auto fire link from text file

[jahjah99]

Hi - I have a flash movie that loads random text (with specific href attached) from a .txt file.

This is the user interaction process at the moment.

1. user clicks on movie
2. random text is loaded into movie from a .txt file
3. the random text has an href around the text loaded into the flash movie
4. user clicks random text to take them to a specific page (associated to the random text loaded) on my website.

At the moment, the user has to click the flash movie twice before it sends them to the correct page. Once to activate the random text being loaded into the flash movie, and a 2nd time to link through to my specific page.

My question:
IS there a way to load the random text into the movie after initial click, pausing for 10 seconds, and then auto fire the href associated to the random text - thus sending the user to my specific page IN ONE CLICK.

I am losing follow through users at present as they have to click the movie twice to get to the correct page, if I am able to auto fire the href so that the user only has to click once, this should reduce the amount of user interaction and also reduce the drop off rate.

Many thanks for any help you can give.
Jahjah99

[Nig 13]

Post the code to load the text from .txt file, and also the text that is loaded into Flash. You can use setInterval to execute a function after x amount of milliseconds - just post your code, and I'll write a code for you

[jahjah99]

Hey Nig - Thanks very much for your offer of writing the extra code. I very much appreciate it.

Here is the code I am using at the moment, it has been cobbled together from bits I have foound on the web.

Loading the .txt file.

/****************************************
**Random Quotes Script*******************
****************************************/
/*Quotes.txt.htmlText = true;*/

ranQuote = new LoadVars();
ranQuote.onLoad = function(success) {
if (success) {
RanNum = Math.ceil(Math.random()*100);
ran = this["quote"+RanNum];
quote_txt.htmlText = ran;
/*quote_txt.htmlText = true;*/
}
else {
quote_txt.htmlText = "The text failed to load due to an error";
}
}
ranQuote.load("http://www.mydomain.com/Quotes.txt");
System.security.allowDomain('http://www.mydomain.com');

Here is a sample of the .txt file contents. It is over 100 lines long so I wont add it all.

&quote1=<a href="http://www.mydomain.com/folder1/page1.html">random text here 1</a>&
&quote2=<a href="http://www.mydomain.com/folder2/page2.html">random text here 2</a>&
&quote3=<a href="http://www.mydomain.com/folder1/page2.html">random text here 3</a>&
&quote4=<a href="http://www.mydomain.com/folder2/page1.html">random text here 4</a>&
&quote5=<a href="http://www.mydomain.com/folder3/page1.html">random text here 5</a>&
&quote6=<a href="http://www.mydomain.com/folder3/page2.html">random text here 6</a>&
&quote7=<a href="http://www.mydomain.com/folder3/page3.html">random text here 7</a>&
&quote8=<a href="http://www.mydomain.com/folder1/page3.html">random text here 8</a>&
&quote9=<a href="http://www.mydomain.com/folder2/page3.html">random text here 9</a>&
&quote10=<a href="http://www.mydomain.com/folder4/page1.html">random text here 10</a>&

etc ...

If you need any more information - Let me know and I will dig deeper!
Thanks again.

Jahjah99

Post the code to load the text from .txt file, and also the text that is loaded into Flash. You can use setInterval to execute a function after x amount of milliseconds - just post your code, and I'll write a code for you

[Nig 13]

Here is the edited code for the 'if' part of your code:

if (success) {
    RanNum = Math.ceil(Math.random()*100);
    ran = this["quote"+RanNum];
    quote_txt.htmlText = ran;
    function autoFire(){
        link = ran.split("'");
        getURL(link[1], "_blank");
    }
    setTimeout(autoFire, 1000);
}

To make this work, you'll have to edit all " from the a href to ' and you can easily do that by using a text editor, and use Replace (Notepad: Edit->Replace), and type in " in what it should search for, and what it should replace with ' and then press Replace All

[jahjah99]

HI - Thanks for writing that, unfortunately for me it didn't work!

I wonder if the reason for it not working is a security issue - here is my thinking and the current structure:

Server 1:
SWF (with ActionScript)
Quotes.txt
Referenced html pages.

Server 2:
Html page with (below) code referencing SWF movie on server 1.

object width="200" height="247">
         * *<param name="movie" value="http://www.myserver1.com/mySWF.swf"></param>
         * *<param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param>
         * *<param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param>
         * *<embed src="http://www.myserver1.com/mySWF.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="200" height="247"></embed>
         </object> 

I came across a security issue before (Nig you pointed this out) with having the SWF and Quotes.txt on server 1 and referencing the SWF from an Html page on server 2. I managed to overcome this issue using this post:
http://board.flashkit.com/board/show...10#post4291010

So even though I managed to overcome the security issue before, I am wondering if the autofire function within the script is causing another security problem as it is being fired by code rather than a user clicking a link.

I would be interested to know your thoughts.

Here is my code now being used after your re-write (thanks again for that):

ActionScript:

ranQuote = new LoadVars();
ranQuote.onLoad = function(success) {
if (success) {
    RanNum = Math.ceil(Math.random()*100);
    ran = this["quote"+RanNum];
    quote_txt.htmlText = ran;
    function autoFire(){
        link = ran.split("'");
        getURL(link[1], "_blank");
    }
    setTimeout(autoFire, 1000);
}
else {
quote_txt.htmlText = "The text failed to load due to an error";
}
}
ranQuote.load("http://www.mydomain.com/Quotes.txt");
System.security.allowDomain('http://www.mydomain.com'); 

Quotes.txt:

&quote1=<a href='http://www.mydomain.com/folder1/page1.html'>random text here 1</a>&
&quote2=<a href='http://www.mydomain.com/folder2/page2.html'>random text here 2</a>&
&quote3=<a href='http://www.mydomain.com/folder1/page2.html'>random text here 3</a>&
&quote4=<a href='http://www.mydomain.com/folder2/page1.html'>random text here 4</a>&
&quote5=<a href='http://www.mydomain.com/folder3/page1.html'>random text here 5</a>&
&quote6=<a href='http://www.mydomain.com/folder3/page2.html'>random text here 6</a>&
&quote7=<a href='http://www.mydomain.com/folder3/page3.html'>random text here 7</a>&
&quote8=<a href='http://www.mydomain.com/folder1/page3.html'>random text here 8</a>&
&quote9=<a href='http://www.mydomain.com/folder2/page3.html'>random text here 9</a>&
&quote10=<a href='http://www.mydomain.com/folder4/page1.html'>random text here 10</a>&

etc ... 

Kind regards Jahjah 99

[jahjah99]

I also tried changing the:

getURL(link[1], "_blank"); 

to

getURL(link[1]); 

To see if opening a new window was part of the issue, but no improvement. After clicking; the movie plays, produces the Quote and then does not autofire. The link still works if clicked by user interaction.

Hope this helps some more.
Thanks again - Jahjah 99

[Nig 13]

Diagnose the problem!

Make a Dynamic Text field in your Flash file, give it a Variable name of my_txt, and then edit your code to this:

if (success) {
    RanNum = Math.ceil(Math.random()*100);
    ran = this["quote"+RanNum];
    quote_txt.htmlText = ran;
    function autoFire(){
        link = ran.split("'");
    my_txt = link;
        getURL(link[1], "_blank");
    }
    setTimeout(autoFire, 1000);
}

Check if my_txt displays the URL link after 1 second, and reply

EDIT: WOOT, 500th post

[jahjah99]

hi - It didn't show the my_txt either.

I placed the my_text dynamic field in the same movie clip as the AS.
so the structure is:

Main Time line:
button to fire movieclip 1

AS location.
Main timeline/mc_1/mc_2 (AS here [fired from action sat in timeline])

I also tried adding the my_txt dynamic field to the main time line and appeared up there either.

Many thanks again Nig. I really do appreciate you knowledge. Karma points to you for helping.

[Nig 13]

No problem, happy to help

As for the problem, areyou sure it was the dynamic text field's var(iable) name and not instance name? Also, if you place it on main timeline, add _root to my_txt: _root.my_txt

[jahjah99]

Hello - You were right - I did add my_txt as an instance name and not a variable. This has now been changed, but still it does not flag up the link in the dynamic field.

I am sorry to take up so much of your time.

Regards - jahjah99

-- If it makes it easier and wont take up too much of your time, I could upload the FLA onto a server for you.

[Nig 13]

-- If it makes it easier and wont take up too much of your time, I could upload the FLA onto a server for you.

Please do so

[jahjah99]

Thanks - Sent you a PM with link.

Regards
jahjah99

[Nig 13]

Change code to this:

For some reason, the function wasn't working, because it wasn't properly created when in the LoadVars, so I made it outside, and adjusted the code abit as well, so you don't have to change quotes to apostrophes of the links, change the whole code to this:

function autoFire(){
        link = ran.split("\"");
        getURL(link[1], "_blank");
}

ranQuote = new LoadVars();
ranQuote.onLoad = function(success) {
    if (success) {
        RanNum = Math.ceil(Math.random()*100);
        ran = this["quote"+RanNum];
        quote_txt.htmlText = ran;
        setTimeout(autoFire, 1000);
    } else {
        quote_txt.htmlText = "The text failed to load due to an error";
    }
}

ranQuote.load("http://www.mydomain.com/Quotes.txt");
System.security.allowDomain('http://www.mydomain.com');

[jahjah99]

HI - I have added the new code you wrote - It is all working - You Are A Star.
Many thanks for helping me out with this.

Regards
Jahjah99