.swf Navigation

I want to load multiple swfs into one swf via a MAIN Navigation swf.

Right now I have 5 sections in Main Navigation swf.

I want each different section to open in the same external swf.

What’s the best way to acheive this?

loadMovieNum();
or
loadMovie();

a flash player embeded in an html page, or stand alone, can have different swf’s loaded into it in a couple of ways.

loadMovieNum(); - this method loads each swf into what is called levels. The first level is level0, each new level is level1 level2 level3 etc.

The syntax for this is

loadMovieNum ("<a href=“http://www.centerspin.com/myExternalMovie.swf",">www.centerspin.com/myExternalMovie.swf”,</a> 1);

in this example the 1 at the end is the level number

The second way of loading movies into your player is to load an external swf into a movie clip on the stage of the player.

The syntax for this is:

loadMovie (“www.centerspin.com”, “theNameOfMyMovieClip”);


There are a couple of tricks involved in each of these methods. With loadMovieNum(); the swf is loaded so that it’s upper left corner is flush with the upper left corner of the origional on level0. so, if your navigation system on level0 is on the left hand side of the project, most movies will cover it up. Usually what I do is suggest that you make all of these movies the same stage size. Then work from there.

With loadMovie(); there is a trick too. The loaded swf is loaded with it’s center, in the upper left corner of the movie clip you’re loading it into. Really all you have to do in this case is keep this in mind and move the “holder” clip a bit to the right and down on the stage from where you expect to see the movie apear.
Once you see this one, you’ll kind of understand what I’m talking about.

Hope that helped… :slight_smile:

Thanks for your reply!!

If I load Section 1 in Level 0 and Section 5 in Level 1 doesn’t 5 cover 1. What if I want to go back to one again.

Keep in mind: once my movie loads, I want it to stay in cache and not have to load up again.

I need to be able to go back and forth through the sections.

Yes… anything you place in a higher level will cover that which is in a lower level. You could however load your navigation into something like level10, and then load all your additional stuff below it.

I think I saw from another post that you’re working in Flash 4.0 though… is this true? If so… there may be some differences which I’m not aware of to this stuff… so keep that in mind.

When I do load things into levels above 0 I usually make sure that each new movie I load is the same size as the origional, first of all… then I make sure that I have blank spots in the movies on the upper levels so that it shows through to the levels below. Though truthfuly I usually load my movies into movie clips instead of levels. I just find it to be more dynamic that way… I can set _visible=false on movie clips that I want to disapear… making them temporarily go away.

Yes, I’m using Flash 4 and I’m on a G3 Blue & White.

My Main Navigation is in a seperate window.

The different sections are individual .swf files that should all load into the same Sections.swf window, which is a different window than Main Navigation.

My Sections.swf window has a blank movie clip placed in the top left hand corner (/Dummy).

I want to be able to load my different Sections into this window in any order I choose.

Hum, I’m thinking…

Should I create a different movie clip for each section?