[Digital Jedi]

DJ'S FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (AME 2.5)

1. When I post a video, I get two videos with some messed up text at the bottom. What do I do?

   Answer: You have two of the same Definitions installed. Remember that definitions for the same website do not overwrite upon import. AME came with a set of default definitions, such as YouTube. But the updated versions of all those sites are in my definitions set. You need to delete the stock set of definitions before you import. (If you've already imported my Master XML or a bunch of other definitions and can't tell the new ones from the old ones, keep in mind that all my media definitions are given a Display Order of 1 or 0.)
   

2. I posted a YouTube video, but it says "This Video is no Longer Available". But I looked at the site and it's there. How come the video isn't showing?

   Answer: Check the page you got the video from and look for the Embed Code box. If it says "Embedding Disabled by Request" this video can not be embedded.
   

3. I posted the embed code, but all I get is the embed code and not the video. Why didn't the video convert?

   Answer: Well, that's why. You don't post embed code using this mod. You just post the link to the page the video is on.
   

4. What special instructions do I need to give my users so they can use this? Do I need to add anything to the editor?

   Answer: None. All your users need to do is post links. (If you previously used special BBCode, see the next question instead.)
   

5. What do I do if I used to use [YOUTUBE][/YOUTUBE] tags tor other special BBCode to embed videos on my site?

   Answer: Go to Admin CP >>> AME CP >>> Tools >> Convert Codes and you will find a special converter to turn these old media tags into specially made AME tags. READ THE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY AND FOLLOW ANY STEP ADVISED BEFORE PROCEEDING.
   

6. I used to use Goldbrick/PassiveVid/Other Media Embedding System. Do I need to uninstall the old one before installing AME? What will happen to my old posts?

   Answer: Refer to the instructions for each of these mods for uninstalling. Then check your database tables for any remnants of the old modification as they will conflict with AME. You can then install the AME product. Unless your old modification used some kind of special tags for converting videos, you will have to manually edit the posts of old threads in order to get the videos to convert.
   

7. How do I edit the specific width or height of a certain site individually?

   Answer: Go to Admin CP » AME CP » Display » [DEFINITION NAME] » Replacement HTML. In the Replacement HTML box change the $ameinfo[height] and $ameinfo[width] variables to the literal dimensions you want.
   

8. How do I align the videos to the left or right, instead of having it aligned centered in posts?

   Answer: To align the video to the left or right instead of having it centered, change the HTML in your ame_container template: Admin CP » Sytles & Templates » «EXPAND SELECTED STYLE» » AME Templates » ame_container. Look for this line of code and change "center" to "left" or "right".
   
   
   

   Block Disabled:      (Update License Status)
   Suspended or Unlicensed Members Cannot View Code.

   
   

9. How can I make my own definitions for a given website to use with AME?

   Answer: Visit this post, which has a number of resources to help you learn.
   

10. While I try to install AME 2.5, the installing window goes on forever and doesn't stop. Why can't I install this mod?

    Answer: During installation the AME Product adds a field to the "Post" table in your Database, so if your forums are large then it can take a couple of hours for the installer to get it done. My suggestion would be to shut down your forums, import the Product, let it take as long as it needs (like I said it can be hours) and then re-open your forums.
    

11. When I try to import your Master XML file, the window hangs with all the definitions showing but nothing happens. Why can't I get the definitions to import?

    Answer: This is only step one of the process. Scroll down to the bottom of the list and click Import to continue (in Internet Explorer you can hit Ctrl+S rather then scrolling).
    

12. When I try to import your Master XML file, not all the definitions import. It says it's successfully completed, but only seems to have imported half of the whole set. Why won't they all import?

    Answer: We only started running into this problem when the Master XML of definitions started getting really large. Mostly likely, your host has a PHP setting that limits the number of characters that can be submitted in this manner. During import, try selecting half, or smaller groups of the definitions and import them one group at a time.
    

13. Does AME 2.5 work with vBadvanced?

    Answer: Yes it does. But if your just posting videos in a regular BBCode/Template Module there's no need for it. You could just post the Embed Code like any other module. However, if you have a module that displays posts from a thread, then it will show the AME embedded media on your vBa page. Just make sure you have the character count set high enough so the video's embed code isn't truncated before the ...[Read More] link.
    

14. Does AME 2.5 work with Blogs, Visitor Messages and Social Groups?

    Answer: Yes, 2.5 has support for all three of these as well as Signatures. However, if you've upgraded your forums AFTER installing AME 2.5, you need to add support for these areas using the controls in your Tools menu. Go to Admin CP >>> AME CP >>> Tools >>> and click whichever applies Add Blog Support |Add Social Group Support | Add Visitor Message Support. (Not needed for signatures) Then set your options under Settings for each of these areas.
    

15. How can I make it so that when certain Usergroups post videos, those posts need to get approval by a Staff Member before they show up?

    Answer: In this situation what could be done is to set the setting "Follow Forum Moderation Rules" to "No" for the specific Usergroup(s) you want this to happen with. What this will do is Moderate ALL of the post made by the Members of this Usergroup by sending the posts made to the Moderation Queue ... You will then have to manually approve each post in order for it to show in the forums. Take into consideration that this will move ALL of the posts they make into the Moderation Queue and not just the ones containing Video Links. As of now, there is no way to only move the post containing a Video to the Moderation Queue ... Its all or nothing basically, so you decide what you want to do.
    

16. I posted a certain link and it got automatically parsed into a video, but I don't want it to be like that. How can I make it show up as just a link?

    Answer: Its a pretty simple solution. When you create the post you simply have to uncheck the checkbox that appears under the Additional Options Box that says Automatically embed media (requires automatic parsing of links in text to be on). With this unchecked it will video links will parse as normal links instead of videos. If the post has already been made, simply edit the post in Advanced Mode and uncheck that same option.
    

17. On my Forums I have the Title Extraction option disabled and when a link is parsed into a video, the container shows up with the name of the site, such as "Photobucket". Is there anyway that I can change that to something else?

    Answer: Yes there is and its quite simple. Do this go to Admin CP >>> AME CP >>> Display Definitions >>> [DEFINITION NAME] > Title. In the Title Box type in whatever it is you want it to say at the top of the video's container.
    

18. Some of the videos start to play automatically, can I change it so that it doesn't auto start?

    Answer: In short, no. Some media sites don't provide the option, nor can it be worked into the embed code. However, all the definitions that do this are marked in their description with the phrase: (Auto Plays).
    

19. How do I use the Embed regexp field?

    Answer: Click here for brief explanation on how to use this field.
    

20. How can I delete some of the Supported Sites that already come with AME or those that I've installed myself?

    Answer: To remove a supported site, go to Admin CP » AME CP » Display Definitions. Check the box under the column labeled Delete that's next to definitions you want to remove. Then scroll to the bottom and click Save (in Internet Explorer you can hit Ctrl+S instead).
    

This FAQ is an update of Dannyloski's Trouble Shooting Guide for a previous version of AME.

[Digital Jedi]

DJ's DEFINITIONS FAQ
Here's a few Q&As, FAQs and FYIs about some of definitions available and some tips and tricks with regard to the AME modification itself. When referring to editing definitions, it will be assumed you're in your Admin CP » AME CP » Display Definitions list.


**Internal Linking
You may notice the set of defs towards the top of your list called Internal Linking. This set is entirely optional, of course, but will auto convert internal links using the info between your forum's <title></title> tags. It will also add a small image to the start of the tag based on your forums favicon image. (NOTE: If no favicon shows up, make a copy of the favicon in your website's root directory and add it to your forum's root directory)

This set includes defs that will convert Threads, Posts, Forums and Categories, as well as auto format a link to a member's profile page with their User Name. (The member link doesn't include a favicon image. You can add it in if you want.)

This has not been thoroughly tested on a forum other then my own. So give me some feedback on if you like it or not. It also has not been optimized for people running SEOs of any kind. If you want support for your SEO you need to send me a link to your forum as well as let me know what SEO modification your running.


AllPosters.com (Thumbnails) et.al.: This set will convert almost all product links form AllPosters.com into thumbnails like the Amazon and CafePress definitions. There's very few products that will not convert, and these appear to be only frames, or anything that's been framed.

Also note that you can use your own affiliate ID with AllPosters if you have one just by replacing the three instances of mine in the Replacement HTML. But if you want to leave them in there, you won't get ANY complaints from me.

Examples: ?aid=1244576320 | ?aid=F0048675431

Amazon.com (Thumbnails) and (Links): The original Thumbnail version of the Amazon Links was created by nevetS in one of the old XML threads and it was the first definitions created to demonstrate turning product links into thumbnails rather then links.

Note that I have also included my affiliate IDs in these definitions, mainly because these are constructed on my live site. To work in your own affiliate ID in either the Links or Thumbnails definitions, look for the instances of the ?tag= in theReplacement HTMLand replace the following IDs with your own. Or, again, you can leave them in. Won't hurt my feelings.

Examples: ?tag=stopmomstop-20 | ?tag=citofgamonlco-20

As noted above, you don't want Thumbnails and Links turned on at the same time, which is why I have them both in the Master XML, but one of them set to off.


eSnips.com (Videos) (Music): Unfortunately, you will only be able to use one or the other of these definitions, which is why eSnips (Music) is turned off by default. The URLs were not distinctive enough to make a RegEx that could tell video pages from music pages. Until this changes, this is the one caveat you'll have to contend with.


Google.com (Search Results) (Let Me Google That For You): These definitions convert your Google search results links into formatted links in a couple of ways. Note that they cannot be both turned on at the same time, which is why (Search Results) is the only one active when you import them.

(Search Results) converts your search results links in simple link with the search terms and the google icon.

Examples: Google: Star+Wars | Google: Scooby+Doo

(Let Me Google That For You) on the other hand, will convert links into a funny redirect to LetMeGoogleThatForYou.com. This definition is a variation on the one originally created by Vitaly.

Let me google that for you...

For Google (Search Results) to work, you'll need to add these images to your images/misc directory. This first is the old Google favicon and the second is the new one. The definition uses the new icon by default, but you can change the definition to the old one just by changing the Replacement HTML image source from _new to _old.

MP3 Local Hosted Audio: I hope you like the new player I added. Unfortunately, I can't take all the credit. The player was created under the Creative Commons Licence by neolao production. The great thing about this player is that it's fully customizable, and can even support it's own skin if you happen to have one. Go to http://flash-mp3-player.net/players/maxi/generator/ and set the colors and settings to your liking. Copy and paste over the code into your MP3 definition under Replacement HTML. Just remember that you MUST replace the MP3 URL (http%3A//flash-mp3-player.net/medias/another_world.mp3) that they provide with $p1. Otherwise, your MP3s won't work.

Alternatively, you can download the flash player and host it on your own site, but you'll need to change the source of the video player in your Replacement HTML to the location on your server.



NewsClipper.org: This is one of those definitions that I consider "imperfect" in that it's functional in every way it needs to be, but not as fully as you would like it to be. Newsclipper.org is a website that manages to collect news videos from all the major video news sites: MSNBC, CNN, CBS NEWS, FOX NEWS, Associated Press, Rutgers, BBC, Sky News, ESPN and Comedy Central. But because all their videos are pulled from different sites, every video has different aspect ratios. There's currently no way to dynamically set the height and width of a video using AME (or in this case, an iFrame). So you'll have to set those attributes to your liking in your AME CP. I currently have them set to the widest and highest of the videos I found. This will leave a white square around videos that have smaller aspect ratios. (Not a big deal if your postbit color is already white.) You can change the color of this area by adding the color code in the style attribute: style="background-color:#000000;". But this will only works in FireFox. IE users will still see a white empty area surrounding the video.


UOL.com.br: Yes, that many files was needed to make UOL work. Each category is like it's own website with it's own embed source code. The site is vast, and is essentially several websites grouped under one domain. As noted, the one peculiarity is that URLs with "assistr" in them wont embed. This is because, for whatever reason, these pages have no usable code in the HTML or URL to backreference. Not sure why. It could be this page is actually a front page that changes content often, so most of the content is handled via javascript. Either way, these URLs are infrequent, and shouldn't be encountered too often.


Sort Order: One thing I've been annoyed with in AME is trying to get some kind of display order that makes sense. I found out while working on these, that entries with the same Display Number sort by alphabetically order. So what I ended up doing was setting all my working files to 1, and all my non working or in-progress files to 0. This made to where I could keep them in alphabetical order and create pseudo-categories.


Special Characters: For some reason, AME doesn't always convert Special Characters correctly. Instead of an ampersand (&) you'll get the HTML equivalent (&amp;), etc. One of the things you can do is edit the post after posting, and simply change the name of the link, without altering what it links to. (In the Full Editor, all you would do is edit the exiting name. In the Basic Editors, you would simply change the name between the [url][/url] tags.)

Wikipedia (Links): In order for Wikipedia to work you need to save this image to your images/misc directory.

Examples: Star_Wars

Keep in mind that Wikipedia is a beta, meaning that it really only works for English entries. International Wikipedias didn't have the consistency in the HTML code needed to make this work for all of them.


YouTube.com: Periodically YouTube goes down for maintenance. This means that some features, like embedding, is disabled during this time period. If you see "Video Not Available" and YouTube was working yesterday, hang on for a little while. Also, check to see if a video says "Embedding Disabled by Request "in the embed code box. If so, the video will be blocked from embedding and will give the Not Available message as well.

A new feature worked into YouTube is called Deep Linking. Sounds like something you'd get from the back end of the video store, right? Not in this case. Deep linking is YouTube's relatively new ability to jump to a fixed time frame inside a video. In order to do this, append the URL of your YouTube video with ?t=XXs where XX is the number of seconds into the video you want to jump. (NOTE: I know some of you already know of this, but what's different here is that you cannot use minutes and seconds in the URL. You have to use seconds only, so you'll have to do just a little head math and convert minutes into seconds.)

For example, click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuQRmtBq-ls#t=120s and playback will begin exactly 120 seconds or 2 minutes into the video.

zSHARE.net, et al: For badges to work, you'll need to add all the following images to the images/misc directory for your forum and/or any different styles you use. So, for example, if you have a forum that uses the default style and a custom skin named Centura, you would need to add it to the default image/misc folder (yoursite.com/images/misc) AND into the folder for the Centura style (yoursite.com/centura/misc).

[Digital Jedi]

Updates History
This is here just to help me keep track of things. You don't need to download each and every update if your just starting out. Just the Master XML file.

2008.12.19
2009.01.05
2009.09.16
2009.09.18
2009.09.18
2010.01.09
2010.04.09
2010.12.11
2011.09.23
2013.01.24
2013.01.25
2013.02.03
2013.03.10

[Digital Jedi]

RESOURCES
How To Create Media Definitions for AME 2.5
--BirdOPrey5 explains the basic info you need for creating media definitions.

Embed RegEx
--A Brief explanation as to how to use the Embed regexp field in definitions.

www.Regular-Expressions.info
--Comprehensive Regular Expressions Tutorial and Reference Guide.

DJ's Frequently Asked Questions (AME 2.5)
--An update of Dannyloski's Trouble Shooting Guide, this FAQ addresses the most common problems associated with AME.

DJ's Definitions FAQ
--Information on specific definitions and their peculiarities as well some tips and tricks on how to use AME.

RegExBuddy Buddy Trial Download
--Limited free trial period with option to buy licence. I'd advise learning with this first, before trying the freeware below.

Expresso
--Free Regular Expressions tester for beginners or the advanced. Excellent version if you don't want to spend quite that much on a tester. This is the one I currently use. Requires registration after a trial period, but remains free after registration.

PowerGREP
--A newer RegEx tester that also has a free trial period. I have not tested this one personally.

[Hornstar]

thanks a lot. you have outdone yourself again

[F0xy]

any chance of getting justin.tv added?

[TsirhCitna]

Been waiting for this for a long time.

[Digital Jedi]

Originally Posted by F0xy

any chance of getting justin.tv added?

Hrm, that's weird. I thought I already had a definition for Justin.tv. I'll see what happened.

[Seb@]

when you put a video with youtube in footer says
" title="YouTube" target="_blank">YouTube

[Digital Jedi]

Originally Posted by Seb@

when you put a video with youtube in footer says
" title="YouTube" target="_blank">YouTube

I'm not sure what you mean. Could you link me to an example?

[ArnyVee]

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times...DJ is THE man!

Thanks for going out of your way to support the AME mod and to organize these updates as you do.

[xixxon]

sorry if this is already answered but I can't seem to find it.
Does it work with the .mp3, .wma, .wmv links? i tried to post a direct link like that and it doesn't work, or do I need to add a different definition for it? If so then can u help me with the definitions for those direct link ?

[Digital Jedi]

Originally Posted by xixxon

sorry if this is already answered but I can't seem to find it.
Does it work with the .mp3, .wma, .wmv links? i tried to post a direct link like that and it doesn't work, or do I need to add a different definition for it? If so then can u help me with the definitions for those direct link ?

If you mean for locally hosted videos, then yes. But you need the appropriate definitions.

Go to my profile page and click on the link for my other XML thread called (Third Times the Charm) and you can get the definitions for Local Hosted Videos. I will be adding them to this thread to, once I get the size variables added, but you can still use the other ones on any version of AME. Be sure to follow the instructions for Local Hosted Videos as described in the thread.

[Sym0n]

I think I'm either missing something or being really REALLY stupid.

I can't get it to import all the defs. After importing the master file and making no changes to what's enabled etc I still only end up with 25 defs showing as active, including the original five included with The Geek's hack.

What am I doing wrong?