Possible to control SWF through Javascript?

Question

Here's the situation:

Client wants a looping SWF file to pause for two seconds before it begins playing all over again (it's a nice build animation on a logo, but the logo doesn't stay on the screen for very long because the movie repeats so users can't see the logo for long. This is irrelevant, but good back story.)

They provided me with a SWF file, but not FLA. When I asked for the FLA I was told the hard drive that contained the FLA crashed and it cannot be retrieved. So, that is pretty much a dead-end.

Before I go and try to de-compile the SWF and all that fun stuff, I wanted to know if there was any way that this could be done with HTML and Javascript. That is:

Have the SWF loop
Pause the movie for two seconds before it restarts

What do you think?

yea, can't really do it. the flash movie needs hooks for javascript to tell it to perform actions. decompile your best bet. — JohnO
– JohnO, Commented Jan 11, 2011 at 16:46

Zoe - Save the data dump · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-05 18:52:34Z

5

This isn't easily possible with javascript, but it is very easy if you load the swf into another swf. You then have access to the main timeline of the original swf and you'd be able to control it. If you want to control a movie called targetMovie.swf you can do something like this:

var loader:Loader = new Loader();
loader.load(new URLRequest("targetMovie.swf"));
loader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onComplete);
addChild(loader);

var logoMovie:MovieClip;
function onComplete(evt:Event):void{
    logoMovie = MovieClip(loader.content);
    // call pauseMovie at end of timeline
    logoMovie.addFrameScript(logoMovie.totalFrames-1, pauseMovie);
}
function pauseMovie():void{
    logoMovie.stop();
    // delay for two seconds;
    setTimeout(function(){
      logoMovie.play();   
        }, 2000);
}

edited Jun 5, 2019 at 18:52

Zoe - Save the data dump

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answered Jan 11, 2011 at 14:59

Zevan

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2 Comments

lewiguez Over a year ago

What a good idea. I hadn't even considered creating another Flash file that loads that one in. The only downside is there is a load event so you have to provide feedback and the user has to wait. Good solution nonetheless.

lewiguez Over a year ago

Also, it should be noted that someone at work suggested importing into After Effects and outputting a SWF that way. That actually worked pretty well too.

greggreg · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-11 17:46:32Z

2

You could simulate this entirely in javascript with swfObject. You would need to time how long the animation is, add two seconds, and make that the time before the script restarts. heres a working example with the homestarrunner intro:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
    <head>
        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
        <script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4.4/jquery.min.js"></script>
        <script type="text/javascript" src="http://swfobject.googlecode.com/svn-history/r409/trunk/swfobject/swfobject.js"></script>

        <script type="text/javascript">
            $(document).ready(function(){
              startSwf()
            })

            var restartTime = 24500 //in milliseconds
            function stopSwf(){
              swfobject.removeSWF("swfLoop");
              startSwf();
            }

            function startSwf() {
              $("body").append("<div id='swfLoop'></div>");
              swfobject.createSWF({data:"http://homestarrunner.com/newintro.swf", width:400, height:300}, null, "swfLoop");
              setTimeout('stopSwf()', restartTime);
            }
        </script>
    </head>
    <body></body>
</html>

plug that in here: http://htmledit.squarefree.com/

answered Jan 11, 2011 at 17:46

greggreg

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1 Comment

lewiguez Over a year ago

I like that you used jQuery, but not sure it would be reliable enough. It could easily get out of sync if there is a delay with Flash or something like that, I feel.

Eduardo · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-23 14:40:17Z

1

Try this http://www.permadi.com/tutorial/flashjscommand/

answered Feb 23, 2011 at 14:40

Eduardo

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