A Home button (Full flash site)

programming flash
1

Hi,

How does one apply a home button or link within a Full flash site? I have a logo that remains stationary on all the pages and we would like to be able to click it from anywhere within the site and have the visitir return to the beginning or home.

thanks.

2

you can make a new layer that covers all your movie’s keyframes. put that home button so it will visible all the time.
i think the easiest way is to give your home frame a label. assign goTo and stop - frame label
sorry if this is not what you ask

3

If you just duplicated the same button on all different Scenes using ctrl-shift-v (PC): This pastes the item copied exactly where the original was. (That’s if you’re using Scenes.) Or you can make a specific layer with just the button on it. Select the frames of that layer, go to wherever you want to duplicate the button, and paste frames… they should be exactly where the original was…

I hope that was helpful… if it wasn’t, then I’m not sure exactly what you’re asking

4

Give your home button an instance name, and place these actions on the first frame of your main movie timeline:[AS]buttoninstancename.onRelease = function() {
loadMovie(home.swf, _root.containerMC);
};
[/AS]

5

Thx Claudio.

I presume I’ll need an extra movie/layer for the containerMC that sits at the top level or will Flash know what that is? Is it the generic name for where somewhere should load?

I’ve added that script the the first frame of my first movie fla and applied the instance name to the home button but it doesn’t seem to work.

I can’t wait till this is finished :slight_smile:

6

What is your set up so far ?

How are you loading your various content, by external swf’s or are you sending the main timeline to different frames to show the changes ?

I’m supposing you’re doing the latter (frame based) because a clip named “container” only will exist if you put it there first, And then you’d need to have an external swf called “home.swf” to load in place of the “otherStuff.swf” (loading into a container or loading into levels are the preferred ways)

For single timeline “frame-navigation” you’d simply have your button direct the play head (gotoAndPlay()) to a frame where only your “homeContent” lives.

7

A bit of both actually, I need to go through and tidy it up a bit.

I’ve used flash in the past but not that much and the gotoAndPlay is what I was looking for I think.

However, how do I tell it to go to the first frame of another movie? Do I need a new scene per movie (page in my full flash site) or can I rename this to main.swf or something.


on (release) {
    gotoAndPlay("Scene 1", 1);
}
8

‘Scenes’ in the authoring environment are a bit deceiving. Once published they all get laid end to end and just become one long timeline in one swf, frame numbers are changed to keep the sequence so that frame labels are the only accurate way to target particular frames.
Many people avoid them like the plague as they lend to confusion.

you can create several sepparate (fla’s &) swf’s for each scene you want to show having your main movie act as the staging ground with limited static content. (ie:: logo/nav/background). Much more compact and easier to load.

Two ways to get them into the main…

  1. Create an empty movie clip (could be named “container”) on main and code the buttons to::
    [AS]on (release){
    loadMovie(incomingmovieName.swf, _root.nameOfContainerClip);
    }[/AS]
    OR
  2. load into a higher level (main = 0) and the new content will lay over the lower level(s), buttons coded like::
    [AS]on (release){
    loadMovieNum(incomingMovieName.swf, 1);
    }[/AS]

In either case, only one loaded movie can exist at a time within the same level or containerClip - the loading of new stuff effectively bumps or unloads the previous which is handy as you can have some home content (home.swf) load in from the click of a “homeButton” or simply a blank swf and let your main stage be home.
Anytime you want more than one activity to load from sepparate swf’s playing simultaneously, just assign different level #'s (highger plays on top) or create more empty movie clips, load into them, and stack them by layers.

9

nice, I used the

[AS]
on (release){
loadMovie(incomingmovieName.swf, _root.nameOfContainerClip);
}
[/AS]

technique, works a treat.

thanks.