at end entire movie disappears!

[ldebono]

I loaded an external movie clip into an empty mc. This movie is one frame and
contains actionscript which slides a mask across the screen masking the layers
beneath. I used "if" and then the x position of the mask to control the
movement. At the end of the script it moves everything back to the original
position and therfore starts again because the the _xpostion.

It works fine by itself but when loaded into the empty movie clip it plays
once through and then everything included the _root movie dissappears and I am
left with nothing but an empty stage. This occurs despite the stop (); at the
end of the _root movie.
(the external movie doesn't have a stop because it its only one frame that
repeats)

///////_root frame 17

_root.onEnterFrame = function() {
_root.createEmptyMovieClip("sliding_mc", 1);
sliding_mc._x = -450;
sliding_mc._y = 41;
sliding_mc._xscale = 100;
sliding_mc._yscale = 100;
sliding_mc.loadMovie("sliding-pics7.swf");
sliding_mc.setMask(slidingMask_mc);
setProperty(sliding_mc, _alpha, 0);
};


/////////_root frame 19

sliding_mc.setMask(slidingMask_mc);
setProperty(sliding_mc, _alpha, 100);
m = sliding_mc._x;
_root.sliding_mc.onEnterFrame = function() {
if (m<=-49) {
m += 100;
setProperty(sliding_mc, _x, m);
}
if (m>=-50 && m<24) {
trace(m);
trace(sliding_mc._x);
m += 15;
setProperty(sliding_mc, _x, m);
sliding_mc.play();
}
};


//////////_root frame 20

stop();

/////////external movie frame 1

_root.onEnterFrame = function() {
i = slide_mc._x;
j = slide_mc2._x;
k = slide_mc3._x;
l = slide_mc4._x;
kogan_mc.setMask(slide_mc.boxMask);
if (i>-882) {
slide_mc._x = i -= 2;
setProperty(buildings_mc, _visible, false);
setProperty(dome_mc, _visible, false);
setProperty(george2_mc, _visible, false);
flagDup = "no";

}
if (i<-880) {
if (flagDup != "yes") {
duplicateMovieClip(slide_mc, "slide_mc2", 0);
setProperty(slide_mc2, _x, -110);
setProperty(buildings_mc, _visible, true);
flagDup = "yes";
}
}

buildings_mc.setMask(slide_mc2.boxMask);
if (j>-881) {
slide_mc2._x = j -= 2;
flagDup2 = "no";
}
if (j<-881) {
if (flagDup2 != "yes") {
duplicateMovieClip(slide_mc2, "slide_mc3", 0);
setProperty(slide_mc3, _x, -110);
setProperty(dome_mc, _visible, true);
flagDup2 = "yes";
}
}

dome_mc.setMask(slide_mc3.boxMask);
if (k>-881) {
slide_mc3._x = k -= 2;
flagDup3 = "no";
}
if (k<-881) {
if (flagDup3 != "yes") {
duplicateMovieClip(slide_mc3, "slide_mc4", 0);
setProperty(slide_mc4, _x, -110);
setProperty(george2_mc, _visible, true);
flagDup3 = "yes";
}
}
george2_mc.setMask(slide_mc4.boxMask);
if (l>-881 && l<-6) {
slide_mc4._x = l -= 2;
setProperty(buildings_mc, _visible, false);

}
if (l<=-880) {
removeMovieClip (slide_mc2);
removeMovieClip (slide_mc3);
removeMovieClip (slide_mc4);
setProperty(dome_mc, _visible, false);
setProperty(george2_mc, _visible, false);
setProperty(slide_mc, _x, -111);
};
};

[Jack.]

replace all syntax ( _root. ) with ( this. )
"this" ties code to that timeline.

when you load a movie to a movieclip, the movie that loads thinks
that the timeline of the movie it has loaded into is now the path to _root.

[ldebono]

I tried just replacing the _root (s) on the main timeline to "this" and that
didn't work so I went back to the external moveclip and replaced the the
"_root.onEnterframe" with "this.onEnterframe" and then the movie clip didn't
appear in the main movie at all.

[Jack.]

on Frame 17, you run an onEnterFrame, this action will now be repeated at the
fps of your movie,
for the length of your movie, test this by adding - trace("oef running");
inside of the frame17 function

so you are continually creating a loading clip and loading sliding-pics7.swf
into it,
is this what you intended ?
if not, try -

///////_root frame 17
stop();
createEmptyMovieClip("sliding_mc", 1);
sliding_mc._x = -450;
sliding_mc._y = 41;
sliding_mc._xscale = 100;
sliding_mc._yscale = 100;
sliding_mc.loadMovie("sliding-pics7.swf");
sliding_mc.setMask(slidingMask_mc);
setProperty(sliding_mc, _alpha, 0);
this.onEnterFrame = function() {
if(sliding_mc._width > 0){ // swf has loaded
play(); // to _root frame 19
delete this.onEnterFrame;
};

if ( none of this works ) { outOf_Ideas.stop(); };

[ldebono]

Nope. Didn't work. But what i did figure out is that the part that is causing
the movie to disappear is at the end of the external movie clip. I took out
the part that said to remove the slide_mc 's and the movie just stopped at the
end instead of disappearing. I'm thinking that it does have something to do
with the fact that i refered to "_root" in the external movie clip but when I
change it to "this" the movie doesn't play in the main movie but it does when
the file is played by itself. I also took the the onEnterframe out of the 17th
frame because it wasn't neccessary. It played the same after that. I just
can't figure out why the movie won't play when I say "this.onEnterframe"!

[Jack.]

I can only suggest that you plaster traces throughout your movies,
you can now see in the output window if things are occuring as planned,
for example -

this.onEnterFrame = function(){
trace("main timeline frame no. is - "+this._currentframe)
}