ChessFlash

This post describes some tips and tricks for publishing games using the Basic Publishing Dialog. You should first be familiar with the material in Getting Started and you should have gone through the process of publishing at least one game.

First, color themes. See the Color Theme examples in the Gallery to see what is available.

Second, custom colors. See the Custom Colors page in the Gallery. It describes how to use the Basic Publishing Dialog to override the default colors for the dark squares and the background.

The above and the Getting Started post is about everything that you can do without tweaking the generated code. If you are squeamish about
modifying the generated code (a healthy attitude!) you can stop reading now. :)

But, if you just must mess with the generated code or need some option that is not exposed by the Basic Publishing Dialog, then read on...

When you use the Basic Publishing Dialog you get some javascript and html code that is used to display the ChessFlash Viewer. That code looks something like:

<script language="javascript" src="http://chessflash.com/releases/latest/showhidebase.js"></script><script language="javascript" src="http://chessflash.com/releases/latest/showhidemain.js"></script><a href="http://chessflash.com/sites/default/files/users/Glenn%20Wilson/kevingafni-NoTB-LEPer.pgn" title="Download PGN file">kevingafni-NoTB-LEPer.pgn</a><br><span><script type="text/javascript"> embedCfBasic("1027197915", "100%", "350", "pgnurl=Glenn%20Wilson/kevingafni-NoTB-LEPer.pgn&orientation=horizontal&tabmode=false", "0000ff", "000000"); </script></span>

The bolded method embedCfBasic is doing the work here and it takes 6 parameters:

1. The unique id,
2. The Width,
3. The Height
4. The ChessFlash Parameters,
5. The Dark Color Override Value,
6. The Background Color Override Value.

Let's discuss each.

The unique id

Normally, there is no reason to mess with it. The id must be unique within a web page for each instance of the viewer.

The Width and The Height

These values are populated by the Basic Publishing Dialog based on the orientation selected. Change these as needed but I think the defaults will normally work well.

The ChessFlash Parameters

This contains the partial url (relative to the users directory at ChessFlash.com) of the pgn file you are publishing, "&orientation=horizontal" and "&tabmode=false". You can can specify the layout orientation to "horizontal" or "vertical". If you want the variations tab to display you can change tabmode from false to true. Any of the FlashVar Values described in the HTML Options page can be used here.

The Dark Color Override Value and The Background Color Override Value.

New values can be entered for these in the code using hex values or the color names as described in the Custom Colors page in the Gallery.

So, if you are publishing your game and you generate the code here and then go to Blogger and copy-n-paste the code into your blog and post the game and .... you want to change the orientation, or colors or tabmode...you can just do that right there in your blogger post.

If you read this far, you now have enough information to be dangerous -- use it wisely. For the really daring, read on to Advanced Tips and Tricks.