Loading SWFs from another SWF

[Craig McArthur]

Hi all, new member here!

I have a SWF that contains 3 spaces for banners on a 'My Account' page. Initially they all showed the same banners to all customers but now we segment customers and that means each banner can have numerous variations. This has caused the SWF to be massive (over half a meg) for something we aim to have 80-100 Kb.

I believe the solution is to have the current 'main' SWF be a place-holder that decides what segment the customer is in for each banner then pull another SWF file from the server - so only the banner being displayed is the one being downloaded.

I cannot find AS to download externally hosted SWFs... can anyone help or suggest an alternative?

Many thanks!
Craig

[5TonsOfFlax]

If they are hosted on the same server as the swf which is doing the loading, then all you need is a Loader.

If they are on a different domain, then you will need to have a cross-domain policy on the server you are loading from that authorizes that content to the loading swf. Then load it with a Loader like normal.

[Craig McArthur]

hey thanks for the reply.

they will be hosted on the same server - in the same directory in fact.

please can you give me a little more information on a 'loader'? when i search for it i only find preloaders.

thanks
craig

If they are hosted on the same server as the swf which is doing the loading, then all you need is a Loader.

If they are on a different domain, then you will need to have a cross-domain policy on the server you are loading from that authorizes that content to the loading swf. Then load it with a Loader like normal.

[5TonsOfFlax]

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPla...ay/Loader.html

Loader is a class used to load content from a server at runtime. It can load images (png, jpg, etc) as well as swfs.

A single Loader can only load one thing at a time. Loading something new into it will discard the previously loaded resource.

Loader is itself a DisplayObject so you can put it on the display where you want your loaded thing to go, tell it to load, and the thing will show up when it gets downloaded.

To load something, you need to use the load method with a URLRequest. Like this:

var loader:Loader = new Loader();
addChild(loader);  //put your Loader on the display
loader.load(new URLRequest("http://example.com/someswf.swf"));

Loader and LoaderInfo (an associated class which each loader has) also dispatch events. The most common use is to listen for the Event.COMPLETE dispatched by the LoaderInfo to know when the resource is loaded. But you can also listen for various error events such as IOErrorEvent.IO_ERROR to know when something goes wrong.

[Craig McArthur]

thanks for that i'll read up on it.

would this mean i can only load a single external swf at a time? or will there still be a way to load multiple swfs to place in view simultaneously.

thanks
craig

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPla...ay/Loader.html

Loader is a class used to load content from a server at runtime. It can load images (png, jpg, etc) as well as swfs.

A single Loader can only load one thing at a time. Loading something new into it will discard the previously loaded resource.

Loader is itself a DisplayObject so you can put it on the display where you want your loaded thing to go, tell it to load, and the thing will show up when it gets downloaded.

To load something, you need to use the load method with a URLRequest. Like this:

var loader:Loader = new Loader();
addChild(loader);  //put your Loader on the display
loader.load(new URLRequest("http://example.com/someswf.swf"));

Loader and LoaderInfo (an associated class which each loader has) also dispatch events. The most common use is to listen for the Event.COMPLETE dispatched by the LoaderInfo to know when the resource is loaded. But you can also listen for various error events such as IOErrorEvent.IO_ERROR to know when something goes wrong.

[5TonsOfFlax]

To load more than one thing at once, you can simply use more than one Loader.

Or you could set an event listener for the COMPLETE event, and take the loaded content out of the loader to put it somewhere else, then load a new resource into the same loader.

Bear in mind that the COMPLETE event is dispatched by the loaderInfo, not the Loader itself.

[Craig McArthur]

Thanks I think I'll understand I'll have a stab at it

Craig

To load more than one thing at once, you can simply use more than one Loader.

Or you could set an event listener for the COMPLETE event, and take the loaded content out of the loader to put it somewhere else, then load a new resource into the same loader.

Bear in mind that the COMPLETE event is dispatched by the loaderInfo, not the Loader itself.