menu with memory (flash actionscript / php)

WebHelper Joined: 15 Jan 2004 Posts: 91

Hi all,

I am trying to produce a flash menu that identifies what url you have entered on and highlights the corresponding menu option (in this case _alpha, "50")

The menu is built up using multiple buttons (gallery and home).
Both the home page and the gallery page have the same swf file as their menu.
I would like the menu to recognise what url it is on and alter the colour of the button (to signify to the user that they are on that page).

I am new to actionscript and have managed to display the location in a textbox but not change the colour of the buttons.

The menu swf reloads with each html page.

Hope you can help,

Dominic

FRAME 1 actionscript

Code:

stop();

function change_colour(x)
{
if (x = home)
   {
   setProperty("home", _alpha, "50");
}

else if (x = gallery)
{
   setProperty("gallery", _alpha, "50");
   }

}

//=================================
//
// FLASH TO PHP
//=================================

gallery.onRelease = function() //gallery button

{
lvOut.flash_to_php = "gallery";
lvOut.sendAndLoad(path + "menu_location_1.php", lvIn, "POST");
};

home.onRelease = function() //home button
{
lvOut.flash_to_php = "home";
lvOut.sendAndLoad(path + "menu_location_1.php", lvIn, "POST");
};

//=================================
//    PHP to FLASH
//=================================

path = "../php/"; // declare path to php files

lvOut = new LoadVars(); //create lvout object
lvIn = new LoadVars(); //create lvin object

lvIn.onLoad = function (success)
   {
if(success)
{
output_text.text = lvIn.returnVal;
// there was a text box (for testing) but I have removed it from the stage
change_colour(lvIn.returnVal);
}

else
{
output_text.text = "fail";
}

}

PHP FILE menu_location_1.php

Code:

<?
$menu_location_php= $_POST['flash_to_php'];
echo "&returnVal=$menu_location_php";
?>

Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2005 3:17 pm (19 years, 2 months ago)

A sightly different method than you used would be to tell the flash movie where it is by means of a query string appended to the filename in the 2 html pages, i.e. (not it appears twice, for different browsers)

HTML for Homepage

Code:

HTML for Gallery

Code:

You should then have access to the x variable from within the flash

ActionScript

Code:

if (x == "home")
{
home._alpha = 50;
}
else if (x == "gallery")
{
gallery._alpha = 50;
}

The is slighlty different to you method too, SetProperty is a little outdated nowadays. But either way...

In your if statement, firstly you had only used a single equals sign so rather than comparing x to the string you were setting the value of x to the string.

And secondly you had not enclosed the string in quotes so it would actually be trying to compare x with a variable called home and gallery

I've assumed that the buttons are on the root level. If they were both embedded in another movie clip then you would write

Code:

menu.gallery._alpha = 50

where 'menu' is the instance name of the container movieclip

I hope that helps,
Darren

WebHelper Joined: 15 Jan 2004 Posts: 91

Quote:

In your if statement, firstly you had only used a single equals sign so rather than comparing x to the string you were setting the value of x to the string.

And secondly you had not enclosed the string in quotes so it would actually be trying to compare x with a variable called home and gallery

Thankyou, i feel such a fool Embarassed

I shall give that a try,

Dom.

WebHelper Joined: 15 Jan 2004 Posts: 91

Thanks Darren,

1) I have got it working by defaulting all the alpha values (of all the buttons in actionscript) to 50 and when on the page (say home.html) the corresponding buttons alpha changes to 100.

I didn’t originally want to change the alpha values and just worked with it until I could sort the rest of the code out. I wanted to change the background colour of each button when on that page.I need help again, with changing the button properties; is this possible?

2) I will continue with your method, however I wondered if it would be possible to have a central log (using the server $GLOBALS variables array) that you could send a code to (via actionscript) and it would log this code. Each time the menu loads actionscript checks the $GLOBALS array and changes the flash button colour.

3) So in short what I need is:

a) a method to change the background colour of a button using actionscript.

b) input and output method using flash and actionscript (accessing a single location on the servers variable array)

Thanks in advance,

Hope you understand.

Dom