Table of Contents

2.6 Loading External Variables

While most variables are created directly inside Flash, it's also common to load variables from an external text file, server script, or web page. Loading external variables does not mean simply assigning a value from an external source to existing variables. Loading external variables actually creates new variables at runtime. The following entries in the ActionScript Language Reference explain various variable-loading techniques:

• LoadVars

• loadVariables( )

• fscommand( )

Additionally, in some browsers, JavaScript can set a variable in Flash at runtime using the syntax:

movieObj.SetVariable("/someClip:firstName", "Colin");

where movieObj is an object reference to the Flash movie embedded in the page. This technique works only in the following browsers:

• Internet Explorer on Windows

• Netscape 4 on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux

• Netscape 6.2 with Flash Player 6.0.40.0 (or higher) on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux

For complete details, see:

http://www.moock.org/webdesign/flash/fscommand/

Similarly, an HTML document's <OBJECT> and <EMBED> tags can create variables in a Flash movie, when the movie initially loads, via the FlashVars parameter or a query string. Variables passed to a Flash movie via FlashVars or a query string must be URL-encoded according to the rules described in the LoadVars class in the Language Reference. The following code uses the FlashVars parameter to create the variables authorName and bookName with the values "Colin Moock" and "ASDG" on the main timeline of a movie called main.swf:

<OBJECT classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"
 CODEBASE="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab"
 WIDTH="550"
 HEIGHT="400">
 <PARAM NAME=movie VALUE="main.swf">
 <PARAM NAME=FlashVars VALUE="authorName=Colin+Moock&bookName=ASDG">
   
 <EMBED src="main.swf" 
 FlashVars="authorName=Colin+Moock&bookName=ASDG"
 WIDTH="550" 
 HEIGHT="400" 
 TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash"
 PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">
 </EMBED>
</OBJECT>

The FlashVars parameter requires Flash Player 6 or later and can pass a maximum of 63 KB of data to Flash. To pass data from HTML to earlier Flash Players, append the parameters to the URL of the .swf filename, as shown in the following example. In this case, the data transfer limit depends on the web server.

<OBJECT classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"
 codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab"
 WIDTH="550"
 HEIGHT="400">
 <PARAM NAME=movie VALUE="main.swf?authorName=Colin+Moock">
   
 <EMBED src="main.swf?authorName=Colin+Moock" 
 WIDTH="550" 
 HEIGHT="400" 
 TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash"
 PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">
 </EMBED>
</OBJECT>

The passed variables are always created on the movie's main timeline. There is no direct way to set variables in a nested movie clip using FlashVars or a query string. See Appendix H for more details on the <OBJECT> and <EMBED> tags.

Table of Contents