Tutorial on How to Create a Full Flash Website Using ActionScript
Website content is generated using a variety of script or programming formats that are suitable for the Internet. The most common web pages are made using just HTML or XHTML, which is a simplified code that uses opening and closing tags to organize the information on the page. Also popular is Adobe Flash, which is a graphics and animation program capable of producing "movie" files or .swf files. The most powerful part of Flash is in its own programming language known as ActionScript. Using ActionScript, it is possible to make an entire site almost exclusively in Flash.
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Instructions
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Design and Organize Your Site
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1
Know what your site will look like. You don't want to just jump into creating your site and "make it up as you go." Visualize the "pages" you will have, how users will navigate through your site and any features or elements, like video, you will need.
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2
Gather your web elements together in Flash using the "File" > "Import" command. Import any graphics or pictures you will be using. You may want to import large text files as well if you have them. You do not have to import video, as it is possible for ActionScript to call to external video files on the server.
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3
Organize your repeating elements on the first keyframe and first layer of your movie. Repeating elements include your navigation bar, which is probably not going to change position or look on any of your "pages". The background color or graphic (if any) is also usually a non-changing element that should be set up immediately.
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4
Implement the ActionScript code for your navigation bar now before you copy the current scene to other pages. If you are placing the code for your buttons directly on your navigation bar rather than in the frames, you can skip this Step.
The ActionScript 2 code for navigating across scenes would be:sampleButton.onRelease = myRelease;
function myRelease()
{
gotoAndPlay("label", "sceneName");
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5
Create scenes as individual web "pages" by opening your "Scenes" window (press "Shift" and "F2") and then duplicating the current scene one time for each "page" in your site. You can press the "Copy Scene" button at the bottom of the "Scenes" window to duplicate the scene you've already laid out in Step 3.
Code Your Pages
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6
Insert a stop action ("stop()") on the first frame of scene 1 to keep your movie from advancing to the other scenes automatically.
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7
Arrange your text and specific elements for scene 1 (your home page) the way you want them to appear for visitors to your website. If necessary, use code such as "nextFrame()" to advance the current scene to other frames as a way of changing the view or adding interactivity while staying on the same page.
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8
Use the "Edit Scene" button at the bottom-right of the timeline window to go to your next scene and arrange any text, graphics or elements you want. Again, unless you want this scene to flash by quickly, put a stop action ("stop()") on the first keyframe of this scene.
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9
Repeat Step 3 above for all of the scenes in your website until they've all been organized to look the way you like.
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10
Test your movie by pressing "Ctrl" and "Enter". You should be able to navigate across the various "pages" or scenes of your website successfully.
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Tips & Warnings
Full Flash websites are generally compact in size, unless you use very advanced programming methods to determine the user's browser window size and adjust the movie accordingly.
If you are using video or sound files, do not import them into your Flash site as you build it in order to save on file size and download times. Rather you can use code to have Flash import the video at runtime using the NetStream.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit internet image by peter Hires Images from Fotolia.com
