Simple Navigation Question

[Nicholas]

Hi all, I just have a question regarding navigation in a flash only website. Is there a way to use the back button on the browser to navigate throughout your website rather than have it go back to the beginning?

[Nicholas]

Hi all, I just have a question regarding navigation in a flash only website. Is there a way to use the back button on the browser to navigate throughout your website rather than have it go back to the beginning?

[Egg Bramhill]

I don't think there's such a method currently but I believe it will be possible with Flash MX.
You can always create these buttons yourself however, with actions such as go to label... or goto frame..
Maybe someone with a greater knowledge of Flash will respond with a helpful tip.
Egg

[Webfox]

I agree with Egg... You should realize that a Flash animation is an object embeded inside an HTML page, so, if you go to another "page" what you are doing is going to another frame or movie clip inside the same object. You're not loading a new HTML page, and that's the reason why you're not able to use the 'Back' button of your browser for such things...
A good Flash programmer will always give you the necessary buttons for making the navigation an easy task inside his site.
The only one possibility of doing what you want, is to split the flash animation into parts and put them in sparated HTML files, which be loaded as usual... But I think is not elegant for a Flash site.

Hope this could help you.
WebFox

[pknair]

I loathe ever suggesting frames, but it might be a workaround. Have an 'invisible' frame (ie-a one-pixel-high or one-pixel-wide frame) with an HTML page in there. The other frame contains an HTML page which forwards the user to the page containing the Flash movie (call this the refresher page). On each click, scene change, or navigational jump within the Flash movie, set a variable in the 'invisible' frame. When the user hits the back button, the refresher page will forward to the Flash movie page again, but the Flash movie can then read the variable in the hidden frame and go to the appropriate place.

The other option is to get rid of the hidden frame as the storage container for that variable, and instead use something server-side. For example, Flash can use a PHP script to set a variable in a text file on the server. When the user hits the back button, it goes to the refresher page and then goes back to the movie - which now reads the value from the text file on the server and goes to the appropriate place.

All of this is rather nasty, and can lead to treacherous code, so I don't really recommend either option - but both can work if needs be.

Egg, you mentioned there was a way to do this in Flash MX without worrying about setting server or client variables? Got any further info on this?


hth,
Deep (just a guy)
<font face="arial" size="2">
Pradeep Kumar Nair, B.Math
Interactive Developer
http://www.bluespark.com
ICQ: 39102360
</font>

[dainbramaged]

From the Flash MX help files:
Using named anchors:

Named anchors simplify navigation in Flash movies by letting viewers use the Forward and Back buttons in a browser to jump from frame to frame or scene to scene. Named anchor keyframes are indicated in the Timeline by an anchor icon. If you prefer to have Flash automatically make the first keyframe of each scene a named anchor, see Setting preferences in Flash.

A named anchor keyframe in Scene 1

To take advantage of named anchor keyframes in your final Flash movie, select the Flash w/ Named Anchors option in the Template pop-up menu on the HTML tab of the Publish Settings dialog box. For more information on the Publish Settings dialog box, see Choosing publish settings Flash movie format.

To use Flash movies with named anchors, you must be running Flash Player 6 on your browser.

Note: If you save a document with named anchor keyframes as a Flash 5 document, the named anchor keyframes are converted to regular labeled frames.

To make a selected keyframe a named anchor:

1 If the Property inspector is not visible, choose Window > Properties.

2 Type a name for the keyframe in the text box in the Property inspector.

3 Select the Named Anchor option.

To make a named anchor keyframe to a regular keyframe:

1 Select the named anchor keyframe in the Timeline.

2 Deselect the Named Anchor option in the Property inspector.

hth, Dain.

DainBramaged
www.dainbramagedesign.com

[Nicholas]

Hey thank you all very much
Nick

[pknair]

Hey Dain,

Do named anchors somehow allow a user to hit the browser's "Back" button and jump to the anchor of the previous section of the Flash movie? Or does the "Back" button still send the user to the previous HTML (or JSP, or ASP, or PHP, etc.) page that the user viewed before coming to the Flash movie? It was my understanding that named anchors just simplified navigation, but didn't actually have anything to do with integrated browser functions like the "Back" and "Forward" buttons. Or am I totally off base, here?


hth,
Deep (just a guy)
<font face="arial" size="2">
Pradeep Kumar Nair, B.Math
Interactive Developer
http://www.bluespark.com
ICQ: 39102360
</font>