flash bookmarking?
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- mosko
After finishing a project for a band and after getting lots of feedback from users I’m really in need of a solution. The problem is with repeated users of the site. I would like users to be able to access (and bookmark) certain sections of the website without having to go through a main navigation page. This is really important for sections like tour dates and buying merchandise.
I know the easiest solution would be to simply break the site up by its sections into individual html pages instead of loading swf files into 1 movie embedded in a single html page. But this really blows the continuity flash offers out the window (and makes it more difficult to use the xml files that store the site’s content). I would love a more elegant solution like changing the url of a browser window -- when the user bookmarks the page, it will store a unique url and this would be parsed when accessing the site the next time the bookmark was called. Has anyone has similar concerns relating to sites make entirely in flash? Any solutions?
Thanks!
- corin0
the only thing i can think of is to put in one of them old javascript bookmark this page buttons that frame sistes use, not very elegant though, hope someone else comes up with something more creative
- mosko0
corin-
guess i wasn't totally clear. i'm not looking for a "bookmark this page" link but rather a way to bookmark certain sections of a flash site the way you would bookmark pages of your favorites articles on a content site.
- 187LockDown0
There have been alot of talk of being able to do this. There are some ideas out there, but I wouldn't expect to be able to do any of it simply with this version of Flash.
- unknown0
This is one of the possible solutions:
You place a global changeable variable in your main flash movie that will be updated from within certain sections as they go through the site. You will have a button on every section that when clicked will update that global variable with the ID from that section. Then you create a cookie on the users machine with the value of that global variable (section that they bookmarked). When your main movie loads (when they hit the site again) you will check in AS for the cookie, check the value of the stored global variable and point the main movie to go the section they bookmarked.
The whole thing can be extended even further by storing the array in the cookie that holds the values of the multiple bookmarks, so you can add a small popup window as soon as your flash file loads and offer them to select where they want to go (I mean to go to sections they bookmarked).
Hope this helps.
Cheers.
- unfittoprint0
In my opinion the best way is to use PHP (and/or MySQL). Regarding a certain section of the site the user would be given a URL adress like http:/www.mysite.com/main.php?se...
when inserted in the adress bar (changing the FLash movies prameters directly) or typed in some field in the Flash Movie it would retrieve the desired section/data.
- mosko0
These ideas (the cookie and php) are really good but is there a way to change the section id from flash. What i mean is that it needs to functionality both ways. it's not enough for a user to be able to go to a certain flash file by sectionid=4. i need to have the url updated when the user goes from sectionid=4 to say sectionid=3.
I think the cookie idea can address this concern but i like to stay away from client side things as much as possible (hence the reason to use only flash).
- unknown0
mosko,
can you give us a link so we can see what you exactly mean by changing the url?
Btw, you can do the combined approach of PHP suggestion and my own, but instead of using cookies you store the values within Access or MySQL db. That way as they click their movement and selection will be written within the db instead of their computers. This is the best, but most complicated method, since it really doesn't matter whether they have cookies enabled since it's processed from the server side.
- rh0
Not to get off topic, but none of you have found named anchor tags in Flash MX effective, have you?
- mosko0
in my opinion anchor tags are useless. they lack any real complexities.
as for an example the band site is down but here is another site i made. it uses the same xml backend and process of loading swf files.
http://www.x-ceptor.com/quark.ht…
thanks for the help on this one so far. i would love to this solved.
- monNom0
I was just about to say, the named anchor tags should do exactly what you need...
why wouldn't they work?
they were designed to allow back button and bookmarking functionality.
- mosko0
i read about the back button and forward button but they only seem to allow you jump to locations in a timeline of a particular swf. they don't seem to allow a good solution where multiple swf files need to be loaded. plus i couldn't find anything under bookmark support. a bookmark works off the url and it's my understanding (could be wrong) that flash's anchor points don't change the url.
- MX_OnD0
local shared object......
why go to the lengths of making things complicated when Flash can do everything by itself??
Set a local shared object which you then update according to where a user is in your movie then you check for the LSO next time he comes onto the site....
and can direct the movie to the relevant place....simplicity itself!
- mosko0
sounds good but what if you want to use regular browser bookmark function. if i use this method then i have to reinvent the wheel (i think) and create a bookmark button in my movie. i want to leave it up to the user what section they want to come back to.
- MX_OnD0
then set the local shared object on a user based event instead......... you can leave it up to the user or do it automatically.....either waay it would work. I don't think you are reinventing the wheel as this is only relevant to Flash and actually makes things less complex by keeping everything in Flash.....
- mosko0
you idea will work but is there any way to also incorporate the standard url field. for example if someone wants to email a link of tour dates to a friend i would the ability to load the flash site at the tour dates section (in other words the local shared object won't always exist). i guess i would probably need to use some scripting to get the url and load files according. anyways...thanks for the help on this one. i'll definetly give lso's a go. just wish i could use standard bookmarks, too.
- Seph0
There is a way of reading values after ? from the URL.
s = unescape (_url);
ueURL = s.substr(s.indexOf ("?")+1,s.length);That way you can set your flash to go to certain areas depending on the value after the query ? in the URL.
Clear as mud? good.
- unfittoprint0
"local shared object......
why go to the lengths of making things complicated when Flash can do everything by itself?? "
Damn. I forgot about this new feature.
It's problably the best way, if you want to do everything client-side.
- mosko0
seph- your mud is pretty good. one more question....is there a way i can add variables to a url without changing the current location of a page?
then i could do everything i want by your method.