Flash :: Flash Best Practices

Best Practices For Class Directory Structure?
I'm kind of new to OOP and am wondering if anyone has any tips on the best way to organize class directory structures. I've read that it's common to store your classes such as: com.mysite.utils

What are other common folders besides utils? Is there a general standard for this type of thing?

Also, a related question:
I understand a lot of people keep a main "Actionscript" or "Classes" folder on their machine. It's a nice way to keep all of your classes in a single location for later reuse.

On a project by project basis though, it's nice to have your classes in your project folder (for easy access and easy project delivery down the road). I guess I'm just wondering what the typical workflow is for this. Do you just copy classes you need from your main classes repository into a project folder?

Thanks for any tips on any of this!

Newbie Needing Some Site Building Guidance - How To Structure A Site?
I need a little help - I am designing an art portfolio in Flash, and so I need it to be a site that has a few different pages that are linked between each other - you know, common sense. I really have no idea how to go about structuring that. I've been doing well at animations and buttons and ActionScript and all kinds of things in Flash, but I just don't understand how to make several pages that are part of the same document. Do you use scenes, or different "projects" within the document, or what? And then how do you link to them - just like it was any other URL?

I GUESS I mean, how do you design in Flash using a home page and then other pages to navigate to?

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?

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

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

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 MX Movie Structure Help
I am having trouble structuring my flash movie.

More or less i'm starting with a block of color. Pieces are taken away to reveal a jpg and then some text pops up.

I want the page to preload the jpg, and then start taking pieces away. then on a click of a navigation button, play the pieces back into place to get back to a solid block of color, preload a diff jpg then reveal it, and text comes in.

I'm not sure if i should be using scenes, or goto labels in one scene, or where the preloader comes in. should i do this all in one scene?

Can someone help me get a general idea of the best way to set this movie up?

thanks,
www4

How To Structure A Flash Site?
I am creating a portfolio site which will contain the following sections

Homepage
Gallery
Coming Soon
Services
Contact Us

I am not sure what is the best way to structure the site i.e should I create one flash movie and load in the content of each section when the relevant button is clicked

OR would it be better to create a separate flash movie for each section?

I am concerned about bookmarking and also preventing users having to download content that they may not want to view.

Can anyone suggest the recommended way to structure such a site and the pros and cons of such an approach.

Many thanks

Paul
http://www.themediakitchen.co.uk

Structure Of A Flash Website?
Hi, i am currently redoing a website in flash.

The question here is with regards to the different pages my website will have. Currently I am creating new swf file for each page and then having them loaded up onto a layer (in my main flash webpage)when I click the associated button. Is this the right structure/way of designing flash webpages?

And when i am about to load another page do i unload the current page? How do i do that?

Xml Book Structure Into Flash
I have some xml files that have a book structure. e.g.

<book>
<title>title here</title>
<chapter>
<chapter-name>Introduction</chapter-name>
<para-text>blaaa blaaa blaaa</para-text>
<para-text>blaaa blaaa blaaa</para-text>
<para-text>blaaa blaaa blaaa</para-text>
</chapter>
<chapter>
<chapter-name>History</chapter-name>
<para-text>blaaa blaaa blaaa</para-text>
<para-text>blaaa blaaa blaaa</para-text>
<para-text>blaaa blaaa blaaa</para-text>
<para-text>blaaa blaaa blaaa</para-text>
</chapter>
etc ...
</book>

I want the app to load with the first chapter loaded to the right, with a list of all the chapters (chapter-name) on the left. clicking a chapter name puts the para-text into a scrollable text box with each para-text chunk inorder with space between them to make paragraphs.

the fact that there is a variable number of para-text chunks for each chapter makes it harder for me to get my head around.

any help explaining the best way to do this greatly appreciated..

Flash File Structure
Good day, everyone.

I'm embarking on a new task to design and implement a corporate Intranet within our company.

There will be several directories for different departments, each with its own administrator to use an FTP link to put content into their directory.

What I would like to do is through Flash MX, show the directory structure of files when someone navigates to it. Instead of having a HTML document with several links to the files, is there a way (easy) to show the files that are in a specified directory and allow them to be opened via their association on the local machine?!?

Any help is appreciated!

Flash Webpage Structure
I'm redesigning my webpage, but I have a structure question before I continue. My first page is 129kb, should I put a preloader on it and should I have a first page that doesn't have flash? All the people who will probably be looking at my page will have high speed internet. What is the best way to start/enter your flash web page?

Help With XML Structure And Tracing In Flash.
I have an XML file that I pull into Flash. I want the nodes of one parent node to trace, but I don't want all of the children to be traced.

<assets>
<project>My Title</project>
<tlo>My TLO</tlo>
<elo>My ELO</elo>
<audios>
<audio path="audio/audio1.wav"/>
<audio path="audio/audio2.wav"/>
<audio path="audio/audio3.wav"/>
<audio path="audio/audio4.wav"/>
<audio path="audio/audio5.wav"/>
<audio path="audio/audio6.wav"/>
<audio path="audio/audio7.wav"/>
<audio path="audio/audio8.wav"/>
<audio path="audio/audio9.wav"/>
<audio path="audio/audio10.wav"/>
</audios>

<texts>
<text>
<title>Title_a</title>
Sub1_a
Sub2_a
Sub3_a
</text>

<text>
<title>Title_b</title>
Sub1_b
Sub2_b
Sub3_b
</text>

<text>
<title>Title_c</title>
Sub1_c
Sub2_c
Sub3_c
</text>

<text>
<title>Title_d</title>
Sub1_d
Sub2_d
Sub3_d
</text>

<text>
<title>Title_e</title>
Sub1_e
Sub2_e
Sub3_e
</text>

</texts>

</assets>

I want:
<texts>
<text>
</text>
<text>
</text>
<text>
</text>
<text>
</text>
<text>
</text>
</texts>

In other words, I only want the 'text' nodes to pull-up inside of the parent 'texts', not their respected subs.

My AS code which is inside of the onLoad for the XML file:

ActionScript Code:
:
trace(this.firstChild.firstChild.nextSibling.nextSibling.nextSibling.nextSibling.nextSibling);

I want to grab the:

nodes.length

but I don't want to include the subs.

Best Flash Site Structure?
Hi all, I have been wondering about this for a while I would like some opinions on this. I did search for this, with no luck, so If there is another thread on this I apologise, please direct me to it!

What is the best way to structure a complete Flash site?

here's how I have been doing it:

Index.html - which holds holder.swf (blank holder - level0)

holder.swf then loads my main.swf to level50 (just so I have 49 levels to play with if needed) which has a blank layer where all content is placed and other lower levels will be seen.

all other sections are loaded into lower levels than level50

For smooth trasitions between each loaded level requires alot of checking actionscipt routines.

Another way is to load them into an empty movieclip like I have seen mentioned here before? if so what is the difference/benefits between using levels and empty MC's

This is why I ask is there another/better way? or am I doing it right!

Thanks

Flash 9 Game Structure
I just switched from flash 8 to flash 9 and am looking for tutorials to make a simple game where you move a character just so I can get a feel for the structure of a Flash 9 game. You can't put ActionScript into movie clips anymore. I heard you have to make everything classes and put them in seperate files. Do you need to do this? Can the ".as script files" be in the same folder as the SWF or do they have to be in a certain folder structure? I am completely lost.

How To Structure An OOP Flash Website?
Hi all, just getting my feet wet with OOP and actionscript and wanted to find out it there is any tutorials on how to correctly stucture an object oriented website without using any timeline code (all based on class files)?

Thanks in advance,

Jake

Possible To Pass A Structure To CF8 From Flash AS3?
I'm trying to pass a structure to a ColdFusion component from Flash but it keeps failing with this error:

"Unknown object type tag (17)"

Here's my AS. I've tried using Array, Object, and Dictionary as types:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
loadData_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, loadData)

var myService = new NetConnection()
myService.connect("

Best Flash Site Structure?
Hi all, I have been wondering about this for a while I would like some opinions on this. I did search for this, with no luck, so If there is another thread on this I apologise, please direct me to it!

What is the best way to structure a complete Flash site?

here's how I have been doing it:

Index.html - which holds holder.swf (blank holder - level0)

holder.swf then loads my main.swf to level50 (just so I have 49 levels to play with if needed) which has a blank layer where all content is placed and other lower levels will be seen.

all other sections are loaded into lower levels than level50

For smooth trasitions between each loaded level requires alot of checking actionscipt routines.

This is why I ask is there another/better way? or am I doing it right!

Thanks

Flash Websites - How Do You Structure?
Hi,

I'm planning a medium sized Flash website for a client right now. The structure will be pretty deep, with 4-5 levels from the main menu. Now, how do you usually structure your Flash-movies? Do you load and unload .swf-files on all levels? Or do you combine working with the timeline(gotoAndPlay...) with loading of external files?

Thanks.

The Best Structure For Your Flash Site
There was a tutorial posed on this website about "The Best Structure for your Flash Site"!

Is is possible for the author or anyone else to continue a bit on loading content pages to the site?

Thanks,
Jase

Best Flash Site Structure?
Hi all, I have been wondering about this for a while I would like some opinions on this. I did search for this, with no luck, so If there is another thread on this I apologise, please direct me to it!

What is the best way to structure a complete Flash site?

here's how I have been doing it:

Index.html - which holds holder.swf (blank holder - level0)

holder.swf then loads my main.swf to level50 (just so I have 49 levels to play with if needed) which has a blank layer where all content is placed and other lower levels will be seen.

all other sections are loaded into lower levels than level50

For smooth trasitions between each loaded level requires alot of checking actionscipt routines.

This is why I ask is there another/better way? or am I doing it right!

Thanks

Flash Document Structure
Ok so I have been having a blast reading SitePoint's Flash Anthology. I love how it walks you through practical use projects.

However, the examples are all 1 effect contained in flash documents with a few layers and the master timeline having only 1 frame.

I'm beginning to wonder...where do I put everything when I start adding lots of stuff into a flash document. For instance, I'm already planning out a simple flash header that will have a sound control panel and an animated navigation system. On top of that it will need a preloader..

So I'm confused to exactly where each "symbol" will need to be placed - and even more confused about where the actionscript controlling these various things should go.

My current understanding is this: Obviously, the preloader will need to be first so it can do it's thing. Now, I guess I use a gotoandplay function right after the preloader to send the playhead somewhere else on the master timeline..where other stuff will come onto the stage.

So am I on the right path here? I would hate to start a project going in the wrong direction already!

The Best Structure For Your Flash Site
This is an article discussion thread for discussing the SitePoint article, "The Best Structure for your Flash Site"

Flash Site Structure
High ,

I was wondering what's the efficients way to build a Flash website. I always used this method :

* A main.fla that contains a menu structure
* For each subitem I use a seperate .fla , which I invoke in main.fla with Loadmovie.

Is this a good structure to work with ? How do the pro's do it ? Feel free to share your ideas.

What's The Structure Of A FLASH Site?
can anyone provide me a graphical structure map of a normal FLSAH site?? i don't quite get how flash link from one stage to the other. do you use one SWF file in your website with a lotta stages in it, or you use many SWF files and connect them together?

Best Structure For A Flash Site
I wanted to know what the more experienced flash programmers here think of this tutorial i found: http://www.kirupa.com/developer/flash8/ ... h_site.htm

This is the type of thing I'm trying to learn right now, how to best setup navigation etc. Any other recommended principles to use, or tutorials seen? Thank you.

Entire Page Structure Out Of Flash
Hey all,

I have been using Flash 5 for over a month now. I want to know how you make an entire site out of flash. Do you make one movie or many movies then add them to one??? Kinda confused on how to make my site like 7ups. I saw http://www.7up.com page and really like the structure of it. Can someone help me out???

GodIsMe

READ Directory Structure From Flash
I am trying to figure out how to
read a directory structure from an (index)flash file
and dynamically present links to those directories (index)
named after the folders...ultimately I would like to have
some control over the presentation of the links as in being
spaced by certain pixel dimensions...x and y.....

any help here would be great ...even a shout in the right
direction of study...

PHP maybe?????????

XML perhaps.....or just html???

I have been getting a lot of help from these forums and
I am currently reading about 5 books trying to get something to
give back...thanks in advance Paul S. Mungar

Site Structure And Pop Up Windows In Flash
right this is a bit complex to explain so bear with me.

i'm building a portfolio site in flash that is going to have a lot of content and so i want to build a site structure to categorise the content into understandable sizeable chunks [ie all the interactive flash files to go in an 'interactive' folder, all the ecards in an 'ecards' folder, etc etc]. for me this is an easier way to navigate around the site when building it and updating it - well this is how i work in html and i'm trying to impose this practice onto flash.

so i have a main flash movie containing the main navigation embedded into a html document. when clicking on a link within this flash movie you get thumbnails and text about the project as well as a link to 'launch the project' all in the main movie.

all the 'projects' are swf files embedded into html documents and i want these to appear as pop up windows sized accordingly when you click on a 'launch project' button in the main flash movie.

i am using the basis of tutorial 8 from actionscript.org from the tutorials page:

http://www.actionscript.org/tutoria...ash/index.shtml

this tutorial all works fine within a flat site when all the files are in one directory, but once i put a structure to the site ie put files in other folders etc. and use relative or absolute paths to the html pop up windows that are situated in another folder, all i get when i click on a button in the main movie is the pop up window opening with the correct dimensions but no flash file embedded, just an error saying the file could not be found.

does this tutorial thing not work with a site structure, or am i doing something wrong?

i can't really post my code as it's spread accross flash and html pages and it's the smae as in the tutorial [all i've changed is the path to the html popup window]- i just wondered if anyone else had come across this probelm and could advise me whether having a site structure is a no go and i should have all my files in one directory.

this would be a nightmare if i've got loads of different sections and loads of files. i would prefer to have a site structure so if any one could help me out that'd be great.

cheers

e

Flash Movie Structure? Optimize
Hello,

what is the best way to organize a flash web site?
Usually i use this structure:

Main timeline: i use one frame where i place all the MC's and so on.
MC: on each movie clip i have 3 sections: Standby, Start, End. These are the labels i have. So when some command takes place i have actionscript sending a particular MC to a certain label.

Is this the best way for a flash web site structure, in order to make it run smoothly and fast?

Any sugestions?

Thanks for all the help you can give me on this post and on my last posts.

Thanks,
Miguel

Data Structure Application In Flash
I have some problems. I am looking for the data structure(stack, queue,linked list) application in flash. But I need .fla file.
who can help me?

General Flash Site Structure
What is the best way to structure a Flash site...I've got one now that has a main movie and loads a bunch of other swfs into the main movie, but are there other approaches, what is the best practice for maintenance and reusability?

I could really use some help with this beyond just syntax. I'm talking about Flash site structure....thx in advance!

Package File Structure In Flash
I am a little confused about the file structure of external .as files as ActionScript 3 packages in flash.

I am using flash, and I have a file called mypackage.as . That file contains

Code:
package mypackage {
class MyClass {
function MyClass() {
trace("test");
}
}
}
The file is in the same directory with the .fla .

How can I import this file?
The following code does not work

Code:
import mypackage.MyClass;
It gives me the error:
Definition mypackage: MyClass could not be found.

2advanced.com Html/flash Structure?
hey guys..watsup.. uhmm. just wandring who can direct me to an article or anything about how 2advanced.com works? backend wise.. well i wudnt mind the animations too..

specifically on their loaders? are the movie loaders on the MAIN flash? or its embedded on the external swfs?

thanks!

Make Xml Book Structure In Flash
I have some xml files that have a book structure. e.g.

<book>
<title>title here</title>
<chapter>
<chapter-name>Introduction</chapter-name>
<para-text>blaaa blaaa blaaa</para-text>
<para-text>blaaa blaaa blaaa</para-text>
<para-text>blaaa blaaa blaaa</para-text>
</chapter>
<chapter>
<chapter-name>History</chapter-name>
<para-text>blaaa blaaa blaaa</para-text>
<para-text>blaaa blaaa blaaa</para-text>
<para-text>blaaa blaaa blaaa</para-text>
<para-text>blaaa blaaa blaaa</para-text>
</chapter>
etc ...

I want the app to load with the first chapter loaded to the right, with a list of all the chapters (chapter-name) on the left. clicking a chapter name puts the para-text into a scrollable text box with each para-text chunk inorder with space between them to make paragraphs.

the fact that there is a variable number of para-text chunks for each chapter makes it harder for me to get my head around.

any help explaining the best way to do this greatly appreciated..

Sound And Structure Of Flash Movie
What is the best way to structure this flash movie?

There are 10 large (more than 2 MB) content swf's, a menu.swf, and control.swf with buttons and a music loop. Within each content.swf, I load a voice-over sound object.

I had planned on using loadMovieNum from the menu timeline to load the first content swf into _level1, and the control.swf into _level2. But that doesn't work because I don't hear any audio (voice-over sound object) from the movie on _level1.

I could just load the control.swf from each content movie and use loadMovie, but then my music loop cuts in and out at each loadMovie command.

HOW HOW HOW do I do this????

BASE:The Best Structure For Your Flash Site
Hi everyone!

I have a question regarding mentioned article!
I'm working on a project that will be structured as written, and if someone can give me some hints on how to apply a RollOver state on a button! I've attached another MovieClipLoader, and the output panel traces my rollOver .swf's.
The problem i'm having is at the end....how to make flash recognize which button needs the rollOver state and applys it in the right place!!

thanks for your time

Flash Best Practices - Structure Newbie