I develop a project in FlashBuilder. The graphics and UI elements i create in the Flash IDE and give them Export Classnames. then I put the SWC in the library paths of the FlashBuilder project and create the UI elements by instanciation.
Now I want to add a Preloader for the application. I follow this article, which works:
http://pixelpaton.com/?p=4642
My question is now: I also need some graphics for the preloader. But how do I ensure that the graphics for the preloader will be loaded first, such that the preloader class can start as soon as possible?
The compiler will figure out the dependencies for your preloader class, and load them first.
For example:
public function Preloader()
{
addChild(new UIElementFromFlash());
}
Flash Builder will know UIElementFromFlash needs to be loaded before Preloader. It will also load Preloader before your main class and its dependencies as long as you have the Frame metadata tag from the article.
I'd suggest to make 2 swf files if it's possible. Make a loader.swf which loads your application swf and displays the progress and your loading animation/graphics.
See an example here: http://www.republicofcode.com/tutorials/flash/as3preloader/
Then you'll have to add URLLoader class and load your application.swf.
Try looking here: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/reference/actionscript/3/flash/net/URLLoader.html
Like Gio suggested, having two SWF files is the best practice.
However, one other solution is to use the -frame two argument of the Flex compiler. All your definitions (code and assets) will be added to the second frame of the movie, allowing your main class to listen for the loading progress of the application and display animations.
Be careful to not reference anything from the main application in your first frame, to prevent adding more weight to it.
More detail on this technique here:
http://www.andymoore.ca/2009/08/flexsdk-3-3-how-to-make-a-flash-preloader-in-as3/
Related
I want to create a re-usable Flash MovieClip (component maybe?) that can be dragged and dropped from the library onto the Flash IDE stage (for an example, a "stop all movieclips timer component").
I've created some attractive vector icon graphics for visual reference, so that when it's dragged onto the stage, the developer can visually see the component on the stage, similar to what Google does with it's DoubleClick components. It's not important for these icon graphics to be seen at runtime however, and I'd like their visual portions to not be compiled at runtime to save on filesize.
I'm often asked to create visually rich Flash units in extremely small file sizes. So basically I want my movieclip icon components to not add to filesize (except for the code portion), not compile and render visually but still have the code within them run.
How can I achieve this? Would creating them as components do anything for my issue? Is this even do-able?
Components are definitely the best way to achieve visually represented imported code, however it would be much easier, more compatible and more reliable to just use an imported code library...
Make a seperate .as file, put it in com/mycompany/animation in your swf folder (or use a global classpath), and add this code:
package com.mycompany.animation {
class MyTimerUtils {
public static function stopAllClipsAfterTime(ms){
setInterval(MyTimerUtils.stopAllClips, ms);
}
public static function stopAllClips(){
//etc
}
}
}
Then when you want to use it in a project, just put this code on frame 1 of your main timeline:
import code.mycompany.animation.MyTimerUtils;
MyTimerUtils.stopAllClipsAfterTime(3000); // 3 seconds
What could be easier? If another developer wants to know if a piece of code is implemented they need only look at the first few lines of code.
I have a .swf that I'd like to create a preloader for. In the end, I want a single file which combines both the preloader and the content .swf.
Every tutorial I can find on Flash preloaders offers one of two options:
Using a URLRequest in the preloader wrapper to load an external content .swf. This will not work because I do not want two .swfs.
A "single-swf" solution like this one which works for assets which you have created in the Flash IDE. I assumed I would easily be able to go this route, but I'm having trouble. I cannot use the Flash IDE to import my content .swf. I can use an embed tag like so:
[Embed(source="content.swf")]
private var MyContent:Class;
But it seems like this embedded content is exported on the first frame, so my preloader only appears after the content .swf is loaded. I'm guessing it's something along these lines. Any thoughts?
But it seems like this embedded content is exported on the first frame
You are absolutely correct, all Ebmed do embedding in the first frame by default but mxmlc provides solution by creating two frames swf with preloader in the first frame via the metatag:
[Frame(factoryClass="Preloader")]
You can find step by step guide here http://www.bit-101.com/blog/?p=946.
I need to create a single SWF with no external files, so I'm trying to add an internal preloader to my Flash project which has [embed] assets. I know [embed] causes problems with preloaders because it puts the assets on frame 1. I have tried the solutions recommended in these posts, where you set the document class to your preloader class:
Preloader for SWF with embed bytearray
How to create Preloader in AS3
I can get it to work, but ONLY if I comment out any lines of code that involve the stage, otherwise I get an "Error #1009: Cannot access a property or method of a null object reference." Those lines are essential though, so does anyone know how to fix those errors with the stage?
You haven't posted your code or your fla, so all I can do is share what works for me.
First, I wouldn't use Embed. Instead, use a swc. I have found that Embed can be unreliable as far as actually getting the entire asset in there (at least when publishing with Flash Builder + Flash Pro, which is my workflow).
Once you have your assets in a swc, try the following steps:
Set your export frame to Frame 10 (or any frame other than 1--I like frame 10 because then you can read the label that says "Preloader")
Put your actual content on frame 11. You can structure this a lot of ways. Since I program to Interfaces, I give whatever is on frame 11 an instance name and then use a setter to determine that my "first thing" has been placed on stage. I can get away with this because my main Document Class just knows the definition of the Interface, not the full implementation of the Class, so the Class does not need to load for the main Document Class to work. You probably aren't truly using the timeline and probably didn't program to interfaces, so you'll probably just set the base class of the symbol that's on frame 11 to the main logic of whatever you're trying to do.
Put your preloader graphics in Frame 1. I'm not sure why your stage references are so important. I, personally, don't use any logic in the preloader. Instead, I use a spinner that spans frames 1-10 (plus the word "Loading...". The spinner just spins while the classes load. The embed frame acts as a temporary "stop" that just holds the timeline back until those classes have been loaded. Once the classes have been loaded, the timeline will act like you called play() on it. So it really can be that simple. If you need it to be more complicated, give one of your preloader graphics an instance name and set up a getter/setter pair for it, then use the setter to trigger your logic that accesses the stage. You are pretty much guaranteed to have a valid stage at that point.
Word of warning: if you did make use of the timelime, you will get strange results if you try to jump to a frame that isn't loaded yet, so make sure to check to see if a given frame is loaded if it's near the end of your main timeline and your main timeline is heavy with assets before calling goToAndPlay() or goToAndStop().
Some references that might help you further:
Preloaders vs as 3 (I'd recommend you read the entire series this is part of. This is an amazing series I wish I'd found 3 years ago)
Solving the Frame 2 Problem Presentation and code
Combining the Timeline with OOP The example code for that is here (long story)
I am trying to download a heavy swf dynamically to my site using URLLoader class. I'd like to know if it is possible to use a symbol inside the swf as a separate object?
The code used right now uses the embed statement as follows:
[Embed(source="/Fight.swf", symbol="Kungfu")]
public class Kungfu extends MovieClip
{ ... }
Embedding the swf increases the initial load time of my site and I want to make it dynamic. How can I access the Kungfu symbol from Fight.swf after it is downloaded using the URLLoader class?
You need to get the class definition from the loaded SWF. Few months ago I summarized the process here. The example used bitmaps, but you can use movie clips as well.
... Why not use SwfLoader? It's Flex native. If you're not in Flex, why not use a Loader?
Either way, I don't think that URLLoader is what you really want here.
I have two ActionScript 3 projects, game(.swf) and minigame(.swf). At runtime the main game loads the minigame via Loader. I also have a shared library (SWC) of event classes, included by both, which minigame will need to dispatch and game will need to listen to.
First: Is this possible this way?
Second: What will happen if I compile the minigame, then change the event classes so they're incompatible, then compile the main game. Will Flash crash when trying to load the minigame SWF? (I hope so)
Third: And what will happen if I change the event classes, but in a way that preserves interface-level compatibility?
If you have classes named the same but not sharing the same functionality just use a different class path for each (i.e com.game.* com.minigame.*), this will avoid all conflicts.
Basically if a class named the same in several SWFs only the one loaded first will be used.
On the other hand if you really want to share the same classes between both of the SWFs, make sure you only include them in the main SWF (you can choose include/exclude in the publish settings of Flash IDE or in the compiler settings of Flex SDK). This will make the whole loading process a bit lighter and you will avoid weird conflict related bugs.