WordPress.org

Does the plug-in affect the blog's performance?

The impact should be minimal as the code is efficient. Since the v0.3 it is even more faster as it uses less database connections, precisely, onto the user side the plugin uses just a single MySQL query which is packaged by the WP API. The page load time is increased though as the browser needs to download data from the external service(s) when loading a certain page. However, checking off the support for the video services which you don't use should make the plug-in even faster as it has less matches into the replacement pattern. This reduces the so called "bloat" by using only the video services which you would like to embed.

Why `swc_the_video_excerpt()`?

Why not? Since there's a template tag named the_exerpt() which people may use into their templates in order to create text exerpts, why shouldn't we have a function that does the same thing for the embedded flash content? So here's my solution to this.

How can I call the `swc_the_video_excerpt()` function?

You need it to either call it from within The Loop, so it automatically takes the content from the posts that pass through this function. Otherwise, you can specify a category ID. If you specify an ID, the function creates it's own internal loop in order to access the WordPress template tags. Do not mix these methods ... some issues may appear as some(most?) of the WordPress versions are not pretty happy with nested post loops.

The recommended call should look like:

if(function_exists('swc_the_video_excerpt')) swc_the_video_excerpt();

The function has four parameters which are optional: width, video height, audio height (for trilu-audio), category ID. If you want custom sizes for videos, you need to specify at least with and video height.

if(function_exists('swc_the_video_excerpt')) swc_the_video_excerpt(320, 240);

If you want to use a custom category outside The Loop, you need to specify all parameters.

if(function_exists('swc_the_video_excerpt')) swc_the_video_excerpt(320, 240, 60, 1);

If the custom sizes aren't specified, the function uses the unified sizes which are defined into the XVE admin. If you specify the sizes from the embedding tag with the w and h parameters, then all sizes specified above are overrided by this setting.

Why are you mean and you won't add Hulu.com?

Well, there are a couple of reasons. The first reason which is pretty strong, thus the main reason, is the fact that I can not develop something that I can not use as Hulu.com is only available for the U.S. consumers. The other reason is that I won't code the support for a locally available service into a plug-in which is globally available to any WordPress user. The service must be at least supported by U.S. and E.U.

How do I install the support for the FLV embedding?

Basically you need to place the mediaplayer.swf file within the same directory as xhtml-video-embed.php.

How do I install the language support?

As the FLV support, you need to place the language file which looks like xve-lang-english.php into the same installation directory.

How do I remove a language?

Simply delete the file. It's recommended to pick the new language from the menu, then delete the file, otherwise it automatically tries to load the English file. If the English file fails to load, then the plug-in throws an error. It's recommended to keep the English language in case something bad happens.

The flash object isn't displayed. Did I do something wrong?

This question doesn't have an exact answer. The flash won't load if the video service times out. Check if it works. This could be your error as well, so check the permalink if it's intact. For best results, use the URL provided by the browser's address bar. If this isn't the case, and the video service is in uptime, but the flash object still won't load, then maybe one of my security policies is too restrictive for that video sharing service. Drop me a comment onto the plug-in's official page which is located on my blog. I'll try to reproduce the issue, so please provide the URL which makes the plug-in to malfunction. I can't debug something that I can't reproduce.

Why the plug-in doesn't have a quick-tag support?

Basically one of the main reasons is the fact that my JavaScript skills are less than average. I am mainly a PHP/MySQL coder which does backends. The other main reason is the fact that actually the lack of interface makes the plug-in to be compatible with lots of WordPress versions without any update to the XVE core (yes, I love code portability). It should be compatible with v1.5 (untested), but I don't recommend it, so that's why the WordPress page specifies v2.0 as the lower supported version.

What should the PHP host support?

The PHP host should support PCRE (Perl Compatible Regular Expressions) as the plug-in uses them to match and replace the tags from your post with the properly formated flash objects. PHP v4 is enough, thus you won't need a PHP v5 host. The plug-in works on Windows hosts as well as on *nix hosts. The only cross-platform issue was the path detection for the embedded FLV media player which was fixed by v0.2.4.2.

The tags should be written as described into the documentation?

The tags are case insensitive, thus the plug-in works for either [youtube] or [YouTube], etc. Your choice.

What's the supported syntax for the contend between the tags?

For generic SWF/FLV the URL should be an absolute path to the .swf/.flv file. If you're not using pretty permalinks, then you can use a relative path. For externally hosted SWF/FLV files obviously you need to use an absolute path. For the supported video services you need to use the permalink to the file you would like to embed within your blog. For video services such as MySpace TV which use both "VideoID" and "videoid" into the permalink, the plug-in matches the VideoID text as case insensitive. This applies wherever is possible.

Does the extra parameter(s) from the permalink break the behavior of the plug-in?

If the URL is properly formatted (Example: you copy the URL from the browser's address bar), then everything should be OK. Some video services like YouTube may use extra parameters within the URL besides the video ID. Other services such as Dailymotion use a permalink structure which isn't very friendly, but XVE handles it nicely as long as the video ID is valid.

Why the plug-in supports only flash objects?

Because it just works. I spent countless hours on figuring out how to embed various video types under various platforms and I was kinda disappointed. I am not just a Windows user, I also use Linux, FreeBSD with Linux compatibility for Flash Player, occasionally Mac OS X, so I would like to see it working, no matter which is the OS. Most of the video services still use video flash players for the same reason. Please notice the fact that these words come from a person that isn't a flash lover (myself).

How's the compatibility with various WordPress versions?

Pretty good actually since the plug-in doesn't use anything from WordPress code base except the hooks which add the extra functionality, and the functions which manage the options. The processing is done internally so I am the only one which provides the compatibility among various versions.

Do I have to use the credits link?

No, that's not mandatory. Actually, that option comes as disabled by default. If you would like to help me spread the plug-in, then use the option as checked. It places a small "Powered by XHTML Video Embed" under all the inserted flash objects. If the option is disabled, then the credit is placed as XHTML comment which is ignored, but it can be seen by the visitors who view the XHTML source of the page which contains the object. If you don't like having comments within your source code, then comment the line which places this message, but it would be nice not to alter the code since I spent my spare time to code this stuff. Your choice.