activeX axShockwave.loadMovie(Layer, url) ... what is layer for ?

[Andreas]

Hi All,

I am working with the shockwave activeX controll loading flash movies into
my c# applications. ( I am using falsh mx 2004 Pro) The movies themself are
working fine, so is the communication between Flash and c#, I do, however
have 2 questions.
First,
what is the Layer(int) option in the axShockwave.LoadMovie(layer, url)
for??? I have to set it, it seems like it doesn't matter what numer I use,
so what is it for, there is no other methode( I know of) that uses this
layer option. Since the documentation for this control is rather "light",
does anyone have any ideas / knowlege about it. Is there maybe a way to load
like 3 movies into layer 1, 2, 3 and then later simply switch between layers
??

Second,
and this is more of a real problem to me: I load a movie with a comboBox in
it, fill it, use it, ... all working fine ... if I reload this movie, or
load any other movie with a comboBox component in it, into the axPlayer,
(into the same layer that is) I get the effect that the colored frame
outline, drawn if you pull down the menu, is not going away after one
selects an item in the menu and the menuitself is moving up again. Kinda
like the outline of the pulldownmenu is still there. By the default theme it
is a green recatangle. Anyone know about this, has / had this problem and
knows how to solve it ? ... (If I load the movie into a new layer, it
doesn't do it, but this is not a solution I like to use)

Thanx a lot, I hope I post this in the correct newsGroups

Andreas

[Brandon Bradley]

Andreas wrote:

[snip]

> what is the Layer(int) option in the axShockwave.LoadMovie(layer, url)
> for???

This sounds like you are actually talking about levels. Levels are like
layers in html in that the higher the number the closer to the user from
the screen they are, So it allows you to set a stacking order for
content much like depths. The difference is that levels can have
external swfs or non-interlaced jpegs loaded into them at run-time like
a movie clip. Unlike a movieclip instance though levels use the origin
of the main movieclip (main timeline). I've not seen any way to move the
origin of a layer, but that is easily achieved by using the loadMovie
method and loading the content into a named instance of a placeholder
movieclip.

[snip]

> I load a movie with a comboBox in
> it, fill it, use it, ... all working fine ... if I reload this movie, or
> load any other movie with a comboBox component in it, into the axPlayer,
> (into the same layer that is) I get the effect that the colored frame
> outline, drawn if you pull down the menu [snip]

This sounds like a problem I ran into recently when loading data from a
xml file. The swf worked fine on it's own, but when I loaded it into
another movieclip using loadMovie() the comboboxes would have the
initial data but none of the rest. Or at least soon as I clicked on the
combobox I would get just the green halo effect and no additional data.

The solution that I found is to add the component to the library of the
movieclip that you are loading the second movieclip into. It doesn't
have to be on stage, just in the library. This will add to your main
movieclips size though.

I seem to recall that if the loadMovieNum() functiuon is used to load
the swf into a level instead it gets arround this issue, but have yet to
try it myself though I may in the near future.

--
Brandon Bradley
Macromedia Certified Instructor
[url]http://www.attconline.org/[/url]

[Andreas]

Hi Brandon,

thx for your reply, I did some changes and copied (replaced) the combobox
from my first movie's library into all the other libraries, and for some
reasons, it does fix the problem, thanx for this .. but only sometimes,
hehe. I still have the effect with the rectangle in some movies. I can say
that, if there is movie A1, then I load movie A2, then A3 and I copied the
components not from the UIcomponent list, but from the lib of the A1 movie
into the following A(x) movies, the effect is gone. That is what you
basically said

What I don't understand is your explanation about the levels ... well I do
understand what you're say'n, but the LoadMovie method does call it Layer,
not Level ....So maybe what you say is correct, but let me point out again,
I do load all those movies from a C-Sharp Form which contains a axShockwave
ActiveX control ... I don't load the movies within or from an other flash
movie. As far as I can tell, there is no loadMovieNum() function, I only
have .loadMovie(layer, url) and .Movie where you can say ax.Movie =
myfLash.swf; This also loads the movie into the control, but if you load
another movie into the same control, the comboboxes keep there
rectangle-outline-effect.

And if I use an always new, increasing integer for the layer variable, I get
rid of this effects, but run into resource and timeOut trouble

so if I load, into the same axControl

axMyFlash.loadMovie(0, movieA1.swf);
axMyFlash.loadMovie(1, movieB3.swf);
axMyFlash.loadMovie(2, movieA2.swf);

and so on, the effect is gone ... but I do run out of resources eventually
and into timeout's starting around layer = 300 ... so I guess I don't
replace the movies, I keep adding them to the axControl... which isn't that
good a thing to do ... there is also no method ( that I found ) that lets me
unload a movie ... or clear the ax Control, or something :(

if I use constant layer like this

axMyFlash.loadMovie(0, movieA1.swf);
axMyFlash.loadMovie(0, movieB3.swf);
axMyFlash.loadMovie(0, movieA2.swf);

I am good on the long run, but with the rectangle effect ... since you said
you didn't found any way of switching around within does levels, and if the
levels are what here is called layers ( which I can see is pos. true) .. Am
I in a death end?



"Brandon Bradley" <brandonbradley@cox.net> wrote in message
news:gsi0e.45359$3z.27700@okepread03...

> Andreas wrote:
>
> [snip]

>> what is the Layer(int) option in the axShockwave.LoadMovie(layer, url)
>> for???

>
> This sounds like you are actually talking about levels. Levels are like
> layers in html in that the higher the number the closer to the user from
> the screen they are, So it allows you to set a stacking order for content
> much like depths. The difference is that levels can have external swfs or
> non-interlaced jpegs loaded into them at run-time like a movie clip.
> Unlike a movieclip instance though levels use the origin of the main
> movieclip (main timeline). I've not seen any way to move the origin of a
> layer, but that is easily achieved by using the loadMovie method and
> loading the content into a named instance of a placeholder movieclip.
>
> [snip]

>> I load a movie with a comboBox in it, fill it, use it, ... all working
>> fine ... if I reload this movie, or load any other movie with a comboBox
>> component in it, into the axPlayer, (into the same layer that is) I get
>> the effect that the colored frame outline, drawn if you pull down the
>> menu [snip]

>
> This sounds like a problem I ran into recently when loading data from a
> xml file. The swf worked fine on it's own, but when I loaded it into
> another movieclip using loadMovie() the comboboxes would have the initial
> data but none of the rest. Or at least soon as I clicked on the combobox I
> would get just the green halo effect and no additional data.
>
> The solution that I found is to add the component to the library of the
> movieclip that you are loading the second movieclip into. It doesn't have
> to be on stage, just in the library. This will add to your main movieclips
> size though.
>
> I seem to recall that if the loadMovieNum() functiuon is used to load the
> swf into a level instead it gets arround this issue, but have yet to try
> it myself though I may in the near future.
>
> --
> Brandon Bradley
> Macromedia Certified Instructor
> [url]http://www.attconline.org/[/url]