Forums / Feature Requests / Flash object timeline

Is it possible to even get as a variable the timeline seconds? via javascript to the flash object.

This is funny, because I was just having a similar conversation with some of the Flickr team (including their lead designer), having looked at their API. I'm assuming the point of having an API is to enrich the interest level in the content on the site -- thus driving additional revenue (via advertising or premium accounts or whatever). But the problem is, if there isn't a single method in the API that goes beyond what the site interface itself provides, where's the incentive to use the API? Vimeo.com already gives you the interface for the activities described in the API methods. So if I can just get a list of videos, that's something I could do by hyperlinking to a page or using RSS. What I want is something that goes beyond that.

Now, I realize this could yield some feature creep. But you could pick a couple of methods that would be most useful. So in this case, there are two methods:

1. A setter for playhead position.
2. A getter for a thumbnail at a playhead position.

Both are already there somewhere, or Vimeo's navigation -- and ability to let you choose from among various thumbnails -- wouldn't work. It's just a matter of making them public. And it would yield many applications beyond the ones described here. Increasingly, I think it'll be that kind of developer access that makes people choose one service or another.

It doesn't mean make the API do everything. That's clearly impractical. It means pick one thing beyond the basic methods -- maybe it's not this, maybe it's something else -- but one or two things that let the developer's extension to the site meaningful.

I'm sorry; I should have rephrased that. What I was trying to say is, if the API isn't *deep* enough, developers wind up just replicating what the site does already. And I will argue that, if you go and make an API, the ideal would be for developers to come along and provide a way of looking at and interacting with your content that you didn't think of. Now, obviously, that can't be methods that don't have *some* life somewhere on the site ... backend or otherwise. And it doesn't mean you "crippled" the site; it just means someone else might think of something you haven't yet in terms of how you look at the content and the data associated with it. Nothing's there that isn't already there, it's just that they would provide a different way of seeing what's there. And I'd say our job as developers is to take those methods and provide some view of that content that gives the content new usefulness beyond what it already has, that extends the site.

But before I overcomplicate what I was saying, I'm with pixelsumo -- if you can open up the player itself, then I think developers can provide some very meaningful stuff. And it doesn't have to be complicated... just setting the playhead is really what I think we're looking for here. And that could be hugely powerful.

Playhead position isn't the easiest example... another one would be how you take the data you've queried from Vimeo and try to give people a different view of what people are posting. So, for instance, you might want to go beyond just getting a list by tag, and try to triangulate tag information with what people like, when activity happened, etc.

Right now, I think I could probably use the advanced APIs and put my money where my mouth is and build something that lets you, say, look at a 3D cluster of video thumbnails by tag, like, friend, other interconnections between videos.

But there's another problem -- I need to be able to differentiate private from public information. And it looks like there isn't a graceful way to do that, beyond doing the query and getting an error message. (If I'm correct about that.)

I'm not meaning to lecture here; I'm just saying -- I'm really excited about Vimeo for the long haul. So I'm enthusiastic about, even if it's just one simple method, anything that allows us to do something that interacts with the community beyond what the site does already, absolutely.

Peter

Hi Vimeo

"We're working on providing opening up the flash player a bit more so you can play/pause, setting the playhead and all that plus some more interesting stuff."

I was just wondering if anything had moved forward on this front? It would be great to get the playhead position via javascript.

Many thanks

How's it going Blake?

Any news on this? Its been a while since we heard anything.

thanks

Are you guys still working on it? Thanks

Hi

Any news on this?

It would be so simple to do. If you had a variable on the flash route called timelinePosition for example, with the time in seconds, then I could easily make a javascript function to read this variable.

Many thanks