How do I automatically load a page from a Flash intro?

[ozzie123]

I've created an intro Flash movie for my website and have two questions:

1) If someone wants to skip the movie and go straight to the next page in my site, how do I make this happen? I've created a "skip movie" button but am not quite suer about the code required to make the button work.
2) Once the movie has run its course, how do I automatically get the next page to show up?

I'm assuming both require Actionscript which I'm a little timid with but am slowly learning. I appreciate any help!

[kiwicolin]

Are you loading a Flash site or HTML?
Depending on as 2 or 3 it would be different.

Assuming as 2, (which I haven't written in a while) Name your button skipButton and put this on the timeline

skipButton.onRelease = function(){
getURL("http://www.mynewWepage.com")
}

[ozzie123]

Okay, this is where my novice-ness shows...

I am creating swf files for every page and loading them into Dreamweaver once complete. The entire site is in Flash though and it is my first time designing this way. I'm hoping this will be the best way of doing things.

By the way, I LOVE your How to Wow in Flash tutorials which I purchased a few months ago. I'm planning to use the method you teach in Section 2, chapter 12 (Build a Graphical Shell to Load Pages) for all the pages following the intro movie. I hope this info helps explain what I'm aiming for.

Thanks so much for the help!

[kiwicolin]

Yes you need to load the graphic shell. Its not a good practice to create a new HTML page for each swf. Defeats the purpose Although the code I gave you will work Just add the name of the HTML page into the code where I wrote myNewWebpage.com

[ozzie123]

Oh I see. So the links are created within Flash and all of my swf files will then load into the one table I create in Dreamweaver titled index.html? And when I create the skipButton in Flash, will the code then be:

skipButton.onRelease = function(){
getURL("home.swf")
}

I am also wondering how to get the intro movie to automatically load my home.swf page once it has finished running. I'm assuming this is Actionscript as well...

Thank you so much!

[kiwicolin]

no this code is to load another HTML page. The code to load a swf into another swf is in the How To wow
would either navigate the timeline or loadMovie

[ozzie123]

Sorry to be such a pest...does this look right?

skipButton.onRelease = function(){
loadMovie("home.swf")
}

[kiwicolin]

you have to define a movieclip to load it into, make an empty movie clip, name the instance loaderClip and drop it on the stage

skipButton.onRelease = function(){
loaderClip.loadMovie("home.swf")
}

[ozzie123]

Okay, I now understand - exactly like your lesson explains.

Now, this has generated another question. If I set up a primary empty movie clip ("loaderClip") on the main timeline which will load my initial intro movie and home.swf which will load directly after the intro, can I then set up another empty movie clip (say, "loaderClipinside") on the home.swf page for all the remaining pages to load into? The reason I ask is because the intro movie has no navigation. It is simply an introduction. home.swf introduces the navigation which will be used for all subsequent pages. I hope this isn't too confusing. I'm assuming that since both empty movie clips will have different instance names that they shouldn't fight with one another but I'd like to know for sure if this is correct.

[kiwicolin]

you can have as many empty clips on your stage that you want