CarouselDesigner.com - free component

[jurgenv]

Hi there,

I just launched my website www.carouseldesigner.com (http://www.carouseldesigner.com) where you can download a free (slightly stripped-down) version of CarouselDesigner, a flash component that I created a while ago. I've been selling it on the FlashDen marketplace (where it was a topseller) and I recently decided to give away this free version.

Let me know what you think (either the website and the component).

Regards

Jurgen

[rawmantick]

The component is great, but it gets absolutely crazy on mouse wheel scrolling. I think it's better to turn this feature off, or at least to correct it.

Did the non-free version have this sort of craziness too?

[Kimchee]

I have to agree 100% the mousewheel was like in warp drive.

Also if it is a top seller why are you asking our oppinion about it, obviously the crowds have spoken, or are you just trying to get a few more sales ;)

I am just joking, obviously you would like more sales but this is an appropriate place to post something like this, because it is free and fun to play with. I downloaded the free trail and will play with it for a while. Thanks :)

[jurgenv]

:) Ofcourse I'm trying to get more sales, that's why I set up the whole website ;)

But still I'm looking for critiques like yours (for example the scrolling issue, I'll be fixing it right away!).

(If it's not too inappropriate to ask: do you know of a good place / way to promote this any more?)

[kkbbcute]

I don't know whether you guys find it weird but the continual scrolling of the carousel to the right feels odd, the movement should be based on mouse position instead. Oh, a slight issue is that the casual handwritten looking text does not seem to fit very well with the more professional looking text in your carousel demo on the site.

EDIT: Erms, you know its sort of hard to promote a best seller any more, because most people who use Flash and want this sort of things most likely will have already seen it before somewhere while searching the web.

[cjx3711]

I think the component should allow click-dragging. Or is it just another gimmick to get people to buy the full version? If it is, then I would say it's a great way:)
Another thing, When you mouse over an object and it is hidden behind another, it should come to the front. Just a suggestion

[kkbbcute]

I think the component should allow click-dragging. Or is it just another gimmick to get people to buy the full version? If it is, then I would say it's a great way:)
Another thing, When you mouse over an object and it is hidden behind another, it should come to the front. Just a suggestion

Won't it be confusing if the guy just accidentally rolls over it while scrolling through the pictures in the front?

[jurgenv]

Thanks for your replies and the helpful tips. Actually the carousel allows mouse rotation, it's a setting you can make in the .xml file (read the documentation to see how).

Indeed I think making the images move to front could be quite confusing, thanks for sharing your ideas though :)

About promoting a bestseller: you could be right, but in fact if I look at the number of visits and downloads it's working out quite nice (still not touching the millions though :-))

[kkbbcute]

number of visits and downloads it's working out quite nice (still not touching the millions though :-))

I couldn't even hope for anything I made to go beyond a few thousand, unless I pour like a whole lot of time into it. (I'll try some day though)

Anyway, aren't there a whole ton of tutorials online teaching you how to make carousels? Just wondering why so many people would pay for something that you can get for free, for example gotoAndLearn teaches you how to make a tutorial exactly like yours, for free.

[jurgenv]

I think mine still wins in customizability, but you're right: there are a lot of free carousels out there. Why people buy my carousel (and other Flash files) is mostly because they don't want to spend time on learning the AS needed or just don't want to spend time on making that specific part of their website when it's already available for a few bucks. Still I can't tell for sure, but what matters is that there are people who want to buy these components and so there is work for me to do :)

[kkbbcute]

I think mine still wins in customizability, but you're right: there are a lot of free carousels out there. Why people buy my carousel (and other Flash files) is mostly because they don't want to spend time on learning the AS needed or just don't want to spend time on making that specific part of their website when it's already available for a few bucks. Still I can't tell for sure, but what matters is that there are people who want to buy these components and so there is work for me to do :)

Agreed, what matters is that the money comes. Whether you like it or not, the world runs on money, and if a simple thing can earn money, why not?

[mona_a]

Hey there,

:o I found just what I need for my school project in your free carousel! However, I have some enquiries regarding editing its settings.

I am changing things in the data.xml file but I am not seeing all the changes taking place. Things like linking to a frame number aren't working and I don't know why. :confused:

I want on click on one of the images on the carousel to go to a specific frame, I followed what you put as an example on the documentation.html file and I did this:

<thumb
type="image"
imageURL="Main/photo.png"
linkData="1"
linkType="frameNumber"
linkTarget=".root_myMovieClip"
captionText="Photo"
captionText2="Photo"
enableButtonWhenInFront="1"
/>


I would really appreciate your help! :)

Thanks