actionscriptblog.net

Dynamic Masks

Jul 10, 2007 in Love Notes with Closed

// create a box using Flash API
function createBox (mc:MovieClip, colour:Number, xp:Number, yp:Number, w:Number, h:Number):Void {
with (mc)
{
beginFill (colour);
moveTo (xp, yp);
lineTo (xp + w, yp);
lineTo (xp + w, yp + h);
lineTo (xp, yp + h);
lineTo (xp, yp);
endFill ();
}

mc._visible = false;
}

// create our mask movieclip
this.createEmptyMovieClip (”mask_mc”, this.getNextHighestDepth ());
createBox(mask_mc, 0×00FF00, 60, 35, 280, 50);

// create & load our movieclip
this.createEmptyMovieClip(”pic_mc”, this.getNextHighestDepth());
pic_mc._x = pic_mc._y = 25;
pic_mc.loadMovie(”logo.gif”);

// before we can acccess any of the pic_mc properties and/or methods
// we need to make sure the file has been 100% loaded
onEnterFrame = function ()
{
if (pic_mc._width > 0)
{
// now that its been loaded
la tabella i loro avversari. delete onEnterFrame;

// set the mask
pic_mc.setMask(mask_mc);
}
}

WP Flash Menu

Jul 2, 2007 in Tutorials with 9 Comments

Technology: Flash, ActionScript, PHP, mySQL, phpAdmin, XML

Inspired by Lee Brimelow’s video tutorial PHP, MySQL, and Flash, lets take a look at the steps necessary to pass your wordpress pages into a flash movie. The process is as follows: PHP gets the data from the mySQL database and outputs a structured XML document which Flash uses to display the information.

Part 1:

We need understand how and where are data is being stored. Pages are simply posts whoes information is accessed and viewed differently from regular posts, therefore, we will find our information inside the wp_posts table, under the column post_type; you will notice that it is this column that lets us know which posts are pages and which are posts.

id90_phpAdmin

Part 2:

Your first step in this process is creating a PHP file, menu.php, and saving it somewhere within your WordPress installation; I suggest saving it under wp-includes/php/. The second is to simply copy and paste the following code into menu.php…

n”;
	echo “n”;

	#	begin ‘page’ tag
	echo “t
n”;

	#	set our own title for home link
	echo “ttBlogn”;

	#	add to tag: blog url
	$url_query = ‘SELECT option_value FROM wp_options WHERE option_name=”siteurl”‘;
	$url_results = mysql_query($url_query);
	while($url_row = mysql_fetch_assoc($url_results))
	{
		echo “tt” . $url_row[’option_value’] . “n”;
	}

	#	end ‘page’ tag
	echo “tn”;

	#	get page name and url
	$page_query = ‘SELECT * FROM wp_posts WHERE post_type=”page” ORDER BY menu_order ASC’;
	$page_results = mysql_query($page_query);
	while ($page = mysql_fetch_assoc($page_results))
	{
		echo “t
n”;
		echo “tt” . $page[”post_title”] . “n”;
		echo “tt” . $page[”guid”] . “n”;
		echo “tn”;
	}

	#	end xml output
	echo ““;

	#	close db connection
	mysql_close($db);
?>

… lets take a closer look.

First, we need to connect to our database. I am running this locally using MAMP but when you go live with this script you must change the following information; HOST, USERNAME, PASSWORD & DBNAME.

	#	connect to db
	$db = mysql_connect('HOST', 'USERNAME', 'PASSWORD');
	mysql_select_db('DBNAME');

We start our output by declaing our XML document and the root element

	#	begin xml output
	echo "n”;
	echo “n”;

In this perticular situation, we don’t want our blogs title to be our home link because its too long so we will simply call it, Blog. Structurely, we are going to wrap two elements, <item> and <url>, around a parent element <page>; which will give us a nice and easy to read, both for us and flash, XML file.

	#	begin 'page' tag
	echo "t
n”;

	#	set our own title for home link
	echo “ttBlogn”;

Now we need tap into our database to retrieve the url for our home link.

$url_query gets the results of our mySQL query as a string.
$url_results restructures our string as an array.
The while loop loops through each row and outputs the URl to our blog.
We end by closing our parent tag <page>.

	#	add to tag: home url
	$url_query = 'SELECT option_value FROM wp_options WHERE option_name="siteurl"';
	$url_results = mysql_query($url_query);
	while($url_row = mysql_fetch_assoc($url_results))
	{
		echo "tt” . $url_row[’option_value’] . “n”;
	}

	#	end ‘page’ tag
	echo “tn”;

Keeping with our structure, we fetch two pieces of information for each page created, its name (post_title) and its url (guid).

$page_query gets every row whose post_type column is set to page.
$page_results restructures the results as an array.
The while loop loops through each row and outputs our data

	#	get page name and url
	$page_query = 'SELECT * FROM wp_posts WHERE post_type="page" ORDER BY menu_order ASC';
	$page_results = mysql_query($page_query);
	while ($page = mysql_fetch_assoc($page_results))
	{
		echo "t
n”;
		echo “tt” . $page[”post_title”] . “n”;
		echo “tt” . $page[”guid”] . “n”;
		echo “tn”;
	}

We end our XML output by closing our root element and our database connection.

	#	end xml output
	echo "“;

	#	close db connection
	mysql_close($db);

Part 3:

At this point you can open menu.php using your broswer of choice. At first glance you may not like what you see and the reason is simple, you are seeing how your browser is rendering the XML file. What is important to us is the actual structure of the XML file. For that, view the files source, through your browser, and you will get.




		Blog
		http://www.actionscriptblog.net/
	

		About
		http://www.actionscriptblog.net/?page_id=47
	

		Authors
		http://www.actionscriptblog.net/?page_id=77
	

		Requests
		http://www.actionscriptblog.net/?page_id=76
	

		Contact
		http://www.actionscriptblog.net/?page_id=46

Part 4:

Now that our XML is ready, all we need is a flash movie. The following ActionScript simply takes the data from our XML file and create movieclip buttons. Most of the ActionScript is for formatting so I won’t go into much detail; if you do have a question, just ask and I will answer it for you.

MovieClip.prototype.setColor = function (num)
{
	var colour = new Color(this);
	colour.setRGB(num); }

//MovieClip home;
//Number dm;
home = this.createEmptyMovieClip('mcMenu', 0);
dm = -1;

//XML x;
var x = new XML();
x.ignoreWhite = true;
x.onLoad = function (success)
{
	if (success)
	{
		var nodes = x.firstChild.childNodes;
		var total = nodes.length;

		pages = new Array();
		urls = new Array();

		var i = 0;
		for (i = 0; i < total; i++)
		{
			var child = x.firstChild.childNodes[i];
			var item = child.firstChild.firstChild.nodeValue;
			var url = child.firstChild.nextSibling.firstChild.nodeValue;

			pages.push(item);
			urls.push(url);
		}

		//Number lngth;
		lngth = pages.length;

		var n = -1;
		while (++n < lngth)
		{
			addPage(pages[n], urls[n]);
		}

		alignPages();
	}
}
x.load(xml_location);

/**		FUNCTIONS		**/
function fmt()
{
	//TextFormat fmt;
	var fmt = new TextFormat();
	fmt.align = 'left';
	fmt.color = 0xFFFFFF;
	fmt.font = 'Desyrel';
	fmt.size = 14;

	return fmt;
}

function setDepth()
{
	return ++dm;
}

function removeWhiteSpace(str)
{
	//Array a;
	//String s;
	//String r;
	//Number lngth;

	var s = str;
	var a = str.split(' ');

	var lngth = a.length;
	if (lngth > 0)
	{
		var r = ”;

		var n = -1;
		while (++n < lngth)
		{
			r += a[n];
		}

		return r;
	}
	else
	{
		return str;
	}
}

function alignPages()
{
	var omc = null;
	var nmc = null;
	var str = null;

	var n = -1;
	while (++n < lngth)
	{
		str = removeWhiteSpace(pages[n]);
		nmc = home[str];

		if (omc == null)
		{
			nmc._x = 0;
		}
		else
		{
			nmc._x = omc._x + omc._width + 20;
		}

		omc = nmc;
	}

	addSeperators();

	home._y = (Stage.height / 2) - (home._height / 2);
	alignMenu();

	//	keep align to the right
	obj = new Object();
	obj.onResize = function ()
	{
		alignMenu();
	}
	Stage.addListener(obj);

	//	sequence complete
	delete n;
	delete lngth;
	delete pages;
	delete urls;
	delete fmt;
	delete addPage;
	delete setDepth;
	delete removeWhiteSpace;
	delete dm;
	delete home;
}

function alignMenu()
{
	home._x = Stage.width - Math.round(home._width) - 20;
}

/**		ADD PAGE		**/
function addPage(page, url)
{
	//String str;
	var str = removeWhiteSpace(page);

	//MovieClip mc;
	var mc = home.createEmptyMovieClip(str, setDepth());
	mc.link = url.toLowerCase();

	mc.onRollOver = function ()
	{
		this.setColor(0x0099CC);
	}

	mc.onRollOut = function ()
	{
		this.setColor(0xFFFFFF);
	}

	mc.onPress = function ()
	{
		getURL(mc.link, '_self');
	}

	//TextField dt;
	mc.createTextField('dt', 1, 0, 0, 100, 16);
	mc.dt.autoSize = 'left';
	mc.dt.embedFonts = true;
	mc.dt.selectable = false;
	mc.dt.text = page.toUpperCase();
	mc.dt.setTextFormat(fmt());
}

function addSeperators()
{
	var n = -1;
	while (++n < lngth - 1)
	{
		//String str;
		var str = removeWhiteSpace(pages[n]);

		//MovieClip mc;
		var mc = home[str];

		//TextField dt;
		home.createTextField(str + '_seperator', setDepth(), mc._x + mc._width + 8, 0, 100, 16);
		home[str + '_seperator'].autoSize = 'left';
		home[str + '_seperator'].embedFonts = true;
		home[str + '_seperator'].selectable = false;
		home[str + '_seperator'].text = '|';
		home[str + '_seperator'].setTextFormat(fmt());
	}
}

Lets take a closer look.

The first thing I want you to notice is that I am not declaring the xml_location variable in the ActionScript because it will come from the embed code.

x.load(xml_location);

Inside our XML object, we set a variable, nodes, to hold all the <page> elements; note that in flash they are called childNodes and firstChild is refrencing our root element, menu. The variable total, simply holds how many <page> elements/children the XML has.

		var nodes = x.firstChild.childNodes;
		var total = nodes.length;

Next, we create two empty arrays. They will be used to import the data from our XML file.

		pages = new Array();
		urls = new Array();

Now we will loop through each child, extract both the <item> & <url> elements and add them to their respective Array..

		var i = 0;
		for (i = 0; i < total; i++)
		{
			var child = x.firstChild.childNodes[i];
			var item = child.firstChild.firstChild.nodeValue;
			var url = child.firstChild.nextSibling.firstChild.nodeValue;

			pages.push(item);
			urls.push(url);
		}

Using the imported information, we call a function I set up to create our movieclips.

		var n = -1;
		while (++n < lngth)
		{
			addPage(pages[n], urls[n]);
		}

Part 5:

The last step in our process is to embed our movie, declare our xml_location variable and pass it the location to our menu.php file. Here is a snapshot of the original code…

… and here are the results.
id90_wpflashmenu

No Cache

Jun 28, 2007 in Tips & Tricks with 1 Comment

Technology: XHTML, JavaScript, SWFObject

Today I want to show you how a simple trick, using JavaScript, can disable your SWF movies from caching. The key is to append a unique ID to each movie, which in-turn, will force your browser to download from the server and not the cache.

Lets take a look at the XHTML & JavaScript code:







    


    





    
You need to upgrade your Flash Player

    Visit the Adobe Flash Player Download Center to download the latest version.

We start by creating a local variable whose value is set to the current date and time using the Date(); function. This function returns a string in the following format:
Tue Jun 28 2007 3:16:51 GMT-0400 (EDT).

There is only one more thing we need to do, append that variable to our movie.

Now that our nc variable has been added to our movie, the browser no longer looks for tutorial_id41.swf but tutorial_id41.swf?Tue Jun 28 2007 3:16:51 GMT-0400 (EDT).

Thanks to the limit of time travel, the next time your page is rendered your movies name has changed to something like tutorial_id41.swf?Tue Jun 28 2007 3:18:24 GMT-0400 (EDT) and therefore, forcusing a new download.

Authors

Jun 26, 2007 in Love Notes with 0 Comments

Marlon Valenzuela

Marlon is an Interactive Web Developer specializing in Adobe Flash. He is heavily involved in researching and developing Flash projects were he combines Flash techonology with technologies like mProject to develop desktop applications, ActionScript Client Library for facebook applications, and Flash Lite 2.1 for mobile games and applications. The list, we are sure, will continue to grow.

He works full-time in the Greator Toronto Area but has worked independently as a consultant and freelancer for companies around the world.

If you would like to learn more about his professional career you can visit his porfolio blog at http://www.marlonvalenzuela.net

Requests

Jun 26, 2007 in Love Notes with 0 Comments

Did you see something out there that you would love to learn how to do?

Do you need help understanding some code and would like to see it as a step by step tutorial?

Are you looking for free source-code?

Send us an email and we will see what we can do for you.%%wpcontactform%%

Dynamic Masks

WP Flash Menu

No Cache

Authors

Requests

Latest Entries

Flash Blogs