Hi there, I’m pretty new to coding, I’ve been following (and adapting) a computer arts tutorial to set up an xml driven site, and am having trouble adding sub menus to the actionscript (basically dont know where to start with it - have tried adding script from other tutorials but it all gets too confusing).
I was wondering if anyone out there can help, the main menus are generated from a movie clip (BTN_PROJECTS_MAIN) and contain a button (button) and a text box (txt) plus are made of 3 frames to simulate the different button states. The code I’ve been using is as follows :
// Setup some initial variables
// Hide the button that will display a web link
_root.theUrl._visible = 0;
// Hide the image icons in the project loader
// The image icons are simply there to make it easier for you to
// select the movieClip from the main timeline.
_root.img_project.photo_icon._visible = 0;
_root.img_project.img_holder.photo_icon2._visible = 0;
// name of the folder for all thumbs and swf files
_root.imageFolder = “project_files/”;
// Create arrays ready for the xml data
namesArray = new Array();
linksArray = new Array();
descriptionsArray = new Array();
filesArray = new Array();
// Load XML doc
objXML = new XML();
objXML.onLoad = loadXML;
objXML.ignoreWhite = true;
// The name of your XML file
objXML.load(“ss_flash_testing.xml”);
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ///////////////////
// onLoad XML function
function loadXML(success) {
if (success) {
// If the XML loads successfully, count how many projects there are in the file.
_root.projectCount = this.firstChild.childNodes.length; // PROJECT node in XML file
// Then run a function that builds arrays out of the XML data.
SS_Arrays();
} else {
// If the xml data did not load, show message on stage by populating the description field.
_root.description = “Error: Could not load XML”;
}
}
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ///////////////////
function SS_Arrays() {
for (var count = 0; count < _root.projectCount; count++) {
var nodeObj = objXML.firstChild.childNodes[count];
namesArray[count] = nodeObj.attributes.name;
descriptionsArray[count] = nodeObj.attributes.description;
linksArray[count] = nodeObj.attributes.link;
filesArray[count] = nodeObj.attributes.file;
}
// run the function to create the thumbnail and list view buttons
SS_createButtons();
}
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ///////////////////
var spaceBetween = 60; // space between buttons
function SS_createButtons() {
btn_projects_main._visible = 0;
btn_xPos = _root.btn_projects_main._x;
btn_yPos = _root.btn_projects_main._y;
for (count = 0; count < namesArray.length; count++) {
duplicateMovieClip(btn_projects_main, “btn_projects” + count, count);
this[“btn_projects” + count]._x = btn_xPos;
this[“btn_projects” + count]._y = btn_yPos;
this[“btn_projects” + count].txt.autoSize = “left”;
this[“btn_projects” + count].txt.text = namesArray[count];
//set the button width
this[“btn_projects” + count].btn._width = this[“btn_projects” + count].txt._width;
// determine the new x placement value based on the current button’s width
btn_xPos = btn_xPos + this[“btn_projects” + count]._width + spaceBetween;
}
// anything from here down I have no idea if it’s needed, so I left it
SS_load_project(0);
tellTarget(_root.btn_projects0){
gotoAndPlay(3);
}
_root.curButton = “0”;
}
SS_createButtons(); // to kick off the function
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ///////////////////
function SS_load_project(arrayNumber){
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ///////////////////
// Progress bar stuff: This creates a new movie clip on the stage
// and shows the progress of the image or file being loaded
_root.createEmptyMovieClip(“progressBar_mc”, 1000);
progressBar_mc.createEmptyMovieClip(“bar_mc”, 1001);
// Using the flash drawing method, draw a box 550px wide by 2px deep
// with a fill of red (FF0000)
with (progressBar_mc.bar_mc) {
beginFill(0xFF0000, 100);
moveTo(0, 0);
lineTo(660, 0);
lineTo(660, 2);
lineTo(0, 2);
lineTo(0, 0);
endFill();
_xscale = 0;
}
// set the X & Y positions of the progress bar manually
//progressBar_mc._x = 160;
//progressBar_mc._y = 218;
// Or set them to be the same X & Y as the project file/image.
progressBar_mc._x = img_project._x;
progressBar_mc._y = img_project._y;
// set the initial width of the bar to zero
var mclListener:Object = new Object();
mclListener.onLoadStart = function(target_mc:MovieClip) {
progressBar_mc.bar_mc._xscale = 0;
}
// increase the width (xscale) of the bar as the file loads
mclListener.onLoadProgress = function(target_mc:MovieClip, bytesLoaded:Number, bytesTotal:Number) {
progressBar_mc.bar_mc._xscale = Math.round(bytesLoaded/bytesTotal*100);
// Make sure the clip being loaded doesn’t play until it is fully loaded.
// If you want content to stream as it loads remove the following 3 lines
tellTarget(_root.img_project.img_holder){
stop();
}
}
// once the file has loaded, remove the progress bar from the stage
mclListener.onLoadComplete = function(target_mc:MovieClip) {
progressBar_mc.removeMovieClip();
// Plays the loaded clip once it’s fully loaded.
// If you want content to stream as it loads remove the following 3 lines
tellTarget(_root.img_project.img_holder){
play();
}
}
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ///////////////////
// Load the project file onto the stage by loading it into a movieClip (which in this case
// is inside another one img_project > img_holder.
var image_mcl:MovieClipLoader = new MovieClipLoader();
image_mcl.addListener(mclListener);
// load the clip onto the stage into a movieClip
image_mcl.loadClip(_root.imageFolder + _root.filesArray[arrayNumber], img_project.img_holder);
// Populate the dynamic text fields on the main stage with the project title & description
_root.prj_name = _root.namesArray[arrayNumber];
_root.prj_description = _root.descriptionsArray[arrayNumber];
// if the URL is present for this project, populate & show the link
if(_root.linksArray[arrayNumber] != “”) {
_root.btn_link.webAddress = _root.linksArray[arrayNumber];
_root.btn_link._visible = 1;
} else {
_root.btn_link._visible = 0;
}
// Reset the last button
tellTarget("_root.btn_projects" + _root.curButton){
gotoAndPlay(1);
}
// Replace the current button variable with this projects id/number
_root.curButton = arrayNumber;
}
stop();
Any thoughts guys? even just pointers for where to go about getting started would be massively appreciated.
kind regards D
