Passing variables to a loaded movie

[bscene]

I have a navigation bar that I have loaded into level3 of my main movie. When the user clicks one of the navigation buttons they should be taken to a specific point on the timeline of a movie that I have loaded into level2 of my main movie. Currently it will only go to the specified frame if the button is pressed a second time.

Here is the action I have for the buttons...

on (release) {
frame = "af"; // this value is different for each button
unloadMovieNum (2);
loadMovieNum ("globes.swf", 2, "GET");
}

On the first frame of my level2 movie (globes.swf), I have the following action to check for the value of "frame" and then take the appropriate action

if (frame != "") {
gotoAndPlay(frame);
} else {
gotoAndPlay("rotate");
}

I am really puzzled on how to accomplish this.
Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[oldnewbie]

You can't direct a external loaded movie to a specific frame, until you're sure it's fully loaded...

on (release) {
// this value is different for each button    
    _global.frame = "af"; 
    //unloadMovieNum (2);
    // If you keep loading your movies
    // on the same level, there's no need
    // to unload the previous movie...
    loadMovieNum ("globes.swf", 2);
    // no need for "GET"...
}

Next, on the loaded movies' first frame, try this...

stop();
this.onEnterFrame = function(){
    if(_global.frame != undefined){
        this.gotoAndPlay(_global.frame);
        delete this.onEnterFrame;
    } else {
        this.gotoAndPlay("rotate");
    }
};

 

[bscene]

Thanks very much, that solved my problem. I have one more small problem in that I need the Flash movie to be able to read the value of the "frame" variable from my query string so that the movie can start on a specified frame.

eg. index.php?frame=sp

 

[oldnewbie]

You mean in the html?

 

[bscene]

Yes. The main movie loads into

http://www.example.com/index.php

and because "frame" is undefined, globes.swf on level2 shoould stop at the frame labelled 'rotate'. If I load index.php?frame=sp, globes.swf should advance the frame labelled 'sp'.

I almost have it working now. In my PHP page I have the following code:
<param name="m1" value="main.swf?<?= "frame=".$frame ?>" />

Then on the first frame of the main movie I have the following code:
stop();

this.onEnterFrame = function(){
if(_global.frame == undefined){
_global.frame = frame;
}
};

loadMovieNum ("nav.swf", 3);
loadMovieNum ("globes.swf", 2);

It is working fine except that the first time the page loads, globes.swf does not load. This happens regardless of whether 'frames' is defined in the query string or not.

 

[oldnewbie]

If you switch the loading, which one doesn't load the first time around?

loadMovieNum ("globes.swf", 2);
loadMovieNum ("nav.swf", 3);

 

[bscene]

I switched it around and it is still globes.swf that does not load. All I need to do is refresh the page and then it loads. Needless to say I am making sure that I am not viewing a cached version each time.

 

[oldnewbie]

Wait a minute...
What does a trace ouput here...

this.onEnterFrame = function(){
    if(_global.frame == undefined){
        _global.frame = frame;
        [b]trace(_global.frame);[/b]
    }
};

 

[bscene]

an endless loop of 'undefined'