Life of a Glasgow Flash Developer

Using the ExternalInterface in AS3 it’s never been easier to trigger Javascript functions on your page that holds your swf.
Previously with AS2 and below We would have used the getURL(”javascript:yourFunction();”) or
fscommand(”messagebox”, “Message box called from within Flash.”)

I was asked on the forums today how this would be done in AS3.

After quickly looking up ExternalInterface in the flash Doc’s I was able to through together a quick working example.
A working example can be seen here.

Here is the code:

For the past couple of months I’ve been working very hard converting the current DOPE Awards.com flash site over to HTML. That’s not to say the Flash site is going to disappear this is more to improve SEO with the site. The main aspect of this project was to have the html version of the site as near identical of the flash site.  Looking at the DOPE Awards html version of the site i think it’s pretty close and I hope you think so to.

Coming from a flash background of 8+ years this certainly was going to be a challenge. Well a few months later and it is finished. The site fully conforms to W3C and is also cross browser compatible on most popular browsers and even IE8.

Dope Flash website awards

Be sure to check out DOPE Awards.com as there is some great new features coming it’s way soon.  Also if you think you have a site Dope Awards worthy then why not get it posted.

With the Simple flash AS3 contact form recently seeing over 5000 downloads I’ve decided to add a new one.

Bit better looking than the last with help file and all code commented

Included are:

• contactForm.fla (Flash 8 )/contactForm.fla (Flash 9 )
• caurina tweener classes AS2/caurina tweener classes AS3
• contact.php
• kharon4a_mini font
• index.html
• contactForm.swf
• AC_RunActiveContent.js

Features:

• Three different sized forms
• All fields validation
• Email validation
• No reference to root. Simply drag the required form on to your project from the library
• Courtesy thank you email sent to the form submitter, can be turned off
• IP address capture and display link to ip look up tools in sent email
• Nicely formatted html email. Can be set to send html or none html formatted email
• Only 3 variables to be set in the php script and your good to go

Font(s) used:

• kharon4a_mini

http://www.orgdot.com/aliasfonts/

How to modify the file:

Instruction 1: Open the contact.php script and go to line 11 and add your email, sitename and your name

Once that is done you can upload the script to your server

Instruction 2: There are 3 other options found between line 16-21. $sendHtml, $sendCourtesy and $fColour

These option can be left as they are.

Instruction 3: Simply drag ‘n’ drop the required form mc from the library onto your project. Also make sure to copy over the caurina tweener classes to your project folder and the contact.php script.

The php script has been tested on a linux based server and windows dedicated server with php support.

I had to create a function where by I could avoid the button being pressed to quickly as some clicks where not being registered.

Some people will click a button as quickly as they can to see if they can break it lol.

When I get the time I am trying to learn what I can of AS3. Over the past couple of months I’ve been messing around with the google flash maps api.

Initially I was a bit overwhelmed with it but I have stuck with it and built a simple guestbook system that use’s mysql+php on the back end.

Features include:

• Custom controls
• Custom icons
• Custom markers
• Custom infoWindow
• Email notification of someone signing the guestbook
• Bad word filter
• http check on submitted url’s
• Custom right click menu
• Fullscreen toggle

Newly added features :22/05/09

• Quick zoom //  Zoom in on point
• Map Settings panel
• Enable/Disable mouseWheel scroll
• Enabled/Disable map mouse click zoom
• Hide/Show map types panel
• Hide/Show map zoom panel

And to tie it off I have also added a simple admin feature that allows use to edit/delete submissions to the guestbook.
You can login to the admin system by pressing CTRL+SHIFT this will bring up the login window. username:admin, password:admin

I just have a couple of things I want to get done before I move onto my next map experiment. Please feel free to let me know your comments.

View/sign the simple guestbook system