Flash :: Just A Few Quick Questions...

2 Quick Questions Please
Ok....

1) how do you do an open URL but have it open in a defined area within your flashsite....basically what i am trying to do is take a free guestbook I got from 20m.com and use it in my flash movie...i was thinking do a dynamic text but couldn't figure it out...

thank you to whoever can answer that

and....

2)I got an email feedback form from 20.com as well...this is how it says to make it work in html...how do i assign this as an action for my send button?

Your starting <form> tag needs to be changed to the following:

<form action="/cgi-bin/cgiemail" method="post">

Thank You for all your help, you guys are great!

chris

Two Quick Questions
Hello all,
I have just two questions about some thing i've been wondering about

1) I have a .swf which loads other .swf inside it on button clicks. On another button it unloads the other. This means the person waits for the first to load clicks a button and waits for the second to load. Is it possible to load all movies at the start and use call or something like that?

2) Is it possible to start playing a movie clip when it has only half loaded ?

Sorry if these are obvious answers
Thanks for any help or advice at all
Al

Quick Questions
I'm creating a simple intro and have a few questions.

1. How can I turn my graphic into a link once the animation is complete?
2. How can I have color come along with each half of my logo? (example, http://www.flashkit.com/tutorials/Sp...en-7/index.php ).

Thanks in advance.

3 Very Quick Questions For Anyone Who Can Help.
Hi and thank you for taking the time to read this. I am using flash 5

Only thing left:

Is there an easy way to create a simple form with spots for a customer to enter name, email, and a comments and have it sent to my email when the user clicks send?

First:

How do you create a button that when clicked will open the users email so they may send you an email (eg. <form action=mailto:XXXX> in html).SOLVED

Second:

Is it possible to have everything else stop on a page, movies and tweens, and keep one movie or tween looping nonstop?.SOLVED

Thanks for the help in advance

Two Quick Questions..
I have two pretty dumb questions I'm not sure about..

1. How can I put in a return (move something down to the next line) in a dynamic text field?
As in _root.dtextfield = "list1 ? list2 ? list3";

2. How can a round a number to the nearest hundreth. I always want numbers to display the two decimal places because I'm using money..
Right now I have - _root.cash -= (y*1.5); I think it may be something involving math.ceil or something but have no clue.

Any help is extremely appreciated.
Thanks

Shawn

2 Quick Questions.
1st question, Is there anyway to duplicate a mc and make it's level lower than the duplicated mc level. Meaning:

I have a static mc
I want to duplicate it but the duplicated mc's must remain below the original mc

___________________

2nd question, Can I retrieve a mc's name using as? Basically if I have code on an mc can I retrieve it's own name? Almost like using this but instead returning it's real name?

Two Quick Questions
1) Why isn't my dynamic text block showing up after I make it masked?

2) on(release){
getURL("mailto:kostanzas200@hotmail.com","","GET") ;
}

^ What is wrong with this code?

Thanx a lot anyone who can help me.

2 Quick Questions
1. Is the new trend in MX to shy away from buttons and use all movie clips for navigation?

2. Is there any stats on how many people have the Flash MX plugin installed? Would I be missing many viewers if I publish in MX?

Very Quick Questions
1st: What can i do to reduce a movie's size?

2nd: what are "onion skins?" i heard it makes the animation smoother

3rd: What happens exactly when you increase Frame rates?

2 Quick Questions.
Ok first is what do you think of this layout? It simple but I like it and so far, so does the person Im doing it for. http://members.shaw.ca/mysticmagic/layout.html Now what Id like to do is on the vide page add a scroll bar with pics and have them buttons.
Now Ive seen tutorial with text boxes but nothing I could add other content in say even buttons in the scroll box.

Any reference to tutorial on this subject would be great thx all!

2 Quick Questions
alright you flash gurus can you answer 2 quick questions for me?

in the time line i made an mc with scrolling text within a mask but when it gets to that frame the mc doesnt load or the text doesnt scroll one way or anouther it just dont work i have attached a sample fla file to show you what i did.

second question....i am 3/4 the way done with this site and the published site its 3.5 megs, now is there a way i can set up preloaders for each secion of the site...ie
frames 1-50 called portraits frames 60-100 called fine art

now is there a way i can set up a preloader to just preload portraits?

any help is greatly apreciated

thanks again in advance

Quick Questions
(Im using Frontpage and flash)

How do you make a link in frontpage to flash to have it come in a new window in a small size? An example is like at emerymusic.com.

can using empty movie clips change the text of a field that has the actual text in actionscript? Can it also switch out buttons? If so, how?

And to autumatically have a movie get the url of a page, the "getUrl" button will do it right?

Quick Questions
Hiya again everybody, been away for a little while. Could you guys awnswer a few fairly easy questions which I can't quite seem to understand?

First of all, how do you stop a script from running for a little while, and also, how do you program something to move closer or further away from another object (perhaps, is there a tween type command, that tells an mc to move towards certian x and y coords at a certian speed)?

Thanks a lot guys.

Two Quick Questions
Howdy Everyone. Love this page and these forums, so much information. I have two questions though for something I haven't been able to figure out.

1. Can I format a input text field to convert to phone format? i.e. 1234567890 will become (123) 456-7890?? I assume some actionscripting is invovled, but I can't think of how to do that little tidbit.

2. I'm passing information from the flash based form to a php script. All of the text boxes translate perfectly, but I also have a lot of check boxes for options. How do I make it so if a check box is marked that is shows up in the email?

Answers or links to tutorials are greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Dan

2 Quick Questions... Hopefully
I have some buttons that allow the user to spell words in a text field.
For example:

Code:
on(release){
inputTxt += "A";
}
Now my 1st question is what do I put on a button to delete a letter?

Secondly I the maximum characters field in the properties window doesnt seem to work.
Neitehr does this:

Code:
inputTxt.text.maxChars=5;
Any ideas?

Any help would be really appreciated! Thanks....

2 Quick Questions SOS
thanks for reading my post!

the first thing i want to load a text file into a filed in the flash movie. I'm going to change the text every day so this is important

the second and more difficult i want is to load jpegs dynamically in the movie, and as every jpeg i select is loading, i want a status bar underneath (or numerical) to show the progress of the jpeg loading

thanks....ur saving my life

2 Quick Questions
1. I would like the opening page of a site to randomly play an external loopsoundfile.swf every time someone visits the site.

2. I would like to know how to preload an external swf.

Thanx for any help!

2 Questions- I Realy Need This Help Quick
hi.

q1)
I have a combobox and its has a list of three song names (eg song1, song2 etc.) when say they click song2 I want it to play song2.mp3. all i have sofar is:

Code:
loadMovie(box + ".mp3", "music");

How do u set var box to the selected combo box label.

q2)How come this guestbook dosnt work Guestbook

Two Quick Actionscript Questions
is there any eqivalent to pressing the f11 button in IE for action script? and how could i disable and enable buttons using AS?

Mantis

Help, AS Errors, Some Other Quick Questions.
made a shooting game and its done, now i am working to expand it and add extra things to it such as healh bonuses, limiting the amount of reloads.

I need help with:

1.) The Health is a dynamic text box with tha Var: health. Everytime the player is hit he/she loses 5 health points. I want to know how I can make the movie end when the health reaches 0 and where i would have to place this code. If someone could show me a sample or email it to me at somebrownkid@hotmail.com it would be greatly appreciated because I really want to know how to do this.

(I also want to use the same concept for the score, so like if the score == 5000 then they can advance to the next level.)

I'VE ALREADY TRIED THIS: (*On first frame*)

if (_root.health == 0) {
gotoAndStop("gameover")
}

(done) **2.) I also need some explanation on how to make different enemies come onto the stage and different times in the game- some from the side and go across etc.. and how to make the enemies disappear after they have been shot once and also how to make them loop and show up at random times. If someone could explain to me, it would be very great.

3.) If anyone has any idea about this one because i have no idea how to do this.
a.) Being able to switch guns?
b.) Having like health powerups where you cannot be killed for a certain amount of time?
c.) Any barries between the enemies and the player should be buttons right?
d.) How would I be able to limit the amount of reloads a player gets? Along with a counter that displays how many reloads are left and along the game a player can pickup more reloads to add to their previous number. (I hope you know what I mean.)

Current Code:

gun.onMouseDown = function() {
// check if u have ammo.
if (ammunition.ammo) {
// play shooting animation of gun.
this.play();
// play sound of gun.
shot.start();
// move the ammo MC to next frame.
ammunition.nextFrame();
//if theres no ammo then play the empty sound effect.
} else {
empty.start();
}
};
//Prevent sights from going into the gun.
crosshair.onMouseMove = function() {
this._x = _xmouse;
this._y = _ymouse;
if (this._y>310) {
this._y = 310;
}
updateAfterEvent();
};
//Pressing space to reload the gun.
reloadGun = new Object();
reloadGun.onKeyDown = function() {
if (Key.isDown(Key.SPACE) && ammunition.reloadAllowed) {
//play reload sound.
reload.start();
//take ammo movie clip to first frame. (reload)
ammunition.gotoAndStop(1);
}
};
Key.addListener(reloadGun);

=======================

Thanks for your time.

2 Quick Function Questions
<A HREF="asfunction:MyFunc,Product 1 ">Product 1</A><br>

is in a HTML text that is loaded into a text field.

I need to have 2 parameters in my function

question 2
code:
function trial([param1,param2]){
trace(param1);
trace(param2);
}
//-----on a button
on(release){
trial(["this","sucks"])
}

should work??

doesnt......for some reason I cant put 2 parameters in on function and I dont know why??

Help

correct?

Quick PHP Form Questions
"For example you can set a unique Subject line in each e-mail you send by creating a variable named Subject. Another example would be if you wanted to set a different destination e-mail address for each occurrence of the form. This is important if you want to be able to use the same exact form to be able to send different e-mails in different locations in the main Flash movie. And then give it a value. Here's an example:

Subject = "This is the Subject";
ToEmail = "joeBob@example.com";

These variables must be located on the same level in the same movie clip as the rest of the text fields. Additionally, the button that will eventually call the script and send the information to your server and on to the specified e-mail, must reside at that same level. "

This is located at:
http://www.flashkit.com/tutorials/Dy...-658/more4.php

**************
How do I 'create a variable' and where does this variable go?

Thanks!

[F8] A Couple Of Quick Questions
I am making a digital portfolio in flash. As long as I have used it, I have never used the components in it. And I am assuming they are what I need to learn to finish this portfolio (and of course I should know how to use them anyway...)

What I am trying to do is have a 4 page portfolio, on two pages I want to embed games I made into it. They are flash games, I am just not sure how to accomplish this. Do I embed the .swf? The other I want some test, so I would most likely be using scroll pane I would suppose. And for the other page, I want to embed a flash website I made, I am supposing you do this the same way as the games, I just really am not sure. Keep in mind I am not looking to be pointing to a server and loading them from the web. I want it all self contained if possible.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I just can't make heads or tails of these components. Thank you!

2 Quick Newbie Questions
Hi, can anyone here point me in the right direction
for making my image gradient..

Most of the colour is green in the photo, tried a fill/colour mixer linear fill
but it seems to only work for objects you have drawn already....

Also I want to place text over the image and have a up/down arrow so that when you mouseover it will scoll the text down...

Anyone any idea's it'd help greatly,
Thanks

A Couple Quick Questions
first, when using a preloader, how can you control what parts of your file are preloaded?

second, i just need a little help writing a "for" statement that just doesnt want to work. it should tell all the "image" mcs to go to their second frame. they are sitting directly on the main stage.

Code:

for(i=0;i<30;i++) {
this["image" + i].onRollOver = function() {
this["image" + i].gotoAndPlay(2);
}
}

thanks!

URGENT Couple Quick Questions
I need to have a downloadable tune on a site and was told to save it as a .zip file. Do i just zip the tune then upload it, or does it need to be a self extracting zip file incase people don't have Winzip?

Also, i have several mp3 files which can be listened to, but when you click the 'listen' button, it sometimes only downloads a portion of the tune, sometimes only 6 seconds of a minute long tune. What's going on? Is there a trick to streaming tunes?

Quick Flash Website Questions
I have a quick question to ask. I am making a website and, well, I don't really know how to make the code to kinda make everything on the page disappear and load another page. So, I just decided that when you click on a button, all of the information just instantly disappears and other information loads. Would I add seperate scenes or would I just add actions between each of the information parts? For example: On frame 7, there is a stop{}; action so that you can click on another button when you want to. Then, if you want to go to "Graphics" it plays frame 8 and if you want to go to "Downloads" it will go to frame 9. Is that how it works or is there another way? I would really really appreciate some help.

Very Quick Questions Regarding Preloader And Sound
i have two problems.

1. i have multiple swfs that link up together. i have one swf that only plays music which is about 5kb big. i know how to make it play behind each swf's for their background music, but the problem is that it restarts itself everything i click on a link that opens up another swf. anyway to make this play without break even after changing swfs?

2. my preloader is not displaying the correct amount of bytes. i used the built in one from mx2004. it's usually a few kb bigger than what windows says

Quick Update Questions-seeking Flash Pro.
Hello out there;

Using flash 8

I'm new here and have limited knowhow using flash. I have been working on a flash project now going on its 5th year. No, it's not as bad as you think - long ago I learned just enough to do what needs to be done... sort of.

I am joining this forum in hopes that i can update my knowledge base on various issues as they arise; and as the project comes close to completion in the following year. It's a massive project - at least for me - and there is so much I don't know.

Anyway, so what help do i need?

Let's start with an easy one. Nearly five years ago when i began this, the flash forums i was using back then were still in the dialup mindset, even though i was creating content for the coming broadband age, so i always felt like i was recieving a lot of "I'm not sure's". One of my biggest concerns back then - still is - was movie size - my question always was - what is a safe size flash 8 movie for broadband?

Back then i was told around 2.5 mbs, before a noticable wait would develop.

Does that still hold? I keep hearing of increasing broadbands speeds - what is the cutoff for today.... for a year from now?

Another question, then i'll leave for tonight. My stuff is heavy bitmap. I've been "dumbing it down" from lossless to 80% jpeg. If my movie falls under the cut-off point - whether it be 2.5 or 3.5, ect., should i be doing that, dumbing it down? Or is jpeg just fine?

Okay, thanks to anyone that's willing to help out.

Hoss

Couple Of Quick External Interface Questions
Hi all,

need a confirmation that my surface understanding of this is correct before I suggest it for a possible/better solution to a problem & spend a lot of time doing some proper reading on it.

If I understand it correctly this allows Flash to call Javascript functions in the webpage where the .swf is embedded - essentially allowing Flash to pass values out to the webpage for it to act on? Is it possible for the interaction to go the other way too? Values be passed from the page to Flash?

Thanks,

PMF

2 Quick Questions To Begin Oding With AS3 Correctly
Hello,

I'm trying to work on a project made in AS2, and think the whole thing in AS3 to learn.

My two questions are :

1) is it still possible to work with movieclip instance name in a class.as file because i'm always getting a 1120 error (i'm trying to access an undefined property)

2) if not possible, then I'll have to create movieclip dynamically and add them with the addChild syntax, my question is : per example, when I want a movieclip to be always centered on stage even if the browser's window is resized, what am I supposed to do with listeners and so on so that a new copy of my movieclip is not always added at a different place on the stage ?

Many thanks and sorry if these questions sound stupid to you.

Couple Of Quick Questions. Mask And Button Problem.
Hi guys could someone please help me with the following…

I’m trying to learn how to do something via the free samples that cone packaged with flash mx.

If you take a look at the following link…

www.dital.co.uk/help

You will see the swf that I’m working on, the problem is that the movie starts only when the red button is pressed? I would like it to start as soon as it loads rather than pressing a button first.

This is the action script that is within the swf…

// ***Initial State Settings***
// Start bar mask and make it draggable when drag button is pressed
_root.onEnterFrame = function() {
play();
with (circle) {
if (dragging) {
_rotation += 0;
_y += (_root._ymouse-_y)*.3;
}
}
};
drag.onPress = function() {
// Set visibility of Masks and Maskees
scenery._visible = true;
circle._visible = true;
angel._visible = true;
stripes1._visible = true;
stripes2._visible = true;
// start dragging and move button indicator
dragging = true;
depressed._y = drag._y;
// setMask for each maskee
angel.setMask(circle);
scenery.setMask(null);
};

The second problem that I have is that the images appear to ripple when the mask is moved up and down? How can I stop this from happening? I have tried setting the alpha value to 99% on both of them, yet that doesn’t solve it?

[MX04] Quick Questions About Powers (losing The Negative)
Trying to put a number to the power of 2: Math.pow((-variable),2)

The problem is it won't recognize the - as this variable goes both pos and negative.

How do I get flash to square the value when it's negative and have the outcome not be positive? On my graphing calculator it works: -25^2 gives you the right answer of -625.

How do I keep the negative when the variable is negative without just always making it negative (like * -1)

Please help!

Quick Question - Need Quick Answer - Load Movie
If I load an swf movie into one mc named "mc1". and then I want to load the same swf movie into another mc "mc2", will the swf need to load again into mc2 or will it already be catched.

I am assuming yes ...

Thanks,
DRB
[Edited by funner on 06-14-2001 at 09:53 PM]

Best Way To Script A Quick-slow-quick Movement ?
Hi

I'd like to make a clip move across the stage like this :

- first it moves fast and then decelerates to a slow crawl for a short while then re-accelerates and moves fast to the end of its movement

what's the best way to do this ?

is it better to use mx transitions or intervals or another system ?

thanks

XML Quiz - Randomizing Questions & Level Of Difficulty Questions
Hi Folks,
I've been tasked to do a quiz in XML with a few caveats and I need some help.

The quiz needs to pull randomized questions from the XML file and also I need to have this sort from 3 levels of difficulty. For example, a user would possibly get fed 3 easy 3 medium or 4 hard questions.

My XML is set up as follows:
<QUIZ>
<QUESTION TEXT="Harry Markowitz won the Nobel Prize in Economics for a paper on portfolio diversification that he wrote while..." ANSWER="2">
<CHOICE>A. on the faculty at Columbia</CHOICE>
<CHOICE>B. a grad student at Chicago</CHOICE>
<CHOICE>C. a janitor at MIT</CHOICE>
<CHOICE>D. a patent clerk in Hamburg</CHOICE>
</QUESTION>
</QUIZ>

These questions are being stored in an array called questionsArray. So I guess all I need to do is call these from the array @ random, but the level thing is really kickin' my butt. Im just kind of lost on this one and I was hoping for some insight all the way around on this. For some reason XML in Flash scares me. It always ends up being nightmare. Someone please wake me up from the nightmare:-

Thanks,
Michael

Quick Quick....masking Problelm
Hi everyone
Um facing a problem regarding masking
well, i know how to mask texts with objects that I CREATE like a circle, for example the masked layer has text & the mask layer has a circle that I DRAW USING FLASH...this if fine...it works well
My problem is my masking does not work when i the mask layer has an object that is imported, for example an imported heart instead of a drawn circle....it does not work at all....!!!!
What's the problem?? & How could i solve it??
Any help is highly appreciated
thanks in advance

Quick Question = Quick Answer
I have a movie with an animation on one layer. Just a motion tween over 5 frames. In this movie I also want to target a blank clip and have another .swf load into that clip.

I'm putting the loadmovie script on a blank frame in my actions layer (frame 1) telling the .swf to load into the blank clip.

nothings happening? any fixes?

Project Opp - Quick $ Quick Job
I have a project that requires a rotating menu. It needs to be done today. If anyone is interested they should reply with their email address or send an email to eerkel @ hotmail .com.

I will then send a Fireworks file that shows clearly how the menu should operate.

Thanks

I Need Your Quick Assistance, Just A Quick "check, See, Tell"
Hello! Could you please go to this address

http://www.geocities.com/friendlyflashfun/clock.html

And tell me if my clock shows up?? I have FlashMX 7 Pro and it doesn't show up on my computer.

If it does or doesn't show up on yours could you please tell me how to correct this problem?

Thanks in advance,

Kelly

Few Questions Projector Questions
I'm making a projector file for use on a CD, and have a few questions--

I'd like to make an exit button that closes the projector-Possible? If so, basic way to do it?

I'd also like to run a bat file on exit (if the whole exit/close thing is possible that is), and know that the fscommand exec has to be used, but can you have an "do this and then close the projector" sort of command on a button?

Last thing-Right now it says Flash Projector at the top of the window-Can this be changed with some autoscript, and if so, how?

I've gone through the tuts (or most of them) and can't find answers to this stuff, so any help would be appreciated--

3 Sound Questions; 2 Other Questions
1.Okay, say you're using an event sound, and you want it to fade out after it reaches a certain point or if you press a button. How do you do it?
The thing that I'm going for is using an event sound that plays as you read text. You can press a button to continue reading the text. I also want the song to loop a couple times, just incase it takes the reader a while to read it all. Then, when you press the last button, the music fades out. How do you do that? I would just make the music cut off, but that would be too choppy.

2. How do you cut out a part of the song? For example: You want the long intro cut out, and the main chorus to play.

(note I have a Mac)
3. I have heard you can convert wav files to MP3 files by using a CD ripper. I used a CD ripper, but it wouldn't import the .wav file. I found other files, but they're either for Window users or shareware. Does anybody have a link to a Mac CD ripper that can convert them that's freeware, or do I just have to pay?

(non-sound questions)
4. I go to a website where they allow you to submit flash cartoons you have made in .SWF format. However, there is no download sign. How do I download it? I have been told how, but it was by a Windows user, and he told me of different options. How do I download it?

5. I'm just curious, but is it possible to import another person's .swf file? I'm just wondering, because one guy said "The sound effects I used were ripped from someone else's flash file".

Thanx for your time.

Questions Question Questions :)
I just have tons of questions :P ... learning is a good acivaty... ok to the question i have... How could one make a gradient move... i want it to follow a object that passes by... i want to do it in code... i have been assumeing that a heavily coded flash site is smaller than a site with more tweens... is that right? i can work in flash but i'm foggy on the details of the program... i have many more questions and need answers...

What is wanted:
I want to create shapes, such as triangles and squares, that are actually made up of small (maybe 5X5 pixel) squares which will make up a "pseudo" gradient mesh (to save on processor load). The end result is to create shapes that simulate light reflecting off a 3D shape and have that light source respond to the mouse cursor.

So imagine a red triangle with the light source being the mouse (or an mc), as the mouse moves, the small squares of different lightness move to simulate the reflection.

Perhaps there is an easier scripted way to do this, that kooky subQuark suggested this wording!

Any help would be appreciated.

thanks ... laters Jimmysomebob