Announcing the VideoSnap Plugin for IOS, BT3.0. A major milestone for me, my first ever plugin! It allows your app to record a video snap as a square, std 4:3 or widescreen 16:9 format video, using 'touch to record'. It is based on the piemonte/PBJVision Github project (with a few extras), which is licensed under the MIT license. The user interface is different to the standard camera app - you touch and hold the screen to record, let go to stop. You can swap between front and back cameras during a recording, up to a pre-determined time limit (or when you want to stop, whichever comes first). The plugin joins all those start/stopped clips into one recording snap for you to review, then you can email it straight away, or save & send later. There is a recording indicator and count-down timer to help you know what is going on. Oh, and it is designed for you hold your device the normal way (e.g. vertically), which makes it easier to use one-handed. I could not have done this without the help and encouragement from SmugWimp, who helped get it going at the beginning, tested the final version at the end and was of great support all the way through - big thanks Smug! https://www.buzztouch.com/plugins/plugin.php?pid=8CEE6FE2B36EB8D3E45184E Cheers, Alan

You did most of the heavy lifting, I just gave a little guidance to a first time plugin developer. Your results are spectacular! Nicely done, Alan. Nicely done indeed. Cheers! -- Smug

Congrats!! Looks great. You should be proud :) Good luck and here's to many more plugins under your belt!!

Installed...looks awesome! I can't wait to try it in an app. Congratulations on this amazing milestone! Mark

Nice! Welcome to the plugin developer's inner circle ;)

Great concept! I received an error when I opened the Control Panel. arrowEnable/Disable VideoSnap XIB for Menu Missing File: "/var/www/vhosts/buzztouch-demo/public_html/files/plugins/AMG_VideoSnap/vsRecordingProperties.html”" File not found? arrowSnap and Send Record Preview Options arrowEmail Properties Any suggestions? Mike

The vsRecordingProperties.html file is part of the control panel customisations, which is uploaded to your control panel as part of the installation. If you are self hosted, you should be able to tell if it is there or not. Regardless, let me look into it, I'll post back asap.

Thank you AlanMac! I am not self hosted if that matters? Mike

Just downloaded the plugin zip to my desktop from my BT hosted control panel, which I believe should be exactly the same as the one you have. I opened the zip file and double checked - the file vsRecordingProperties.html is in the build and it seems to be correctly referenced. It sounds as if it didn't install correctly for you, this sometimes happens, but I do not know why. In the root of the plugin folder, you should see the following four html files vsPluginDescription vsUseXib vsRecordingProperties vsRecordingPreviewLayout They all feed the control panel. Re-installation and refreshing might work - could you give that a try and let me know how it goes please? Thanks, Alan

Alan, Thank you for the info. I added another Screen. It has the same issue. Below is a list of files in your plugin from xCode I amy not know how to determine if I have html files or not: AMG_logo_ipad.png AMG_logo.png AMG_VideoSnap.h AMG_VideoSnap.m [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] PBJFocusView.h PBJFocusView.m PBJGLProgram.h PBJGLProgram.m PBJMediaWriter.h PBJMediaWriter.m PBJStrobeView.h PBJStrobeView.m PBJVision.h PBJVision.m PBJVisionUtilities.h PBJVisionUtilities.m Shader.fsh Shader.vsh VideoSnapiPad.xib VideoSnapiPhone.xib I am able to select xib or not / I cannot select the total length of video / I have preview options / I have description of plugin I hope this helps. I will try deleting the plugins and starting over. Mike

Hi Mike The files you have listed are in xcode - that's good, because they should be there! The four I mentioned earlier are for the control panel, they don't affect the xcode side of things. If you go to your buzztouch host, look at your 'installed plugins' click on VideoSnap and you can click on 'Download Self Hosted Version'. Do that and a zip file is downloaded to your machine. If you open the zip file, you should see the above mentioned html files. If you do, re-installing should help. If you don't, let me know what html files you do see please. Cheers, Alan

Alan, Yes the file(s) are in the self hosted download. config_cp.txt config.txt icon.png readme.txt screenshots source-android-2.0 source-android-3.0 source-ios-2.0 source-ios-3.0 vsEmailProperties.html vsPluginDescription.html vsRecordingPreviewLayout.html vsRecordingProperties.html vsUseXib.html If I create a new screen in a new app it has the error. Do I have to be self hosted to use all of the features of your plugin? I can likely make the changes I need in xcode to use the plugin. It will build and run on an iphone and work except for setting the max record time. The default is 45 sec? Thank you for your great support. I sent a PM to another plugin developer over a week ago and have not received a response yet. Mike

No reason that it needs to be self hosted, certainly not meant to be. And I have just reproduced the problem, I made a packaging error! The missing html file controls some of the json settings at the bottom of the screen, so if you can edit the json directly, then you don't need to modify the defaults in xcode (but that would work too, just harder place to fix things). Please look at the readme for the json values. The default for the timing limit vs_RecordingLimit and is indeed 45 seconds. Thanks for your kind words and your patience. I'm keen to get to the bottom of this too. Next I'm going to re-examine the build. If I need to re-issue I'll make a post here. Cheers, Alan

Thank you for the update and support. Mike

I have updated the plugin to version 1.02 and it is now in the market. Should all be good now. Would you believe, the error was a single charaacter delimiter on one line in the control panel config file - it had the wrong type of double quote!!!! Sorry for the inconvenience, please update you copy, cheers, Alan

Thanks for the update! I have already changed the xcode and graphics. I will test 1.02 later. Yes I believe a single keystroke broke the plugin! Happens to all of us. This may be the "Best Value" Plugin I have purchased and support has been incredible! Mike

Cheers Mike, glad you like it. Don't let me stop you if you'd like leave a review, it would be much appreciated. Cheers, Alan

Hello Alan, I added VideoSnap to a App I published several months ago and I created a 1 screen app with your plugin. Both installs have a bug. Everything fine until you send the email. App returns to "Review" screen and it cannot be closed. The X does not work. You can go to the "email" screen and send another email. The only way to exit is with the refresh button. My first install (that was before you fixed the bug) still works perfect! Sorry, hopefully it is an easy fix. Mike

I just released 1.03. I made a small patch, some of the variables were not being picked up from the control panel. In 1.02 I did not touch the objective C. In 1.03 I renamed a couple of variables to match the control panel, I also tested for this bug, but I could not reprdouce it. The upgrade to 1.02 did not touch the xcode files, so no reason I can immediately think of for it to break anything. That's one I have not seen before. Could it be it your xcode settings for the minimum IOS version? I set mine to version 7 minimum. Also, if the video recording length is longer than 60 or the saved file is big, I'm not sure what would happen. I put a fair amount of 'chatter' into the log files, so if you send me your log in an email, I am happy to take a peek. Cheers, Alan

Alan, App 1 working fine (except for original bug) in 6.1 App 2 now record settings work (change recording setting in CP) will NOT exit from email / review without refresh button built in 6.1 App 3 This is the one screen app I build as a test. The record setting work but it will not exit after email. It returns to review screen and user cannot exit without refreshing the app. I will send log. Thank you for your support. Mike

We worked it out. A feature of the way I implemented the plugin is to have the option to use or not use a built in xib. You cannot use the plugin as a screen with the xib option as a home page, or directly linked to a tab menu. If you link the plugin to a normal menu, all will be fine. Or if you use the non-xib option, which links with a normal menu of your choice, all should be fine. Phew!

Works as advertised. Nice plugin with amazing support from Alan!

Great job at support, Alan! You are an inspiration. I've had trouble with the quotation marks and the problem was introduced in Mac TextEdit.

Thanks for the nice comments all, I aim to please!