Media Manager

I have a music site on which you can buy mp3s. I want to have a 'preview' function next to the 'add to cart' button for people to listen to a segment of the track if they want to. Having had a good look through the forum and wiki documentation I think this may be achievable using the Media Manager, but am unclear on the details.

I have added my 'preview clips' in the form of mp3s to the media folder in Zen and have made mp3s a 'media type'. Do I have to make a separate 'new collection' in the media manager for each of them [ie one per track] or are they all accessible under one collection? I have 14 audio clips which could be classified under one 'collection'. Can I then get into this 'collection' to assign the relevant clip to play when the correct button is clicked on the page? Can I set up the 14 clips within one 'collection'? or is it in fact several 'collections' that I need to achieve this?

Will a 'listen to clip' button appear or do I have to make one & insert it somehow? Hyperlinked text 'listen to clip' would be fine. If neither, how does one actually get to preview?

I found a thread dated 31 Aug with these statements by Dr Byte:

1. You must assign a collection to a product, not an individual clip

2. Only products built with product-type "Product-Music" will display the media collection to the customer after doing the steps you described.

Point 1 adds to my confusion re 'collections'. I take it to mean I need to make a 'new collection' for each audio clip. Yes?

Point 2 - I'm now not certain whether I selected 'product-music' or 'general' when building them, & can't seem to find out. Where in the admin shows this?, & if I have built 'general' products, I guess I should copy into 'product-music' & delete the 'general'.

The categories/products page defaults to 'products-general' & I think I built them using this cat.

Is it worth me re-jigging them to 'product-music' & will a nice 'listen here' button/text appear eventually if I follow the correct procedure?

NeilH:

Is it worth me re-jigging them to 'product-music' & will a nice 'listen here' button/text appear eventually if I follow the correct procedure?
Yes.

Sadly, you'll have to recreate your products using the correct type.
Then you'll have to re-link the collections to the products using the media manager.

Try one and see ;)

Hello zenners,

I'm trying to achieve previews as explained in this FAQ
https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=119

I have been trying over and over again but no luck, could there be a error in this FAQ, is it still up to date with the latest zencart release? Or might tere be something funky about my ZC config, or install?

I'm a bit in the dark about this.. I don't see why it ain't working as i expected.

Would be great to have more detailed info on this. A better explain WHY to make certain settings and eventually some screen shots might do the trick. I see that more people run into similar probs. due to not fully understanding the 'rough' 'walk trough'
style of explain that some FAQ articles are written in. For the experienced Zenner it sure will be pretty easy, but for a newbie like me it reads like math mixed with algebra, if you know what i mean.. Both the same thing but not explaining the way how to calculate it. Unless you know the reason WHY things are calculated in a certain way. :-D oops...

In other words... HEEELP!!!!!

B.

First off it doesn't allow you to preview in the product listing page only on the actual product page.

Did you upload your music under admin>extras>media manager?

Once the file is in Media Manager you can just click on "assign to product" and browse to the product you want the music to be connected to.

I'm trying to get a media site up and running and have hit a snag on how to set up artist pages and linking media collections to them.

I've tried making an artist page as a document general but the page shows up as a product. Artist pages are basically information pages and not products. I don't want artists to show up as a new product.

The only way around that that I've found is to create the artist page as an ez page...problem here is that the media collection for the artist can't be linked to the ez page...or can it?

Is it possible to assign a media collection to an EZ Page?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Mike

Can I create a media collection that is only visable AFTER the product has been purchased?

mjfarrell:

Can I create a media collection that is only visable AFTER the product has been purchased?

The only way you could do that without writing custom code is to simply make the product have download attributes, since those are available only after purchase. That's how a music product works anyway. Just don't add media manager content to the product if you don't want to offer previews prior to purchase.
After purchase, the customer can access the complete media files based on whatever attributes you've assigned to the product at the time of purchase, using their My Account area.

DrByte:

The only way you could do that without writing custom code is to simply make the product have download attributes, since those are available only after purchase. That's how a music product works anyway. Just don't add media manager content to the product if you don't want to offer previews prior to purchase.
After purchase, the customer can access the complete media files based on whatever attributes you've assigned to the product at the time of purchase, using their My Account area.

Thanks Dr.

The reason I was asking is that a media collection seems to be the easiest method to deliver my product.

I am casting about all over the place trying to find a more workable solution to this challenge.

The product is various seminars, each made up of multiple lessons. And due to downlod times, and other consideration each lesson is made up of multi-part zip files. I am haveing great rouble setting up the product so that after purchase one can then come back and download each of the lesson pieces and have it remain formatted in a logical order as follows:

Class Topic 1

Lesson1
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Lesson 2
Part1
Part2

Lesson 3
Part1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

The product has over 14 lessons set up in pieces this way.

I have read and re read, and attempted varioations of this
[quote]

Example for 5 Downloads it would read:
Download 1 of 5
Download 2 of 5
Download 3 of 5
Download 4 of 5
Download 5 of 5

For 3 Downloads it would read:
Download 1 of 3
Download 2 of 3
Download 3 of 3

Make the Option Values as needed
Option Values:
Option Name pick from dropdown Download 1
Option Value Name: of 1
Option Value Sort Order: 10

Option Name pick from dropdown Download 1
Option Value Name: of 2
Option Value Sort Order: 20

Option Name pick from dropdown Download 1
Option Value Name: of 3
Option Value Sort Order: 30

Option Name pick from dropdown Download 1
Option Value Name: of 4
Option Value Sort Order: 40

Option Name pick from dropdown Download 1
Option Value Name: of 5
Option Value Sort Order: 50

Then make a set for Download 2, 3, 4, 5

Note: when making these, only make patterns that match

Download 3 of 1 doesn't make sense so don't make an Option Name: of 1 for the Option Name: Download 3

Now you can make the Attribute read correctly based on how many downloads ...

Note: You make find a better pattern of text so you don't get lost in making the Attribtues ...

NOTE: There is also Bunyrip's Attributes enhancer that has a nice peice of code to filter your Option Names and Option Values ...

But for now, when making the Attributes, just match the right Option Name to the Option Value ...

Attributes Controller:
Option Name: Download 1
Option Value: of 5 [Download 1]
Download filename
Number of Days and Downloads

Option Name: Download 2
Option Value: of 5 [Download 2]
Download filename
Number of Days and Downloads

Option Name: Download 3
Option Value: of 5 [Download 3]
Download filename
Number of Days and Downloads

Option Name: Download 4
Option Value: of 5 [Download 4]
Download filename
Number of Days and Downloads

Option Name: Download 5
Option Value: of 5 [Download 5]
Download filename
Number of Days and Downloads

Don't worry on the Sort Order as you set the defaults when these were made ...

When done adding the Downloads ... just click on the Update Sort order button and all will sort nicely ... [quote]

there has to be an easier way than creating a download attribute for each of these lessons, and the zip files, than the form

1 of 57
2 of 57
3 of 57
etc...

The media manager seems to be the ONLY way to group a bunch of files to a product intelligently.

If you name your download files in such a way that it's obvious what each file is for, then it could help minimize some of the confusion you're trying to avoid.

Otherwise you'll have to get into writing custom code to handle grouping the download options differently.

DrByte:

If you name your download files in such a way that it's obvious what each file is for, then it could help minimize some of the confusion you're trying to avoid.

Otherwise you'll have to get into writing custom code to handle grouping the download options differently.

Well from the looks of it this seems to be a fairly common request.

Could one move the MEDIA folder into the downloads folder and thereby have it inherit the download folder security settings?
And if one did move the media folder, would one then need to rewrite those to modules?

I understand that file naming can go along way, however we will be dealing with humans here; and how many times have you seen a human *pushing *away at a door marked pull?

Obviously the fewer chances I give those humans to err, the fewer issues I should have with the store site.

Technically this has nothing to do with Media Manager other than perhaps a cosmetic resemblance of how you might want things to look after your customizations have been completed.

If you want to have security control over who can download what, you'll have to revamp the download infrastructure. Simply moving media folders around isn't going to accomplish anything other than error messages.

To arrange downloadable files into groups, you'll need to:

• alter the database infrastructure to track the grouping arrangements
• write an admin interface to allow you to set the grouping arrangements
• rewrite the download templates to display the files in the prescribed groups
• rewrite the download logic accordingly
• revamp the system to allow you to add additional files to an order's downloads after-the-fact
• and so on

Good news Dr!

You are so right about this and media manager, no argument there. Such a shame however that linking a series a files to a virtual product isn't as easy.

However, after pretty much going crazy, and coming back with the ashtrays, I think I have stumbled upon an atribute naming and sort ordering schema that should allow one to have a customer buy the Product, and that Product order when delivered is then an orderly list of the class topics and the associated files to download for each.

Perhaps I'll post a few screen captures after it's all sorted.

And thanks for your help.

Check out my site at https://www.lullabynow.com I found a free program that allows you to embed samples via HTML. You can add this program code to the music description to allow customers to preview your music you are selling. (No the site was just a test I setup to do a project with a friend so I am not trying to sell at mp3 for $1000!!!) Here is the site that has the free music player:
http://www.premiumbeat.com/