ReviewSpace Development Blog
More ReviewSpace Updates
February 23rd, 2010 by Leon
Earlier on today we published another update to ReviewSpace. This time it was for our uploader.
Until now we had a basic HTML uploader and a Java based uploader. Java was needed in order to handle larger file sizes due to the limitations of sending large files over the internet.
It did it’s job and allowed us to upload files upto 2GB in size, however on some machines it was slow, tempremental and sometimes failed. We knew that we had to think of a new way to get large files into ReviewSpace.
We racked our brains and tried to think of a better way of doing it. Simply trying to upload the file in one go just wasn’t feasible so we came to the conclusion that we needed to split the file up into smaller ‘chunks’, and send them one at a time and then join them back together on the server.
Enter our new Flash based uploader. It looks pretty much the same as the Java one and allows a smoother way to upload files.
The uploader is limited to file sizes of up to 2GB.
Progress is given via a progress bar and loading graphic.
Clicking Cancel, prompts the user to confirm their choice before closing the uploader.
You can try the new uploader straight away by changing your upload preference to Flash from within the My Account section of ReviewSpace.
Please note that you will need at least Flash player 10.0.32.18. Don’t worry if that doesn’t mean anything to you, if you don’t have the correct version, you will be prompted to upgrade.
This is just the start of a suite of new features that allow you to upload your files.
Our brand new iPhone app
February 2nd, 2010 by Leon
Late last night Apple approved our long awaited native iPhone (and now iPad) application.
It’s fair to say we’re more than a little bit thrilled to be able to announce this, especially with all of the news surrounding Flash and Apple mobile devices.
We decided to create a native app so that you could easily take your projects and files with you when you are out and about. One type of file however that posed an issue was video. The iPhone is pretty good at reading the rest of the files that we allow on ReviewSpace. When we first started developing ReviewSpace we were using the FLV format for video. (Flash’s very own video format). This was great, file sizes were small and quality was good, plus we could ensure that around 97% of browsers (computer based browsers that is) could view it. However the only way to play the FLV was to use a Flash based video player. This is great if you have Flash, but what if you don’t. Fortunately Flash supports playback of the h264 format along with Quicktime, both on a Mac and on an iPhone (and now iPad). Perfect, we made some changes to our encoder and now convert any video that is uploaded to a format that is both playable in the web based Flash player, and now our native application. This solved a lot of headaches for us. Another great reason for choosing h264 is that it can be directly outputted from video creation software such as Final Cut Pro, meaning that video production companies can export and upload in the fewest steps possible, helping to speed up their process of getting a file to a client.
So back to the application. You can read more about it’s features over on it’s very own microsite, within a microsite here http://www.thisisreviewspace.com/microsite/iphone . In order to use it you will need to have an account, and in order to get an account you will need to be invited into a project by another ReviewSpace user, or create your own instance of ReviewSpace by requesting a invitation from here http://www.thisisreviewspace.com/microsite/invite . All you then need is the instance name (the bit directly after http://www.thisisreviewspace.com/. For example if you use http://www.thisisreviewspace.com/leon to log in, then your instance name is leon), your email address and password.
We believe we have created a really great first version, for which to add more features in the future (as of yet we don’t have a road map as our main priority is getting ReviewSpace fully finished).
Please leave a comment with your thoughts on the app and ReviewSpace in general – good or bad we genuinely love to hear them (ok love maybe taking it a little too far).
You can download the app from iTunes here .