need help with overall strategy, before I go too far

Before I get too far into this and learn (the hard way) that I should have set it up differently, I figured I'd ask for some help here.

I've got a large graphic (a map) that will be inside a scrollpane. On top of that (within the scrollpane) will be dynamically generated MCs (small circles) that, when rolled over, show text loaded from a database.

Since the graphic is large, I don't want to have to reload it when the user wants to refresh the info from the database. I also want a button in the top level movie that will allow a refresh of the data.

So far I'm guessing that I'll have two movies. One will include the map and the dynamically generated rollovers; the other will house that first movie in a scrollpane. But I'd like to have a preloader display for the map graphic, and a different preloader for the data being fetched (and refetched). How would I set that up? And is two movies the way to go?

Thanks for any suggestions. :)

You put a preloader into each movie and when you reload you go to the frame where the preloader is. Check this:

http://www.flashscript.biz/component...preloader.html

Thanks! I'll play with this and see where it takes me...

I've been testing this out, and it was looking good. I got the preloader to load up a movie with the graphic in it, as well as the AS for my dynamic MC rollovers.

But when I put this within a scrollpane in yet another movie, I run into problems. It looks like the preloader replaces the scrollpane with the movie it's loading, rather than just replacing itself. Instead of having the large graphic viewable within a scrollpane, the large graphic is reduced to fit the size of the top level movie. :(

Can I not nest movies like this? What other options should I pursue?

thanks again...

How did you set the preloader? I am not using a scrollpane, how is the movie loaded in a movieclip, level or what?

I just used the ScrollPane component, and I entered the URL of the .swf file in the "content path" field. I was hoping I could be lazy and get away with it, but now I see a whole section on FScrollPane in my AS book. I'm going to read up and see what I can figure out, and I'll post back here one way or the other. :)

Sometimes the scrollpane may not be the best solution. You can also try a vertical and horizontal scrollbar.