ActionScript 2.0 :: Dynamic Buttons And Their Content?
May 1, 2009
I have a solution for this already, but it involves a million if/else statements so I was wondering if there's a way around this. Here we go.I'm making an RSS reader that displays posts in Craigslist. All the info I need is loaded into flash and immediately tossed into arrays. Well take the links[] array for our example.
I count the amount of links
for(i=0;i<links.length;i++){
and I make my boxes to hold the info
I have the button tracing "this.digit" which is the number assigned to each button, can't make it link to the content. Do i need to "push" the number to an array...or similar?
I have a widget containing a number of displayobjects, i.e. up arrows, down arrows, tab 'buttons', backgroundrectangularblocks, sliders, company logos etc.I am currently creating these displayobjects using the graphics class with parameters taken from an external file, things such as fontsize, font, colour, width, height e.t.c and adding them as children of "container" sprite objects for easy manipulation and referencing later can these assets be loaded in their entirety externally, rather than being created using graphics class draw methods (which I want to avoid) as some of the things I need to design cannot be created in pure actionscript very easily (if at all?), and then used or do they always have to be in the library and instantiated from there?
if the first question is yes they can be loaded externally, this question probably isn't needed; however, if I have to put the items in the library and recompile each time a client wants to use say a curved blue up arrow instead of a yellow one and then decides he wants a yellow circle instead then how do I write the code to do the following:-Say on my first ever compile I have 'upArrowBtnset1' in the library, I instantiate it and use the instance name to access it in the usual way using standard code,
Now if they send me a second set of 'upArrow' graphics they want to use I could either update all the upArrowBtnset1 assets with the new graphics meaning the original set is no longer available to the client and I would either have to hold a "original set" FLA file with the first set of arrowbuttons or I could import these to the library as upArrowBtnset2 and a third set they send as upArrowBtnset3 and so on each time I am sent some new assets; I would then recompile them into the SWF and adjust the references to the new assets within the code. In the code, for each instance of "upArrowBtnset1" I would have to rename them to "upArrowBtnset2", recompile and send it back to the client.
Because I have already abstracted the font/colour/size choices out to an external file, they can change that as much as they like without a recompile which is what we want. The problem comes if they want to use set1 again and haven't kept the original "set 1" compiled SWF. It would be easier to abstract the 'setchoice' also to the external file. The SWF would over time build more and more available sets that they could use by just changing an external variable.
For example, if the designer wants to use set 1 on Monday, set 2 on Tuesday and set 3 on Wednesday I want to make it so they can just adjust an option in an external file to "setchoice = 3" for weds instead of either having to recompile the swf each time or they have to have 3 versions of the SWF for each asset set. The idea is that as more and more assets are added in, they have more and more choices. Ideally, in an external file there would be a list of assets and links to where they are loaded from. (i.e question 1 above).
If I have an external file (say XML) which holds the setchoice option that the designer wants to use (say they want set3 today) my 'generic' code has to be something like upArrowBtn(setchoice).scaleY and every instance in the code where that object is used I append the 'setchoice' as chosen by the designer from the external file where (setchoice) is retrieved from something like var setchoice:String = "set3"; from the external file (I am currently abstracting all the adjustable variables to a configuration.as file. I will work on using an XML later when the principle of external files works (I hope!);
Is it possible to import assets from external sources and then use them in the SWF as if they were in the library? The loader class? Is this just fraught with danger I wonder.
Essentially I am being asked to remove as much as I can from the SWF so that if the client wants to change the positioning of things on the stage or the text on buttons or change the style of the buttons or the company logo they don't have to come back to us to ask for a recompile of the SWF for each tiny adjustment. Inevitably SOMETIMES a recompile will be unavoidable (such as if they want the widget to suddenly be twice as wide (i.e. the stage). My code already handles some of this using stage.stageWidth and then positioning objects relative to other objects already on the stage using this value and centred so that just changing the document properties is all I would have to do and everything else adjusts proportionally. I am trying to make this as reusable as possible with as little effort from myself as possible to save our company wasted time.
After all that waffle, my question is this, if I can't load all my buttons and assets and things externally, how do I write the code for this:- I have a library asset called upArrowBtnset1 and another called upArrowBtnset2. Instantiated with say upArrowButtonset1 and upArrowButtonset2 The code would normally be upArrowButtonSet1.x = 100; upArrowButtonSet2.y = 300; but I need it to be upArrowButton(setchoice).x = 100; upArrowButtonSet2(setchoice).y = 300; where (setchoice) comes externally from var setchoice:String = "set1";How does the code change if the (setchoice) string was named not at the end i.e 'button(setchoice)UpArrow'?
ActionScript Code: var numClips:Number = 5; for (var i:Number = 0; i < numClips; i++)
[code]....
I need to do something like, getChildByName("mainTab"+i).addChild(myMovieClip) ? or maybe this["mainTab"+i].addChild(MovieClip)?Is it possible without using .name?
how it is possible to edit dynamic content and modify the content and save it, all within flash.I have tried some experiments in the past and have got the text to change etc which is easy but i need a way to save the content so the next time anybody sees the flash it will have the latest content until i change it again.
I can't get the code to "know" which of the dynamic thumbnails has been clicked (by "know", I mean return an index value, say 0 through 7 if there are 8 projects, that I can use to access that particular project in the array of 8 projects in the rest of the code)... So if the third movieclip thumbnail were clicked, I'd like "2" to come up somehow... I've tried this code, which is kind of lame, I know, based off of the idea of each of the thumbnail movieclips' names ending in their index number:
Code: //"this" is the button that was pressed; would return a string ending in //thumberMC_<number of whichever movieclip thumb was clicked> var: testString:String = this;
[code]....
Lastly, there's a dynamic textfield I'm trying to create that never shows up for some reason. Again, you could see in the FLA (in the "createDrawer" function around line 424).
I am trying to build a simple Flash site that uses no timeline. Just some Tweener and some XML. I have a complete Flash website. I have a few different custom classes that build the different parts of the site (ex. 'left column', 'menubar', 'menubutton' etc.) I have my buttons returning a trace command, their 'label' (ex. 'Home', 'Contact' etc.). How do I make these buttons do more than trace their label and trigger an actual content change on the site?
I am using buttons with a dynamic textfield and a function to set the label for various different buttons:
public function setLabel(thisLabel:String) { visibleLabel.text = thisLabel; }
I set a label for each button:
btn_mc.button1.setLabel("2 | Al Sabkha Bus Station - Al Qusais Police Housing");
I have a dynamic textfield ... myText ... which I would like to use as a page title ... so once the button has been clicked, the dynamic textfield should update with the label of the button clicked.
I want to do a web site that is very wide. so i want to put a horizontal menu on the bottom. Lets say i have 5 buttons on my menu and with these buttons i want to move the content left or right. so i could control were i want to be on my website using the buttons that just move the background or content left or right
I have a scollpane loaded and I have buttons in the content( a map) thats loaded in the scrollpane. The buttons work fine until I try to turn on scrolldrag. So my question: Is there any way to use scrolldrag in a scrollpane when there are buttons in the content? Or are we stuck with the scroll bars? I saw one movie that was done in action script 1 using a scrollpane, with buttons and scrolldrag and the buttons worked.
I don't know if it's an AS3 thing, or a Flash 10 thing, both of which I don't work in frequently..... (usually, I'm working in Flash 8, and AS2 for most of my projects)
Basically, when I have invisible content over a button in my flash movie, the button no longer works. Like I said, it's something that's never been an issue before.
Where it shows up is when I want to make a piece of content visible over a button when the user mouses over the button, so the piece of content would start over the button with its alpha set to 0. I would typically change the visibility of the object I want to make visible when the button is rolled over. But now when that object is over my button at 0 opacity, the button no longer works....and again, I've never had this be an issue before.
i'm developing a website for my client. Here is the test version [URL] will look like this:[URL]There will be a menu created dynamically from a XML file, after clicking a menu button a MovieClip with a photo and category description will show up.After clicking the button "View more" the MovieClip with description will be removed and MovieClips with category products will show up through a for-loop on XML products nodes from this category.
I can create the navigation menu, and maybe i will manage to create first MovieClip with the category photo and description but i don't have how to create those next MovieClips with products desciption after clicking the button "View more".
Okay I've tried everything, but I'm sure this is simple. I created this popup scroll within a flash movie that I'd like to have the contents of change according to the button that is pressed. I gave the buttons instance names and the diffeent content is labeled and on different frames. However, the btns all go to the last frame regardless of the labels?! Do I need an if/else statement?
I'm developing a website for my client. Here is the test version [URL]. The page Partnerzy (Partners) will look like this: [URL]. There will be a menu created dynamically from a XML file, after clicking a menu button a MovieClip with a photo and category description will show up. After clicking the button "View more" the MovieClip with description will be removed and MovieClips with category products will show up through a for-loop on XML products nodes from this category.
The XML will look like this: Code: <category name="torty" url="torty.jpg" description="Category description"> <item name="Tiramisu" make="Balconi" url="tiramisu.jpg"><![CDATA[Product description...]]></item> <item name="Cake" make="Balconi" url="cake.jpg"><![CDATA[Product description...]]></item> [Code] .....
I can create the navigation menu, and maybe i will manage to create first MovieClip with the category photo and description but I don't have any idea how to create those next MovieClips with products desciption after clicking the button "View more".
if u click on all the buttons it will bring the content up but i only want one of the buttons to bring the content up. the experiments buttons should bring the content up... i send you the fla file?
im making a quick flash cd rom for my digital music label and i wanted to have buttons (leading to the different content scenes) that were moving around constantly (kinda flying around the screen) thing is im not sure what im doing wrong ive tried using an animated movieclip as a button but the button functions dont seem to work...the reason ive done this is because ive used a stop action on scene one frame 1 (so the buttons display properly) but i want the buttons to move around constantly the only option i know would work would be to create tweens moving the buttons around on screen one but it would eventually stop unless i can somehow loop back to frame one.
I am making a website in flash for my business that consists of several elements. For example I have one menu on top with the usual "contact", "resume", "about" and so on, and so far this is not the problem as I only need some text to show up when the button is clicked. But on the left i have another menu with different sections called "animations", "layouts", "illustrations" and so on, and the point is that each link is supposed to start a slideshow with my artwork depending on the category. How to make the buttons show content, and I even created a simple slideshow (with prev and next buttons).
I used the following code for the slideshow: stop(); right.onRelease = function() { if (_root._currentframe == 5) { gotoAndStop(1); [Code] .....
Now the only thing left to do is to actually make the different buttons show the slideshows. I have tried to embed the swf of the slideshow in the frame of my content layer that is dedicated to the layout button. I've had to try a few things. at first the slideshow didn't do what I previously programmed it to: instead of me having to click next or prev, it just flipped through all the images continuously. That I fixed, but now the only thing that still doesn't work are the buttons. they seem active when I test the movie, but they don't take me anywhere- they're just stuck on the first image.
so I'm having an issue with my website design and as I'm relatively new to flash I can't seem to fix it on my own. I know what I'm supposed to do, technically, but not sure how to actually implement it.Below is a picture of my timeline:What my problem is that the buttons for navigating my pages (bio, news, projects, links, etc.) are nested inside of my Navigation MC (on the Navigation layer) and so they appear in the timeline (at frame 20) before my content does (frame 70). Because of this, the buttons can't be aimed at the content because their code is run before the content even exists.
I'm guessing that what I need to do is to instantiate my content at a point in the timeline before the navigation/buttons occur... but as the content is the last part of my loading animation, I'm not sure how to do that.I read something about adding the MC's but keeping them invisible, then making them visible again at teh appropriate time, but I don't know how to do that or if it would somehow mess with my animation (everything fades in one item after the other, with the content being the last part).
and I'm using it to pass a txt file to a dynamic text field ( page_body ) inside a MC ( float ). When the text field was on the main timeline, this approach worked great, but now all that appears in the text field is:
Currently I already have a swf which is pulling parameters from a xml file. Just wondering if an asp cms can rewrite this xml file, so that the swf file is controlled by the cms. Or I should have the CMS directly provide parameters to the swf file, in other words, there is no xml file inbetweet swf and cms. Or there will be other methods..?
What is the best way to create buttons to give content a scrolling function.The functionality is provided by ScrollPane, where content, images etc. can be used and scrolled but aesthetically buttons are preferred.There is actionscript for creating scrollable text fields with buttons, but it requires constant clicking and only applies to text. Just mentioning this if there is something similar to attain the functionality of ScrollPane for content.
I have a series of images (movie clips) inside a container movie clip.I need to somehow scroll those images within the clip left and right with buttons rather than a scroll bar.
I'm trying to do a presentation of some Adobe Illustrator graphics in flash for an architectual presentation. I want to zoom in on some content and have new layers fade in and out. I guess this is done by tweens, as I had som succes in that direction.The problem becomes obvious when I want to control my presentation. I want to set cue points/keyframes/whatever so that the presentation will start at the click of a 'next button' or a click og the mouse. Then I want it to stop at some point when the tween/moving around of objects is done, so that I have talking time before playing the next tween with a click etc.
My interest is in creating a row buttons that are dynamically generated and placed as determined by xml content (number of buttons that is). The buttons are multiple instances of the same clip (attached) that contain textfields which display numbers (ie. 01, 02, ...20). The number of buttons generated shall be capped to a max of 20. I have parts of it figured out and need help with others. The generation of the clips are handled by the following loop...
I am attempting to dynamically display a series of questions with answers in my flash movie from an existing ASP page. Initially, the dynamic questions imported from an ASP page appear on the Flash page (question 1, 2, 3, etc.). When the user clicks on a question, the flash movie advances a frame and displays the answer. I can display the questions properly, but I am having a difficult time carrying over the question ID to the next frame so that the appropriate answer will display.
The current database fields look like this:
-QuestionID -Question -AnswerID -Answer
This is very simple to do in ASP or PHP but I am having a tough time trying to tie everything together in Flash. Should I create two separate ASP pages, one to query the questions and one to query the answers? How do I carry the QuestionID to the next frame in Flash?
I would like to create a Flash menu but want to load HTML inside a targeted div on the same page dynamically without refreshing. I've seen several people say iframes can be used but I would prefer to stay away from iframes and use divs if possible. I'm guessing some fancy javascript would be required?
I'm loading images into an otherwise empty MovieClip called container_mc using UILoaders and spacing them horizontally. I also have the image names as TextFields below the images all within the container. I'm masking the container clip using the following syntax:
This USUALLY works, but for some reason when I load over 20 images into the container -- the mask no longer works. At first it appears as though it's working but then the text disappears and when I mouse over the images to scroll them horizontally, the mask (which is magenta) appears and disappears -- flickering strangely. Should I be caching? I was under the impression I had to for the dynamic text to show up. Maybe it's the where I placed the code (load-order)?
I'm using CS3 and i wrote a in actionscript 3 an .as file that sends a request to a server and gets as a response an xml file. After loading the xml i create dynamically i big number of questions each one of them with some possible choices for the user to select(Radio buttons). The problem is that i have about 40 questions with about 120 radio buttons to show the user but only 5 fit the screen and the others are not visible. Can anyone give me a help using scrollpane or something else so i can give the user a way to see all of the questions and radio buttons available?
A client asked me to make him a flash presentation file in order to put it on a cdrom and distribute it to his clients.He asked me also to make the presentation file dynamic so it is easy for him to update the content of the presentation and distribute it anew, when there is a change of the content.If it was a web based presentation, I could use php to read folders and populate the data in his presentation file (I had in mind to put folders relative to the file with the content in it ("client_description.txt", photos, "work_description.txt", etc.)). But now that the file he needs is a presentation file. Is it possible to have as3 read the folders of the cdrom?Do you have another proposition to make in order for the making of a dynamic presentation file?
I know the Post Title is not much explicative but I didn't know how to summarize my problem. Here it is in full version: I'm making a card game, and I have all the vectorial graphics for the cards. I have a class named Deck and one named Card. When I create a new Deck I have this constructor
