How can I integrate Ultra Media with ActiveSocial? I want to replace the built in photo module on the photo tabs (profile and group) with the Ultra Media module

Is that possible?

trying searching these forums for UMG .. hth...

I've searched and read a several different posts on this topic but I am unable to get this working.

Here is what I've done so far:
Created a new Page called "UMG", added the UMG module with the module settings in the attachment:

Linked up the module into a new tab on profile called "UMG" - it partially loads the top nav of UMG but doesn't display any photos or allow the user to upload. See the other screen shot.

Maybe I'm missing something really basic but I'm not sure what else to troubleshoot?

Pengsten just released UMG7 that is supposed to be integrated with the AS journal. All the plumbing is there and I have been testing a beta but never got it to work. And my version stopped working as I haven't activated it yet.

There is a new UMG7 Community Mode where all permissible users can post to a single Gallery. This is the only integration required as far as I can tell. You use the AS Journal settings in the control panel to generate the key and then put the key in the UMG7 Community Mode at the bottom where it says....

Active Social: UMG is able to notify active social 1.8+ when there is a new media Integrate with active social 1.8+, my access key is #### 

I also was of the understanding that the Profile Integration mode would allow for a My Photos type of module that could be loaded into a Profile Tab. This is how I configured the Profile Integration Mode but also could not get this working.

Integration options
Data source: Homeschool Community Photos
User key: asuid

If anyone is able to get it working let me know.

Maybe Steven W. can respond as it relates to UVG and if it allows for both Journal Integration and Profile Tab integration. If so, then I would expect UMG7 to do both also. Pengsten replied to my request for help and basically said it isn't supposed to do both Profile and Journal integration. But I am thinking that maybe he didn't really understand my question.

Hopefully we can get this ironed out pretty quick and at least know whether or not it should do both Journal and Profile integration.

Cliff,
I have a beta version of UMG and some questions from Pengsten but I've been working on projects lately and I haven't had a chance to test this yet...hoping tonight.

Posted By Steven Webster on 15 Feb 2011 04:43 PM
Cliff,
I have a beta version of UMG and some questions from Pengsten but I've been working on projects lately and I haven't had a chance to test this yet...hoping tonight.

You can go to www.bizmodules.net and download the official UMG7 release. What may prove to be the coolest thing is that in addition to Photos, it fully supports videos, audios and flash files as well. So maybe we don't have to have two implementations of UMG and UVG in Active Social. I guess it somewhat depends on the available sub-modules and themes for rendering these various content types.

Here is one statement from the release notes on UMG7.

UMG 7 itself supports videos in flv and mp4 format only, but Ultra Video Gallery is able to convert videos in any format to flv/mp4 format, if you have both UMG and UVG installed on same website, UMG 7 is able to invoke UVG to do video conversion so you can actually upload videos in any format.

So for more video file types it might not be a bad idea to have UVG installed, but only use UMG7 for the AS Integration aspects... if it works as expected. Looks like there are lots of options. I hope that the issues I had were just my fault and that someone can quickly get UMG7 working with AS and show what all it can really do.

For my site I am still considering the ability to do Video Series for a select group of users who want to use my community site as a teaching tool.

Anyway, I am headed to Saudi Arabia tomorrow on business and not sure how much internet access I have. So if you all don't hear from me for a week or so you will know why.

uhm...be careful!

I'll see what I can do. I like the idea of a single, user based media module. I find most people don't actually upload vids to UVG...but rather re-post YouTube and Vimeo vids. I'll post up what I find out.

Looks like in the future UMG will destroy UVG.

The problem with third party module is that they never completely integrate and neither developers are very keen to make it happen quickly. It is us users who get frustrated. And honestly, the incomplete integration drives the members away.

I can't seem to get UMG to post to the journal either. Cliff, it "appears" that the module either runs in Community mode OR in Personal Gallery mode. I originally thought you could install a second module in personal mode and wire it up to show "My Photos" in my AS Profile using the module loader....but it seems to a completely different instance. (I might have assumed this worked more like Latest Photos in Simple Gallery)

I will say however that the Highside presentation and the ability to upload mix media is pretty cool.

I'm sending Pengsten my findings.

OK, I have the journal integration working, it was a config issue on my UMG setup. I have some notes for Pensten based on what I see so far.

Posted By Steven Webster on 16 Feb 2011 10:19 AM
OK, I have the journal integration working, it was a config issue on my UMG setup. I have some notes for Pensten based on what I see so far.

Can I see the integration? Is it on bikeclicks?

Pengsten requested one of my user logins today. So hopefully he will find the issue on my site. Also, we have to find a way to get him to have both Community and Profile Integation as options for separate instance of UMG on the same site. Otherwise, I just don't see the value. Or is there a way to pull the individual media uploads from the Community Edition to populate a My Media Tab. I don't understand why the Profile Integration mode would ask for a Source, which has to be another instance of UMG running on the site and also include the UserID as a parameter in that mode.

If that is not going to work, maybe the FreeContentList sub-module has the potential to filter on userID. Just grasping at straws before heading to the airport for 30 hours of planes and airports.

Does UNG 7 give you the option to control the security level journal entry? UVG sets the security to Comunity. Would like the option of setting the default in UMG. I will post this on BizModukes orum ubkess someone reports that there is a way to do this.

Posted By Larry on 16 Feb 2011 12:42 PM
Does UNG 7 give you the option to control the security level journal entry? UVG sets the security to Comunity. Would like the option of setting the default in UMG. I will post this on BizModukes orum ubkess someone reports that there is a way to do this.

It appears that it's only community right now.



No, on my local machine

So what happened with this? Does anyone have this working and the code or directions they used to get it working? It is very frustrating to read on both Active Social and UMG's sites that these work with each other only to find that the instructions are incomplete and the integration does not work.

Does anyone please have detailed instructions on how to get this working?

@Scott - I am a little frustrated myself. I got the latest UMG installed and created the custom journal types, but never got it to post to the journal? Nothing is being written to my database. Steven Webster said that he got it working fine on his local machine. Pengsten of UMG tried to get it working on my install and couldn't. He then downloaded my full site to his local machine to do some debugging. I haven't heard back yet.

I have several custom journal types and it really isn't that hard to setup a new type, get an access key and apply that key to the module settings. But for some reason UMG just isn't working for me.

I am sure I will get it working at some point. But even if I do get it working, I still have concerns that really worry me regarding media management that I posted on this thread last week. I had hoped to get more feedback on this thread but either everyone else has it figured out, or no one is really trying to build out a full-featured site.
http://www.activemodules.com/active...ity/ 

The biggest issue is that I don't see a way for members to be able to build media galleries from their profile. I only see UMG as a Community mode option, which I don't believe is scalable from a usability perspective. With the merger, it seems like it is clear that AS will not be adding functionality to build out a great SN solution. But rather it will just be a part of the DNN platform and we will have to figure out how to integrate other modules to make stuff work. At best we will only be able to produce a klugy product at this point if we need advanced features. Maybe a year or two from now module developers will make some progress. My thought is that now most module developers will take a wait and see position on integrating with AS since I am sure it will change when migrated to the core.

I have tried not to be negative regarding the DNN acquisition of AM, but when I dwell on the fact that I have spent about two years and an awful lot of money trying to get a usable product and now I don't foresee any progress in the near future I am very frustrated and becoming quite jaded. WIll mentioned last week that he hoped to post more communication on the direction things are going, but I didn't see anything yet.

This has been the story of my life with DNN since version 1. Working hard and hoping that the next release will finally have the required maturity level and be capable of producing the web applications I envision. But here I am nearly 8 years later and still only able to build basic websites. Don't get me wrong, I have built some really functional applications with DNN, but they all required me to work with a developer to build custom modules. And that can be expensive.

I must stop now or I will just ramble on forever and not really accomplish anything.

Cliff, I'm trying to build full-featured sites, and I don't have it figured out either. UMG has some cool features, but despite its progress in the right direction, it is still much better suited for a website owner who wants to display image galleries than it is for a social network. Like yourself, I've been waiting patiently (well not always patiently) for a way to build a social network that I can be proud of without a lot of custom development on my end. Media management, events, and privacy settings are three big things that I don't have figured out and can't see launching a site without. Well, I've accepted that I can launch without events, but not the other two. I'm getting to the point where I'm starting to actually take things out of my site, so I can launch something. I don't want to launch with a less than ideal solution and be stuck with it.

I know that didn't accomplish anything either, but I feel a little bit better.

Cliff, it is a feeling that has been growing since 2005.. if google results are any indication. The whole photo thing is starting to be quite a bug up my butt as well.

Well, I guess I'm in good company :) Sadly, that doesn't resolve the issue of media integration. Is the AS photo albums buggy or why is that not a solution for most?

I need cool photo, video... in other words.. Media with modern layouts, slideshows, etc.

Here is an update from bizmodules, they are willing to make a change if AS will make the change.

http://www.bizmodules.net/Support/t...aspx#23495

Has anyone found a way as of now, to switch the standard AS Photos tab, and incorporate Ultra Media Gallery in its place? 

The same question would go for UVG as well. 

Thanks!!

- Patrick

I've had success integrating UMG:

1. Integration is somewhat clumsy
2. It will post to the journal
3. Does not incorporate AS journal security when posting
4. Will integrate into Profile Tabs and take place of photo tab, but I've only found one UMG display that does not break with paging inside the AS tabs.

With that said, I haven't considered it a viable option yet. Because of no journal security.

Thanks for the update Jeff. We need a few more people like you where we can share the load of trying to get 3rd party modules integrated and tested. Is the journal security an issue of Pengsten not knowing how to get it done? Or does it conflict with his current architecture and would be a lot of work to get it to use journal security? If it is close do you think we can incentivize Pengsten to get it fully working with some funds? We really need a viable media gallery module and it seems like UMG is closer than any other module.

Based on what you know now, can UMG be used as a decent solution for a public gallery where everyone sees all videos? When you say the integration is clumsy. Does that mean that for Admins it is not straightforward to do it. Or do you mean that after it is integrated it is clumsy for end users or both?

Is there any chance that AM/DNNCorp/Ben could provide Pengsten with some information that would help him get the security working correctly?

Count me in.. I think this integration is long overdue. UMG from Pengtsen would be perfect. It would also be great to figure out how to incorporate a more advanced function in the edit profile pic area as well.. 

Maybe a group of us can throw in a few bucks to get this done.

- Patrick

I'm not sure. I haven't contacted him directly on it. I do know that Steven W. had been collaborating with him a bit on UVG to get it integrated. I don't believe it's been completed for UVG yet either.

It can very easily be used as an open public gallery integrated into AS (without journal security). But for journal entries, videos won't show unless you are at the module instance itself (or in an AS tab). The default security set in UMG is for auth'd members only (if memory serves), so not visible to the outside.

It can be clumsy for an admin to setup. At least the way I did.

My approach for 3rd party modules such as UMG is to be able to also have an upload control in the journal tools. I was successful in doing this by calling the url for the UMG upload into a dnnModal, and I replaced the photo button upload in the journal tools. It was pretty slick and it worked! But what would be even better is if the am:moduleloader worked in the journal.ascx file. Then all the journal tools could be customized with 3rd party modules.

With my testing, I had it integrated pretty good for endusers and it looked as if everything belonged. So, it's mainly just the initial setup for admins that is the complicated part. I liked how I had it setup, and now that you mention an "open public gallery" I may reconsider that. But the journal security was the deal breaker for me not using it with personal or group galleries.

What I did like, due to real-estate, was the idea of having a "Media" tab for profiles/groups rather than separate tabs.

Maybe we'll hear a bit from Steven on this too. I know he's been working on a module for the journal.

Count me in. We need someone to take the lead and communicate with Pinkston, get agreement on features, timeline and cost.

As far as features go, I would like to provide a similar experience that Facebook currently offers. Small variations in functionality is less of my concern.

Let me get started with some thoughts:

1. Desired Work-Flow of AS
a. For users to be able to create albums, upload photos, crop and enhance images right within AS.
b. For users to be able to rate their friends photos, add comments, share with others, etc.
c. For users to be able to have freedom in security settings so they can determine what type of public availability their images will be.
d. For users to be able to select one of their photos to use as their profile, or to click "Edit Profile Picture" and browse "Computer, use a external URL, or pick from current gallery provided by UMG. This is similar to Facebook.
e. For users to be able to upload videos to UVG directly through AS, with the addition of how it works currently.

2. Questions and Concerns
a. I really like the "Youtube" type feel of Pengtsen's UVG module. I do not want to lose this. UMG has video options as well, but I would rather use UMG in place of AS's current gallery solution, and use UVG within AS, similar to how we're all wanting to use UMG.

I dislike referring back to Facebook, but I think that most would agree that FB's type of functionality is what we want.. but within our own environment.
I can invision the use of UVG within AS to be a "mini-view" which shows that particular user's videos. 

I'm still a little unclear as to how to work in the video feature and keep the full functionality of UVG's main modules on other pages within the website.
I have no problem pitching in on this project.

- Patrick

It is great to see people willing to contribute to the process and possibly fund some integration work. What would be nice is to get some feedback from AM/DNNCorp to help us determine if requesting / paying for additional integration from 3rd party module providers is a worthwhile effort. Are things going to change significantly in the final integration of AS / AF into the DNN core that would cause problems with current integration efforts? You guys have to know by now the types of things that we have been wanting to accomplish with AS over what has become years now and whether or not they will ever come to fruition.

@Patrick, I see that in one of your posts on the Community Support forum you show using AS 2.0. Is it out yet and I just don't see it? I also saw your requests for functionality to be more like FB with alerts and notifications. Can someone at AM/DNNCorp say whether requests are even being considered or should everyone just stop thinking about how to make this product better until after the integration, which could be months and months away?

Honestly I want to be successful with DNN / AS / AF but with the lack of any communication by AM/DNNCorp it is hard to keep the fire burning. At least consider stringing me along with some information, even if it turns out to be only half-baked information.