Users don’t have to install anything to play and select clips (as long as they’ve got JavaScript and Flash), it’s up to site owners to add the player so it can be used with their audio content.

Requirements

To add quoteplay to your site you just need to be able to upload files to your web server.

Your MP3 files must be in a format that the Flash plugin can accept, e.g. 22kHz or 44kHz sample rate (don’t use 48kHz).

If your site serves pages as application/xhtml+xml then you’ll have to make an exception for your quoteplay player page, as the JavaScript won’t work otherwise.

1. Download the files

Get the Zip archive from the download page and unzip it (e.g. with a package such as WinZip if you don’t already have one) to a folder somewhere on your computer.

Get SWFObject (this is not my script and so must be obtained separately) and put swfobject.js (you don’t need the other files) in your folder.

2. Customise the player

Open up the file index.html using a text/code editor (e.g. humble Notepad works fine); a WYSIWYG package such as FrontPage may mangle the code.

You can edit the line

var quoteplaySO = new SWFObject('loader0-1.swf','quoteplaySwf','500','200','6','#ffffff');

to customise the player.

Change '#ffffff' to adjust the colour of the player to match your site’s decor.

Alter '500' and '200' to set width and height, but shrinking below 400×160 will make the player illegible.

You can wrap your own page layout around the player, and perhaps add some introductory text, by freely adding extra markup before and after the player.

3. Cross-domain issues

If your audio files aren’t on the same domain as your site you have to either:

1. Upload a policy file to the root (the top level folder) of the domain containing the audio files. You can download this example file (right-click, ‘Save Link As…’) and customise it to include the quoteplay player page’s domain. This will give one site permission to download from another via the Flash plugin.
   or
2. Put the player page on the audio files’ domain, avoiding any cross-domain issues.

This restriction is due to security features in the Flash plugin.

4. Choose a location

If necessary, rename index.html to a filename which will work as the default document on your web server. This is the file that the web server will display if a web browser just requests the folder it’s in, and common settings include index.html, index.htm, index.php, default.asp, etc. If you’re not sure then have a guess, trial-and-error won’t do any harm.

Please note: using the default document is strongly recommended to simplify URLs (by keeping the filename out of them) and aid future-proofing (e.g. if you switch to a non-HTML version of quoteplay in the future).

Create a folder in your site on your web server, taking care to choose a location which seems logical and hopefully won’t have to change, e.g. if you had a site at

http://www.somedomain.com/podcast/

you might put quoteplay in

http://www.somedomain.com/podcast/player/

or

http://www.somedomain.com/podcast/quoteplay/

Upload the files from the folder on your computer to the folder on your web server.

5. Create links

Put the URL you chose (which should just point to a folder if you successfully followed the recommendation to use the default document) into your browser; if all is well you should see the player, prompting you to choose an audio file.

If your audio files are on the same domain as the player, specify a path that’s relative to the root of the site (begins with a forward-slash “/”), otherwise enter a full URL.

Clicking ‘Load’ should reload the page, and the player should start downloading the audio file. When it’s finished, you can use ‘Generate Clip URL’ to create a link that’ll play the entire file. This is handy for creating links directing site visitors to the player, e.g. you might produce something like:

    Strange Foreign Music Podcast (MP3, 813KB) (select a quote)

You can use a little quoteplay icon if you want to (save the image and put it on your own web server).

6. Let everyone know

Once you’ve tested the player and are happy it’s working OK, it’s time to unleash it upon the world.