Button/Scene/Action Script issues in Rich Media Ads

Hi,

This is my first time posting but I'm a long time reader of advice here. I am working on 2 rich media ads and one works perfectly with some buttons switching the rich load SWF to different scenes. But in a second version, the buttons jump the SWF file back to the first scene for some reason.

If you click on the link below you'll see the 300x600 ad works smoothly. It does a quick play of the content then allows the user to click through the decades timeline forward and backward.

http://www.flashtalking.net/view/?109647

But the pushdown (728x90-500) does the quick play and then, on the "In-Line Solenoid Fuel Pumps" scene, when you press the forward arrow it jumps back and does the quick play all over again. I double checked the button and it goes to the correct scene. It's quite frustrating.

I'm posting here to see if anyone has any thoughts. I'm on deadline of course (the ad was due Friday)/ :) Any thoughts? Contact me and I can send the FLA files.

Thanks,

Brad

May I help? You can inbox me with the .fla's links.

Thanks Angelhdz! What's your email?

All, here's the FLA files (CS6).

https://www.hightail.com/download/el...TXZKV09VbDhUQw

Thanks!

Brad

Ok, i'm a little bit confused. What FLA has the issue?
RichMedia_728x90-500_FuelHistory_base, RichMedia_728x90-500_FuelHistory_rich, or both?

In the scene "Solenoid_from_Unitec", in the button "next button", change the code to:

PHP Code:

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on(release) {
gotoAndPlay("Electric_from_Solenoid", 2)
} 


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I think that playing from frame "1" is the issue. And i don't know why. But playing from frame 2, seems to be working now. No "repeat all" again issue ;)

Ok there are a lot of issues. I removed the "play()" from the script of the first frame of all the scenes, and it solved partially the issue. Then i
still had an issue with the previous button of the scene "Solenoid_from_Electric". I changed the script to "gotoAndPlay("Unitec_from_Solenoid", 2)"
and it got solved. So that take me to realize, the MAIN ISSUE lies in the script of the first frame of each scene. I saw a "delete this.onEnterFrame;" maybe that's the conflictive code. But if you gotoAndPlay to the frame "2" of each scene, it works perfectly.

Yeah. That's the conflictive script, the "delete this.onEnterFrame;". I commented it out, and everythigs work perfectly now.

Instead of using "this" you should use the name of the loading function, or the name of any moviclip you like. If you delete "this" onEnterFrame, you are deleting the onEnterFrame of the whole movie, the whole timeline, so it will be all wrong. "This" refereces the current timeline/stage.
So replace all the "delete this.onEnterFrame;" and the "this.onEnterFrame = function() {" of the first frame of all the scenes, with "delete SomeMovieClip.EnterFrame;" and "SomeMovieClip.onEnterFrame = function() {".

PD: I don't think you need to make the loading script to load all the scenes, because the WHOLE movie is preloaded when the swf starts.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by angelhdz

In the scene "Solenoid_from_Unitec", in the button "next button", change the code to:

PHP Code:

---

on(release) {
gotoAndPlay("Electric_from_Solenoid", 2)
} 


---

I think that playing from frame "1" is the issue. And i don't know why. But playing from frame 2, seems to be working now. No "repeat all" again issue ;)

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Thank you, thank you, thank you! That seems to have done the trick angelhdz!
http://www.flashtalking.net/view/?109647

Now I just need the close button to work... any ideas? It works on this pushdown I did a while ago (click on the second link).
http://www.flashtalking.net/view/?103097

I can't open the links. It says "Flash player 8 or higher required." and i have Flash player 12...

But let me check your .fla about the close button.

What is supposed to DO the close button?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by angelhdz

I can't open the links. It says "Flash player 8 or higher required." and i have Flash player 12...

But let me check your .fla about the close button.

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Thanks, that's weird. Yeah, the close button is supposed to return the ad to the collapsed state where the user can click "expand" to expand the ad.

It's complicated, because the ftContract(); and the ftExpand(); functions are inside external Components. I don't know how to reference it because the main .fla (RichMedia_728x90-500_FuelHistory_base) Components don't even have instances names. I can not open these Components to see how they work. But i guess, that in the close button you have to put something like this:

On the RichMedia_728x90-500_FuelHistory_rich .fla's close buttons:

PHP Code:

---

on (release) {
    trace("asd");
_parent._parent.nameOfTheComponent.ftContract();
} 


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by angelhdz

It's complicated, because the ftContract(); and the ftExpand(); functions are inside external Components. I don't know how to reference it because the main .fla (RichMedia_728x90-500_FuelHistory_base) Components don't even have instances names. I can not open these Components to see how they work. But i guess, that in the close button you have to put something like this:

On the RichMedia_728x90-500_FuelHistory_rich .fla's close buttons:

PHP Code:

---

on (release) {
    trace("asd");
_parent._parent.nameOfTheComponent.ftContract();
} 


---

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Angelhdz, I know what you are saying about the external components. Flashtalking's system is kind of complicated, well at least for me. I figured it out though! It works now. I just used:

on (release) {
ftContract();
}

Works great now!

http://www.flashtalking.net/view/?109647

Thanks for all of your help!

Hi Angelhdz, any thoughts on why I have similar problems with this 300x250 version? Same code, but it's jumping all over the place. So weird! Thoughts?

http://www.flashtalking.net/view/?109647

Here's the FLA files:

https://www.hightail.com/download/el...U1B5UkVFSzhUQw

remove the play(); in the last line of code in the first frame of every Scene.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by angelhdz

remove the play(); in the last line of code in the first frame of every Scene.

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That did it! removing play(); is a much better solution than jumping to frame 2. Thanks SO MUCH!

The ad server (company that hosts the ad files) either has you add their code to yours (download extension) or the wrap your swfs in theirs. They have an api (code to use their code). These are public I think.

So when your ad does anything that needs to be tracked, you use their code - cilckthroughs, expand, close, play video, etc.

When your flash is run by actionscript (code controls everything), you shouldn't use scenes and your main timeline should only have one frame and all your code in one frame (you can link out to .as files). Try it on your next flash, you'll see how things clear up when you get things centralized.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by moot

The ad server (company that hosts the ad files) either has you add their code to yours (download extension) or the wrap your swfs in theirs. They have an api (code to use their code). These are public I think.

So when your ad does anything that needs to be tracked, you use their code - cilckthroughs, expand, close, play video, etc.

When your flash is run by actionscript (code controls everything), you shouldn't use scenes and your main timeline should only have one frame and all your code in one frame (you can link out to .as files). Try it on your next flash, you'll see how things clear up when you get things centralized.

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Why do you suggest not using scenes?

Ballen, i think most of the people on this forum, will suggest NOT using scenes. Scenes are for complex animations. But for applications, websites, ads, its a lot better using frames, and functions. Also, the flash .swf weight, will be extremely increased by using a lot of scenes, movieclips, animations. You can use dynamic Tweens to animate the elements (no need of timeline tweens).

I always talk about it because it takes a long time to figure out for yourself. Scenes are there for people who don't use actionscript or very little actionscript to control their movies. You can use a little actionscript to control which scenes play when and you can make a whole "movie."

You still draw stuff on the stage and animate with tweens and frames. Just put everything in clips (container clips) for easy reference and management. Use _visible to show the clips when you need to.

Exactly. That's one of the things I do sometimes :)
Using movieclips frames as Scenes.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by angelhdz

Exactly. That's one of the things I do sometimes :)
Using movieclips frames as Scenes.

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OK. What you and moot are saying makes sense. I'll try containing animations inside movie clips in the future, rather than executing right on the timeline. I'm pretty self-taught when it comes to Flash, so these nuggets of advice really help!

Anther quick question, Any thoughts on disabling auto contract if a user clicks on the arrows in the ad? Right now if a person starts interacting with the timeline, it collapses after 7 seconds regardless.

Here's the ads to see:

http://www.flashtalking.net/view/667437/

And here's the FLAs:

https://www.hightail.com/download/el...TmFVbS9xYk1UQw

Thanks for all your help!

Whoever is running the ad will give you all those rules. Because the ad's behavior affects the page the ad is on, it's up to the site owner. It should be on their site or it may be something that changes based on how much you pay.

I don't think there's a way of controlling the contract/expand functions,because they are stored inside the Components, and I can not edit the components. If I could, I would make if(disabledContract == false) { contract(); } whenever it fires the contract function, and on the arrows arrow.onPress = function() { disabledContract = true; }

Quote:

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Originally Posted by angelhdz

I don't think there's a way of controlling the contract/expand functions,because they are stored inside the Components, and I can not edit the components. If I could, I would make if(disabledContract == false) { contract(); } whenever it fires the contract function, and on the arrows arrow.onPress = function() { disabledContract = true; }

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Here's what Flashtalking is suggesting. Make any sense?

I usually use something like this to set an auto expand and then to get rid of the timer if the user clicks on the ad.
On frame two of my ad I set the interval I want to use.
var myInterval:uint = setInterval(ad_contract_auto,4000);

Then on the expand frame I'll set my auto close function
function ad_contract_auto():void {
gotoAndPlay("contract");
clearInterval(myInterval);
}

I will then make a button that fires the clearinterval function when clicked.

myBtn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, clear_timer);

function clear_timer(event:MouseEvent):void
{
clearInterval(myInterval);
}

That code is for Actionscript 2, not actionscript 3.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by angelhdz

That code is for Actionscript 2, not actionscript 3.

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I know. This whole forum section is for as2 right?

Sorry, I wrote it backwards (i was sleepy)

That code is for AS3, and this forum is AS2.

You can use a timer - setInterval.

Here's some example code. It sets a var bUserInteracting to prevent the auto close if the user is doing something. It sets an interval (as2 timer) that calls the function doAutoClose after 2 seconds (2000 milliseconds). In doAutoClose, if bUserInteracting is false (!), the interval is cleared so it doesn't keep repeating every 2 seconds.

Code:

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bUserInteracting = false;
intMain = setInterval(doAutoClose,2000);

function doAutoClose(){
  if(!bUserInteracting){
    trace("doAutoClose()");
    clearInterval(intMain);
  }
}

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