Re: FLASH: Shared Library

[John Dowdell]

At 11:43 AM 1/2/1, Mike Helman wrote:

>I created a 15 movie web site and am using the same top buttons and

>graphics. So instead of loading these graphics again and again is there a

>way to replace those symbols in one movie without going one at a time? If I

>have to go one by one - can I copy and paste in the other movies?



Which movies?  (just kidding... ;-)


Maybe this will help: When you set a symbol's address to be imported from

some other file, then this doesn't change the FLA at all... those

import/export addresses are only resolved when you compile the files to

deliverable SWF files.


(An imported symbol will never be written into that SWF; a symbol marked as

exported will *always* be written into the SWF, even if it's never in that

movie's timeline. This is why advanced scripting with "attach" uses

exported symbols, and also why exported symbols are written at the top of

the SWF file.)


With that background, if you have various movies linking to a shared

library, and then change the symbol in the source library, you won't see it

automagically update in all the other FLAs. When you export as SWF, though,

the references will be made with the current assets, and it should display

as you wish.


(Caveat: The above is my understanding from questions to the development

team, but I don't have primary knowledge in this area myself. The

documentation was written before the feature was finished, and 'way before

common customer questions started coming up. I believe I have the core

thrust of this concept solid above, though.)


Sidenote: Macromedia Director *does* offer live links to external assets,

where changes to an external source file are reflected immediately in the

authoring environment. Part of this is because the larger Shockwave Player

can include import filters for GIF, JPG, and much much more... it can link

to individual media elements as well as to its own libraries and files. The

two "linking" concepts are a little different.


Sidenote: If your shared symbol is a graphic, then the "Update" button in

the Bitmap Info dialog can let you freshen a reference to an external

graphic file.


Summary: Sharing symbols affects the SWFs, not the FLAs. You can use

placeholder symbols in your FLAs, and in the usual situation these will be

automatically updated when you preview the set of movies as SWFs.


jd








John Dowdell, Macromedia Tech Support, San Francisco CA US

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