FLASH: preload question

[Len Harrison]

My apologies if this has been asked before, but here goes:


I have a set of html pages. Each contains a Flash movie. I don't want all

these on a single page as movie clips. They need to be separate. Page one

loads first. The remainder are called from page one. Each page after the

first contains at least one popout menu that is common to all (and possibly

some other common elements as well). The first page does not use this

object.


Now, if I preload the unused object as an .swf, either by parking it on a

blank frame 1, loading it into a hidden layer, or loading it in a blank

frame beyond the end of the "real" movie, is Flash smart enough to look for

that object in my browser cache for subsequent instances of it or will it

make a call to the server for the file?


If it uses the cache, what if I extend the concept to load as many of the

other .swfs as possible for as long as the user remains on the first movie?

What happens if they click off of page one while the movies are preloading?

Is there a delay in jumping until the load is complete? Is the download

simply aborted? What kind of overhead is there on the animation rate while

downloading? Minimal? Significant on PC's below 200Mhz? Significant on most

PC's (I don't care about non-Wintel platforms. Not potential clients). I

assume file corruption is not a problem. Is it?


Finally, with respect to the same scenario, is behavior different in

Netscape than IE? I did a search through my hard drive a few days ago for

all the .swf's. I found a few in Netscape which I use occasionally, but not

one in IE which I use frequently. Does the ActiveX control not keep a copy

of the file on disk, but simply load it into the control and then discard

when finished (which would preclude this strategy)?


len harrison

instructional designer

lenhabtcorp [dot] com

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