Hello you expert flash people. I'm in a dilemma and perhaps, I'm sure, i can
get some help here. I'm mostly a designer and have been using flash with basic
actionscript. Now with the advent of CS3 I want to dive deep in this arena. Can
someone out there please help me to do a flash/xml menu which has 3 levels
navigation. I've searched and searched but haven't find a concrete solution
yet. It would be king and great if I caould have an explanation of how to load
external movies from the xml menu as well....please help.

Ben

sorry but its not explainable ...at least not with typing ....there is a ton of
code to write
if you want to do things correctly ;o) ....there are some lazy ways ...but not
that effective

so start reading up on variables ...global variables ...arrays for the xml
child nodes....general XML loading .... the text format class

peace John ;o)

Hello there....thanks from you taking the time to reply. Can you simply give me
the codes. Can you mail me on benza1a at hotmail.com so that I can email you my
file and perhaps you can help me ans we'll post the solution here?

Waiting for you response...thanks mate

the menu in the example you provided graphically is build vertical dude ...go
in the fla comp & rebuild them horizontal

i dont think i can help anymore my friend ...every designer has his own way of
doing things
i do things the way ... i have learned ! :o)

my global variables

trace( "this is my way to script an XML MENU...;o)");

stop();

_global.openbox = undefined;
_global.box_to_close = undefined;
_global.Total_subs = 0;
_global.topMenuNum = 0;


/////////// top text menu options
var Topformat:TextFormat = new TextFormat();
Topformat.font = "Verdana"; // changes to the font type will probably result
in adjusting the numbers below.
Topformat.size = 11; //<< depending on the font, if you increase this number,
you might want to increase _global.top_box_width and _global.sub_box_width
Topformat.align = "center"; // other options are "left" and "right"
Topformat.color = 0xFFFFFF; // color of the text

_global.top_box_width = 7; //<< increasing this number increases the spacing
width of the top menu (this number is NOT a 1:1 pixel ratio)
_global.top_box_height = 25; //<< increasing this number increases the
spacing width of the top menu (this number is a 1:1 pixel ratio)
_global.TopTextVerticalOffset = 5; //<< Moves the text further down the y axis
(this number is a 1:1 pixel ratio)


/////////// sub text menu options

var Subformat:TextFormat = new TextFormat();
Subformat.font = "Verdana"; // changes to the font type will probably result
in adjusting the numbers below.
Subformat.size = 11; //<< depending on the font, if you increase this number,
you might want to increase _global.top_box_width and _global.sub_box_width
Subformat.align = "center"; // other options are "left" and "right"
Subformat.color = 0xFFFFFF; // color of the text

_global.sub_box_width = 7; //<< increasing this number increases the spacing
width of the submenus menu (this number is NOT a 1:1 pixel ratio)
_global.sub_box_height = 25; //<< increasing this number increases the
spacing width of the submenus menu (this number is a 1:1 pixel ratio)
_global.subTextVerticalOffset = 5; //<< Moves the text further down the y axis
(this number is a 1:1 pixel ratio)

// this could be set to a number or the stage width. If the top menu ends up
exceeding the stage width a new row is started below the current row. Good for
a menu with many items
_global.row_cutoff = 700;



// Thought i would just remind you ;o)
// Selling any published or sample code from this file without prior written
consent is expressly forbidden.
// In other words, its cool to use this file for your own freelance or
personal projects, but don't try to sell this off as a template you created!


& then there is my menu population

var pushoverX = 0; //variable for changing the next position of the attached
Movieclip
var pushoverY = 0; //variable for changing the next position of the attached
Movieclip
j = 0; // new var used in the while loop

while ( j < _global.topMenuNum) { //while loops repeats for the amount of top
menu items

var change_width = _global.DisplayName[j].length * _global.top_box_width; //
sets width of menu boxes based on text size

if ( _global.ID[j] == "TM"){

//attach top menu boxes, linkage name is "box", for more info note4.jpg
has code hints...
this.entire_menu.attachMovie("box", "box" + j, -(j), { _x:pushoverX ,
_y:pushoverY } );

with(eval ("entire_menu.box" + j ) ){ // "with" just momentarily changes
the scope, so anything written below will occur within the movieclip object of
"with"

box_shape._width = change_width ; //box_shape is a symbol within each
top menu box
text_shape._width = box_shape._width; //text_shape is a dynamic
textfield within each top menu box
textfield = _global.DisplayName[j]; // texfield is set to the
DisplayName of its appropriate child

set ("entire_menu.box" + j +".menuID", j); // sets up a new variable
inside of each top menu equal to its Child row number. The variable is
"menuID", and it acts as a local ID for each menu box.

} // with statement end

} // if statment end


pushoverX = pushoverX + eval("entire_menu.box" + j + ".box_shape._width"); //
pushes over the x placement of each new box.

if ( pushoverX > _global.row_cutoff ){ // if the next x location of the top
menu box exceeds this row cutoff limit, then we start a new row (down the y
axis)
pushoverY = pushoverY + _global.top_box_height; // new row's y location
pushoverX = 0; // new row's x location is reset to 0
}


j = j + 1; // increase j for the while loop
} //end the while loop

///attach a toggle to move the entire_menu movieclip. If you don't want this
delete out everything from here down to above the stop(); action
entire_menu.attachMovie("move_toggle", "move_toggle1", -100, { _x:pushoverX ,
_y:pushoverY } ); // "move_toggle" is the Linkage ID name

entire_menu.move_toggle1.onPress = function(){ //on press drags the menu
entire_menu.startDrag(false, -2000, entire_menu._y, 2000, entire_menu._y);
}
entire_menu.move_toggle1.onRelease = function(){ // on release stops dragging
entire_menu.stopDrag();
}
entire_menu.move_toggle1.onReleaseOutside = function(){ // on release Outside
stops dragging
entire_menu.stopDrag();
}

stop();


then my load variables ...Xml comp file ....movie construction ...etc
like i said dude ...its just not possible to explain in a forum ;o)

peace John