Problem with Transitions between external SWFs

programming flash
1

Hello, everyone,

I’ve been using Kirupa.com’s tutorial to “build transitions between external swfs,” and I’m hitting a wall. Maybe someone can help me.

Here is a summary of the situation. I’m using Flash MX 2004. I have a main file called Main_En.swf, which contains the empty movie clip container (_EN is for English, because I’ll have multiple languages eventually). Upon loading, Main_En.swf calls Welcome_EN.swf into the container. So far, no problems.

Main_EN.swf contains a movie clip symbol named “navigation,” inside which are the buttons that will call the other swfs (Links_EN.swf, Stories_EN.swf, etc.). That’s the rub: The swfs won’t load. I thought maybe it was because of the individual swf’s pre-loader code (also made from one of Kirupa.com’s tutorial) but I tried without it and the movies still failed to load.

Here is the Action Script associated with one of the buttons. All I did was copy/paste Kirupa’s code, then changed the file names, but maybe someone will spot an error. (By the way, is it OK to combine those rollOver/ rollOut commands? It seems repetitive to write it out all the time. …)

//Loads movie
on (release) {
if (_root.currMovie == undefined) {
_root.currMovie = “Links_EN”;
container.loadMovie(“Links_EN.swf”);
} else if (_root.currMovie != “Links_EN”) {
if (container._currentframe >= container.midframe) {
_root.currMovie = “Links_EN”;
container.play();
}
}
}
//Button Animation
on (rollOver) {
tellTarget ("_root.Yin-Navigation.Yin-Links") {
gotoAndPlay(“Up”);
}
}
on (rollOut) {
tellTarget ("_root.Yin-Navigation.Yin-Links") {
gotoAndPlay(“Down”);
}
}
on (rollOver) {
tellTarget ("_root.Yin-Navigation.Genie-Links") {
gotoAndPlay(“Up”);
}
}
on (rollOut) {
tellTarget ("_root.Yin-Navigation.Genie-Links") {
gotoAndPlay(“Down”);
}
}
on (rollOver) {
tellTarget ("_root.Katana-1.Flare-1") {
gotoAndPlay(“Go”);
}
}

The “Links_EN” file has this code on its first frame:
midframe = 12;
bytes_loaded = Math.round(this.getBytesLoaded());
bytes_total = Math.round(this.getBytesTotal());
getPercent = bytes_loaded/bytes_total;
this.loadBar._width = getPercent100;
this.loadText = Math.round(getPercent100)+"%";
if (bytes_loaded == bytes_total) {
this.gotoAndPlay(3);
}

This code is at the midframe:
stop();

And this code is on the last frame:
_root.container.loadMovie(_root.currMovie+".swf")

Well, I hope you’re not too cross-eyed by now. Thanks to anyone who chips in. I appreciate your time.

2

Are you sure you gave the container movieclip the instance name ‘container’ ? Also, are the buttons on the main timeline ? If not, then you’ll have to adjust the path to the container movieclip.

3

Yes to both questions.

On loading, Main_EN.swf automatically calls Welcome_EN.swf with this code:

_root.currMovie = “Welcome_EN”;
container.loadMovie(_root.currMovie+“.swf”);

And that works fine.

The buttons are in a movie clip symbol called “navigation” in Main_EN.swf’s timeline. Does it matter if the symbol has an instance name on the timeline? Right now, it’s called, uh, navigation.

Thanks for your reply.

4

The instance name of the button movieclip isn’t of great importance here, but it’s a good thing to give movieclips instance names. Since the buttons are in a seperate movieclip, you’ll have to adjust the path to the container movieclip (make sure it’s instance name is ‘container’, without the quotes). Like this:


on (release) {
if (_root.currMovie == undefined) {
_root.currMovie = "Links_EN";
_parent.container.loadMovie("Links_EN.swf");
} else if (_root.currMovie != "Links_EN") {
if (_parent.container._currentframe >= _parent.container.midframe) {
_root.currMovie = "Links_EN";
_parent.container.play();
}
}
}

By adding ‘_parent’, we tell it to look up another level. Just container would look in the button movieclip ‘navigation’, and we need the parent movieclip of navigation which is _root, so we add _parent to the path.

5

Thanks a bunch! That did it. Now I can stop banging my head against the wall and return to some semblance of a life. If you’re curious about what you were helping me achieve, you might follow this link: http://www.mangamerica.com/test.htm

It’s still a work in progress. I’m not done designing/coding all the swfs (only the e-mail and links buttons are active). And for some reason, the preloaders don’t always show up, and when they do, the loading is almost done, which defeats the purpose. … Weird. … But your input definitely helped me clear a big hurdle, so thanks again!

Take care.

6

No problem … Didier is it ? :slight_smile: The preloader thingy is most likely because the content is already cached on your computer. Clear your cache, refresh and you should see the preloader again.

7

Hello, again,

A cached movie was my first thought, too, until I read elsewhere in these forums that certain components mess up preloaders because they export in the first frame, or something along those lines. I don’t know Action Script well enough to fix this.

Turns out, when I got rid of the scroll bars in the “Welcome” movie, the preloader worked OK. … My workaround is to use a button to click through the “What’s new” message. Not as practical, but it works.

Working with Flash is a neverending learning process for me. For every problem I fix, seems like two or three new ones pop up. Good thing there are people like you who know what they’re doing and don’t mind giving a hand to newbies like me. Thanks again.

8

Ah yes, components are exported in the library and that exporting happens before anything else - also before your preloader is loaded. That’s why the preloader isn’t there for a second.