FLASH: Surviving 702 some tips

[Nigel Randsley-Pena]

Let's refocus a bit then.

Flash has changed and is changing. Some of the changes come from new

functionality in the authoring programme and some of the changes come

from the new player paradigm.

Let's try to address some of these elements and at the same time give

some survival tips.

These by the way are of course influenced by the way I view Flash so

should not be considered as 'law', and are given in no particular order.


Publishing : Flash4 introduces a new concept that replaces the old

'AfterShock'.

Publishing under Flash4 can be achieved from within the programme and it

not only allows one to produce an html file but also have different

types of support files compiled with the click of a button. The html

that is produced is based on templates that you can add to. The basic

set that comes with Flash should cover your initial needs but you will

soon discover that the best way is to create a full set of templates

adapted to your usage. A quick look in the html directory that holds

these templates reveals that I've added over a dozen of these customized

templates to the basic set. Some of them I will be releasing for general

use, one such template is the one that automates Beatnik inclusion in

Flash based files.


New tags : Flash4 introduces new tags and adds some new values to older

tags. Most of these new tags are related to the remote and some of them

are now defined within the Flash movie and not the html. A good source

for these new settings can be found in the developer section of the

shockwave site. Download the pdf files and read them. Start using these

tags in your projects even if you're not planning on giving support to

remote type features in your movies. Doing so will make your movies

forward compatible and that is something that is always a good move.


New sound format : Flash4 supports mp3 style compression, but only

Flash4 ! If you export as Flash3 then goodbye mp3. If you do use mp3

compression take some time to discover what all the different settings

represent in sound quality and compression ratio.


New GET and POST capabilities : Flash4 can access external data using

the GET and POST methods. This creates a whole new range of

possibilities but also a new range of problems. 

Start slowly, try to learn what can and can not be done. Don't try to

make Flash what it is not.


New action scripting : This is the most powerful addition to Flash. Very

basic in it's essence but very powerful. If you're used to Director

beware, this is not lingo ! Documentation on this is severely lacking

but resources are popping up all over the net. This is something that

can properly used help build great movies but it can be difficult to

understand at first. Resources on this are popping up on several sites

and John Croteau has a very good series already online. A recommended

starting point.


Nigel


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