General Advice - Final stages

programming flash
1

Hi all. I have designed my first flash site, and require some advice. When designing the site for a school, Its more of a re-direction page leading up to more stuff, which is what they wanted. So basically we have are bells and whisles as an introduction. But I have also produced a contact us page. But due to the overload as a first flash project I developed the content page as a different fla file, with all actionscripts, movie and button objects. The problem arises now, when its a case of putting the files together. as in the second file a preloader has been added the same as the first file.

Could anyone provide advice and direction for combining the two fla files. I understand different scenes is not the best route, so I would appreciate peoples opinions on the right route to follow. Please help this is very important for the final preperations.

Yours

Trevor Saint

2

If the two fla’s are for different sections then create a third fla where you can load fla 1 and 2 into. Either by using buttons, or a timer or whatever. Use loadMovie or LoadMovieNum.

Regards,
Viru.

3

I dont require anything, i.e buttons, because this would be pointless. I like the idea of this loadmovie, but like I said I dont want the viewer to see this, but just be normal. i.e see the preloader and then the page appear with no extras like a splash page with the option to enter. mmhh do you mean simply create a third fla, add a action at the start with no stop function, loading movie 1, mmm a little lost here please help me out.

if that was the case how would I get to the second fla? without buttons or the option on the third fla. maybe I am not thinking logically!. can you expand please, I dont want to sound daft, but it is looking this way.

4

First can you set the scene so i have ac clear understanding of your situtation.

Am i right in thinking the following:

First you want a preloader to show loading the content of the first swf,

then, as soon as the first swf has played through you want the swcond swf to begin to load and then play automatically.

is that right?

Viru.

5

Sorry

I have a home.fla file with all elements including preloader, buttons etc.

I have a second contact.fla file with the same elements.

When I work I tend to keep things simple otherwise I get confused as to many elements are in one space, so I feel this makes things more simle, making me stick the project rather than leaving it and giving up. We all work differently right!.

If I place my home.fla inside the html, its great right. But when the user clicks on the contact button or icon I have, I want the second fla to load as this two has a preloader included like the first file.

So the solution for such an event is where I require your explinations and assistance please.

Otherwise I would need to spend much time cutting and pasteing elements from the contact.fla into the home.fla, making all this one file. so when the user clicks on the contact we could use a label. But this is to much work and there must be a simpler method of achieving the same results. As this just adds extra time that I dont have right now :(.

Thx V

6

Right, well just use loadMovie. But use it in a third fla file. It’ll be less work this way.

I am also assuming that the stage size is the same in both the home.swf and the contact.swf.

Create a new fla file, change the stage size so it matches the other two swf’s, and on the first frame add these actions:

_root.createEmptyMovieClip(“holder”);
_root.holder.loadMovie(“home.swf”);

Then save it. Publish it. Make sure the swf for the third fla is in the same directory as the other two swf’s.

Now, the button in the home.swf will need to be changed as follows:

on(release) {
_root.holder.loadMovie(“contact.swf”);
}

What that will do is unload home.swf, so the user doesnt see it anymore, and load the contact.swf in its place. And it gets loaded into the third swf that you’ve just created.

You can name the third fla whatever you like. Just make sure that all the swf’s are in the same directory. If you need to use sub directories then you need to change the code to show the relative path to the home.swf and contact.swf.

Regards,
Viru.

7

Sounds perfect, I will get on it right away Viru,

thanks for you help and advice.

Trev

8

something that might please you if you dont already know. its CSS viru and it allows the vertical centering option in Opera browser for anyone who does not know. As I have always tried it and it never worked well here it is, Centering option is possible. :slight_smile:

#Content {
position:absolute;
left:50%;
top:50%;
width:300px;
height:300px;
margin-left:-150px; /* width/2 /
margin-top:-150px; / height/2 /
border:1px dashed #333;
background-color:#eee;
padding:10px;
}
/ The right value for Mozilla */
body>#content {
margin-left:-160px;
margin-top:-160px;
}

9

Centering of the swf in the HTML page? IF so, you can do that in the object tags.

Viru.

10

no, Opera does not allow vertical centering Viru. I dont think it is possible in Opera Viru. If it is please tell :slight_smile:

11

I have seen so many sites in flash using opera and they never achieve the vertical centering. Have a look at the link