FLASH: Netscape polls Web server redundantly; IE does not.

[Marc Hoffman, Poison Dart Frog Media]

Forgive the obscure subject, but here's the situation:


I have a picture gallery site in Flash. The base movie has thumbnail 

buttons of 6 photos. The full-size photos are displayed using Load Movie 

(one movie per image). I used Action Script to keep track of which movies 

have loaded, so that the action of each button is conditional: if the 

associated movie has not been loaded, the button release will load it into 

a given level. But if the associated movie HAS already been loaded, the 

button will merely TellTarget it to go from its parked frame to its visible 

frame.


This works fine in I.E. I know this because I'm watching the lights on my 

cable modem, and there's contact with the web server the first time any 

image is clicked, but no contact on subsequent clicks.


Netscape (4.72 PC) is another story: for some reason, the movie checks with 

the server everytime an image button is clicked, even when Flash knows the 

associated movie is loaded.


More on the structure:


Base movie sets a variable for every associated movie =0, then moves to 

frame 2 and stops.

When any higher movie is loaded, it checks its Framesloaded in a loop. When 

the bitmap frame (#5) is loaded, the higher movie sets the associated 

variable in _level0 to equal 1.


When a button in level0 is released, it sends all higher movies to a "hide" 

frame using TellTarget. I figure if they're not loaded, the TellTarget 

fails but no harm is done. Next the button release action checks to see if 

the variable associated with its image is set to 0 or 1. If 0, it loads the 

higher level movie. If 1, it uses TellTarget to send the higher level movie 

to the "show" frame. I've checked the code numerous times and, as I 

mentioned, the movie seems to work correctly in IE but not in NN.


Does anyone have any idea why browser type would affect this function?


Marc Hoffman


Poison Dart Frog Media

Flash portfolio: http://www.dartfrogmedia.com/portfolio



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