RE: First full flash website

[zefrank]

> It doesn't increase file size-- it increases the amount downloaded all at

> once.

> 

> Say you arrive at a website made in flash and it is broken up into scenes--

> you have to download the entire web site and all it's component scenes in

> order to view any of the web site.

> 

> Which would be heftier that loading it in a section at a time.  Using loaded

> in MCs, you only load in which sections you see, and therefore access the

> info you want faster.

> 

> Olga



 Just to clarify: Olga is not suggesting that when you use scenes it

necessarily means that you will need to load the entire site before viewing

anything.  Animation on the main timeline that is synched to the main

timeline ie. animation on the main timeline and graphics set to loop or play

once will stream in regardless of the number of scenes.


Movie clips, because they have non-synchronized timelines have to load in

completely before they can display a single frame - they possess no ability

to stream their content, unless their content is itself a main timeline of

another movie loading into it.


Once you add interactivity into the mix though, you have to be sure that any

navigation that exists will either go to something that is already loaded,

or will begin to load something into a place.


 The first option is called 'front loading' a site.  This means that you

have decided that you want the viewer to load in all the content and

transitions for the site before they begin to view.  The benefit of this

technique is that 1) you can build it however you want to and 2) despite the

fact that the user has to wait at first, his or her interaction with the

site from that point on will be immediate and very satisfactory (no waiting

for loaded parts).  I would only recommend this way of doing things if your

site will be around or below 200K and you don't feel like giving a more

developed architecture a try.


The second option requires that you build a framework where pieces of the

site can be loaded in on the users request, or even more cleverly loaded to

anticipate the users request.  You can break your site up into a series of

swf files that correspond to different sections of content.  Your site then

just becomes a small shell of navigation, guiding what content need to be

loaded.  swfs can be loaded into levels, or as Olga was suggesting, into

movie clips, in either case the transactions are cached.  The benefit of

this way of doing things is overwhelming if the architecture is sound and

questionable if the architecture is shoddy.


good luck on your site.