - 04/09/2010

Working with Sound Files • Import sound file to library • File->Import->Import to Library • Within the library, create a “linkage” • Right click on sound file -> Linkage • Check “Export for Actionscipt” • Give your file a name • Ok • Now your file is ready to be accessed via ActionScript Session 3 - 04/09/2010

Sound File + Actionscript • Define a “sound variable” • var currentsound:Sound = new Sound (); • Created a variable called “currentsound” • Attach a sound file to the new variable • currentsound.attachSound("sample"); • Attached the sound file “sample” to “currentsound” • Play the file • currentsound.start(0,1); • Plays the sound file associated with “currentsound” • The first argument “0” tells it to start at the begninning of the song • The second argument “1” tells is the number of times to play the sound (once, in this case) Session 3 - 04/09/2010

Other Things to Remember with Sound Files • You can stop your sound file with the stop() command: • currentsound.stop(); • You can change the volume with the volume command (0 to 100): • currentsound.setVolume(50); • You can have the program do something (e.g. go to the next frame) when the sound is done playing: currentsound.onSoundComplete = function() { nextFrame(); } Session 3 - 04/09/2010

Collecting In-Experience (Online) Ratings • Two ways to do this: • Stop people every X seconds and collect a measure • Have a slider-scale that continuously records a value • We will focus on the latter. Session 3 - 04/09/2010

Online Scale Set up (With a Song) Scale Session 3 - 04/09/2010

Online Scale Code Code for song Code for slider scale Tells flash to run the function “collectdata” every 3 seconds When this function is run, it simply stores the value of the scale Session 3 - 04/09/2010

Things to Remember with Online Scales • You can change the frequency of the data collection by changing the number in the myTimer line. Time is in milliseconds. • Make sure to add the clearInterval command when you leave the frame • In this case, when the sound stops playing Session 3 - 04/09/2010

Working with Videos • Videos need to be in .flv (flash video) format. • You can convert them using flash. • File -> Import -> Import Video • This takes a long time but works well. • You can use 3rd party software for conversion • Allok Video to FLV Converter • http://www.alloksoft.com/flv_converter.htm • Works much faster, but sometimes the converted file doesn’t work. No clue why. Session 3 - 04/09/2010

Ripping Video from YouTube • http://www.savevid.com/ • Simply copy+paste the URL from youtube into the box on savevid.com • Make sure the file extension is .flv • Done. Session 3 - 04/09/2010

Editing FLV Files • Adobe Air + RichFLV • Adobe Air: http://www.adobe.com/products/air/ • RichFLV: http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/exchange/index.cfm?event=extensionDetail&loc=en_us&extid=1355018 • Install Air first. • RichFLV lets you edit FLV files quickly. Session 3 - 04/09/2010

Flash and Videos • Create a video placeholder with the “my_video” object in the library. • Name it something: my_video • Make sure that the video file is somewhere on the web (even while testing). Session 3 - 04/09/2010

Actionscript and Videos This is the only line you really care about This block of code is optional. It allows you to skip the video by hitting CTRL+A Session 3 - 04/09/2010

What About Online Measures and Videos? Just add the scale and the myTimer code: myTimer = setInterval(collectdata,3000); iteration=1; function collectdata() //function that stores the data { ratio=Math.round(((Slider.dragger._x-(Slider.dragger._width/2))/(Slider.line._width))*sliderMaximum); storedata("soundrating_"+iteration,ratio); iteration++; } Session 3 - 04/09/2010

That’s It! • Go forth and collect data! • Spread the gospel of Flash. • And most importantly, have a great weekend. Session 3 - 04/09/2010

April 9 th – Jeff Galak (CMU)