Flash mouseover templates

[Scarab]

OK I've only had the program a few hours and I only did a cursory search but I didn't see any other messages about this...

What I would like to do would be to take a photo popup template from the galley, put it on a page and drag swf files onto the 'buttons'.

When I mouse over the button the flash is displayed on the target for the mouse over.

If you didn't understand that then go to the designs galley, double click on Butterfly photo popup and run it. Imagine that it worked with swf files as well as bitmaps. (Don't actually drop a swf file onto the thumbnails, it breaks the app.)

Also, maybe it should accept a non-animated thumbnail image (swf or bitmap) so I can specify a different static image to represent the flash animation.

I tried dropping a swf onto a thumbnail in Web Designer and broke the app (its not responding) so I usppose this post is: a bug report, a feature request, and a howto request (should someone know how to do this in Web Designer).

Background info:

I use Xara Extreme Pro 4 to make flash files. Some are static images, some are dynamic. I use them for diagrams: demonstrating air flows through bird lungs, pulmonary anatomy, you know, the usual stuff.

A large number of animations on one page gives me cpu usage rates around 20%. I think that's too high and they take up a lot of room.

Many of the diagrams illustrate different aspects of the same thing. I don't want the user to have to scroll past lots of similar diagrams to find the one they want. Mouseover thumbnails or button click thumbnails would be nicer. I could even use labelled tabs to select the flashes.

[Ross Macintosh]

If I understand you correctly...

You can use your flash content with Xara-WD by using 'placeholder' objects and then specifying the flash file you want to use the particular placeholder.

[Ross Macintosh]

I use them for diagrams: demonstrating air flows through bird lungs, pulmonary anatomy, you know, the usual stuff.

You sound like a fun guy!

[Scarab]

If I understand you correctly...

You can use your flash content with Xara-WD by using 'placeholder' objects and then specifying the flash file you want to use the particular placeholder.

That almost worked but all I got was four very small flash animations where the four thumbnails were.

I imagine that I could hack it if I knew javascript but it would be nice if Web Designer just did the right thing. Or I could do it in Flash using the Adobe editor but I don't want to pay hundreds for that.

[Ross Macintosh]

I haven't yet tried placeholders myself but I think the idea is that you make a placeholder object the size you want the content to be. So if you intend the flash lung () to be 200x200 pixels then you make the placeholder 200x200. This approach makes it relativly easy to design your page even though using placeholder content.

Regards, Ross

[Scarab]

I haven't yet tried placeholders myself but I think the idea is that you make a placeholder object the size you want the content to be. So if you intend the flash lung () to be 200x200 pixels then you make the placeholder 200x200. This approach makes it relativly easy to design your page even though using placeholder content.

Regards, Ross

I don't just want to put flash animations on pages, that's trivially easy, once you know how.

It took me about 10 seconds to fire up an empty template page, drag on a rectangle of about the right size, set colors, associate flash, press preview.

I want to do more.

I want to use swf files instead of png files on the photo objects template thumbnails.

When the page is active: I mouse over the thumbnails and the corresponding flash animation runs in the big frame.

I would also like to have separate still images for the thumbnails and only have the big flash animation running. That way I only have one flash running at a time.

I want both the power and the simplicity.

I had a look at the files generated by XWD. I don't use javascript but I can guess what it is doing. I think it puts all the big images, one on top of the other, in the same place. It tracks mouse movements over the thumbnails, its probably event driven, and makes the corresponding large image visible.

I imagine that an accomplished javascript programmer could do something similar with swf files instead of the png files that XWD generates.

On a separate but related issue: I'd also like to be able to drop a swf file onto a placeholder from windows explorer so I don't have to go through the context menu and property sheet.

[slavelle]

I just tried real quick to do what you have described. I didn't use the template, rather created from scratch. I simply made four boxes, I put a thumbnail picture in each. I then created a popup layer to correspond to each small box. I linked each small box via mouseover to popup the corresponding popup layer.

Then, on each pop up layer, I have a larger box that has a placeholder being replaced by a flash movie.

When I preview, I can hover over each of the small boxes and the flash associted in the large box will play. If I come off the small box, the flash stops. I can switch quickly back and forth between the small boxes and the flash stops/switches/plays in a reasonable response time.

I'm not sure what's missing from what you've described. Maybe there is something in the tempate and the way it's working (I haven't examined them) that is messing something up - like some softgrouping or something.

[Scarab]

Tried your suggestion and it is brilliant!

I did a quick test with a navbar, a static flash on the MouseOff layer and 4 other layers with: a labels, an inhale an exhale, and a full cyle animation.

The results were outstanding.

The presentation needs work. It needs to be obvious to the user how to use the control but I can see the potential in my mind's eye.

I have attached a zip file with my quick demo, its rough but you can see the potential. Just mouse over the nav bar.

I'm not sure what's missing from what you've described. Maybe there is something in the tempate and the way it's working (I haven't examined them) that is messing something up - like some softgrouping or something.

It uses javascript and its hard coded to look for PNGs.

I've never done any javascript before. Well I tell a lie, I once changed an 8 to a 9 in a piece of javascript to get something to work but that's my total javascript experience.

It would take more that just replacing PNG with SWF to make it work but it might not be much more. Its probably something a web developer would be able to do fairly easily.

I think it would be a power feature for XWD if there were templates for controls like these and if XWD supported dropping SWF files onto elements (if it just did the right thing instead of requireing the Web Properties / Placeholder Tab maneuver).

What do you think of the demo, or the potential of the idea?