Piecemaker Blocks

Piecemaker Blocks is packaged with the Piecemaker API. It allows anyone with the 'administer blocks' permissions to add blocks that will display Piecemaker slideshows.

Creating Piecemaker Blocks

1. Go to admin/structure/block and click on the action link "Add Piecemaker block".
2. The form requires 3 things:
   1. A Block description
   2. A Piecemaker Profile
   3. At least 1 file added
3. Once you have set your block description and profile start adding files then save your block.

Adding & Editing Files

The form for adding and editing files contains a lot of info for each file. For each file you must choose a file type, one of:

• Image: .png, .jpg, .gif
• Video: .mp4 (must have H.264 encoding), .f4v, .flv
• Flash: .swf

Once the file type is selected you must then select a file using the Media browser. Unfortunately this does not limit the files to the previously selected type, so ensure the file you select matches the selected type.
The next step is to complete the file options for the file you selected each type has differences in the options available.

• Image

  Accepted image formats are JPG, PNG and GIF. Additionally the Image can also have a Title option which will be shown in the tooltip on the menu.

  The Text option can hold a description text, which can be formatted with simple HTML tags. Which HTML tags are supported, is determined by the piecemaker.css file. Per default you can use h1, p, & a. But you can add and specify as many tags as you want, for example different headline types. If you want to use different fonts, you will have to make sure that you embed these fonts in the Flash file. If you don‘t add a Text option, no info text appears.

  Also the Image can hold an Hyperlink, which will link the image to another domain. This Hyperlink must have a URL and Target.

• Flash

  The Flash type can have a Title attribute which will be shown in the tooltip on the menu.

  The Flash type must have a background image. This will specify the preview image to be loaded before the SWF file is shown. This preview image might show the first image of the SWF file though, which would cause a smooth transition from the image to the actual SWF.

• Video

  You can also add Video files to the Piecemaker. Accepted file formats are MPEG4 width H.264 Codec, as well as F4V and FLV.

  The Video must include the options Width, Height and Autoplay. Width and Height specify the dimensions of the video file. Autoplay defines whether or not the video will start playing as soon as it‘s ready. The additional Title attribute can again add a tooltip to the menu.

  Just like the Flash type the Video type has to have a background image, which will specify a preview image, which is shown before the video is ready. Using the first image of the video here will cause smooth transition between image and video. Please note that this image will still be shown left and right of the video, in case that the video is not as wide as the image.

Files can also be ordered using the drag and drop interface (or the weight boxes if JS is disabled).

NOTE* Files that are added to a block are not saved until the block itself is saved. This applies to new and existing Piecemaker blocks.

Once you have added all your files and configured your block settings, save the block. Back on the block page simply drag the block you've created into the region you'd like it to go in.