I have a rather complex flash clip that ends up bogging down the loading of the rest of my webpage.
Can I force the flash to wait to load until the rest of the site loads?
If you do not mind to have javascript you may use something like SFWObject 2 library, here is documentation page http://code.google.com/p/swfobject/wiki/documentation there is different methods for using it, so you just need pick up which is more appropriate in your case. Main idea you may trigger swf player initialization with javascript, so you could control time when this happen, and so using it just do that after onload event triggering. But assume problem cold be more complicated than just delaying your clip, so try to test it on different computers and browsers.
Related
I'm a relatively new developer in AS3 using Flash Builder. My objective is to create a quick/fast loading small SWF preloader for a larger (30mg) SWF application. I can't include the larger SWF inside the preloader, but I can use external interface calls to get jquery to tell me what the speed of internet the users are using and figure out how long it should take to load based on the size of the larger SWF.
Right now, we have a large web application that takes around 5 mins to load if the client has a slow internet connection. So, we wanted to use a small SWF preloader that will display a loading circle or loading bar, and display options if the SWF takes longer than 5 mins to load. Kind of like error handling. For instance, for Safari, sometimes the player actually has to click the SWF in order for it to load. Is it possible to have a button on the SWF that will make it start loading?... Is it easier to create the preloader in jQuery? I'm just wondering if it's just going to create more issues using a SWF to load a SWF. Any ideas?...
Any ideas on how to tackle this beast? I've read almost every article about preloaders but there is nothing that references preloaders created in Flash Builder.
I can't use Flash Professional or timeline. It has to be in Flash Builder.
So I tried to use the below tutorial and I wasn't able to actually get anything to appear when I test it. I'm getting an error at the "run()" function:
Error: Error #2136: The SWF file http://local.myproj.com/MyProject.swf contains invalid data.
at Preloader/run()[/Development/MyProject/src/Preloader.as:109]
at Preloader/onEnterFrame()[/Development/MyProject/src/Preloader.as:46]
References:
http://fortheloss.org/how-to-preloader-in-flash-builder-4-7/
I worked until two years ago with a lot of these things and I know I have a few good scripts in my databases, but you are talking about Preloaded & activated loading were as in a preloader it is out of the hands of say a visitor what he or she can or cannot do, and in using a button (possible of course) the visitor has a choice to download or not! From memory there was never really a lot published yet over years of using Flex Builder I have collected some good AS3 scripts and modified them (including a progress-bar - but without time Indicator) to download in web Apps. or FLEX AIR etc. with AS3.
The small problem would only be to adapt any of it from mx to fx depending on what FLEX Builder you use!
I used my scripts mainly to download high resolution Images, Calendars, SWFs etc. with up to compressed 22 mB! Anyway, if Interested I have to look up my FLEX databases & Application to get it to you! rgs Aktell
I'm loading dynamic loading of all my SWCs in my master SWF, in order to load master swf faster, however now I need to cache all my swcs in local machine to speed up things.
private function loadAssets():void
{
swcObj=new Object();
swcObj.swcPath='assets/swc/1.swc';
swcObj.className="Part_0_1";
swcs.push(swcObj);
swcObj=new Object();
swcObj.swcPath='assets/swc/2.swc';
swcObj.className="0_2";
swcs.push(swcObj);
swcObj=new Object();
swcObj.swcPath='assets/swc/3.swc';
swcObj.className="0_3";
swcs.push(swcObj);
}
Then I'm using this array to use all the classes in my project, but I have no idea how to cache these swcs for faster use, if anyone have idea, please share.
In fact, the browser does this pre-caching for you, you don't need to produce extra efforts. So, just load them normally and don't worry about caching. You can, however, motivate the user to increase their local browser cache in order to potentially lessen time spent on waiting while your assets are loaded, but this won't help should the user watch three tons of YouTube each day.
SWC files are not intended for dynamic loading.
They are static libraries that can be linked in a swf using
-include-libraries and library-path options of mxmlc or - since you seem to be using FlashDevelop - SWC Include Libraries and SWC Libraries in Project>Compiler options
. SWC's may hold code (classes), assets (symbols/bitmaps/sounds...) or combination of the two.
Loading assets dynamically is done through flash.display.Loader
you may use the Loader as a simple DisplayObject instance that you add on stage:
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/reference/actionscript/3/flash/display/Loader.html#includeExamplesSummary
, or use its ApplicationDomain as a library of Class definitions that will allow you to create instances at will :
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/reference/actionscript/3/flash/system/ApplicationDomain.html#includeExamplesSummary
Caching from the browser will be sufficient in most cases, unless you have VERY specific needs
In the end, there is different ways to optimize loading times, one of which is having a small swf acting as loader/home menu, and loading rest of the content on demand like you seem to try doing, but you can also create a single swf with several frames, which will be "streamed" by flash player, example:
1st frame as small as possible holding just a few kb for a splash screen/logo/loading/whatever you want, to make the initial blank screen as short as possible, then second frame holding the main content. You can event extent this system with for instance
two levels of preloader: a first tiny frame with just a logo, second one with progress bar, and full background if needed
split content like home screen/menus in a frame, gameplay in the another, if you are making a game, so that gameplay continues loading while you are already displaying the menu
I have a simple expandable advertisement which loads an external SWF file. The external SWF file contains an embedded video.
Using the UILoader component, I have loaded the SWF, added it to the stage and the video displays and plays fine.
The main issue is that I have a close button, which should unload the video, and stop it, essentially returning to the default state of the advertisement.
To unload the SWF, I am doing the following:
myUILoader.unload();
removeChild(myUILoader);
When I do this, the video and UILoader disappear from the screen. However, you can still hear the sound in the background, and if I load the SWF again, it creates multiple tracks in the background. Any suggestions?
There are a couple of things that could cause this. One is that the content inside your UILoader is adding event listeners to outside of itself. You can fix this by not allowing it to touch anything outside itself. I believe you can do this by placing it either in its own ApplicationDomain, SecurityDomain, or both. Consult the help for more details.
If this is not feasible, you can try SoundMixer.stopAll(), which will stop the obvious symptom, but will not fix the memory leak you probably have in this situation.
Another possibility, as Ronnie has alluded to, is that you still have a reference to the content of the loader somewhere. If you don't clear that, it will stay in memory.
However, there is another problem that can also cause this, which is that if there is navigation in the movie that skips over a frame that contains a MovieClip with audio set to "stream," the MC will be created but not fully instantiated and will stay in memory with no way to get any control over it or release it. I don't think this is what is happening from your description. If it is, the fix is to make sure that you visit the frame that contains the sound, however briefly, on the way to the other frame. This is actually something you might want to consider even without sounds, because it does occur any time you skip frames in nested MovieClips (you just have no evidence unless you profile the swf), and over time this will create a memory leak.
How does the browser load flash files? Do they load progressively, or does the browser wait until the entire flash file is loaded before displaying it?
The reason is I have a tiny clip that is extremely high in quality, only a few seconds long, but it's over 4 mb.
Will the user have to wait until all 4 mb is loaded before viewing? Or does it load as the user watches it?
I didn't do anything fancy, I just imported a .flv into Flash, and exported as a .swf.
Thank you in advanced
There are many parts to loading a flash file, and more generically, an HTML page.
I'm going to start from the top with the HTML page, and I urge others to correct any mistakes I may have made.
Loading a Page
When an HTML page is received, the browser parses it into the Document Object Model (DOM) so that it has a programmatic representation of every element. Browsers iterate over every node in the DOM tree and populate it as-needed.
For most nodes this is simply creating a new DOM element like a div, p, or a; however some content requires loading or replacement.
form elements (input, select, button, textarea) are replaced with the browser-specific representation of those form fields.
link elements used as stylesheets are asynchronously loaded. The DOM continues to parse the page as the external resource is being loaded.
script elements on the other hand, are synchronously loaded. The DOM is unable to continue parsing the tree until the script has finished loading and executing, with exceptions for if the loading failed or the execution had an error.
img elements are asynchronously loaded, but allow for the onload callback to determine when they have finished loading. The DOM can't trigger the window's onload event until all img elements have finished loading (or failed).
Understanding the basic elements helps with understanding more involved elements like object, embed, and iframe, which are also replaced content.
Flash is typically embedded on a webpage using object, embed and iframe.
As far as I'm aware, object and embed elements react similarly so I will shortcut and say object from here on out.
There are distinct differences between loading flash in iframe and object elements.
The object element is very similar to a script element where the content must be successfully loaded and executed before the DOM can continue to be parsed.
The iframe element is very similar to an img element where the contents are loaded asynchronously, but a callback may be used to determine when the loading has finished (although I'm not sure about whether the callback is available for cross-domain requests).
Loading Flash
The previous section discusses just the HTML side of content loading. However, there are a number of nuances within flash that can severely affect the load time of a flash movie.
As I stated before, script elements must be fully loaded and executed before the DOM can continue being parsed. A similar effect is found within Flash files (even when included via an iframe). All resources embedded within the swf must be loaded before the swf can release its hold on the page loading progress.
If you've embedded a video directly into the timeline, the entire video must load before flash can be considered done with its initial execution.
If, instead, you chose to use an asynchronous callback to start loading an external resource that happened to be a video, and used an asynchronous loader to load the video, you wouldn't have to wait for the video to be finished loading before the rest of the page could be loaded; within flash, you'd still need to wait for the video to finish loading before beginning playback of the video.
Alternatively, there are a number of means within flash to either stream videos, or progressively load a video from a server, which would enable the video to be played without being finished loading. My experience with that particular aspect of flash is minimal, so I won't explain how it's done.
Using a library like swfobject allows the desired swf to be loaded asynchronously so that flash loading is non-blocking.
tl; dr:
Flash files may be loaded progressively depending on how you've structured your HTML, and what code is running in the swf.
You may want to look into swfobject
swf files are loaded progressively (hence loader bars, "50% loaded" messages and such).
Historically, Flash files are based on frames, and if the main timeline has multiple frames, they will be loaded and displayed in sequence, as soon as they are loaded, before the entire file is loaded. However, most Flash content nowadays is not constructed that way, and are more complex than a series of frames that are displayed in sequence. Video playback also adds complexity beyond the basic frame model, with video codecs, audio synch and such.
So the answer to the question "Do they load progressively, or does the browser wait until the entire flash file is loaded before displaying it?" is that they load progressively and are displayed before the entire swf files is loaded. But how this will effect how the users experience your video is hard to tell without seeing it or how it is constructed.
It will load the entire movie first. So make your video an external file that the movie loads when it runs.
I am making a Flash puzzle game. When the user loads the game, it needs to ask whether to resume the game from the last state (if it exists). I have a serialization system in place, but I need to ensure that the loaded state is definitely the last state.
One solution is to save the state to a SharedObject every time the state changes (when the player makes a move). However, the game state sometimes includes a countdown, so I'd have to be constantly (or periodically) saving the state in order to retain it. I guess this is acceptable, but it seems kludgey.
Is there any event which is fired when the swf is closed? Or anyone else have another elegant solution to this?
(I'm not using AIR, but solutions requiring AIR are appreciated.)
Edit: Another important point is that I may not have control over the embedding HTML for the game, as it may be syndicated to many sites. So solutions involving javascript aren't ideal.
If your Flash is hosted on a HTML page, you can use the 'Window is closing' event notification to fire a message into your Flash object either using old-skool GetVariable() or new-stylee FlashCall() mechanisms.
Whether you'll actually be able to persist state before your Flash object is destroyed is another question... you could always do the (evil) 'Are you sure you want to close/navigate away from this window?' alert that some sites use.
Handling DOM Events in Flex
HTML 5 events
The on-close event sounds the right solution, but I wonder if you could 'split' your serialisation? i.e. save the full puzzle state on each move, but also have a secondary 'lightweight' state for your countdown (or anything similar) which could be updated each time the countdown changes.
That may be easier than trying to catch the close event and save before the page is destroyed (especially as browsers are not consistent in this area).
this one should help you