Menu is hiding behind streaming videos

[meik.kaufmann@awd.de]

We do have embedded video on some of our pages. The milonic-Menu manages to be displayed over flash, applets and form fields. However it does hide beding streaming video data, that is shown by an embedded media player.

Is it possible to display the menu on top of all video content??
Has anybody tried it before. Help would be appreciated!!

[Ruth]

I'm not sure about the embedded video, but have you tried putting the video player in a div and then using the divhider? http://milonic.com/menusample14.php Also, could you give a url so we can check it out?

Ruth

[meik.kaufmann@awd.de]

Thanks for your fast answer. We are just choosing a dynamic menu for a relaunch of our website. So I cannot give you a link as we are still in the process of choosing the right menu.

I have tried the example you mentioned, but the result is still the same. The video is displayed in front of the menu. In fact the controls of the video player are in the background but the actual video is on top of everything. Just copy this code into the div tag of your example:

Code: Select all

<OBJECT ID="mediaPlayer" CLASSID="CLSID:22d6f312-b0f6-11d0-94ab-0080c74c7e95" CODEBASE="http://activex.microsoft.com/activex/controls/mplayer/en/nsmp2inf.cab#Version=5,1,52,701" STANDBY="Loading Microsoft Windows Media Player components..." TYPE="application/x-oleobject">
<PARAM NAME="fileName" VALUE="some video file.mpg">
<PARAM NAME="animationatStart" VALUE="true">
<PARAM NAME="transparentatStart" VALUE="false">
<PARAM NAME="autoStart" VALUE="true">
<PARAM NAME="showControls" VALUE="true">
</OBJECT>

Maybe it's simply not possible to show something on top of a MS media player plugin. Who knows...

[Ruth]

I just tested the sample using your code for the player and the player shows up and the menu drops over the top of it. I'm using IE5.5 and win98. So, for you to test it again, try this. Open the menu.htm file. You will see the following coding down the page:

Code: Select all

<SCRIPT language=JavaScript src="divhider.js" type=text/javascript></SCRIPT>
<br><br><br><br><br>

<div id=formdiv1 name=formdiv1  style="position:relative">

<form>
<select>
<option>Testing to see
<option>if the menu will
<option>sit on top of
<option>select boxes
</select>

<select>
<option>Testing to see
<option>if the menu will
<option>sit on top of
<option>select boxes
</select>

</form>

</div>

Copy and paste your media player code into the first form section so the code will be

Code: Select all

<SCRIPT language=JavaScript src="divhider.js" type=text/javascript></SCRIPT>
<br><br><br><br><br>

<div id=formdiv1 name=formdiv1  style="position:relative">

<OBJECT ID="mediaPlayer" CLASSID="CLSID:22d6f312-b0f6-11d0-94ab-0080c74c7e95" CODEBASE="http://activex.microsoft.com/activex/controls/mplayer/en/nsmp2inf.cab#Version=5,1,52,701" STANDBY="Loading Microsoft Windows Media Player components..." TYPE="application/x-oleobject"> 
<PARAM NAME="fileName" VALUE="some video file.mpg"> 
<PARAM NAME="animationatStart" VALUE="true"> 
<PARAM NAME="transparentatStart" VALUE="false"> 
<PARAM NAME="autoStart" VALUE="true"> 
<PARAM NAME="showControls" VALUE="true"> 
</OBJECT> 

<select>
<option>Testing to see
<option>if the menu will
<option>sit on top of
<option>select boxes
</select>

</form>

</div>

Make sure when you downloaded this sample you got a file called divhider.js.

If you were trying to use this code on your pages with your menu then the divhider.js file has to be changed to match the submenu names that will drop down from your menu over the video player. In that file you'll see

Code: Select all

M_hideMenus = "Samples->formdiv1;milonic->formdiv1;"

Samples and milonic refer to the submenus called by those names and formdiv1 is the name and id given to the div.

If you want you can post your menu_data.js file and your page so we can see the html coding and layout and the menu file and where it is positioned on that page, though, if you have access to the web it would be much easier to see a test page with your html coding and the test menu on it.

If you post here make sure you put all the coding inside the code tags using the code button above. If we can see the menu_data file and the page we can make sure about the divhider.js coding.

Ruth

[Ruth]

Since I didn't know if you read the other yet I posted new. The media player works fine with the divhider UNTIL you actually have a video playing. It almost seems as if the video becomes something separate from the player since the player does get hidden but not the video itself. That is beyond my knowledge and perhaps someone else knows about it. It must be 'streaming' and maybe there's no way for dhtml to layer on top of that. You might check this post which may give you some information. http://milonic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4535#21434 It doesn't specify the windows media player but I would have to assume that what is happening is that no matter what the actual video cannot be hidden though the player can.

Ruth

[meik.kaufmann@awd.de]

I agree on everything you mentioned here in this thread. The video itself is somehow separated from the player. The funny thing is that this seems to be a Microsoft thing.

The menu is on top of streaming video with Netscape 7.1 and Firefox, only the Microsoft browser acts strange with the Microsoft Media Player...

I will try to test more browsers and operating systems today.

Finally I want to mention that Milonic seems to be the best menu solution out there, because all other menus I tested did not work with applets, flash, video...

[Ruth]

Thank you. I totally agree and I'm not a milonic employee. We here are only volunteers. I know that Milonic works tirelessly [well, they probably get tired ] but they sure work hard to get the menu to be really wide ranging in it's capabilities and imho to be artistically designable along with that is fantastic.

Since you don't have the site up where we could see the layout, it's hard to suggest what might be viable options for you to get around the problem, but some things that come to mind are:
1. If possible set up the menu so that submenus don't drop 'over' or behind the player.
2. If the player is not on all pages, design a different menu_data.js file for the pages on which it does appear [same data but different layout] a. with the submenus that would drop behind opening horizontally, or b. as a pop menu linked to an image or something so it opens next to rather than over the player. There may be other options depending on your layout but those are all I can think of right now.

Ruth