Note (March 2012): This method of including players is currently depreciated (althoug existing and future code will continue to work). We’re rebuilding HTML5 players that are required for most iOS devices. Follow us on Twitter or Facebook for details.
We recently had a giveaway competition on FlightPodcast.com. It required listeners to simply provide us with an idea that we could use for Flight Podcast, and in return, and if that idea was one that we adopted, we would give them a one hour simulator ride in a Boeing 777 at Flight City. We were inundated with ideas from people around the globe (many were not interested in the prize but simply doing their bit for the FP community). The first phone call we made to a gentleman in Victoria was rejected because of the costs associated with travel to Perth.
A Qantas captain living in South Perth suggested we make audio available for inclusion in websites and blogs. He went one step further and asked me make some of the audio packaged into CRM e-lessons. This was something we had considered but it was nice to hear it from somebody else. We’ve since partly adopted his idea and sent him a $275 voucher for his simulator ride just in time for Christmas.
Include our audio on your website or in a blog
There were some important criteria we wanted to do fulfil in making audio available.
- We wanted to make a snippet of code available that would always render the most up to date episode.
- We wanted to make single episodes available so they could be included in blog posts and so on.
- We wanted to provide people with a growing list of audio players.
- We wanted to provide people with a single line of simple JavaScript code rather than chunky multi-line embed code.
We think we’ve accomplished what we set out to do, except we haven’t come close to providing the number of audio player options that we would like. At the moment we’re providing three player options via their own single line of code… but when we provide more than this we’ll update to a single line of JavaScript with the player defined by a variable (such as latest-episode.js?player=1). The code below will always work, even after we implement a new means of calling the audio.
How to include the latest episode on your website
The following code will play the latest episode of Flight Podcast as each new episode is released.
The G Player
The G-player is simple and elegant and loads very quickly. It is 400 pixels wide by 27 pixels in height. It features buttons to progressively seek through the track, a timeline slider and volume control. It will read the length of the audio as soon as it loads.
WPS Player
The WPS Button is one of the more common audio players on the web. Although simple, it renders a timeline, volume control and pause button.
Simple Button 1
Simple Button 1 is as the name implies. Simple. It does nothing other than play and pause.
Include individual episodes on your website or blog
A lot of the time you will always want a singular episode on your website that doesn’t change – handy in blog posts if you’re addressing specific episodes. You can find the audio/player link on the Flight Podcast website.
We would appreciate a link back to the Flight Podcast website if you choose to include audio. We’ll reciprocate with a link back to your site.
Flight Podcast albums
We’re in early stages of testing a number of audio players that will showcase a Flight Podcast album. An example is provided below:
Although this player isn’t overly good, it does give you an idea of what we’re doing. You can include the above player with the following single line of code on your website (as this one was done).
Now, like with everything we seem to do, we sit back and wait how long it is until others do the same thing.
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