Sycamore Help

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Getting Started Guide

Follow these tips to get started with the Sycamore site.

• Begin by opening up "settings.xml" with a text editor and start changing the settings. Then open up "index.html" in your web browser and refresh the page to see the results of the changes you made.
• Get in the habit of constantly refreshing the "index.html" page after you make changes to the XML. If you make a mistake in the XML (for example, accidently deleting a quotation mark) your page may no longer load. If you refresh your page right after making changes you'll be able to tell where you made the error and be able to fix it. If your page stops loading and you aren't able to find the problem see question 1 in the FAQ below.
• If you don't need certain info for a project (like a URL) just leave the attribute as an empty set of quotes with no space in it instead of deleting it. For example, if you don't need a Launch Project button set the url part like this: url=""
  
  
• Some of the attributes use just a single number for the setting, such as dividerLineStyle="1". For settings that use that format put in different numbers like 2, 3, etc. Entering dividerLineStyle="2" will make the divider lines dotted instead of solid. Try putting in different numbers to see what they do. The same goes for the newPosition setting, "1" will position the new icon in the top right, "2" will position it top left, "3" will position it bottom left and "4" will position it bottom right.
• Even if you aren't using your own logo and about photo, still leave the "logo.png" and "about.jpg" in the images directory. The SWF file still looks for them before "settings.xml" is loaded and you will get an error in your browser if they are not there.

Frequently Asked Questions

These questions are ordered by how common they are - most common at the top. Please note the question numbers may change since I am constantly updating this section.

1. My site suddenly stopped working after I made changes to my XML file. What do I do?

   Your XML file is probably malformed, meaning there is a typo/mistake in it somewhere that is stopping the web browser from reading it correctly. It is most likely a very simple fix - you just need to find where you made the error. An easy way to do that is to navigate to your XML file in your web browser. For example, if your site is named "yoursite.com" then navigate to this URL:

   http://www.yoursite.com/settings.xml

   In Firefox, the page will say something like:

   This page contains the following errors:

   error on line 1 at column 5: error parsing attribute name

   Usually that will give you enough info to locate your error. If you still have trouble, post a question in the forums and I can help you.

2. I built my site using the free version - now I want to upgrade to the paid version. Do I have to rebuild the site?

   No. Upgrading is very simple. Keep all of your XML files and images the same. Simply delete your old "sycamore.swf" file and replace it with the new "sycamore.swf" file from the purchased version. That's it!

3. Nothing is happening when I open "index.html" or I am getting the message "Adobe Flash Player has stopped a potentially unsafe operation". How do I fix this?

   This is due to a security restriction in the Flash Player when loading XML files locally. Read more about it here, here and here if you want a technical explanation, otherwise just follow the below steps:

   1. Click the "Settings..." button on the warning popup or visit this link
   2. In the "Flash Player Global Security Settings" dialog box, select "Add location" from the "Edit locations..." drop down
   3. Click "Browse for folder..." and select the folder where your project is located
   4. Click Confirm

4. I'm on a PC and am using Notepad to edit the XML files. Everything looks bad and runs together. What can I do?

   If you don't own Dreamweaver or any other HTML editor then I recommend downloading and using Notepad++ to edit the XML files. It's free and I've heard good things about it.

5. How do I add project images of different sizes?

   Project images can be any size, but for each project you will probably want all of the images that go along with it to be the same size so it looks nicer, but it's not necessary.

   In "portfolio.xml" the following sets the image size:

   <images width="540" height="304">

   Basically that size will determine the size of the image background that the images load on top of. It also controls the vertical spacing between projects so everything is spaced correctly before the images load.

6. How do I use my own logo?

   Open up "settings.xml" and set "hasOwnLogo" to "true". Save your logo file as a PNG file, name it "logo.png" and place it in the images folder.

7. How do I set the preloader color? I don't see it in "settings.xml".

   The preloader color is set at the top of the "index.html" file. Look for the following line:

   flashvars.preloaderColor = "0xff4400";

   It's not in "settings.xml" because the preloader needs to be displayed before "settings.xml" is loaded.

8. How do I set the background color of the site during the loading screen?

   The initial background color is set at the top of the "index.html" file. Look for the following line:

   bgcolor: "#000000"

9. How do I change the page title at the top of the browser window?

   The page title is set at the top of "index.html" between the "title" tags.

10. Why am I getting extra line breaks in my paragraphs of text?

    Be careful of adding any extra line breaks when you are entering text in the XML files. Pay careful attention to sections that have the CDATA part like the following:
    
    <![CDATA[Long description...]]>
    
    Putting a line break after the CDATA[ part will add an extra line break. Also be careful of adding tab indents. Flash is pretty finicky about XML files so pay special attention to all your line breaks and tabs and you should be fine.

11. How do I setup the contact form?

    Open up "contact.php" and follow the commented instructions. Basically you just need to change the email address (in two places) and site name to your own. The form will need to uploaded to a server that supports PHP in order for it to send the email. Everything in the deploy/demo folder needs to be uploaded for everything to work properly. If the form does not work on your server (if you get the "server error" message), then your server does not support PHP. Please contact your web hosting company and inquire about PHP support (most web hosts should support PHP).

12. Why does my site load slowly?

    How fast your site loads depends on 3 things:

    1. The users internet connection speed
    2. The server speed of where your site is hosted
    3. How many and how big the images you are using

    The actual site itself (not including any portfolio images) is a rather small file size. If you are loading lots of large, high quality images the site will take longer to load then if you are using small, web optimized images. To optimize your images for a faster loading time, open them in Photoshop and go to File > Save for Web and save them out at a lower quality.

13. How can I add video projects?

    Unfortunately this doesn't come with a built-in video player - if you want to add video your best bet would be to have the "Launch Project" button link to the video in a new window.

14. I purchased a product but did not receive a download link. What do I do?

    Make sure you check the email account that your PayPal account is linked to - it might be different than the email you regularly use. Also check your junk mail folder to make sure it's not in there. If you still have problems email me at and I can resend you the download link.

15. When trying to view my site I keep seeing the message "Your Flash Player needs to be upgraded". What do I do?

    If you are seeing this message that means you haven't uploaded all of the required files. Everything in the demo/deploy folder needs to be uploaded in order for everything to work. Double check that the folder named "js" is uploaded to the root directory of your site. A lot of times people experience this problem because they haven't unzipped the files correctly. On a Mac you just double click the zip file to unzip. On a PC depending on your operating system you may need an unzip utility. See here for more info on opening zip files.

16. Any other questions?

    Please post in the forums and I'll answer any other questions you might have.