Next, you'll insert a Flash file that plays a photographic slide show of Cafe Townsend's featured food items. The Flash file you'll insert is a flexible messaging area--or FMA--file. An FMA is a common type of Flash application that displays an informational message to the audience. The message can change based on the needs of the business. For example, if Cafe Townsend is holding a special event, the FMA could easily change (without affecting the rest of the web page) to display information about the event, instead of featured food items.
To insert the Flash FMA file, you need to insert HTML code that embeds the file in the Dreamweaver page. The easiest way to do this is to insert the SWF file (the exported Flash Movie file) into the page. When you insert a SWF file in Dreamweaver, Dreamweaver writes all of the necessary Flash HTML code for you.
With the index.html page open in the Dreamweaver Document window, click once inside the second row of the first table.
This is the table row immediately below the banner graphic you inserted in the previous section.
In the Property inspector (Window > Properties), select Center from the Horz pop-up menu, and select Middle from the Vert pop-up menu.
This places the contents of the table cell in the middle of the cell.
NOTE
If you cannot see the Vert or Horz pop-up menus, click the expander arrow in the lower-right corner of the Property inspector.
Select Insert > Media > Flash.
In the Select File dialog box, browse to the flash_fma.swf file (it's in the cafe_townsend root folder of your site), select the file, and click OK.
If the Object Tag Accessibility Attributes dialog box appears, click OK.
A Flash content placeholder, rather than a scene from the FMA itself, appears in the Document window. This is because the HTML code is "pointing" to the SWF file flash_fma.swf. When a user loads the index.html page, the browser plays the SWF file.
ABOUT...
About Flash files When you build assets in Macromedia Flash, you work in FLA files, the default file type for the Flash application. FLA files are designated by a .fla extension. For example, if you are working on an animated logo for a website, the filename of the Flash file might be animated_logo.fla.
When you've finished working on a FLA file in Flash, you must export the file to a format that can be played on the web in Flash Player. When you export FLA files in Flash, they are converted to SWF files and designated by a .swf extension. SWF files (not FLA files) play Flash content in a web browser and are the file type you must insert into a web page that you are building with Dreamweaver.
The Flash content placeholder should remain selected after you insert the SWF file, as long as you don't click anywhere else on the page.
If it's not selected, select the Flash content placeholder by clicking it.
In the Property inspector (Window > Properties), click Play.
NOTE
If you cannot see the Flash Play button, click the expander arrow in the lower-right corner of the Property inspector.
Dreamweaver plays the Flash file in the Document window, showing you what site visitors will see when they view the page in a browser.
In the Property inspector, click Stop to stop playing the Flash file.
Save the page.
Comments
godblesstx@gmail.com
said on
Oct 16, 2005
at
6:56 PM :
I don't see the food pics in the Flash file, just the text and button to the right. This didn't change when I previewed it in the browser. I have no flash needs, yet, so will look to how to fix this later.
No screen name
said on
Oct 19, 2005
at
6:39 AM :
If you can't see the flash preview, restart dreamweaver program. Should work after that.
No screen name
said on
Nov 8, 2005
at
9:58 AM :
I'd like to see the source code for flash_fma.swf. Will it be possible to send us the flash file (flash_fma.fla)?
Thanks
chucknado
said on
Nov 9, 2005
at
10:27 AM :
You can access the .fla is you have Flash 8. The file is available in the following folder in the Flash 8 application folder : \Samples and Tutorials\Tutorial Assets\cafe_townsend\completed_files\flash.
Spleener
said on
Nov 16, 2005
at
10:39 AM :
There is a bug here.. probably in the SWF file.. It does not play the pictures for me either.. Even after reboot.. I have replicated your error.
chucknado
said on
Nov 16, 2005
at
12:15 PM :
Make sure the Flash Player 8 plug-in is installed in the browser you're using. Download it at www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer8.
Spleener
said on
Nov 16, 2005
at
12:28 PM :
I figured out the problem.. If you follow the Help directions exactly, the file listed in properties is ../../flash_fma.swf. (instead of flash_fma.swf as is dipected in the help exampe) This WILL NOT display the images. If one simply drags flash_fma.swf from the files window into the table cell, it will work. Another option is Insert-Media-Flash.. THEN MAKE SURE THE URL is correct in the "Select File" diologue box. (Chose root or "same as document") It appears the default URL is ../../ When in fact the .swf is in the same folder as index.html or in my case test.html. Regardless.. It now works..
No screen name
said on
Aug 5, 2006
at
12:10 PM :
If you've downloaded IE7 (as I have), I had the same problem with the Play button not being enabled. As Chuck says above, I had to upgrade my Flash player before this would work. The current version is Flash9, I believe. After doing this, it worked for me.
UrbanNomad60
said on
Nov 24, 2006
at
3:15 AM :
OK why is it, when I've set this up to call from a folder of images within the same folder as the ,swf file on the Mac platform, that it then doesn't work on IE6 on Win XPsp2 is it the / rather than a \ in the path? what works universally?
No screen name
said on
Apr 11, 2007
at
3:30 PM :
I had the same problem with the images not showing in the flash. What I found is the index was in a separate folder, local site, and when I copied the files from the tutorial to the local site folder the images did show when running the flash.
AClark2314
said on
Apr 19, 2007
at
6:23 AM :
I am trying to insert a flash file into my page and have following the steps from the Cafe Townsend's tutorial called "Insert and play a Flash file". It works perfectly when played locally but when I upload the files and try to view live, all I get is a blank screen. Has anyone else run into this?
No screen name
said on
May 25, 2007
at
10:47 PM :
Did you figure that out? I'm having the same problem...
Comments
godblesstx@gmail.com said on Oct 16, 2005 at 6:56 PM : No screen name said on Oct 19, 2005 at 6:39 AM : No screen name said on Nov 8, 2005 at 9:58 AM :