HTML5 Audio and Video players for WordPress

I have been embedding many MP3 songs in my WordPress blogs using the ultra-reliable “WP-Audio Player” plugin. But when I looked at one such blog with a podcast on the iPad no audio player could be seen. Reason: no flash in iPad and the audio player uses Shockwave Flash player.

That opened my eyes. My audio embeds lose eyeballs (rather, eardrums) because of the Flash and I don’t like it a bit. Now I have to do something about it. The alternative is not difficult to spot. Yes, it is the newfound darling of the geekosphere – “HTML5“.

MP3-jPlayer Plugin for HTML5 Audio which will work in iPad

Then I zeroed in on a WordPress plugin which embeds a HTML5 jQuery plugin. In case of an old browser devoid of HTML5 support, the player falls back on Flash seamlessly. It is the “Mp3-jPlayer“. It is a veritable darling. You can embed a single file or a playlist; either from your own server or from an URL. It also supports short codes. A comprehensive option page as well as detailed help is built in. You can customize the player either on the options page or write your own CSS rules. You can embed a player in its own line or make it inline with the text flow. It has sidebar widget too.
I have embedded a sample audio here for your appreciation:

  Vande Matharam is the National Song of India. But may Indians feel it should have been the de jure National Anthem of the country.

More HTML5 v ideo and Audio players

Well, that is not the only plugin to embed a HTML5 player. I found a couple of others too which help embed a video or an audio. Read on » »

Tags: aac, audio, blogging, css, embed, flash, h264, html5, mp3, mp4, ogg, player, plugin, swf, video, webm, WordPress, wp, youtube

Google going full steam ahead on cloud offerings!

Google has now added support for 12 new file formats in the Google Docs Viewer, in addition to Microsoft Word documents, PowerPoint presentations as well as PDF files.

The new dozen are:

1. Microsoft Excel (.XLS and .XLSX)
2. Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 / 2010 (.PPTX)
3. Apple Pages (.PAGES)
4. Adobe Illustrator (.AI)
5. Adobe Photoshop (.PSD)
6. Autodesk AutoCad (.DXF)
7. Scalable Vector Graphics (.SVG)
8. PostScript (.EPS, .PS)
9. TrueType (.TTF)
10. XML Paper Specification (.XPS)

Read more on Gmail Blog.

If you get any of these files as attachments, you can see a “View” prompt for opening them in Google Docs Viewer.

In addition, Google is also offering “Cloud Connect Plugin” for Microsoft Office suite. With this you can seamlessly share, backup and collaborate MS Office documents through Google Docs.

The following are the nifty things that you can do with the Google Cloud Connect:

• Simultaneous editing for Word, PowerPoint and Excel files, no document or paragraph locking
• Google Docs sharing URLs for each Microsoft Office file
• Revision history for Microsoft Office files, stored in Google Docs
• Offline editing with smart synchronization of offline changes
• No Microsoft Office upgrade or SharePoint® deployment required

More information on this gizmo together with elaborate video tutorials can be seen at the Google Apps page.

Tags: adobe, apple, autocad, cloud, collaboration, docs, excel, font, format file, google, microsoft, office, photoshop, plugin, powerpoint, share, truetype, xml

Customization of Contact Form 7 plugin

“Contact Form 7” is a very good plugin for adding a form submission facility to your viewers on WordPress powered blog. It can be on a separate “contact Us” page or an embedded form inside a post. You can have multiple instances in your blog/site.

It is very simple and easy to install and configure. In fact there is very little to be configured to make it work, except, of course if you want to customize it further to suit your requirement. This need may arise if you want to use the form for different purposes in your site.

The form script has in-built security and you can add CAPTCHA and Akismet spam filter. You can also let your viewers upload files – subject the settings that you fix.

The status of form processing is shown to the viewers on the form page through Ajax and it looks cool!
Read on » »

Tags: ajax, contact form, customization, form, how-to, javascript, performance, plugin, settings, tutorial, WordPress