Playing Flash video instead of downloading it


	Playing Flash video instead of downloading it
	Last Edited - 02/27/2012 10:07am PST
	Category Path - Shopping Cart Software Components > Administration Area > Design > FAQs & Tutorials

my flash videos download, but i want them to stream

I've created a digital download that is a flash video, yet I'm unable to stream it. When a customer buys it and clicks it's "download" button, it asks them to download it, instead of playing the video in their web browser. Any ideas?

It should be possible to change the Flash video so that it plays online instead of being downloaded with just the click of a button (or two).

The shopping cart software has a built-in player for streaming Digital Objects that are Flash video. To tell the store to use the streaming video player for this file, follow these steps:

Locate the file on the Search Digital Objects page at: [Modules > Digital Delivery > Search Digital Objects].
On the Search Digital Objects page, click its round "e" button to open it in the Digital Object Editor.
In the editor, locate option #4, Digital Object Type. Set that option's first menu to:
Manual: Choose Digital Object type... and the second menu to Flash Video (flv file)

tip: let the software decide

It's not even usually necessary to perform all these steps. The Digital Object Type option in the Digital Object Editor also has the option of Automatic: Let the server decide

When the "automatic" option is selected, the software will set Flash video files to stream instead of download. The recommended behavior for other types of files will be used as well.
Click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page to put these settings into affect.

As soon as that change is made, the store's Download Area will change that Digital Object's Download button to one titled Play Media. (This change will also be retroactively applied to all orders that have already been placed, too.) Clicking its Play Media button will stream the Flash video in the store's built-in player.

The steps listed above can be used to ensure that Flash video files stream and are played in the store's built-in video player, rather than prompting the customer to download them.