How to add preloader to existing .swf?

[boomph]

I have some .swf movies I want to post on my website, but they don't have a preloader and I don't have the original .fla's to work from. I've built preloaders before, but usually as part of the original movie. How do you build a preloader for a separate movie without disturbing the original .swf? (The originals have audio, so importing it into another .fla is not an option, as the sound tends to drop out.) If possible, I'd also like to add a 'replay' button after the .swf has played. If it makes any difference, I intend to import everything to Dreamweaver. Canya hepp me?

Thanx,
Boomph

 

[boomph]

Just wanted to bring this back to the top again, as I really need to solve this problem ASAP! Please, O gurus of Flash, help this poor animator! Or point me to someone who might know the answer! Thanx!

Boomph

 

[oldtemp]

Boomph!
Looking into your problem, should be back with something!

;-)

 

[boomph]

Thanx a bunch, oldtemp, for looking into it! You is nice!
Boomph

 

[WhiteTiger]

what would happen if you made a preloader wait for frame 2, imported the SWF into frame 2, and did it that way?...It SHOULD wait 'till the movie in frame 2 is loaded all the way, then switch to it...does that not work?

 

[boomph]

Again, dunno if this is a terminology problem, but based on my experience, if you import an .swf into an .fla, the sound drops out. All my .swf's have sound, so this is not an option. I think the answer has to do with a "load movie" command, but I've never built a preloader to load a separate movie. Don't know how to get the 2 movies to talk to each other so that the preloader knows when the .swf is finished loading. Any ideas? Thanks!

Boomph

PS-hey WhiteTiger, how's the website coming? Does using tell-targets and movie clips help your situation? Lemme know... Flash has a lot of built-in functions to do what you want without having to create programming. Makes things a lot easier to manage.

 

[WhiteTiger]

Yea, Actually, I used some minor programming...I made the opening animation, the sections w/ the opened animation, then a closing animation after it...that is in a seperate MC...on my main page, I have 4 buttons, and when you press them the first time, it sets a variable of the opening to be true, saying the thing is opened, so if you click any of the others, it jumps right to the correct frame...then, I have a close button throughout that, and if you close it, it jumps to the closing animation part and closes it. Also, when you press the buttons, it sets a section #...section 1 2 3 or 4...once the opening animation plays, it checks the global variable 'section' and jumps to the appropriate section...I did have to use programing...

 

[oldtemp]

Boomph,
Might be on to something... Got other things to do for a while! But can you post a link to one of those swfs you would like to preload. Upload one if you would!
How many of them would you want to preload on one single Flash page? Are they roughly the same size?

Catch you later,

;-)

 

[boomph]

Thanks, oldtemp. Is there an address I could just mail you the files directly? Though I have the permission of the original owners to show these assets, I'm not comfortable posting them publicly just yet for security reasons. I wanna be careful at this stage until my site is officially posted. And ironically, of course, it is this very problem with the preloader that keeps me from posting my site in the first place! What a catch 22!

If you wish to contact me, my email address is boomph@hotmail.com. And thanks again for helping me! I could just kiss you, and I don't even know what gender you are! ;D

Boomph