embedding link in banner ad

[DebK404]

I'm new to Flash and I can't believe that I can't find thissue anywhere. I have a banner ad and I'd like to make the whole ad link to a URL. How do I do this? Thanks for your help!

[Tifer]

On Nov 26, 6:01 pm, "DebK404" <webforumsu...@macromedia.com> wrote:

> I'm new to Flash and I can't believe that I can't find thissue anywhere. I have a banner ad and I'd like to make the whole ad link to a URL. How do I do this? Thanks for your help!

look at getURL in your Help files in Flash. That's probably what
you're looking for if you just want to forward the user on to a link.

[aniebel]

You'll need to make an invisible button and set it to go to your URL. To do
this, create a new button and in the HIT frame place a keyframe and put a
rectangle in it that is the same size as your banner. Leave the other states of
the button blank. Then place it on the stage over your entire banner. It will
look like a translucent teal rectangle. That will not show up when your banner
is published. It's there as a guide.

Give your button an instance name. For the purpose of demonstration, let's say
you name it "inv_btn".

Then create a layer called actions or as or actionscript... whatever makes
sense to you.. and lock it. This is where your actionscript will go and locking
it will prevent you from inadvertantly placing anything on it. Select that
layer and open your actions panel. If you are using actionscript 2.0, type:

inv_btn.onRelease = function(){
getURL("http://www.yourdomain.com", "_blank");
};

If you are using AS 3.0, let me know.

[DebK404]

Hi there - Yes, I'm using Flash CS3 so I guess that I have ActionScript 3.
When I did what you explained though, I dropped the ActionScript down to the
2.0.

I was able to get the button in there. I put it on a separate layer. When
you click the banner though nothing happens. I've got two different Flash CS3
tutorial books and neither one covers this. I would have thought that this
would be quite common.

Thanks again for your help, Deb

[DebK404]

Ok - here's what I did now - using ActionScript 3

named my invisible button instance "fusion_btn"
Made a top layer called "action"
In the first keyframe, I put:

var fusion_url:URLRequest = new URLRequest("http://www.fusion2008.com");

function fusion(event:MouseEvent):void
{
navigateToURL(fusion_url, "_blank");
}

fusion_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, fusion);

***This still does not get the banner to click to fusion2008.com though.

What am I doing wrong?

[aniebel]

Hi there. I just copied and pasted your code and it worked for me. Is your hand
cursor showing up when you mouse-over the banner? If not, make sure your button
does, in fact, have an instance name.

BTW, using CS3 does not necessarily mean that you have to use AS3. In fact,
most host sites will not allow banners that have been published for anything
higher than Flash Player 7... which means no AS3. If you are in control of the
site that is hosting the banner, you should have nothing to worry about,
however.

[DebK404]

Hi Amy,
I dropped it back to AS2 and used your original code:

fusion_btn.onRelease = function(){
getURL("http://www.fusion2008.com", "_blank");
};

And.... it works!

thank you for your patience.

Deb

[aniebel]

You're welcome! Glad it worked out. :)

[icarecommunity]

Hello,

If I have an ad served by advertisers from CJ.com, would I use this same
process for adding the html/javascript that is assigned to the ad I want to
display on my stage area?

Thanks,
iCareCommunity

[aniebel]

icarecommunity, yes, you would assuming their site is set up that way. You'll
need to ask them what their specs are and if they prefer you to hard-code the
landing URL into the button event-handler or do they want you to use a click
tag. They may ask you to use a click tag if they are returning statistics to
you or your client on click-throughs.

[icarecommunity]

Aniebel,

Thank you for replying back. We recently purchased the entire CS3 suite. The
learning curve is going to take awhile but that's the fun part:)

They are sending stats back to us so we have merged this in the ActionScript
3.0 example but we are getting errors wanting the ) and the semi-colon:

fusion_url:URLRequest = new URLRequest(""<a
href="http://www.addomain.com/jl65ar-dfdfjdlskfjsdlfjdfovdf" target="_blank"
onmouseover="window.status='http://www.addomain.com';return true;"
onmouseout="window.status=' ';return true;">
<img src="http://www.addomain.com/jdfoasidfjksdnerjn;fkjs" alt="addomain.com
border="0"/></a>"");

function fusion(event:MouseEvent):void
{
navigateToURL(fusion_url, "_blank");
}

btn1.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, fusion);

[aniebel]

Are you sure the site will accept Flash Player version 9 SWFs? Most will not accept anything higher than version 7 which means you will have to use Actionscript 2.0, not 3.0.

[icarecommunity]

Thank you for that information. I will try to merge the ActionScript 2.0 with the code I have from the advertiser.

Thanks,
iCareCommunity