June 29, 2001 - Dimming a Flash Movie | WebReference

June 29, 2001 - Dimming a Flash Movie

Yehuda Shiran June 29, 2001
Dimming a Flash Movie
Tips: June 2001

Yehuda Shiran, Ph.D.
Doc JavaScript

In some of your applications you may need to use Flash movies and JavaScript directly, without any prepackaged APIs such as FlashSound JavaScript API. You will enjoy more features, methods, and properties, but you'll have to take care of all the tiny details that are taken for granted when using FlashSound API, for example.

One of the "tiny" details is embedding the Flash object. The JavaScript file flashcheck2.js does exactly this, as well as other stuff. For example, it checks whether a Flash player exists (Flash plug-in or ActiveX control), and whether its version is higher than the minimum required by the application.

Use the TSetProperty() Flash method to set attributes of the Flash movie. One of the properties is ALPHA. You may both set and get this property. The ALPHA property designates the color intensity level. A value of 100 means an original color intensity (100%). You can set and get Flash properties by their sequence numbers. You get a property like this:

  mySwf.TGetProperty(timeline, propertyNumber);
And you set it as follows:

  mySwf.TSetProperty(timeline, propertyNumber, value)
The ALPHA property is no. 6, so you get its value by going:

  mySwf.TGetProperty(timeline, 6);
And you set it in a similar way:

  mySwf.TSetProperty(timeline, 6, value);
Play the following movie by clicking the Play link. Get the ALPHA of the movie by clicking the Get ALPHA link. Dim the movie's colors by 50% by clicking the Set ALPHA link:

Rewind | Play | Get ALPHA | Set ALPHA

Here is the source code:

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript" SRC="flashcheck2.js"></SCRIPT>
<A href="javascript://" onclick="javascript:mySwf2.Rewind(); return false">Rewind</A> | 
<A href="javascript://" onclick="javascript:mySwf2.Play(); return false">Play</A> | 
<A href="javascript://" onclick="javascript:alert(mySwf2.TGetProperty('/', 6)); return false">Get ALPHA</A> | 
<A href="javascript://" onclick="javascript:mySwf2.TSetProperty('/', 6, 50); return false">Set ALPHA</A>
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
  var mySwf2 = Flash_embedSWF("opener.swf", "opener");
</SCRIPT>