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Loading a web page or other content in a flash movie?

Loading a web page or other content in a flash movie?

Tim Kline
11/8/2003 11:08:36 PM

flash (macromedia): I'm planning to redesign my entire site to be all flash based. But, I would like to be able to really just have the interface be flash, and the content be HTML files, or even sometimes other flash movies (instead of having everything in 1 big flash movie, etc). Basically the way it works is there's the menu at the top, and then below it are 2 display areas, 1 is a picture area, the other is a text area that I want to have scrolling text in it. I'd like to be able to have this text be in an HTML file for easy updating. Also I'd like to be able to have this content window area display my website's message board as well. So, is there a way to, say, make a rectangle shape and then say "display this URL here" ? Or something like that? I believe I have seen this on some other sites before (www.triggerstreet.com comes to mind), so how could I do this? Could anyone tell me how or give me some links to tutorials that might help?

Oh and I'm using MX 2004. This is my first time making a whole website be all flash, so I'm not quite sure how to get this more interactive stuff going. The whole reason I want to do it this way is to cut down on load times so that the only thing loading is the interface, and then it loads up the content pages as people click their way to em.

Re: Loading a web page or other content in a flash movie?

Laiverd.COM
11/9/2003 1:07:41 AM

It's not possible to, load complete HTML files into Flash. You can however
load textfiles that are HTML formatted. But only a very limited number of
tags can be uses. Havne't got the complete list here, but it was posted
today and you can also find it in the manual and on the macomedia website.
To display HTML formatted text, possibly including a picture (JPG) you have
to use an HTML enabled textfield, or the textarea component, if you're into
using components. The component has a built in scrollbar, so that might be
convenient. Hope this is enough info for now.

John

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Re: Loading a web page or other content in a flash movie?

jmack007
11/9/2003 3:21:47 AM

Hello ::

He is right you know. HTML formatting is very, very, very limited.

In fact, only HTML 1.0 is supported (though this must change and it must change soon in my opinion) especially with SMIL and SVG waiting in the wings to try and take good old flash out of the game.

Anywho--

With HTML 1.0 tables, style sheets, javascript (DHTML as it were), PHP and framesets ARE OUT!

Only use tags such as <p> <font> <body> <h1> etc.

Hope this helps.

-jmac

Re: Loading a web page or other content in a flash movie?

karamck
11/9/2003 3:29:35 AM

Hi first time here im a new user of this product still learning etc. im updating a web page that someone else created they have a flash with swish and it has text in it. I need to up date the text but after saving this to desktop and using macromedia flash I change text but then the swish dosent work any longer. Is there a better way of doing this? im sorry just so new and learning as I go or maybe you can direct me to some other form of help. Thank you im desperate to get this done sincerely Kara Hello ::

He is right you know. HTML formatting is very, very, very limited.

In fact, only HTML 1.0 is supported (though this must change and it must change soon in my opinion) especially with SMIL and SVG waiting in the wings to try and take good old flash out of the game.

Anywho--

With HTML 1.0 tables, style sheets, javascript (DHTML as it were), PHP and framesets ARE OUT!

Only use tags such as <p> <font> <body> <h1> etc.

Hope this helps.

-jmac

Re: Loading a web page or other content in a flash movie?

Tim Kline
11/9/2003 3:40:55 AM

Ok, thanks for the info :)

So, if I can't use real web pages, how can I get even just regular text to display? My guess is i make a text box and set it to dynamic text? but then how do I get the contents of the file to display in the box? Can I tell flash to make the text a certain font/color and then when it pulls the text from the file, it will all have the color I want? Will the text box have a built-in scroll bar or can I make my own?

Re: Loading a web page or other content in a flash movie?

FatgitinMallorca
11/9/2003 8:17:06 AM

You'll need to use the loadVars method. If you draw a text area the size you want and in the properties panel ensure you select dynamic text, give the text area an instance name like myText_txt, click the frame in the timeline whre the text area was introduced (or the layer you reserve for actions, but in the same frame number), the frame your about to include your code should turn black. Open the actions panel and write myText_txt.html = true;
Open notepad (or your favourite text editor) and write vary= (vary is the name of the variable that you'll use to identify your text in Flash) after the = operator start to write the text you want to include. As has already been rightly documented in this thread the amount of html tags you can use is pretty limited. When you've finished save it in where you want (I always creat a folder within the site I'm developing called textFiles) so I'd save it in there naming it what you want (save it in unicode as opposed to ansi if you're given the option) but giving it a .txt file extension, I'll name mine desTxt.txt

Go back to Flash and include the following code just below where you've set the myText_txt.html to true:

var myVars = new LoadVars();
myVars.onLoad = function(success){
if(success){
myText_txt.htmlText = this.vary;// vary is the variable you included at the
//very start of your text file
}
}
myVars.load("textFiles/desTxt.txt");// use the name and directory of text file you want to include

best of luck and let me know how you got on

Dave Towers

Re: Loading a web page or other content in a flash movie?

jmack007
11/9/2003 5:22:19 PM

Hmmm. Hey Kara.

I actually have just started to get into Swish 3D over the last three months or so.

I wonder, when you edit the textfields, are you somehow overwriting an name for the text field that Swish needs to reference to control its timing and execution?

While I have been with DHTML and Flash since the mid-90's I am new to Swish.

However, I have been greatly aided by the good folks over at Jessica Spiegels forum. As they are partially sponsored by Erain (Swish's parents) I have yet to be let down when I ask a question over there.

http://www.werehere.com

I know they can help you out over there.

--jmac

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