Re: A Few Quick Questions

[Colin Moock]

flashershocker [dot] com

,Internet writes:

>1) Is there any way get one flash animation to trigger another

>animation on

>the same page?


You have to use JavaScript (and VBscript a bit). I'll give a specific

example below. You should probably sniff out Win3.1 and Mac68K before

using this technique though, because they don't support Flash

scripting...


Also, for anyone else listening...in using similar methods, do you

experience crashes in Netscape over network connections (but not

locally?). I had a reproducible crash in the while() loop when waiting

for PercentLoaded. No problems in IE though. I was also talking between

two frames though, and I wonder if Netscape died trying to check its

cache, or couldn't talk to the plugin for some reason (I'm guessing IE

would have better communication with the ActiveX version...). I'd love

to hear other experiences with Netscape stability in using these

techniques, especially with frames...


Here's the example:


***IN YOUR EMBED/OBJECT TAGS***

Set the name of your movies. Let's say like this:

<EMBED NAME="movie1" etc. etc.>

<OBJECT ID="movie1" etc. etc.>



***IN YOUR MOVIE***

1) In your movie1, set a keyframe frame where you want movie1 to change

the frame in movie2.

2) Set the Action to "GetURL"

3) In the Network Address box, enter "FScommand:changemovie"

	("changemovie" is one of two arguments you can pass to JavaScript.

We'll look for it later in our function.)

4) In the Target box, enter the frame you want to change to, say "15".

	(the target frame is always where you put the second argument. Our

"changemovie" function will catch it.)


So, now your movie is asking the browser to look for a function to

start. In your HTML, you write the function...



***IN YOUR HTML***

Use a function like this...I'll comment it and add alerts so you can

track the progress of your script. Just comment out the alerts to make

it work properly...


<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">

//First, catch the function coming out of movie1 with standard syntax.

Assign two variable names, command and args

	function movie1_DoFSCommand(command, args){


//check to see if the movie is asking to execute this action:

if(command=="changemovie"){


        alert('Movie1 has called change in Movie2');

        //Refer to the embedded movie as "mov2", set using slightly

different syntax

        //depending on the browser.


        var InternetExplorer = navigator.appName.indexOf("Microsoft")

!= -1;

        var mov2 = InternetExplorer ? window.movie2 :

window.document.movie2;


        //Ask Flash for the amount of the movie already loaded. Just to

make sure we don't jump to a non-loaded frame.


        var pl = mov2.PercentLoaded();

        alert('Initial percent loaded is:' + pl);


        //Wait until the appropriate portion of the movie is loaded.

We'll use 40%.

        while(pl < 40){

                alert('Waiting until 40% of movie loads. Current

percent loaded is only:' + pl);

                pl = mov2.PercentLoaded();

        }


        //Now that enough of the movie is safely loaded, 

        //send it to the desired frame in the timeline.

        alert('Required percentage loaded. Proceeding to frame 15.');


        movie2.GotoFrame(15);


        //now play the movie (if we want the movie to play).

        movie2.Play();



</SCRIPT>


<!--The following bit is for Internet Explorer-->


<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="VBScript">

<!-- 

//  Map VB script events to the JavaScript method - Netscape will

ignore this... 

//  Since FSCommand fires a VB event under ActiveX, we respond here 

Sub hotspot_FSCommand(ByVal command, ByVal args)

  call hotspot_DoFSCommand(command, args)

end sub

-->

</SCRIPT>


>2) Is there any way to specify different starting frames for a Flash

>animation, perhaps with some sort of HTML parameter?

You'd use the same set up as above, but just call the function from

frame 1 of movie1, and use the mov1.GotoFrame(x) to set the starting

frame.


Good luck!

Colin

******************************

colin_moockiceinc [dot] com

This .sig, like all the others, was hand-typed.

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