Does anyone know of a way to dynamically incorporate an image into a Flash movie, similar to how dynamic text can be read from a text file? I know this is possible with Generator, but I'm hoping there's a way to do it without purchasing Generator.

Specifically, we have a dynamic gif that is changed weekly, and it would be nice to not have to go in and edit the Flash movie every week, but just have it reference a file name.

Thanks, Olivia

Olivia Kobelt Web designer/developer Publications The Principia (314) 434-2100, ext. 3248

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2001

Answers

This still involves some minor weekly updates from within Flash, but your main movie need not be edited:

Have a 'stub' flash file that contains nothing except the weekly changing GIF. Export this stub file to its own SWF. Then use the load movie command in Flash to load the stub SWF into a different layer. Voila...

The full flash movie that loads the stub will always be looking to load a SWF with a specific file name, so as long as each week you export the stub SWF with the same name you will only need to make this simple weekly update.

Or you could have a bunch of SWFs than only contain a single GIF and have the main Flash movie load a different one each week. You could even go a step further and have a text file that lists all of the possible SWFs and load one of them based on a random selection from the text file list.

Or you could drop 1-3 thousand bucks on Generator.

-- Skye Giordano Interactive Multimedia Designer Technisonic Studios 314. 533.1777 http://www.technisonic.com

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2001

Flash 5 allows you to use XML to dynamically change the flash content. I know you can use this to change the text. I would imagine that you should also be able to use it to dynamically change an image but I can't say for sure. Using XML is built into flash so you don't need anything else to do so.

Jeff

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2001