XWD6 - Pre-loaders and Progress Bars
Like a lot of folks, I used to think that pre-loaders with percentage-already-loaded displays or indicators were carefully constructed by programmers to prevent a program from running until a particular file or files necessary to the running of the program had been loaded but come to find out that in many cases, preloaders are just tacked on to a program to distract or entertain the viewer while a program loads without regard to measuring anything and calculating exact times.
My layman's understanding of pre-loaders is that they are analagous to the opening act of stage show. The act quickly comes out on stage to keep the audience from squirming in their seats while the main act gets ready to perform. In some cases, the opening act is actually entertaining but in other cases its just something that show promoters think necessary.
Like many people who create websites nowadays, I'm not a programmer in the strict sense. I wouldn't know how to create code that precisely calculates when a website has loaded all the files it needs in order to run without skipping or failing to show images, etc. What I would do is look for some kind of prefabricated script that I could add to mywebsite.html which would allow me to adjust the time before the website actually runs. Such a program would also offer me a choice of preloader styles and allow me to customize the styles by adding my own text information and/or graphics.
O.K., I have gone to Dogpile, done a search of pre-loaders and find any number of companies offering packaged pre-loaders so this tells me that people are purchasing these and possibly adding them to websites they have created after the fact once they have discovered that they need something that will keeper viewers with short attention spans from immediately switching "the Internet channel" at the first sign of slow loading. I am seeing more and more sites with preloaders and not sites necessarily created exclusively with Flash.
In reading the forums, I note that lots of people are adding additional scripting into Xara web design program html placeholders. They are also added Flash and having the programs call (I don't know the proper word) external widgets. Logic tells me that these additions must be slowing down the loading of their websites to some degree. I know that when I change my website and then immediately go look at the changes on-line to see how the site looks, lots of images and features are missing and don't appear until some time has passed.
Questions:
1. How does one test their web site to know if they need a pre-loader?
2. How would one add a pre-loader to a completed XWD6 website after the fact?
3. If, for example, I were to create a simple Flash pre-loader of my own design in Xara Xtreme 4 or SwishMiniMax3, which I already own, how would I add myflashpreloader.html and myflashpreloader.swf to mywebsite.html or mywebsite.web?
4. Would it not be advantageous to Xara users for the company to provide a few user-configurable preloaders with its web creation software?
5. Are some web site creators using pre-loaders when pre-loaders aren't really necessary? As attention getters rather than timers?
A few reasons that I would prefer to design my own pre-loader is:
1. the ability to match pre-loader colors with those of my website
2. to show a small matching website logo in advance of the loaded site
3. to not go to the expense of purchasing additional software when I already have capable software
Unsuccessful attempts:
I created a blank page in XWD6 and moved it up so that it preceded the first page of my web site but I could not figure out how to tell the page to advance to the main page of my site once a Flash pre-loader with Progress Bar (included with SwishMiniMax3) showed 100% loaded. The 100% had no bearing in fact. It was whatever timing the pre-loader creator had scripted into the component. If I had to, I suppose I could figure out how to increase or decrease the time.
I also did not necessarily want a Xara full page loader with a white screen. My website background is black (shades of velvet Elvis paintings). All I really wanted was a small, black rectangle large enough for a progress bar with my website logo atop the bar. I'm talking maybe 1.5" in height and 3" max in width.
Surely I can't be the only one who has wondered about this but I cannot find anything in the Xara web designer forums or XWD6 Help File that discuss pre-loaders. I've looked under loader, preloader, progress bar and in the Help section specifically dealing with the creation of Flash animation.
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