when i work on a flash site, i sometimes upload the swf file and view it on a website. if i find an error, i correct it in flash 5 and then reupload it. but when i refresh the browser page, the swf file doesn’t refresh along with it; it stays as it currently was. so far the only way i’ve found around this is to delete all my temp internet files before i viewed the flash file again. this makes me curious as to how some flash sites have regular updates on swf files? is there any known way to make flash files refresh when the browser is refreshed? or is one just supposed to wait until the flash file is gone from the internet temp files? is this a silly question?
This is because your browser caches your file.
To fix this, you need to use loadMovie to load the content that will be updated. And you need to use the cache fix solution which can be found at this links…
http://www.kirupa.com/developer/actionscript/as_tricks.asp
Click on the link that says “solve cache problems when loading a movie”
You can also just go into your control pannal and click on internet options. You can then delete your cached Internet files. This doesn’t delete your cookies so you don’t have t worry about that.
ah, thanks so much!
Hey sintax… you could do that, but that only works on your machine. So even though it will update for you, it won’t update for many other people who don’t do this.
I wonder if Macromedia will ever release a version of Flash that doesn’t cache like that… I think that would be awesome.
I guess your right. Forgot about that. Guess I should fix mine too:smirk:
*Originally posted by lostinbeta *
I wonder if Macromedia will ever release a version of Flash that doesn’t cache like that… I think that would be awesome.
They did… then they abandoned it… they called it Generator… :*(
That’s one reason I still use Generator… .swt files <u>never</u> get cached (unless I tell Generator to cache files) , whereas .swf files will be cached… So I use .swt when I need fresh info, and .swf when I want the page to load fast for the 2nd visit, or the same movie loading more than once in a site…
That said, since Generator is not available to everyone…
Macromedia says:
http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/ts/documents/prevent_caching.htm
Rev:elderly:
Interesting methods they post there.
They should release it for Flash now too.
Why was generator abandoned?
With the merger with Allaire, they now own a product with which they can make Flash MX do just about the same things as Generator, and a number of people already own Cold Fusion Server…
Plus… Generator was a useage based Fee system (in other words, the more bandwidth used, the more $$), so it was very difficult to sell. Also, you had to be able to install Generator on your web server, so unless you were hosted by yourself, it was difficult at best to get an ISP to install any app on their server…
bottom line, it just wasn’t popular enough. Even Macromedia still doesn’t know a lot of what is possible with Generator (it still works, just not supported for much longer)… :*(
2 years of study down the tube…
:( :(
Rev:elderly:
Ohhh, well that sucks 
On the plus side, since Gen2 is no longer offered… I can use it for free, and not have to charge my clients, or report useage to Macromedia… =) I got it when I was a Gen2 Solutions Partner w/Macromedia…
So, in my current project, I use .swt’s to load all dynamic info, and .swf’s to load all the rest. That way, when a user visits the site more than once, the site should load faster (if he hasn’t changed the cache settings like you said above…).
The down side, is that for my clients, they are addicted to me… they can’t go to another ISP, or even another designer… hasn’t hurt me yet, but I feel it will bite me in the butt soon…
Rev:elderly:
By biting you in the but do you mean that you will have too many clients that you won’t have time for them all?
No, I think that some of my clients will want to expand their site, and want a new designer to add onto my original stuff (like a big design house with real artists and such), which they won’t be able to do, since no one knows anything about Gen2, and it isn’t compatible with MX…
Or, they may wish to go to a bigger ISP… I’m sure that they won’t let me put Gen2 on their servers…
I don’t like not being able to give them options…
Maybe I’m just being pessimistic…
Rev:elderly:
Well if they like you that much, they won’t leave you 
At least if you can’t use generator on one of their sites, there is the backup to cache problems.
Is generator a whole program like Flash, or is it like an addition or something?
It is an application that resides on the server, and is programmed in Flash 5 using “placeholders” , and then referenced through .txt files… It makes it fairly easy to make a site interactive, using asp to pass the variables to the txt file which Gen2 reads, then publishes the swf…
We did write a white paper on it, if you are interested… Kinda boring though…
Rev:elderly:
Sounds interesting.
Ermmm, I don’t really have time to read the paper, I have to go soon. Not like I am going to use the program anyway 
Sounds like an interesting program. I think they did add a lot of generator features into mx then. Flash MX can work with PHP, ASP, CGI, mySQL and XML and such to help build stuff.
Yup, from what I can tell, MX can do <i>almost</i> everything that Gen2 could do…
just an FYI… Flash 5 also works well with asp and php… there is even a section at MM’s site which is dedicated to Flash and ASP…
and I was joking about reading the paper… only people who need to be punished should have to read it…
Rev:elderly:
Flash 5 worked with XML as well I know that, but the capabilitise of FLash and XML were increased with MX. Flash 5 needed an XML Parse Booster script by fig leaf, and a white space stripper from colin moock to get it working at optimal. The booster is default in Flash MX and the whitespace removal is something like showWhiteSpace = false or something like that.
I wasn’t sure exactly which languages Flash 5 worked with, the most I have ever done in Flash 5 was a shape tween and stuff.
Yup, MX works with them all… so Gen2 is obsolite…
That’s why I have started to learn MX…
Rev:elderly:
I love MX… I wonder what new features the next version of Flash will have.
Not like I will be able to afford it when it comes out. Better start saving up now…haha.