Movies by CraigWorks has good supports for it's internal player, VLC. However, as always, there are media files that only work with a certain media player. Therefore, I've added support for external media players. When using an external player to view your movies the "remote controller" and "tracking of last played position" features will not work. However, if you have files that won't work with the internal player then this will at least allow you to launch the movies from Movies by CraigWorks.

To define your external media players, enter the maintenance page and click on "External Media Players" item on the left. Click the "Add" button to create a new row in the table below. Fill in the name of your player and the command to use to launch the movie. Use '@FILE' or '@URL' (version 0.1.9+ only) in place of the movie file. It will be substituted with the actual movie file or URL at launch time.

When you have completed entering your media players, click "Save External Players" to persists your changes.

Note: (version 0.1.8d and below) Unlike the internal player which can access media files through the web server, client computers using external media players must have direct file access.

Now you are ready to assign your players. Enter the settings page to set your default players for blu-ray and DVD files. You can set the default players at the application level or per a display.

You can also change the player for a particular movie file. This has precedance over the display and application settings.

When you hit the blue play button, the application will launch the external media player using a java applet. The first time the applet launches the browser will prompt you for permsission (see pic below). You must allow the applet to run for this feature to work.

Setting up external players in Ubuntu (required version 0.1.9+)

In order to invoke the applet that lauches the external player, the browser requires a java plug-in.

Chrome and Firefox has a plug-in called "IcedTea-Web" that enables java applets to run. The first time you play a movie will be prompted to allow the CraigWorks's applet to execute. You must allow this in order to get external players working.

If your Ubuntu server does not have direct access to the media files use @URL instead of @FILE in the external player command. For example, for Ubuntu your command might be "/usr/bin/vlc @URL".