Best Practices - Resizing Flash Project

Resizing Entire Project
Is there a way to resize an entire project?

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Project Help (Movie Clip Resizing Issues)
ok, basically what i need to do is take these little thumbnail images and be able to make them grow to normal size whenever the mouse rolls over it and then go back to a thumbnail when i press the mouse, making a sort of interactive slideshowesque thing.

the problem is, I have tried every action script I can to do this, and nothing is working. I don't know if there is something wrong with my approach itself, or if it's something I'm forgetting but the scripts don't work.

if anyone has any tps on how to do this, please post quickly ^_^

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How Do I Insert A Button Into A Flash Project That Will Open A Powerpoint Project
????help i need this for work.... thank you!!

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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.

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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.

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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!!

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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?

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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.

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Best Practices - Flash Image Carousel
When creating an image Carousel in flash for a web page, what are the best practices for loading quickly and changing images?

So for instance, on an ecommerce site, the home page often has a block created in flash in which 4-6 images are included with arrows or image numbers are displayed at the bottom as buttons. The images automatically change to the next ever x seconds unless the user selects an image number or the forward/back arrows.

Obviously, smaller the image the better. But how about best practices for things like:

Do you include one image in the block and then load dynamically the other images? Should all images be dynamically loaded if you want to change them on a daily/weekly basis? Any suggestions for making sure the images, especially the first one is loaded quickly?

Anyone have sample ~gpl code that demonstrates a block like this?

Two examples - kohls.com, jcrew.com

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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.

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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{}

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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.

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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

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Auto-resizing Flash File When Resizing Windows, HOW?
Hello everyone,

I have been to one web site tonight at my friend's house and I have forgotten whats the web site address. But this thing amazed me and stupid me doesnt know how to do.

you know whenever you build a web site you usually build for certain resolution right (1024x768 or 800x600 etc.. when i visited this web site, whenever i resize the window (make the window bigger smaller etc) the flash movie will follow the window size (extact fit).

I really want to know how to do that...? Anyone please help?

Help would be fully appreciated.

Ella

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Copy Pasting A Project Into A Keyframe Of Another Project
This is what I want to do,


Here's the project that I'd like to incorporate into my own site,




And this is the timeline for my site, I want the above to work in the Chronicle keyframe,



I don't know if it's possible to copy paste the project into that keyframe, or how can I do this? I downloaded a free flash book that opens up and shows a certain text, and I want to incorporate it into a page on my site, that's it in a nutshell.

Any help would be tremendously appreciated.

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Copy Pasting A Project Into A Keyframe Of Another Project
This is what I want to do,


Here's the project that I'd like to incorporate into my own site,




And this is the timeline for my site, I want the above to work in the Chronicle keyframe,



I don't know if it's possible to copy paste the project into that keyframe, or how can I do this? I downloaded a free flash book that opens up and shows a certain text, and I want to incorporate it into a page on my site, that's it in a nutshell.

Any help would be tremendously appreciated.

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ActionScript Project On Flex Project
What is advantage of ActionScript project on Flex Project ?
In Flex project usage of components are easy. But in AS3 project I find very difficult to create classes for these components

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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Looking For TUT On Best Practices For Abstracting GUI
Greetings,

Wondering if anyone has seen a tutorial on the best ways to structure Action Script code when abstracting the GUI of an MX application.

I am very interested in something that is close to an all code base, and ideally keeps the base code consolidated in as few a number of Objects as possible. I think. Unless of course this isn't an agreed Best Practice. I'm personally not a big fan of using Flash's properties shortcuts, and prefer to write out all the scripts.

If you've seen something around here or the web and can post a link, I would be most greatful.

Thanks,
AtomicBirdsong

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[F8] Best Preloading Practices
OK I am trying to preload 6 or so external images, I need to do this durring the preload of the movie. I can make a movie clip loader for each image, but that seems kind of unncessary. Does anyone have a better way to do this?

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Mix Timeline & AS Best Practices
My Flash to date has been either nearly pure AS or straight timeline stuff. Now often hybrids seem to be the best approach, that is choreographing the same mcs to act out a series of programmatic behaviors. I'm not talking about dynamically loading new movies at different points, or even different scenes- but the best way to mix the two AS and timeline approaches as each seems fit. Your suggestions and advice are welcome.

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Networking Practices.
I'm trying to decide what the best way to make this networkable: www.typhoonent.com/nt/nebulatribes.html I've thought of two ways. 1: have the ship you control be controlled directly by you. 2: Have your ship be controlled by the network so as to keep everything more synced. I'm going to be making it so that every player sends not only the absolute position but also which keys they're holding. This way the other clients will be able to keep the ships moving until they receive an update. Any thoughts on how to proceed with this?

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Best Practices For AS3 Preloader
I was wondering what is the method that is most efficient to create a preloader for a full-scale flash site. I mean something big that probably has multiple movies being loaded that a major company would develop.

Is the preloader created as its own SWF and calling separate SWF's created from another file? Or does the preloader appear on frame 1 and the rest of the content on frame 2?

Just want to know whats best/recommended.

Thanks!

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Best (or Most Common) OOP Practices
Hey.

Below is a little class and the actionscript code that goes in an FLA. Can I get some comments on the coding practices in the class below.

For instance, should my Dispatched Events be called "onComplete" or "compete"? Is "onComplete" the function that handles the "complete"?

And other things as well. (btw, the nice formating got a little lost when posted)



ActionScript Code:
/**
 * Class for dynamic transitions
 *
 * @author  fg
 * @website [url]http://www.*.com[/url]
 * @version 1.0.0
 * @date    12/22/06
 *
 */

import mx.transitions.Tween;
import mx.transitions.easing.*;
import mx.utils.Delegate;
import mx.events.EventDispatcher;
import flash.geom.Point;
import flash.geom.ColorTransform;
import flash.geom.Transform;
import flash.display.BitmapData;


class com.fg.effects.Transitions extends EventDispatcher {
   
    // properties used throughout class
    private var target:MovieClip;   // the movieclip that will recieve the transitions
    private var time:Number;        // specifies the time of the transitions
   
   
    // properties used for color tween
    private var dynamicColor:Number;
   
   
    // static properties
    public static var COMPLETE:String = "complete";
    public static var PROGRESS:String = "progress";
   
   
   
    /**
     * CONSTRUCTOR
     *
     * @ param target   Specifies the MovieClip with will recieve the transitions
     * @ param time  OPTIONAL Specifies the time length of the tween in seconds
     */
    public function Transitions(target:MovieClip, time:Number)
    {
        this.target = target;
        this.time = (time != undefined) ? time : 0.8;
    }
   
   
    /**
     * method to tween the color of a **solid** color movieclip
     *
     * @ param toColor    is a hexidecimal RGB (no alpha) number that the target tweens to
     * @ param beginColor   OPTIONAL is a hexidecimal number that is the beginning color of the tween.
     *          If left blank, the class attemps to find the color automatically
     * @ param point       OPTIONAL Is a point where the target has color
     */
    public function colorTween(toColor:Number, beginColor:Number, point:Point):Void
    {
        //  check params for valid values
        if (toColor == undefined) throw new Error("Must define an end color");
        if (point == undefined) point = new Point( Math.round(target._width/2), Math.round(target._height/2) );
       
        //  if the begining color is not specified find it dynamically
        if (beginColor == undefined && dynamicColor == undefined) {
            var bmp:BitmapData = new BitmapData(target._width, target._height);
            bmp.draw(target);
            beginColor = bmp.getPixel(point.x, point.y);
            bmp.dispose();
            delete bmp;
            //trace("beginning color is 0x" + beginColor.toString(16));
        }
       
        //  if instance of class was used once, the dynamic color is stored in a property
        else if (dynamicColor != undefined) beginColor = dynamicColor;
       
       
       
        //  set up to transform the color
        var color:ColorTransform = new ColorTransform();
        var trans:Transform      = new Transform(target);
        color.alphaMultiplier    = target._alpha/100;
       
       
        //  get the individual (RGB) color values
        var holder:Object = new Object();
        holder.red   = beginColor >>> (4*4) & 0xFF;
        holder.green = beginColor >>> (2*4) & 0xFF;
        holder.blue  = beginColor >>> (0*4) & 0xFF;
       
        var toRed:Number   = toColor >>> (4*4) & 0xFF;
        var toGreen:Number = toColor >>> (2*4) & 0xFF;
        var toBlue:Number  = toColor >>> (0*4) & 0xFF;
       
       
        // tween the color
        var redTween:Tween   = new Tween(holder, "red",   None.easeNone, holder.red,   toRed,   time, true);
        var greenTween:Tween = new Tween(holder, "green", None.easeNone, holder.green, toGreen, time, true);
        var blueTween:Tween  = new Tween(holder, "blue",  None.easeNone, holder.blue,  toBlue,  time, true);
       
        blueTween.onMotionChanged = Delegate.create(this, onMotionChanged);
        function onMotionChanged():Void
        {
            color.rgb = dynamicColor = ( holder.red << (4 * 4) ) | ( holder.green << (2* 4) ) | ( holder.blue << (0 * 4) );
            trans.colorTransform = color;
           
            dispatchEvent( {type:Transitions.PROGRESS, target:this.target, color:dynamicColor, scope:this} );
        }
       
        blueTween.onMotionFinished = Delegate.create(this, onMotionFinished);
        function onMotionFinished():Void
        {
            dispatchEvent( {type:Transitions.COMPLETE, target:this, color:dynamicColor} );
        }
    }
   
   
    /**
     * method to get private dynamicColor
     *
     * @return  returns private dynamicColor property used in the colorTween method.
     */
    public function get _dynamicColor():Number { return dynamicColor; }

FLA

ActionScript Code:
import com.fg.effects.Transitions;

var colorTween:Transitions = new Transitions(ball);
colorTween.addEventListener(Transitions.COMPLETE, onComplete);
function onComplete():Void { colorTween.colorTween(Math.random() * 0xFFFFFF); }

colorTween.addEventListener(Transitions.PROGRESS, onProgress);
function onProgress(event:Object):Void { trace(event.color); }

onComplete();

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Preloading Best Practices
I appreciate the idea of loading the light/critical content ahead of the other stuff but I was wondering are there other things that will enhance the preload process?

For example a preloader/preloading process that can be paused and resumed:
1) preload the subcontents in an order.
2) if the user clicks on button to a subcontent that has not been loaded, the process is paused and the focus is on loading that immediate content.
3) then then preloading resumes again on the items that have not been loaded yet.

So my guess of how this would work is there's a check variable. After each item is loaded and before you proceed to loading the next item, you check if a button has been pushed.

Is there some better way to implement this?

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Flex Best Practices
I m looking for some Flex development, coding and architecture best practices for a large, upcoming project. Does anyone have any good suggestions?

Thanks ....

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Constructor Best Practices
I was pounding out some classes today and got to thinking that there might be a better way to do what I'm doing. I find myself setting a lot of private variables in the class definition and then adding values to them and working with them in the subsequent constructor and class methods. I find myslef using the this keyword a lot and I don't know if maybe that is a no no or there is a more efficient way to do something. I'll provide you all some of my Franken code...


ActionScript Code:
package dt
{
    import flash.events.Event;
   
    import mx.containers.Panel;
    import mx.controls.Alert;
    import mx.core.UIComponent;
    import mx.events.MenuEvent;
   
    /**
     * ...
     * @author DefaultUser (Tools -> Custom Arguments...)
     */
    public class GUI extends UIComponent
    {
        private var mainPanel:Panel = new Panel;   
        private var layout:Page = new Page;
       
        public function GUI(w:Number,h:Number)
        {
            var mainPanel:Panel = this.mainPanel;
            var layout:Page = this.layout;
            var menu:dtMenu = new dtMenu();
            this.mainPanel.width = w;
            this.mainPanel.height = h;
            this.addChild(mainPanel);
            this.mainPanel.addChild(menu);
            this.mainPanel.addChild(layout)
            menu.addEventListener(MenuEvent.ITEM_CLICK,clickHandler);
        }
        private function clickHandler(e:MenuEvent):void
        {
            this.mainPanel.removeChild(this.layout);
            var call:String = e.item.data;
        }
        private function navigateMenu(e:Event):void
        {
            Alert.show(e.toString());
        }
    }
}

---

Best Practices For Audio (WAV Vs MP3)?
I am building several new Flash applications (using Flash 8) designed for both CD and web delivery, and would like suggestions on which audio format works best (WAV or MP3) and what bit rates provide optimal results. (NOTE: Most of our tartget users will have the Flash 6 or possibly the Flash 7 player installed. Few, if any, will have Flash 8 player at this time.)

We are in the process of trying uncompressed WAV files and letting Flash do the compressing for both voice narration and background music. Is it better to import MP3 files and not have Flash do any of the audio compressing? If WAV files are the way to go, what Flash audio settings and bit rates do you suggest we use when publishing?

We use SoundForge for audio work, and there are MANY different settings to choose from for both WAV and MP3. Just looking for a tried and true audio workflow that provides proven results without having to redo what's already been done.

Is there a good tutorial on the many facets of Flash audio out there somewhere?

Thanks!

Jazzman

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Proposal - [Best Practices]
Note: I think this might wind itself up under the Forum Guidelines/Suggestions threads but it sort of fits here too so I'm just gonna stop babbling and write my little proposal.

Hullo all,

I realize that a lot of Kirupa members fall in the beginniner - intermediate level developers. I don't see a lot of us answering questions on Flashkit all that often. What I'm constantly bothered by, and I'm sure most of you that aren't still trying to grasp the basics of Flash, is that there just does not seem to be a resource or forum that often talks about best procedures in Flash.

Things like the best ways to optimize files, dealing with XML, externally loaded FLVs/SWFs, naming conventions...there are a million "little things" that one has to run in circles to find any information about.

So I'm a big fan of, instead of just posting when we've got a question, posting what I'd do for a specific problem and seeing how others would handle. In this respect, we can all learn to be better developers from our own experiences.

I've attempted posting these sorts of things on Ultrashock and tried on Were-Here (though my password somehow disappeared from there), so with this forum I've decided to kind of gauge the interest. I really think a forum or maybe a weekly posting discussing any number of these various little issues could help to localize in one spot research on Macromedia's Tech Notes, information from blogs and tutorials, and just all around "well this is what I would do" information.

Thoughts?

---

[Help] Structuring FLA - Best Practices
Hey People,

Before I begin, i come a Java background with strong emphasis on OOP. I started developing in Flash a couple of years back - with the advent of AS2 making the transition from Java to AS a little easier.

Having read the very good article "The best structure for your Flash site", I've got a couple of issues that I need some help/advice on.

Now I'm a pretty seasoned AS developer and Flash designer. I've read alot about the best practices in Flash from Macromedia / Adobe docs.

What got me wondering was how do people structure their FLA's?

To elaborate, do you guys keep your AS code (not classes btw) inside the FLA or do you import an external .as using the #include and references to movieclips from the .as file? I noticed that in some Macromedia / Adobe examples that they usually #include .as files that have references to the instance names inside the FLA.

Also about centralized code - what exactly constitues as centralized code (please do not mention putting code on instances or symbols )

e.g:

_root > frame 1 - actions layer > AS code

so therefore, is it good practice to have code in the library such as:

library > someMovieclip > frame 1 - actions layer > AS code - that deals with stuff related to that clip.

I hope I've made sense!

Thanks,

---

Best Practices Question
I'm interested in how people approach this:

Lets say I'm building an animation intensive website and I want to keep my code centralized on the first frame of the main timeline. Most of the intro animations (like building the sites common elements such as menu, header, etc...) have to be done on a timeline since they are pretty complex. Would you keep the main timeline with only one frame and attach the animations via actionscript, or would you place the intro animations on the main timeline, stretching it out?

I usually place the intro and common element setups all on the main timeline cause that gives me more control on linking animations together. For example: the intro plays, then the menu loads in, then some special effects popup, and then the home content is loaded in. But since some people advocate for single frame main timelines, I'm wondering if there is a better approach.


Cheers,
ghjr

---

Best Practices For FONTS
A user that has visited my site said that the fonts looked awful. It turns out he was on a really old PC that didn't have OCR A Extended (font). But what I don't understand is that the fonts were in static text boxes. Shouldn't static text boxes embed the fonts so that all users can see them?

What is the best way to make sure that all site visitors see the intended font?

---

Preloading Best Practices
I appreciate the idea of loading the light/critical content ahead of the other stuff but I was wondering are there other things that will enhance the preload process?

For example a preloader/preloading process that can be paused and resumed:
1) preload the subcontents in an order.
2) if the user clicks on button to a subcontent that has not been loaded, the process is paused and the focus is on loading that immediate content.
3) then then preloading resumes again on the items that have not been loaded yet.

So my guess of how this would work is there's a check variable. After each item is loaded and before you proceed to loading the next item, you check if a button has been pushed.

Is there some better way to implement this?

---

Preloader Best Practices
I was wondering if there are any best practices for when to preload? Can you get away with not preloading if the file is of a certain size? If so, what is the limit?

Thanks!

---

Papervision3D Best Practices?
Hey everybody, I have recently started using Papervision 3D for AS3 and had a couple questions regarding best practices and some performance issues i'm having.

Question 1:
First, in a lot of online examples i see some people are extending BasicView to write specialized 3D objects, making use of the internal onRenderTick function for their scene rendering. on the other hand, lots of other examples use standard MovieClip or Sprite extended classes which use onEnterFrame handling to process their scene rendering.

what have you guys experienced, is either of these methods better in terms of performance or integrating with a larger 3D site/application?

Question 2:
I built a pv3d class that simulates falling leaves, each leaf compising of two planes back-to-back in a DisplayObject3D wrapper, with each plane consisting of a MovieAssetMaterial from the library containing the graphics for the front and back of the leaf respectively. (transparency is true, smoothing, animated and interactive are false, and i'm using 2 triangles per plane). I then animate that leaf on the stage to simulate the falling aspect, but i am simultaneously rotating the leaf on all 3 axis' so that it looks like it is tumbling down through the air. i update all the leaves via an array loop and only render the scene once for all the leaf position changes.

After more than 10 leaves, the performance gets kinda shoddy, and after 20 it has the potential of stalling out flash player. is this many objects rotating independantly too much to ask of papervision? are there better tactics to employ when having this many independant objects? for a while i thought about using a separate viewport for each leaf, but i assume that would be even more resource heavy. your thoughts?

thanks everyone in advance!

---

Proposal - [Best Practices]
Note: I think this might wind itself up under the Forum Guidelines/Suggestions threads but it sort of fits here too so I'm just gonna stop babbling and write my little proposal.

Hullo all,

I realize that a lot of Kirupa members fall in the beginniner - intermediate level developers. I don't see a lot of us answering questions on Flashkit all that often. What I'm constantly bothered by, and I'm sure most of you that aren't still trying to grasp the basics of Flash, is that there just does not seem to be a resource or forum that often talks about best procedures in Flash.

Things like the best ways to optimize files, dealing with XML, externally loaded FLVs/SWFs, naming conventions...there are a million "little things" that one has to run in circles to find any information about.

So I'm a big fan of, instead of just posting when we've got a question, posting what I'd do for a specific problem and seeing how others would handle. In this respect, we can all learn to be better developers from our own experiences.

I've attempted posting these sorts of things on Ultrashock and tried on Were-Here (though my password somehow disappeared from there), so with this forum I've decided to kind of gauge the interest. I really think a forum or maybe a weekly posting discussing any number of these various little issues could help to localize in one spot research on Macromedia's Tech Notes, information from blogs and tutorials, and just all around "well this is what I would do" information.

Thoughts?

---

Question 3: Best Practices
I've pretty much gotten my first flash movie to do what I want it to do. It's a poll, the user clicks on the choice, presses submit, and the results are dynamically graphed as a bar graph. At this point it's time to fine tune. Since I've never published a movie before, I wanted to see if there is anything I should keep in mind before I make it available to users on my website.

Any suggestions? Comments?

---