Sea Dreams Hotel is one of the last assignments I completed recently. Sea Dreams Hotel is a small independently owned hotel located on Caye Caulker by a very nice American couple. Why panoramas? One of the benefits of panoramic photography and virtual tours is the ability of the potential client to see "everything". In a world becoming more and more jaded by the day, the ability to "interact and control" the website as opposed to sitting back passively and being guided is gaining notice. In this case, a very well done remodel is shown. Virtual tours, along with good stills, and video provide a "proof" to clients of your facility.
I thought I'd use this as an example of my new flash viewer system since it was handy. Why flash? Flash is basically the new defacto standard. It's already in over 97% of the computers around the world. It's possible to display this work in a variety of ways. I've put it together so a web designer can easily use it. The system allows you to show your panoramas in six different ways easily in html and one other for Joomla and most other CMS applications. Some of the customizable features that are common to all the six+ viewer styles are discussed next. I'll go through each of them below.
First, the viewers all come with the contact button on the upper right hand corner however it is optional. The following spanish and english text is available for the buttons; Contact Us, Book Now, Inquire, Contacto, and Reservaciones. The web designer has 17 different color sets of buttons to choose from and they can be switched very easily even if already published. Custom colors and text for the buttons are an extra fee. The viewer controls are alway grey, translucent, and located in the upper right hand corner of the viewer. The viewer text is always white.
The Esoteric Vision logo and link are located at the bottom right side of the viewer. It's color will also change with the button colors you choose. A discount is offered for using including the Esoteric Vision logo and link. Custom logos can be installed for a small charge and the customer must provide the image ready to use. The replacement image will be displayed at the same height as the Esoteric Vision logo.
The thumbs gallery is always at the bottom of viewers when specified. The grey mask background for the gallery can be removed at the customer's discretion. Each thumbnail image is produced from the original panorama and the default size is 150 pixels x 75 pixels. Finally, the speed of rotation, starting position, dwell time on start, zoom, and acceleration are all programmed to customer specifications. There are a variety of other items that can be customized for free so just ask. It is important to note that the settings described above are global in nature, meaning that throughout all six+1 styles of viewers the settings discussed above will be exactly the same.
All six options of panorama viewers are included in the ftp download along with support for your web designer. However, please be aware that support was never intended to be lessons in html or programming. Option 2a (the seventh option) is not included or supported as part of this package. The new options are available starting October 10, 2009. The new policy is not retroactive. Previous images can be converted to the new system for a small fee.
1. Gallery: Embedded View - This is the default gallery viewer for the system. The web designer, photographer, and managers decide which is the most optimum image to display first, the images to follow, and in what order. Use it as you would a regular photo gallery. This theme is designed to allow the customer to browse the thumbnails at the bottom and is specifically designed to be embedded only. Viewer size is taylored to the specifications of the client. The sample provided displays the flash viewer at 760 pixels x 480 pixels but it can be set for any defined height and width in pixels.
2a. Gallery: Pop-up View - This is also the default gallery viewer for the system. The web designer, photographer, and owners decide which is the optimum image to display first, images to follow, and in what order. Use it as you would a regular photo gallery. This theme is designed to allow the customer to browse the thumbnails in the thumbs gallery and is specifically designed to be used as a popup only. The viewer size is taylored to the specifications of the client. The link above opens one style where the flash player is a fixed size but the benefit is that the image is displayed overlaid on the current page and the user simply clicks outside the pane to return to the current page. I support this style in my web design work only.
2b. Gallery: Pop-up View - The more common method and included option allows the customer to open and play the panorama in a separate new browser window. Once again the web designer chooses the size and position of the browser window being opened. In this case the window is opened full size so try and resize the window just to get a feel for it. You'll notice the image fills the frame as you resize it. Once again, it's designed to be used specifically as a pop up only.
3. Single Image: Embedded View - The single image view shows a single particular isolated image embedded on the web page itself. Often the web designer wishes to keep the potential client on a particular page and without distraction. In this view the panorama simply has the viewer controls, contact button, and logo button. There is not a thumbnail gallery made available. Once again, the images are displayed in a view for a fixed width and height of 760 pixels x 480 pixels. Viewer size is taylored to the specifications of the client. All the panoramas purchased are provided as a single image embedded view.
4. Single Image: Popup View - The single image view shows a single isolated image in the viewer that pops up in a new browser window as described in option 2b. Often the web designer wishes to keep the potential client on a particular page and without distraction. In this view the panorama simply has the viewer controls, contact button, and logo button. No thumbnail gallery made available. All the panoramas purchased are provided as a single image pop up view.
5. Targeted Image: Embedded View - This targeted image viewer is the same as the "gallery: embedded viewer" except it starts with any particular image you choose. For example, lets say that you have a web page showing a hotel's restaurant. You can choose to start on the panorama of restaurant instead of the courtyard view you chose for the gallery viewers and give access to the other images in the thumbs gallery at the bottom. The example panorama is shown at 760 pixels x 480 pixels. All panoramas purchased are provided as a targeted image:embedded view.
6. Targeted Image: Pop-up View - This targeted image pop-up viewer is the same as the "gallery: pop up viewer" viewer except it starts with any particular image you choose. For example, lets say that you have a web page showing a hotel's restaurant. You can choose to start on the panorama of the restaurant instead of the courtyard view you used for the gallery views. You can choose the panorama of hotel room and give access to the other images in the thumbs gallery at the bottom. All panoramas purchased are provided as a targeted image: pop-up view.
