# External SWF's or other options

**URL:** https://forum.kirupa.com/t/external-swfs-or-other-options/244437
**Category:** flash
**Created:** [November 18, 2007, 1:03am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/external-swfs-or-other-options/244437 "2007-11-18T01:03:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Karinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e36b37/32.png) [@Karinger](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Karinger)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2007, 1:03am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/external-swfs-or-other-options/244437/1 "2007-11-18T01:03:51Z")

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Hi everyone, a friend of mine had just referred me to the forums. I’ve recently delved into the whole Flash world, finding it interesting to say the least. I plan on working with it for a while to come, so hopefully I can become a helpful member to the forums in the future.

I am trying to create a flash file that reads from an XML data on a list of sprites. I want the sprites to be external items, so that if I decide I want to add or remove a sprite from my FLA, all I will have to do is edit the XML file.

My current strategy was to use loadMovie(…) into an empty movie clip I created dynamically, but my issue is afterwards the width and height of the clip are 0, and I can’t accurately modify the objects dimensions. Another requirement I have is that the sprites all have different dimensions.

So my questions would be:

1. is this possible in AS2? Or should I be working with AS3?
2. if possible in AS2, how can I retrieve the external SWF’s proper dimensions?

Thanks 🙂