Flash :: Best Practices - Flash Image Carousel

Dynamic Image/Product Library:Best Practices
I am creating a dynamic products page, with product info being stored in a database. The product's image names will probably also be in the database. I have all of the administration pages created in c#.net and allow the site owner to update/add/detlet products and also upload images through a form.

What do you all think is the best way to display this info in Flash? Can you dyanmically load image names from a database? What about styles in the text? So far I have only been able to get flash to display the text from a database in one big unformated paragraph, no line breaks, no formatting...and for images, I have been able to load them into a movie clip where the images are in the same location as the swf, but this poses problems with the way I have the site structured.

Ideally I would have a movie that does all of the work (with additional embeded clips as needed) but once it would be working, I would never have to touch it again. It could get all the text and image locations from a database. Can it?

AS3 Image Carousel
Hi I am trying to replicate the an image carousel like the one on nissanusa.com.

I have created a movie(image1) with five layers containing the images.

and given them instance names ClipA, ClipB, etc.

I then moved ClipA from the top layer to below ClipB but then the listeners dont catch any mose roll over.

Any Ideas?

Is there a way to dynamically move them up or down layers?

image1.clipA.addEventListener(MouseEvent.ROLL_OVER,overFunction1);
image1.clipA.addEventListener(MouseEvent.ROLL_OUT,outFunction1);

image1.clipB.addEventListener(MouseEvent.ROLL_OVER,overFunction2);
image1.clipB.addEventListener(MouseEvent.ROLL_OUT,outFunction1);

function overFunction1(obj:Object) {
trace ("on roll called");
display_txt.text = "CLIP A";
bgdark.visible = true;
image1.stop();
image1.clipA.gotoAndStop(10);
image1.clipB.gotoAndStop(20);
image1.clipC.gotoAndStop(20);
image1.clipD.gotoAndStop(20);
image1.clipE.gotoAndStop(20);
}

Thanks

Chris

Anyone Know Any Image Carousel Tutorial?
Hi,

I'm looking for an image carousel (rotating like those found in carnival rides) done in Flash5. Preferably horizontally rotating and customizable...

Anyone seen one lately? Somewhat looks like this except this one is done with java applets and is more like a ferris wheel rather than a carousel.

Thanks!

Carousel Image Gallery
i am interested to know how this IMAGE GALLERY was created and worked out.

i searched on FK and found THIS Carousel sorta thing but i was not successful implementing images within it.

anyhelp is greatly appreciated.

I Need An Image Carousel, Scroller Like This One...
Hi there,

Im looking to build a scrolling image carousel like the one shown here

http://www.nikoleramsay.com/

The requirements are:
The images must be loaded in individually to reduce preload time.
For it to be scrolling.
To have a dragable bar
To remain 100% width in any browser.

Does any know of a script, a site, a tutorial that might help me complete this? Doesn’t have to be a free script, i don’t mind paying for this.

To be honest, any help in the right direction would be fantastically helpful here.

Tim

Carousel Image Quality
Trying to figure out how to make the images in my carousel not jump around so much. Does anybody know of an effect, file type, flash setting or anything else that can help smoooth this out?

Thanks fo the help.

if you want to see what im talking about go here
http://www.symbioticmeg.com

A Static Image To 3D Carousel
I did the fantastic 3D carousel tutorial and got it working properly. I'd like to put a statis picture in the middle of the carousel though, something that the items revolve around, so I'd need the items to go behind the image somehow. I imagine this can be accomplished by a mask but I have no idea how to mask the dynamically created items and now they just move on top of the middle image. Can someone help me with this?

Carousel Tut. Image Instead Of Text
Hi
I am trying to work with the carousel tutorial. It is possible to display text on the right when an icon is clicked. Is it possible to display an image instead of the text (reading from the Xml)?

Henk

Carousel - Foreground Image
What would be the best way to overlay an image on the carousel script. I'm trying to make the icons in the rear pass behind the overlayed image.

Here's an example of what's happening now when I simply place the image on it's own layer.

http://pmgroup.com/ready2go/_caro2/caro ... enter.html

Bug In The Attached Carousel Image Gallery
I need to fix the bug in a carousel based image gallery. I tried to figure it out but I couldn't.
Can anybody help me in this. I would be glad if somebody can explain what's going on in the action script

Carousel Image Gallery Scale
I finished my first design in flsh 8 using autoscript. It is a carousel gallery of 14 images rotating around.
I am very new to this area but i hava a knowledge on programming language.
What i want is when an image comes in the center of the monitor to scale
automatically, stay at the max scale for around 2 secs then scale back to its original size.
when an image is in the proccess of scaling, the other images should stop and wait until the image gets its original size.
actually the proccess goes like that:
1st image in screen center - scale for 2 secs - remain at max size for 2 sec - scale back to original size - carousel rotation -
2nd image - scale.....and so on
Actually what i am lookin for is in url http://www.greekmilitary.net/
I would be very gratefull if anyone can supply me with an appropriate actionscript code or any reference tutorials on this

Image In Center Of Carousel Menu?
Hi, I recently built myself a carousel menu that works well, and was just wondering if it was possible to place a movieclip at it's center? the problem i've been having is that the icons at the back still seem to display overtop of the central movie clip, is there perhaps some way to set the depth of the movie clip I want in the center, so that the icons in front pass in front of the movie clip while the ones in back pass behind?

sorry if this is a bit confusing, i've been up all night trying to figure this out =/

thx in adv.

-wraith

3D Carousel Weird Image At Loading?
Hello

The 3d carousel is fantastic but i seem to have encountered an issue

when it loads it has a very odd royal blue blue box about 2 inches tall by half inch wide appear on the screen briefly. this appears in the upper left portion of the screen

any ideas what this might be? would like to make it go away! since it is all loading dynamically i have no idea where this little gremlin is coming from

thanks

justin

Carousel - Image Instead Of Text Upon ROLLOVER
I watched all 3 Carousel tutorials but can not figure out how to use an image instead of dynamic text for the rollover bubble that appears above each icon. I found a few threads on this forum with similar questions but none were answered.

Thanks in advance for your help.

How Can I Load An External Image Using This Carousel Code
I found this beautiful carousel ported to actionscript 3.0.
http://board.flashkit.com/board/atta...7&d=1188450564

How can I change the code so I can click one of the carousel images and have it load the companion large image located in a different folder into a movieclip on stage.

I am a newbie to AS3 and struggling to learn how to do things.

Hopefully, someday I will be smart enough to contribute to the forum with intelligent submissions.

Flash Best Practices
Can anyone suggest any best practices when developing a Flash game, which will be used on an html page. For example, are there any best practices when coding that I should follow to have the best possible chance of Search engines at least indexing my game, and in the best of possible worlds, ranking it for terms by use of the SDK program.

I am already, adding metadata (title and description)
Using static text for any textual graphics.

Other than that, I am not sure where to go.

Flash 8 And SEO Best Practices
Can anyone suggest any best practices when developing a Flash game, which will be used on an html page. For example, are there any best practices when coding that I should follow to have the best possible chance of Search engines at least indexing my game, and in the best of possible worlds, ranking it for terms by use of the SDK program.

I am already, adding metadata (title and description)
Using static text for any textual graphics.

Other than that, I am not sure where to go.

Best Practices With 3d In Flash
Does anyone have some best practice suggestions when dealing with importing movie clips into flash and how to optimize the bang / kb of file size??

any help whatsoever would be appreciated!!

Flash Best Practices
I'm working on a Flash project and would like to know what are considered "best practices"
Is it better to keep your flash project in one large file or several small files?Is there any limit to the amount of frames you should use? For example, is it ok to have 1000+ frames?I often hear to avoid using scenes, is this true?Do instance names need to be unique? For example, can I have several MediaPlayback components with the same instance name?

Can't Find A Simple Image Rotator Tutorial (not Carousel)
Hi,

I need to make a simple movie that rotates through images/swfs, in order, and has a small navigation to select any of the images in the rotator. Probably will only contain 3 - 6 images/swfs at a time. I have come across many pre-made flash image rotators, but I need something a bit more open that I can customize to my liking. I'm not necessarily looking for ease of use or automated. I know enough AS that I understand it, I just need help writing it sometimes. Kinda like when you can read a language, but you're not fluent in writing it. Anyway, I'm not asking for someone to write AS for me, but if anyone has something already on hand that they don't mind sharing or if you know of a tutorial that may help, I would appreciate it. Thanks.

Flash Dev Practices. Give Away The FLA's?
Hi Folks,

I have been subcontracting Flash pieces for a company for a few years and recently they started asking for the FLA files as well.

It seems the real value in what I do for them is of course conceptualing, architecting, and coding visual ideas. There's also a fair amount of original art in the pieces as well. Once that's done, content could be easily swapped out, creating derivative works, art objects re-used, etc. On the other hand, they probably shouldn't need to consult me every time there is a minor content change for their clients.

Just curious as to what everyone's thoughts on the matter and general practices are... sort of an informal survey.

Very curious to hear your experiences,

Paul

Best Practices For Flash Detection
I have a full-flash site I am about to launch that I need to come up with a strategy for on how to bring people into it. The site does not require full-screen or a popup launcher however, it seems like bad form to just throw someone the site without a warning of some kind. Also, I find that some of the auto-redirectors are a little heavy handed and prevent some other users getting into the site so, I prefer not to go that way unless it is bullet-proof.

What do you prefer to do? I am leaning to an entry page - any reasons against it?

-mx

Best Flash Website Practices
Hi there,

I'm creating a flash website of my portfolio and, even though I am not very good with AS, and I'm probably over complicating my life the way I'm doing it, I would also know which is the best/most usable way of creating a Flash website.
What I mean is, I was taught to do the browsing through scenes, but I read somewhere that that's not a very good practice.
So I thought of creating each .swf separately and calling it through a loadMovie, but I got stuck when it goes in the movie, to call back another .swf (meaning, the different sections of the site that are browsed through with the menu buttons).

Does anyone know which would be the best way to set up the flash website?

Thanks,

N.

Best Practices - Resizing Flash Project
I've always wondered if there is a better way to do this. I'm working on a project that will eventually be included on a webpage. After a redesign of the webpage I realize the flash file needs to be resized to fit. However just going in and changing the file's width and height stretches out the content.

My solution in the past has been to create a new file from scratch and just copy and paste timeline, scripts and library into the new file. But this would be impractical for complex files. Is there a way to get flash to resize the document without stretching everything? I would like it to just add extra canvas the way photoshop does when you adjust the canvas size.

Possible?

Hosting Best Practices- Flash Presentation
Hi

I am working on a project for a client that will create a flash presentation using Articulate that will be, with all of the swf's , myp3's and video file, will be 2.5 MB.

The presentation may be viewe by up to 1, 000 people, most likely not simultaneously. I am trying to find an appropriate host and have the following options:

1.) There are several companies out there that say they specialize in hosting flash, but don't have the flash media server. THey use shared servers.

2.) Install on a Dedicated Server

3.) Host with a provider of Flash Media Server....

I was wondering what would best practices for hosting this. Thanks in advance for your help

Dave

Full Browser Flash - Best Practices?
hey all!,

just wondering what would be the best practices for full browser flash "example@kirupasiteoftheweek" something along those lines i have an idea where you have to centre your stage etc...but how large should you make the stage size and your bg or say photoshop files what dimensions should they be??

Also if anyone knows of any good tutorials on it please give us a shout

cheers in advance peeps

Flash Best Practices - Structure Newbie
Delurking, first time post--I've been reading through the forums, but I can't find my answer, so if someone has a link because I'm blind, that's excellent too!

I'm trying to write a portfolio gallery, and I'm uncertain what the best way to optimize user experience is. I'd just like a series of images, and when the user clicks the image or a button, to progress to the next image. Some descriptive text will be available below the image.

Now, is it faster to put everything in the timeline? To load external .swfs? To externally load even the images in those swfs? For the text handling, is it better to pass out some external variable and just use HTML? Should I learn XML and use that instead?

We're using MX 2004. I've tried to ask this sort of question in class, but the teacher is a little hostile and just keeps saying "There is no right way". Which, fine, but I've experienced enough bad flash sites to not want to contribute to more!

Thanks in advance for helping a newbie out.

Best Practices For Detecting The Flash 8 Player?
I'm looking for any information or guidance regarding best practices for detecting the flash 8 player.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Exception Handling In Flash - Best Practices?
I have just completed a massive project with over 40,000 lines of
actionscript 3 and I realise I didnt use try{}catch{} anywhere...now
this seems pretty bad, but....

I used addEventListener to catch for errors when dealing with errors
with external data (file loads, remoting calls, url requests etc..)
and I used logic for any null pointer type exceptions that occured
during development, e.g.

if(movieclipInstance != null && movieClipInstance is MovieClip &&
movieClipInstance.parameter == thing)
{
//process stuff with movieclipInstance here

}

Stuff i've been reading says its takes more resources to catch
exceptions than to logic them out or use event listeners, and articles
about exception handling for other languages e.g. c# never seem
relevant enough for Flash.

So I am wondering what approaches other actionscripters use when
dealing with exceptions ... and where might be a good place to use try
{}catch{}

Best Practices For Architecture Of Flash Site?
hey there,

So I've done a lot of tutorials and have tried to mostly learn about actionscript - and Im ready to make two sites.

One is more traditional, with a constant navigation bar, and one is non traditional with constantly changing buttons, and sometimes quicktime movie interludes between the scenes.

My question is, how would people suggest that I setup the above two? for navigation bar style sites, are slides the way to go?(is that what everone does, or do people use the visible/invisible a lot...) I am trying to avoid the gotoAndPlay for navigation (which I think is standard practice?)

The second one I'm not really sure how I want to do it, cause buttons that will pop up everywhere will not be constant in where they take you.

Any sort of short summary of what people actually do would be severly appreciated, as I dont know where to start to put in my time and energy.

Flash/AS3 Good Development Practices Question?
Does anyone know what happens when you have Actionscript in the first frame in multiple layers? I am building a Photo Gallery app in order to learn flash and also end up with something useful. I started by making different layers for stuff like Static Variables/Global Variables, Initialization scripts, etc..., so I could have a better idea of where stuff is. Then I came to the realization if these layers run at the same time I will have alot of issues. So is it better just to have one Actionscript layer? or is there a way I can have multiple layers and still control in which order they run(also one layer's script running totally before the next one)?

-Dagon

Flash Carousel
Hi i need someones expert help on an issue i'm having using a flash carousel into a php website.

Heres the situation:

Flash Carousel loading images from XML file.

Works fine uploaded onto the server through a direct link.

However when I place the carousel inside the site, nothing.

The flash is called up and the blank space is visible. No images appear.

Thus far I've tried using the crossdomain.xml and had no luck at all and now its just bugging me with curiosity. I can see it being a very simple error.

Please help!

Mike

Flash Carousel
Hi.

I've made one of those cool Carousels that display items in a circular manner.

And, when i press on an item from the carousel, i want the whole carousel to rotate untill that item gets to the center of the page and in the front. Then i want it to stop. After that a window will come down displaying some text and when i press close button the window will rise.

The problem is that i can't figure it out how to make the carousel spin to the center with the item i press on and then stop.

Can someone help? Someone who is familiar with flash carousels?

Thanks a lot.

Flash 3d Carousel
I found a a free flash carousel from gotoandlearn.com but don't know how to change it so the icons link to a page? I know that doesn't make sense but go to the link below and you'll download the finished piece so you can see what it does now.

So basically I just want to make it so when the user clicks on an icon it takes them to a page.

http://www.gotoandlearn.com/files/carousel3.zip

Flash Carousel - Above And Beyond - Help
I'm working with the Flash Carousel from the video tutorals. I've extended it a bit and have been succcessfull in altering it in every aspect assigned to me except for two things:

1. Having the Carousel rotate from icon to icon uppon button press (almost if it was a navigation menu)

2. When clicking on an icon (or category as I've come to call it basied on my project) the image will swap to another called from the XML (I'm thinking of calling the "alternate image" to load when the XML is loaded but have it enter with the alpha at 0. Then when clicked on I can have the alpha's of both images swap from 0 - 100 and vise versa. Not too hard to do but will increase the overall loading time a bit).

Successfull alterations:

- Given the carousel a "No Rotate Zone" from the center of the stage.
- Made images blur and fade based uppon their "y" position in the carousel.
- Called external flash movie "category.swf" when clicking on an icon / category and dynamically populating the flash with 5 icons evenly spaced accross the stage to act as "sub-categories" basically these are product images and details.
- Given liks to categorys & specific products, details, and links all populated by the XML

I've included everything in the zip. Running the html file will start everything as I have it thus far (obviously you need to extract all the files so the pathing will be correct to the images, xml, and swf files). I've just completed one category thus far for testing since all other categories work the same way. It's the image with the stroller but it's called "Teens".

Thank you in advanced and any help would be GREATLY appreciated!

Flash 3d Carousel
Hi, I did the flash 3d carousel tutorials I think its really great and I enjoy all the
tutorials. I was wondering how I can put an object or pic in the middle
and have my 3d carousel move around it right now you can see the objects Thur it.
is this possible... i would really appropriate some help.
i have uploaded all the files... in zip format
thank you
al

Flash Carousel 2
is there a way to set this up so when you click on one of the items in your carousel it links you to another page???

thanks in advance....

Flash MX 3D Carousel
Hi everyone,

I'm new to Flash and I do not have the most recent version of the software. I've been trying to figure out how to create a 3D carousel using Flash MX (2002), but for some reason, the code does not seem to be working at all. Will Lee's tutorial work for Flash MX users? And if not, is it possible to create carousels in Flash MX? Are there any tutorials or has anyone created a code for it?

Thanks in advance.

Some Flash Carousel Help
I wanted to know if instead of the pictures tweening to the corner of the text box there was a way to make it tween to the center of the page.

Best Practices
Is there any place on this forum where these are discussed?

Additionally, how many of ya'll are acquainted with the term?

I think, personally, that a forum devoted to ActionScript should have more topics about object oriented code and about actually writing really good code, and about how that is done.

Does anybody know a direction to point me in?

Thanks

AS3.0 Best Practices
Hello everyone,
As a newbie to AS3.0 who is using Flash CS3 I'm wondering what the best practice is for organizing my code. In AS2 Best Practices as I understood them were to have all of my code on the first frame of my project, and ideally to have all my movie clips called from code, instead of calling a keyframe.

What is the ideal to AS3? Should there be any code in the first frame, or should it entirely be found in the document class?

Thanks,
DHP

Best Practices?
I'm still having trouble figuring out whether certain things are necessary, preferred, just best practice, etc. For example, when you're dynamically attaching everything at run-time, what's the difference between using stage.addChild and just addChild? I know that the main timeline is a child of the stage, but is there any real reason to use one over the other? When I'm writing an ActionScript file, why should I only import classes that I need instead of just importing everything? I assume it has something to do with memory management. What exactly is the point of adding :void to the end of a function that won't return anything?

I feel like I should know these things by now but I'm still a bit lost.

PHP/XML Best Practices
Hi,

I used the XMLConnector in a previous project and was able to send a *.php file to it directly in XML format.

I have to use code this time - xmlData = new XML(); - and a *.php file in XML format won't load directly into it successfully.

So I think I need to write a *.php file that will create the XML file and then tell Flash when the file is ready.

Is anybody here using this method of data integration, or have any suggestions?

Thanks much.

Best Practices
Hi.

I would like to know your opinion on wether you should build a main.swf with all the content for a website or if the content should be divided by several .swfs that are then loaded into the main.swf. I know this largely depends on the kind of website, the amount and type of content, etc. What I need are guidelines for the more general cases. Do you load ALL things in .swfs - one for the main menu, one for the header, etc.? Or do you use them only for photos, for instance?

Thanks in advance.

AS3 OOP Best Practices
Hey,

I am looking for some opinions on best practices for coding using OOP.

I have been away from Flash for a while, and I am getting back into it at the moment for a project at University. I am diving right in to AS3, will make it easier in the long run I hope.

Anyway, I am making a poker game, texas hold'em. I have made classes for the cards and the deck. I am dealing with raw data at the moment, and I am getting to the point where I want things to happen on the stage.

Do I create different classes to control the display on the stage? Or do I combine the attaching and animation of movieclips within the classes for cards, etc?

I am thinking it is the latter, but I would like other people's opinions.

Thanks,

Steve

Best Practices
So I'm building a website that entirely in Flash. Basically just trying to plan out my class structure as this is the first AS 3 class based website I'm creating.

I have all my assets located inside my index.fla library. The website has a basic page building transition. First I attach my background asset and preform and function, on complete I attach my menu and preform a transition function so on an so forth.

Is it bad practice to have my page building transition inside my document class? Or should I build a something like a buildPage class so I can also build and unBuildPage class, other wise it seems I will have all my transition code inside my document class.

To get a grasp of what I am talking about here's some code from my document class.

ActionScript Code:
package { import flash.display.*; import flash.events.*; import flash.utils.*; import caurina.transitions.*; public class Main extends Sprite { private var fullScreenHeight; private var fullScreenWidth; private var mainStageScope; public var counter; public var myBase:Base; public var myBaseMask:baseMask; public var myMenuClip:menuClip; public function Main () { addEventListener (Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE, init); } private function init (e:Event):void { mainStageScope = this.parent; // Set my pattern properties and add it to the stage fullScreenHeight = stage.stageHeight; fullScreenWidth = stage.stageWidth; var myPattern:Pattern = new Pattern(); mainStageScope.addChild (myPattern); myPattern.height = fullScreenHeight; myPattern.width = fullScreenWidth; // Now we can add our main layout myBase = new Base(); mainStageScope.addChild (myBase); // We need to center the movieclip myBase.x = (stage.stageWidth - myBase.width) / 2; myBase.y = (stage.stageHeight - myBase.height) / 2; // we need to add the base mask myBaseMask = new baseMask(); mainStageScope.addChild (myBaseMask); myBaseMask.x = myBase.x; myBaseMask.y = myBase.y; myBase.mask = myBaseMask; // Now we start out menu transition counter = 1; showBase (); } public function showBase () { Tweener.addTween (myBaseMask, { width: myBase.width, height: myBase.height, time: .99, rotation: 0, onComplete: attachMenu }); } public function attachMenu () { myMenuClip = new menuClip(); mainStageScope.addChild (myMenuClip); myMenuClip.x = myBase.x; myMenuClip.y = myBase.y + myMenuClip.height; menuMover(); } public function menuMover () { Tweener.addTween (myMenuClip["menuItem_" + counter] , { x:myMenuClip["menuItem_" + counter].x, y:-50, time: .22, rotation: 0, onComplete: moveNextMenuItem }); } public function moveNextMenuItem () { counter ++; if (counter <= 5) { menuMover (); } else { trace ("Start next animation"); } } }}

TIA for any advice, as I said this is my first time building a class based flash site with transitions and such so if I am way off please let me know

OOP GUI Best Practices?
Hey I got a couple more questions about OOP and flash.

I am trying to set up a navigation with dynamic main and sub links
I set up the data object to hold all of the info and I am working on the GUI now.

Is it a common practice in OOP to create as few classes as possible? Or is it a better to create a class for anything that you want to have any sort of functionality?
for example:

I could create one class "buildNav" and have the nav add and position its own menu items

BuildNav = function(){
//set vars here
}
BuildNav.prototype.addMenuItem = function(){
//attachclip()
}
BuildNav.prototype.positionClip= function(x,y){
//clip._x = x
//clip._y = y
}
--or--
would it be smarter to let the Clips be their own class with their own methods to position themselves

BuildNav = function(){
//set vars here
}
BuildNav.prototype.addButton = function(){
//myClip = new MenuItem();
}
MenuItem = function(){
//Menuitem init code
}
MenuItem.protoType.positionMe = function(){
//Set the clips position
}

thanx for lookin