searched for all the flash threads with links to good tutorial sites with advanced tutorials but found nothing....

Basicly i'm looking for a tutorial for a navigation menu thats similar to IE7's 'favorites' menu.

example...

Button 01
Button 02
Button 03

when you rollover button 01: button 02 and 03 slide down and reveal a button 01 sub-menu. If you roll over button 02: button 01 closes and 03 slides down and reveals 02's sub-menu etc....

This has to be done in flash because the whole site is in flash, I had found a tutorial a while back on how to do this but can't remember where and google is sucking for help right now.

4/18/2007 12:27:18 PM

pm sent

4/18/2007 2:04:36 PM

pm received. thanks!

4/18/2007 3:54:50 PM

to broaden the scope of this thread...

what are people's thoughts about the future of flash, what with adobe putting a lot of effort into flex and microsoft working on silver-whatever-they-renamed-it. are these technologies the future of the internet apps or is it all a bunch of hype? has anybody here made anything with these technologies yet? what are your experiences? what's the difference between flash and flex anyways? i haven't paid enough attention to the blogs yet to figure that out

edit: found http://www.cflex.net/about_adobe_flex.cfm which gives a good summary about what flex is and why it was developed

[Edited on April 18, 2007 at 4:43 PM. Reason : i'm learnding]

4/18/2007 4:36:41 PM

flash CS3 looks pretty uber

4/18/2007 4:53:03 PM

i need to learn flash

4/18/2007 5:17:49 PM

yeah, i'm thinking i might too. for the longest time flash to me was just annoying ads and startup intros. maybe not for too much longer though

[Edited on April 18, 2007 at 5:25 PM. Reason : and with most internet video served w/ flash these days...]

4/18/2007 5:24:50 PM

i've been using flash for many years...every new version comes out with built in library objects that you had to spend hours creating custom in the previous version lol...but it is a great program when used right.

4/18/2007 5:27:06 PM

new questions:

If i have each 'site page' in its own movie file in the main library and within each movie file frame 1 is blank and has a stop(); command...does that mean the users cache won't download whats in frame 2+ until gotoAndPlay/Stop(2); is used? I'm basiclly trying to build pre-loaders for each page so that when you visit the main page you don't have to sit and download each sub-page all at once.

so what i was planning on doing is putting blank frames in frame 1 for each sub-page. and when you click on a link that opens that page...i would use a preloader to call up the content

would that work? or does the users computer automaticlly download everything past stop(); and pre-cache it?

[Edited on April 25, 2007 at 4:35 PM. Reason : fda]

4/25/2007 4:35:10 PM

been reading in my flash bible that i could just build each page in its own swf file and use one main swf file to call up each page. is this easier?

4/25/2007 4:42:22 PM

nvm...figured it out.

Created each page in its own flash document, then used the loadMovie command within the main flash document and set a random variable to the name of the swf file so that each time i load a new movie i can make sure that i unload the current loaded movie.

4/25/2007 8:26:59 PM

New Question:

How can i have a link within flash that opens a 'pop-up' jpg file in a frameless window thats set to a certain size...i used to know how to do this ages ago but forgot

on (release) {
getURL("blah.jpg", _blank);
}

what else do i add to the getURL command for the window to be set at 800x600 frameless?

4/28/2007 12:04:50 AM

ok found some javascript that i run within flash but it works fine on Safari but doesn't work in IE7 on Vista

on(release){
getURL ("javascript:NewWindow=window.open('blah.jpg',' newWin','width=800,height=600,left=0,top=0,toolbar=No,location=No,scrollbars=No,status=No,resizable=No,fullscreen=No'); NewWindow.focus(); void(0);");
}

thats what i'm using

4/28/2007 12:34:18 AM

for the most part the site is done...going to tweak and make improvments over the next few days. Let me know what you guys think.

http://www.angelfumagalli.com/

4/28/2007 7:23:27 AM

you have to do something about load times. it's way too long if i'm on broadband and it takes 1 min to load the summer tab.

i like a lot of what you did from a design standpoint. I would probably make a products button with a pull down for the two collections, because if someone wants to see the contact info and then the collections they shouldn't have to make as many clicks (by exiting out of contact first). In FF 2.0.0.3, I don't have the site being aligned to the top. I would do that. Nothing comes up when I click the media button. Also, nothing comes up when I click on the individual bikinis, but you must know that.

I can't remember how to do this, but i think there's some way to prefetch the other movies so that should they click on one while they are looking at one of the sites it will be ready. You really need to incorporate this because you have a ton of high quality pictures on your site.

4/28/2007 8:45:06 PM

^thanks.

I know about the media (page isn't done yet) also haven't added all the line sheets yet for when you click on the different styles.

working on optimization on the actual images. I did one section (Summer 2007 Sexy) where i got each image to be less than 100kb and maintain good quality. I just need to impliment this for each section and see if i can go even lower.

I do agree and I like your suggestion for the 'products' tab for less clicking. I'll try and work something in for that.

Haven't tried it on any other browsers except IE 7 on vista and Safari so i guess i'll have to do that.

any other input would be great

4/28/2007 10:46:12 PM

is there anyway to optomize PNG files without screwing up the transparency and making it look like shit? Trying to get the file sizes down to as small as possible. right now they're all at around 200kb which is way too big.

4/29/2007 5:39:37 PM

Are you not running a loading screen? Anything that takes over 3 seconds to load on the 33.6 preview tab should have at least a load bar or something. As for your popup problems are you using the 'useHTML' (or whatever - i dont' have it on this PC, sorry) at the top of the frame that contains the popup? I've never tested in safarri, but FF2 is really picky about stuff like that. (On a side note, FF2 has plugins that will help debug all non-flash problems, quite nifty.)

Reading again, safarri is probably using an older version of the flash player than your windows machine. Try forcing it to encode to an older player and test on both machines (if your code will allow it.)

4/30/2007 1:28:43 AM

Quote :

"Are you not running a loading screen?"

I've got load screens on each section and the main page. I'm using getBytesTotal and getBytesLoaded instead of frames loaded because its more accurate. I've also tested it within Flash's debugger under different connection profiles (56k and up)

on(release){
getURL ("javascript:NewWindow=window.open('images/sexy/2007/06Large.jpg',' newWin','width=800,height=600,left=0,top=0,toolbar=No,location=No,scrollbars=No,status=No,resizable=No,fullscreen=No'); NewWindow.focus();");
}

thats what i'm using to call up pop-ups (posted it a few posts up)

should i use CSS to align the flash movie to the center of the page? height and width?

[Edited on April 30, 2007 at 1:45 AM. Reason : fda]

4/30/2007 1:37:41 AM

how would i go about using CSS to align the movie to the center and middle of the page (horizontal and vertical?)

4/30/2007 1:59:32 AM

downloaded FF2 and the pop-ups work fine...dunno why they aren't working in IE7

4/30/2007 4:16:36 AM

My guess is security settings. And for the record I fucking hate IE7 and refuse to develop for it in it's current state.

Site comments:

The popup is throwing JS errors on the Angel Sexy page.

You REALLY need to put in a horizontal scroll bar, or some other secondary navigation on all the horiztonally scrolling pages. It's pretty infuriating to look through the dozens bikinis only to then want to see the first or second one again, and having to wait for it to scroll allllll the way back.

Same for the Media page. Also on the media page, I like the flip idea, but it's too small to read the article (maybe that's intentional?). If it's clickable, I expect it would open a new window like every other link on the site, so I could see a large readable article.

Didn't have any problem with the load times, actually pretty damn short and simple (I can't believe I just said that )

The close button really bothers me, it's not in the same graphic style as the rest of the layout and it breaks the flow of the design. Maybe inset it inside the box, or changing the style of the X would help. Also, the single/double line intersection right under the X looks really weird.

On the company page, the scroll bar is floating, needs to be tighter to the top and bottom of the page, or else exaggerated much much more to be artistic (i.e. make it only 1/4 of the vertical height)

After all the pages are loaded, can you kill the page close transition? It was cool the first couple of times, but by the time I've browsed the whole site, I'm just waiting on it to finish and don't care about it anymore.

4/30/2007 10:19:39 AM

Quote :

"what are people's thoughts about the future of flash, what with adobe putting a lot of effort into flex and microsoft working on silver-whatever-they-renamed-it. are these technologies the future of the internet apps or is it all a bunch of hype? has anybody here made anything with these technologies yet? what are your experiences? what's the difference between flash and flex anyways?"

Unless/until flash/flex either moves to a legitimate desktop capability (both are still pretty worthless outside of web apps, no matter how much spin Abode tries to put on flex) or it becomes fully parsable for screen readers and the like, I don't see it getting much further.

4/30/2007 10:23:58 AM

^then he should have just put a damn horiz scroll bar.




[Edited on April 30, 2007 at 10:51 AM. Reason : .]

4/30/2007 10:25:47 AM

go look it up: apollo

[Edited on April 30, 2007 at 10:52 AM. Reason : sry for double post]

4/30/2007 10:27:31 AM

Quote :

"My guess is security settings. And for the record I fucking hate IE7 and refuse to develop for it in it's current state. Site comments: The popup is throwing JS errors on the Angel Sexy page. You REALLY need to put in a horizontal scroll bar, or some other secondary navigation on all the horiztonally scrolling pages. It's pretty infuriating to look through the dozens bikinis only to then want to see the first or second one again, and having to wait for it to scroll allllll the way back. Same for the Media page. Also on the media page, I like the flip idea, but it's too small to read the article (maybe that's intentional?). If it's clickable, I expect it would open a new window like every other link on the site, so I could see a large readable article. Didn't have any problem with the load times, actually pretty damn short and simple (I can't believe I just said that ) The close button really bothers me, it's not in the same graphic style as the rest of the layout and it breaks the flow of the design. Maybe inset it inside the box, or changing the style of the X would help. Also, the single/double line intersection right under the X looks really weird. On the company page, the scroll bar is floating, needs to be tighter to the top and bottom of the page, or else exaggerated much much more to be artistic (i.e. make it only 1/4 of the vertical height) After all the pages are loaded, can you kill the page close transition? It was cool the first couple of times, but by the time I've browsed the whole site, I'm just waiting on it to finish and don't care about it anymore."

Thanks for the input. I was thinking about the horizontal scroll bar but instead I wanted to put little thumbnails in little squares that fit all the bikinis under each section without scrolling this way you can click on a thumbnail and it will automaticly scroll fast to that onep bikini. Think that would look nice and make users less frustrated?

Also as far as the media page, we just wanted to show that they were in such and such magazines, if you think it would be better that you can read the article I could always have it open in a seperate window.

still working on adding the actual file behind most of the pop-ups.

Not sure why there is a double line at all. I think I must have kept the animated lines (from the begining of the movie) visible during the last frame. I'll have to double check that, supposed to only be a single thin line all the way through.

Scroll bar does look lame. Its the default scroll bar that comes with flash. I guess I would have to create an instance of it if I want to change its appearance? not sure how using common library items works as far as customizing them.

Oh and if you post comments about the site can you also post what Browser and OS you are using? so far I have tested it in IE7, Safari, and FF2.

[Edited on April 30, 2007 at 4:28 PM. Reason : fda]

4/30/2007 4:26:24 PM