Flash/Dreamweaver Newbie Questions

[tomstoons]

Hi everyone. I'm a newbie, so please bear with me.

I'm building my first website in Dreamweaver, but I want to create the Home
page in Flash. When the user enters the site for the first time, the Home page
will play a short animation of my logo, and then the navigation buttons will
appear at the end. The buttons will animate on rollover. However, if the user
returns to the Home Page from another page in the site, I don't want the
introductory animation to play over again; I want the user to see just the
static state of the Home Page, but with all nagivation buttons present and all
rollover behavior enabled.

So my questions are:

1. I was thinking of building this page in Flash CS3 as my index.html page,
and, upon completion of the introductory animations, using ActionScript to make
the browser jump to a similar-looking page, but without the introductory
animation, and saving that page as home.html. All the Home links througout the
website would point to this second html file instead. Does this sound like a
good way to do this?

2. If this approach is reasonable, how would I import the Flash pages into
Dreamweaver? For the index.html file, for example, would I just name the Flash
file "index.fla" and set the publish settings to generate a correspondingly
named html file?

(I must admit that I'm still not sure I understand how to integrate these two
apps when creating whole web pages with Flash.)

Thanks for any/all help!

Tom

[David Stiller]

Tom,

> When the user enters the site for the first time, the Home
> page will play a short animation of my logo, and then the
> navigation buttons will appear at the end.

Food for thought: How are you planning to incorporate these navigation
buttons into the rest of the site? You mentioned that only the home page
would be Flash-based, so are you planning to duplicate the functionality
(some of it, anyway ... the non-Flashy stuff) with HTML on the interior of
your site?

> if the user returns to the Home Page from another page in
> the site, I don't want the introductory animation to play over
> again;

For that, you'll need to use a bit of ActionScript to determine whether
or not the user has already been to the home page. By concidence, Community
MX just published a tutorial on this topic today:

http://www.communitymx.com/abstract.cfm?cid=124BC
(This is a subscription site, but this particular article is free.)

I wrote that article, so if you have questions, don't hesitate to ask.

> So my questions are:
>
> 1. I was thinking of building this page in Flash CS3 as my index.html
> page, and, upon completion of the introductory animations, using
> ActionScript to make the browser jump to a similar-looking page, but
> without the introductory animation, and saving that page as home.html.

That could be a useful alternative approach, for sure.

> All the Home links througout the website would point to this second
> html file instead. Does this sound like a good way to do this?

Yes, that's definitely a good way to go, because it means the animation
will play again for anyone who visits your site after going away. The
suggested code in my article only addresses a "play it once" approach.

> 2. If this approach is reasonable, how would I import the Flash pages
> into Dreamweaver?

Technically speaking, Flash doesn't create pages, even if it helps to
refer to Flash content in that way. Dreamweaver is a tool for creating HTML
pages, and Flash is a tool for creating multimedia content that is embedded
into HTML pages. True, you might create Flash content that completely fills
a page, but you're still dealing with an HTML "shell".

> For the index.html file, for example, would I just name the Flash file
> "index.fla" and set the publish settings to generate a correspondingly
> named html file?

Honestly, it doesn't matter what you call the Flash file. When it's
published, the Flash content will be a SWF file, and you'll use Dreamweaver
to embed your SWF(s) into your index.html file (and potentially your
index2.html file, or your home.html and home2.html files).

Ideally, you should consider making your content available to as many
viewers as possible. That means starting from the lowest common denominator
(HTML), then following the principle of "progressive enhancement" to improve
the appearance of your site with CSS, then potentially JavaScript (for
people who have JavaScript enabled) and/or Flash (for people who have the
Flash Player plugin installed), and so on.

If you Google SWFObject, you'll find a freeware JavaScript solution for
presenting Flash to people who have with plugin installed (granted, it's
fair to expect that most people do), and for presenting "plain old HTML" to
people who don't.

David Stiller
Co-author, Foundation Flash CS3 for Designers
http://tinyurl.com/2k29mj
"Luck is the residue of good design."

[tomstoons]

Wow, thanks David for taking the time to answer my questions. You cleared up a
few fuzzy areas that I've managed to harbor through three different Flash
classes. I think I'd better check out your book! :smile;

[David Stiller]

Tom,

> Wow, thanks David for taking the time to answer my questions.

Sure thing! :)

> You cleared up a few fuzzy areas that I've managed to harbor
> through three different Flash classes.

We can keep the conversation going, if you like. It's helpful to
address questions like these -- what you're calling newbie questions --
because I think many people are afraid to sound uninformed, or they're so
new they don't even *know* what questions to ask yet.

David Stiller
Co-author, The ActionScript 3.0 Quick Reference Guide
http://tinyurl.com/2s28a5

[tomstoons]

Thank you again, David. Although I've taken three classes on Flash and
ActionScript, I was having trouble conceptualizing how Flash is integrated with
web pages and HTML. One area where I got confused is when I tried to make a
distinction between having a small Flash element play on a web page vs. having
the entire page itself built in Flash. But after reading your answer, it sounds
like there really is no distinction between the two: In both instances, the
Flash element must be embedded in the HTML file. Is that right?

I also got confused about how the HTML file is generated. I had thought that,
when I "build" the entire page with Flash, that I need to generate the
corresponding HTML file through the Flash publish settings. But if I read your
answer correctly, I don't need to generate any HTML with Flash. I can just
create the HTML shell with Dreamweaver, hand-coding or any other way. Is that
right?

Again, thanks for all your help.

Tom

[David Stiller]

Tom,

> after reading your answer, it sounds like there really is no

> distinction between [having a small Flash element play on
> a web page vs. having the entire page itself built in Flash]

Speaking from a technical standpoint, that's exactly right: both
scenarios describe an HTML document that embeds one or more SWF files.
Speaking from a visual standpoint, however, the difference is naturally
significant. On the one hand, you have what feels like a regular HTML page
with a bit of multimedia content -- which is exactly what it is -- and on
the other hand, you have what feels like a fully multimedia experience.

> In both instances, the Flash element must be embedded in
> the HTML file. Is that right?

Strictly speaking, the HTML document isn't necessary -- in like fashion,
you can link directly to image files, as well -- but it's so much better to
embed your SWF(s) with HTML that I don't recommend any other approach. Why
is it better? Simply because browsers are primarily built to deal with HTML
documents. By using an HTML "container," you can provide alternate text
content, non-visible metadata, and otherwise control certain visual aspects
of the SWF, such as background color, scaling, and more. (Yes, you can also
control some of these with ActionScript, but for non-programmers, HTML is
the easiest approach.)

> I also got confused about how the HTML file is generated.
> I had thought that, when I "build" the entire page with Flash,
> that I need to generate the corresponding HTML file through
> the Flash publish settings.

Flash will do that for you as a convenience, but you can always code the
HTML in Dreamweaver -- a tool built for the task -- or code it by hand.

> if I read your answer correctly, I don't need to generate any
> HTML with Flash.

Correct.

> I can just create the HTML shell with Dreamweaver, hand-
> coding or any other way. Is that right?

Bingo!

David Stiller
Contributor, How to Cheat in Adobe Flash CS3
http://tinyurl.com/2cp6na

[tomstoons]

David, thanks for being so generous with your knowledge. That's a great help.

Tom