Creating a Progress Bar for Loading MP3 Files With ActionScript In Adobe Flash

The Following example loads several songs into a SWF file. A progress bar, created using the Drawing API, shows the loading progress. When the music starts and completes loading, information appears in the Output panel. For information on loading MP3 files, see Loading an MP3 file.

See The Tutorial Video

 

1. Create a new Flash document called loadSound.fla.

2. Select Frame 1 on the Timeline and type the following code in the Actions panel.

var pb_height:Number = 10;
var pb_width:Number = 100;
var pb:MovieClip = this.createEmptyMovieClip("progressBar_mc", this.getNextHighestDepth());
pb.createEmptyMovieClip("bar_mc", pb.getNextHighestDepth());
pb.createEmptyMovieClip("vBar_mc", pb.getNextHighestDepth());
pb.createEmptyMovieClip("stroke_mc", pb.getNextHighestDepth());
pb.createTextField("pos_txt", pb.getNextHighestDepth(), 0, pb_height, pb_width, 22);

pb._x = 100;
pb._y = 100;

with (pb.bar_mc) {
   beginFill(0x00FF00);
   moveTo(0, 0);
   lineTo(pb_width, 0);
   lineTo(pb_width, pb_height);
   lineTo(0, pb_height);
   lineTo(0, 0);
   endFill();
   _xscale = 0;
}
with (pb.vBar_mc) {
   lineStyle(1, 0x000000);
   moveTo(0, 0);
   lineTo(0, pb_height);
}
with (pb.stroke_mc) {
   lineStyle(3, 0x000000);
   moveTo(0, 0);
   lineTo(pb_width, 0);
   lineTo(pb_width, pb_height);
   lineTo(0, pb_height);
   lineTo(0, 0);
}

var my_interval:Number;
var my_sound:Sound = new Sound();
my_sound.onLoad = function(success:Boolean) {
   if (success) {
      trace("sound loaded");
   }
};
my_sound.onSoundComplete = function() {
   clearInterval(my_interval);
   trace("Cleared interval");
}
my_sound.loadSound("http://www.helpexamples.com/flash/sound/song2.mp3", true);
my_interval = setInterval(updateProgressBar, 100, my_sound);

function updateProgressBar(the_sound:Sound):Void {
   var pos:Number = Math.round(the_sound.position / the_sound.duration * 100);
   pb.bar_mc._xscale = pos;
   pb.vBar_mc._x = pb.bar_mc._width;
   pb.pos_txt.text = pos + "%";
}

 

3. Select Control > Test Movie to load the MP3 file and watch the progress bar.

NOTE

If you test this code a second time, the image will be cached and the progress bar will complete right away. To test multiple times, use different images and load them from an external source. A local source might cause problems with testing your application because the content loads too quickly.

For a sample source file that uses scripted animation to create a progress bar animation, tweenProgress.fla, see the Flash Samples page at www.adobe.com/go/learn_fl_samples. Download the Samples zip file and navigate to the ActionScript2.0/Tween Progressbar folder to access this sample.

For a sample source file that loads MP3 files, jukebox.fla, see the Flash Samples page at www.adobe.com/go/learn_fl_samples. Download the Samples zip file and navigate to the ComponentsAS2/Jukebox folder to access this sample. This sample demonstrates how to create a jukebox by using data types, general coding principles, and several components.

 

Note: In address http://www.helpexamples.com/flash/sound/song2.mp3, you can change to your MP3 URL.

How To Creating a Progress Animation For Loading SWF and Image Files

When you load large SWF or image files into an application, you might want to create an animation that shows the loading progress. You might create a progress bar that shows increases as the animation loads. You might also create an animation that changes as the file loads. For information on loading SWF and image files, see Loading external SWF and images files.

See The Tutorial Videos

 

 

The following example shows how to use the MovieClipLoader class and the Drawing API to show the loading progress of an image file.

 

1. Create a new Flash document called loadImage.fla.

2. Select Modify > Document, and type 700 into the width text box and 500 into the height text box to change the document's dimensions.

 

3. Select Frame 1 of the Timeline, and then type the following code in the Actions panel:

//create clips to hold your content
this.createEmptyMovieClip("progressBar_mc", 0);
progressBar_mc.createEmptyMovieClip("bar_mc", 1);
progressBar_mc.createEmptyMovieClip("stroke_mc", 2);
//use drawing methods to create a progress bar
with (progressBar_mc.stroke_mc) {
   lineStyle(0, 0x000000);
   moveTo(0, 0);
   lineTo(100, 0);
   lineTo(100, 10);
   lineTo(0, 10);
   lineTo(0, 0);
}
with (progressBar_mc.bar_mc) {
   beginFill(0xFF0000, 100);
   moveTo(0, 0);
   lineTo(100, 0);
   lineTo(100, 10);
   lineTo(0, 10);
   lineTo(0, 0);
   endFill();
   _xscale = 0;
}
progressBar_mc._x = 2;
progressBar_mc._y = 2;
// load progress
var mclListener:Object = new Object();
mclListener.onLoadStart = function(target_mc:MovieClip) {
   progressBar_mc.bar_mc._xscale = 0;
};
mclListener.onLoadProgress = function(target_mc:MovieClip, bytesLoaded:Number, bytesTotal:Number) {
   progressBar_mc.bar_mc._xscale = Math.round(bytesLoaded/bytesTotal*100);
};
mclListener.onLoadComplete = function(target_mc:MovieClip) {
   progressBar_mc.removeMovieClip();
};
mclListener.onLoadInit = function(target_mc:MovieClip) {
   target_mc._height = 500;
   target_mc._width = 700;
};
//Create a clip to hold the image.
this.createEmptyMovieClip("image_mc", 100);
var image_mcl:MovieClipLoader = new MovieClipLoader();
image_mcl.addListener(mclListener);
/* Load the image into the clip.
You can change the following URL to a SWF or another image file. */
image_mcl.loadClip("http://www.helpexamples.com/flash/images/gallery1/images/pic3.jpg", image_mc);

4. Select Control > Test Movie to see the image load and watch the progress bar.

NOTE

If you test this code a second time, the image will be cached and the progress bar will complete right away. To test multiple times, use different images and load them from an external source. A local source might cause problems with testing your application because the content loads too quickly.

For a sample source file that uses scripted animation to create a progress bar animation, tweenProgress.fla, see the Flash Samples page at www.adobe.com/go/learn_fl_samples. Download the Samples zip file and navigate to the ActionScript2.0/Tween Progressbar folder to access this sample.

For samples of photo gallery applications, see the Flash Samples page at www.adobe.com/go/learn_fl_samples. Download the Samples zip file and navigate to the ActionScript2.0/Galleries folder to access these samples:

• gallery_tree.fla



• gallery_tween.fla

These samples provide information on how to use ActionScript to control movie clips dynamically while loading image files into a SWF file.

Creating a Progress Bar to Display Data Loading Progress In Adobe Flash

To creating a progress bar to display data loading progress in adobe flash, following exercise dynamically creates a simple preloader using the Drawing application programming interface (API) and displays the loading progress for an XML document.

See The Tutorial Video

 

 

TIP

If the remote XML file loads too quickly to see the preloading effect, try uploading a larger XML file to the internet and loading that file.

1. Create a new Flash document and save it as drawapi.fla.

2. Add the following ActionScript to Frame 1 of the main Timeline:

var barWidth:Number = 200;
var barHeight:Number = 6;

this.createEmptyMovieClip("pBar_mc", 9999);
var bar:MovieClip = pBar_mc.createEmptyMovieClip("bar_mc", 10);
bar.beginFill(0xFF0000, 100);
bar.moveTo(0, 0);
bar.lineTo(barWidth, 0);
bar.lineTo(barWidth, barHeight);
bar.lineTo(0, barHeight);
bar.lineTo(0, 0);
bar.endFill();
bar._xscale = 0;

var stroke:MovieClip = pBar_mc.createEmptyMovieClip("stroke_mc", 20);
stroke.lineStyle(0, 0x000000);
stroke.moveTo(0, 0);
stroke.lineTo(barWidth, 0);
stroke.lineTo(barWidth, barHeight);
stroke.lineTo(0, barHeight);
stroke.lineTo(0, 0);

pBar_mc.createTextField("label_txt", 30, 0, barHeight, 100, 21);
pBar_mc.label_txt.autoSize = "left";
pBar_mc.label_txt.selectable = false;

pBar_mc._x = (Stage.width - pBar_mc._width) / 2;
pBar_mc._y = (Stage.height - pBar_mc._height) / 2;

var my_xml:XML = new XML();
my_xml.ignoreWhite = true;
my_xml.onLoad = function(success:Boolean) {
    pBar_mc.onEnterFrame = undefined;
    if (success) {
        trace("XML loaded successfully");
    } else {
        trace("Unable to load XML");
    }
};
my_xml.load("http://www.helpexamples.com/flash/xml/ds.xml");

pBar_mc.onEnterFrame = function() {
    var pctLoaded:Number = Math.floor(my_xml.getBytesLoaded() / my_xml.getBytesTotal() * 100);
    if (!isNaN(pctLoaded)) {
        pBar_mc.bar_mc._xscale = pctLoaded;
        pBar_mc.label_txt.text = pctLoaded + "% loaded";
        if (pctLoaded >= 100) {
            pBar_mc.onEnterFrame = undefined;
        }
    }
};

The previous code is broken down into seven sections. The first section defines the width and height of the progress bar when it is drawn on the Stage. The progress bar will be centered on the Stage in an upcoming section. The next section of code creates two movie clips, pBar_mc and bar_mc. The bar_mc movie clip is nested inside pBar_mc, and draws a red rectangle on the Stage. The bar_mc instance modifies its _xscale property as the external XML file loads from the remote website.

Next, a second movie clip is nested inside of the pBar_mc movie clip, stroke_mc. The stroke_mc movie clip draws an outline on the Stage that matches the dimensions specified by the barHeight and barWidth variables defined in the first section. The fourth section of code creates within the pBar_mc movie clip a text field that is used to display what percentage of the XML file has already loaded, similar to the label on the ProgressBar component. Next, the pBar_mc movie clip (which includes the nested bar_mc, stroke_mc, and label_txt instances) is centered on the Stage.

The sixth section of code defines a new XML object instance, which is used to load an external XML file. An onLoad event handler is defined and traces a message to the Output panel. The onLoad event handler also deletes the onEnterFrame event handler (which is defined in the next section) for the pBar_mc movie clip. The final section of code defines an onEnterFrame event handler for the pBar_mc movie clip. This event handler monitors how much of the external XML file has loaded and modifies the _xscale property for the bar_mc movie clip. First the onEnterFrame event handler calculates what percentage of the file has finished downloading. As long as the percentage of the file loaded is a valid number, the _xscale property for bar_mc is set, and the text field within pBar_mc displays what percentage of the file has loaded. If the file has completed loading (percent loaded reaches 100%) the onEnterFrame event handler is deleted so download progress is no longer monitored.

 

3. Select Control > Test Movie to test the Flash document.

As the external XML file loads, the nested bar_mc movie clip resizes to display the download progress of the XML. Once the XML file has completely loaded, the onEnterFrame event handler gets deleted so it doesn't continue to calculate the download progress. Depending on how fast the download completes, you should be able to see the bar slowly grow until the bar_mc is the same width as the stroke_mc movie clip. If the download occurs too fast, the progress bar may go from 0% to 100% too quickly, making the effect harder to see; in this case it may be necessary to try downloading a larger XML file.

 

Note: In address http://www.helpexamples.com/flash/xml/ds.xml, you can change your XML URL.

Becoming a Power Tweeter on Twitter

If you have Twitter, and right now you must becoming a Power Tweeter. How? Its simple, just follow a Twitter Guides or join with Twitter Affiliates. I have many Guides. How To Becoming a Power Tweeter on Twitter.

Read this post.

Be Proactive

Despite all of the “marketing magic” that exists on the Internet, the best way to increase your followers is still through good, old fashioned conversation. Think about it; every time someone replies to you, your Twitter handle appears in their feed, potentially exposing you to new contacts and followers. The key to being a great Twitter conversationalist is touching as many social spheres as you can.
One of the best ways to do this is to ask a question. The key with this approach is to be conversational about topics that will interest others. For interest, if your personal brand is politically charged, asking a question about health care reform will likely receive a nice response and invite several critics.

Leveraging Other Networks

Are you more active on other networks? Use it as a pathway to Twitter. If it’s a blog, mention that you’re using Twitter in a post and link to it from your profile and contact pages. If you’re on Facebook sync your tweets with your status updates or provide your Twitter handle to new people you meet. As Twitter becomes more mainstream, adding your Twitter handle to your email signature and business card has become common place. Twitter also offers a great ice breaker, “You know I saw the best article about XYZ the other day on Twitter.” Not only will you have something to talk about, but if the other person is on Twitter, they will likely ask to connect.

Tweet, Tweet - wait – Tweet

The more active you are on Twitter the more likely you are to be successful on Twitter. Every Tweet you do comes up on the Twitter Public Timeline - so upping your tweet numbers will help you appear more often.
While it benefits to drive the conversation, REMEMBER to listen. Be careful not to send too many tweets without responding and listening to what other people are saying. You will be blocked if you flood Twitter with useless information. Remember, it is about a conversation. That requires you are on topic, interesting, and responsive. For instance, during President Obama’s recent prime time press conference on health care, the #1 trending topic was the death of the Taco Bell Chihuahua. That’s the Internet for you.

Provide Value

Tweeting on a personal level is fun and for many that’s as far as it goes - but if you’re interested in growing your Twitter influence you need to provide your followers (and potential followers) with value. It’s the same principle as growing a blog - if you help enhance people’s lives in some way they are more likely to want to connect with you. As a result your conversations should ‘matter’ on some level. Sure you can throw in personal tweets and have some fun with it - but unless you’re providing something useful to people (information, entertainment, news, education etc) they probably won’t follow you for long. Essentially, Twitter is a shorter and more viral form of blogging, so the same rules actually still apply, and by constantly writing or tweeting about your expertise on a specific topic, you’ll become known for it and people will gravitate to you and follow you. If you already have a blog, then we recommend using Twitterfeed or Tweetlater, so you can syndicate your posts on Twitter automatically.

Running out of topics and relevant things to say? Sign –up for Google Alerts and Google will send you a list of recent web articles, posts, and content pertaining to whatever key words you like. If you want to be seen as a reliable source for Tennessee politics, then tell Google to push you any and all articles, videos, and blog posts that deals with that topic. The best thing about using Google Alerts is that can establish your brand around a certain topic, delivering pertinent content to your audience again and again.

If you provide a service, then let people know. We have followed more than a few computer technicians and when we needed technical questions answered, we didn’t call a 1-800 number, we went to Twitter. Users were able to help us through a variety of software issues. The more you tweet about the topic you want to be known for, the more people will remember you for it and when they need your expertise, they will contact you.

Identifying and Defining Hashtags

Twitter is a very quick and often fickle tool. Hashtags can begin trending (becoming popular) out of nowhere, leaving you scratching your head as to what it means and why it is so popular.
So, to help you stay abreast of the latest Twitter trends, we have provided three fantastic services to help you stay afloat in the ocean of tags.

Twubs: Twubs (funny name, cool service) aggregates tweets and imports pictures to help you understand the topic being discussed.

Tagalus: Tagalus is one of our favorites. Simply, it is a dictionary of sorts for hashtags. Don’t find your hashtag on their list? Add one. Simply tweet the Tagalus Twitter account and your tag will be added.

What the Trend? : If you notice something trending, simply visit this site and What the Trend? will provide a quick blurb on what’s going on.

Desktop Application

Get a Desktop (or Mobile) Client

There are a ton of web, desktop, and mobile applications available for you to feed your Twitter craving. Many make the process of tweeting very simple and easy to manage. Feel free to explore the list of them here. Simply put, desktop clients are software built specifi cally to utilize Twitter. As your Twitter community grows, these applications become increasingly important in helping you manage your account and get the most out of Twitter by ensuring you do not miss anything important.

For the purpose of this guide, we are going to focus on our favorite, TweetDeck.

TweetDeck

Once you really get into Twitter and start using it to have conversations with friends and followers, you’ll want to upgrade from the Twitter.com web interface. Using the web for tweeting becomes diffi cult when you start following a lot of people and doing things like sending and receiving replies and direct messages. The solution: Tweetdeck.

TweetDeck is an Adobe Air desktop application used to access Twitter. Tweetdeck is available FREE for the Windows and Mac operating systems. Its advantage is that it automates, syncs, and organizes your Twitter account (and Facebook account). TweetDeck creates columns for various streams of information, like Responses, Direct Messages, Friends, Hashtags, etc.

Go download it now. We’ll wait.

Once you have it downloaded and opened, you will notice that it already comes with some default columns, called panes.

Default Panes:
• All Tweets - All the people that you are following.
• Replies - All @ messages sent to your username.
• Direct Messages - All personal d messages sent to your username.

Panes can be added, deleted, and moved. To move a pane, simply use the arrow at the bottom of each one. To delete, simply click on the trashcan icon under each pane. To add a pane, use TweetDeck’s set of useful icons on the top-left of your screen.

Integrated Features:

Search - The search used by Tweetdeck is http://search.twitter.com All twitter users can be searched and the results open up in a new pane. Notice in the image above that we have run a search for #Majority. This helps us see and respond to everyone using that tag.

Twitscoop - Twitscoop reports the hot trends on Twitter and also lists the top 10 keywords.

12 Seconds - 12 Seconds is an online service for video status updates. Much like Twitter, with 12 Seconds, you can update your followers with video messages. While not nearly as popular as Twitter, it may offer a unique experience in the future.

Groups - Groups allows you to organize your followers into manageable chunks. Simply click the Groups button and begin adding people. This is especially helpful if you have an organization or group of friends you want to set apart from your larger list of friends. Some interesting ideas for groups include location, political bias, organization, and power tweeters.

Settings and Preferences - Tweetdeck contains a limited number of settings and preferences. Play around with them and see what you come up with.

Refresh - Refresh is a manual update of tweets if you don’t want to wait for the application to update. Doing this too frequently can cause you to exceed the API limit (limit on how many times you can access the system – sets a cap on traffic).

Single Column View - This setting allows you to reduce the application to the leftmost pane. A popular use for this is to reduce the amount of space the application takes or if you are at work you may want to only monitor replies.

Tweets/Alerts - This is used to set notifications and sounds.

Colors/Fonts - If you don’t like the default black and gray, you can change the color scheme.

Tweeting Made Easy
Along with simple to use management tools for your community, TweetDeck makes the tweeting process as easy as possible. There are several convenient tools built right in that will help you become a power tweeter in no time.

1. URL Shortener – This fantastic tool allows you to shrink any URL on the web. Simply place the link in the space provided to the left and click the button. The URL will be automatically shrunk and placed into the space above, ready to be sent.

2. Photo Upload – This button makes uploading an image from your computer extremely easy.

3. Tweet Shrinker – There will be times that you just can’t put your thoughts into 140 characters. That is where this nifty little button comes in. Clicking this button allows
TweetDeck to fi nd spaces and words that can be shrunk without losing the tweet’s meaning.

4. Translator – This translator button is becoming increasingly useful as Twitter becomes the dominant communication tool for amateur journalists from around the country.

5. Recent Hashtags – This button displays a list of your most recent #hashtags, ensuring you will always have them available.

**TweetDeck also offers a fantastic iPhone application that syncs with your desktop application. You can now take Twitter with you wherever you go.**

Uploading Pictures

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then we are going to show you how to say a lot with only 140 characters. Unfortunately, Twitter does not provide a built-in way to attach images to your tweets. So, like many of the unique and fun features you see on Twitter, we have to turn to third party applications. There are a whole host of applications that make it easy to share pictures with the Twitosphere. But, we are only going to focus on our runaway favorite, Twitpic.

Twitpic is currently the largest and most popular image sharing service for Twitter. Twitpic has long been a favorite among celebrities and received a lot of attention in January when some of the first images of the Miracle on the Hudson were shared via Twitpic. Services like Twitpic add a new level of personalization to your tweets. American Majority has long used its Twitpic account to bring coverage of our trainings and Tea Party protests.

One of the best things about Twitpic is that once you start an account, you are provided with an email address. This means that you are no longer bound to your computer. Simply take a picture with your smartphone and send to the email provided by Twitpic. Whatever you type in the subject line will be posted to your Twitter account, as well as a link to your image. If you are using a #hashtag, remember to include that in the subject line as well.

All of your Twitpic images will be stored online at your Twitpic account, so you can reference them in a blog post or share them with friends when you get back to a computer. As a Twittivist, photographic evidence can be a powerful tool to inspire action. At American Majority, we insist that our staff use Twitpic as much as possible. Photo sharing has become wildly popular on the web and good activists know how to utilize the mediums of their day. Documenting your efforts through Twitpic both inspires and teaches others.

Flickr Comes to Twitter

Most of you likely already know about Flickr, the web’s most popular photo sharing site. But what you might not know is that Flickr has recently decided to jump into the Twitosphere. Similar to Twitpic, Flickr offers a special email address designed for your account. With Flickr, you can befriend other users and even create special groups to share your photos.

sharing videos

Twitvid.com

So pictures are nice, but maybe you really want to make a statement with video? Well, at American Majority we are beginning to play around with a great video sharing service called Twitvid.com. Much like Twitpic – discussed above – Twitvid allows you to create a free account to share your videos on Twitter. Not only can you upload videos from your computer, but Twitvid also provides you with a free email account so you can send videos via your new iPhone 3GS or Flip camcorder (if you don’t have a Flip, we HIGHLY suggest looking into it).
In addition to Twitter, Twitvid.com will send your video to YouTube and your Facebook page. Twitvid is yet another powerful way to share your experiences with thousands of people in the click of a button.

Learning Adobe Flash CS4 Professional Part 2

Now, I will learn what I know about Adobe Flash CS4. This tricks, I will learn about Drawing Tool, How to Selecting Object, and many more. Flash CS4 is the best software for making Flash, there’s many same software like Flash CS4, but Flash CS4 is the right choice. So, please follow step by step to make your is Master of Flash.

 

Drawing Tools
Before creating Flash animations you need to be aware of the different Drawing Tools that Flash provides. You’ve already used the oval, rectangle and line tools. This chapter will concentrate on some of the other drawing tools and techniques that are available in Flash.

Cookie Cutting

Cookie Cutting causes one object to replace part or all of another object when it is placed over the first object. Most vector drawing programs keep each drawn object as a
separate entity, but Flash treats objects differently. The object that is drawn first is at the back of the stage. The next object that is drawn is stacked above the first and any part of the first object that is covered by the second is erased. Flash uses Cookie Cutting to help reduce the size of files.

1. Load Flash and create a new FLASH FILE (ACTIONSCRIPT 3.0) or close the current file
and start a new FLASH FILE.

 

 

 

 

 

 

8. The remaining part of the oval border should still be selected, press the DELETE bkey to remove it.

 

Selecting Objects
As you have seen, when you draw circles or rectangles they have both a border and a fill section. There are a number of ways of selecting each.

 

 

 

4. Select UNDO by pressing CTRL+Z or COMMAND+Z to return the border to the fill.

 

7. Try moving the object and both the fill and border should move.
8. Press the DELETE key to delete the half moon shape.

 

The Selection Tool
You have used the SELECTION TOOL to select or move shapes. It can also be used to modify shapes.

 

 

 

 

6. You can break lines that intersect at a corner into two. If the line is straight the two created lines will be straight. If the line is curved the two created lines will be curved.

 

9. Double click on the centre of the shape and delete it.

 

Flash Exercise 2-1

1. Draw a coloured rectangle on the screen.
2. Click on the SELECTION TOOL and click outside the rectangle to set it.
3. Use the SELECTION TOOL to convert the rectangle into a simple bowl (you can use the following diagram as a guide). The line thickness of the top and base can be increased using the STROKE SIZE slider or box in the PROPERTIES panel once the shape is complete.

 

Rounded Rectangles
You’ve drawn rectangles and converted them to have curves. Flash also allows you to draw rounded rectangles directly.

1. Delete any shapes from the screen.

 

 

 

 

 

7. Select the SELECTION TOOL, drag a frame around the rectangles and press the
DELETE key to delete them.