Hotspots and Functions

[jmods]

Can someone point me to some documentation on how to work with functions??

Im trying to get the twitpanel to work, works great...but Ide like to add a button to hide the twitpanel if desired. How can this be accomplished in Flashificator?

I know its possible coding it- for example hiding the twitpanel off screen and when the button is pressed it slides into view and so on...but how can this be accomplished via flashificator?

seems quite difficult for something that should be relatively simple, no?


One last question does anyone know if its possible to change the background of the twit panel where the tweets are displayed?

thank you.

[thwohojr]

jmods,

First, heres a link to a Wiki page that has quite a few video FFC tutorials : http://www.flashificator.com/wiki/index.php?title=Video_Tutorials.

Second, because Functions reflect individual thoughts on how something is to be displayed they will be implemented in different manners. For example: you can make the twit panel (or anything else) slow fade, fast fade, shrink to obscurity or instantly disapper... each has its on path so you need to start experimenting.

A simple example:
1) use the FFC Twit Panel plugin to create your twit panel **IMPORTANT** when you are on the Twit Panel creation interface be sure to "check" the box that says "Render as a Hotspot"
2) Once that is done, select the twit panel tab at the bottom of the interface and the Hotspot tab at the top. (You are now looking at just a few of the options that can be changed).
3) Initially the Visible box is checked (therefore you can see the Twit Panel)
4) Uncheck the Visible box (the Twit panel is now hidden)
5) Create a new "target" hotspot that you wish to Click on to make the twit panel toggle between visible/hidden
6) Click on the Functions tab
7) Click the "make another function" button
8) Click the green spot (record)
9) Click the "twitpanel" hotspot tab at the bottom of the interface
10) Click the "hotspots" tab at the top of the interface
11) Put a checkmark in the "visible" options box (this should be unchecked because of step 4) this will make the twitpanel reappear
12) Click on the "target" hotspot tab at the bottom of the interface
13) click on the "Functions" tab at the top of the interface
14) Click the red dot to stop recording... make sure that the "generate reverse" box is checked
15) Also select the "OnClick" radio button
16) Name your Function and then click "finish"
17) You should now be back at your functions screen, with your target hotspot selected at the bottom.
18) In the Events List the OnClick radio button should be selected... under Functions attached you should see your Function name
19) Your done... Now, in the pano when you click on your target the twitpanel should toggle between appearing and diappearing

[thwohojr]

One last question does anyone know if its possible to change the background of the twit panel where the tweets are displayed?

Once you have the twit Panel rendered as a hotspot, you can make limited changes to it's visual properties via the Filters tab. In Terry's Little White Chapel it appears as though he has gone beyond that and has possibly added a semi-transparent hotspot graphic over the top of the twit panel in order to achieve vignetting (just guessing).

[jmods]

Thanks a million! figured it out with your help!

On another note...Do you know how its possible to implement the preview images in picmenu like in Tommy picmenu2 pluging? can this be done with the current picmenu or would I have to disable it and hand code it in using tommys picmenu2 plugin?

Oh and do you have any idea how the photos hotspot has been implemented by Terry in his Little White Chapel tour?

thanks!

[thwohojr]

Do you know how its possible to implement the preview images in picmenu like in Tommy picmenu2 pluging? can this be done with the current picmenu or would I have to disable it and hand code it in using tommys picmenu2 plugin?

The current FFC picmenu is a version of Tommy's picmenu2 - no need for handcoding here. You just need to "play around" with all of the options to find what you like best in the way of size, position and colors. First tip: if you select the center-top or center-bottom placements you will get a horizontal picmenu bar, everything else results in a verticle menu. You can re position any of the menus by changing their x,y coordinates.

Oh and do you have any idea how the photos hotspot has been implemented by Terry in his Little White Chapel tour?

Yes.

The basics:
1)create a background image for the "slideout" itself, create thumbnails for each image, create a "pullout tab" graphic
2)create & position the hotspot for the slideout(make note of its exact position), create & position the hotspots for the thumbnails(make note of their exact position), create & position the hotspot for the "tab"(make note of its exact position),
3)using the x,y variables slide the background and thumbnails off the stage until they are no longer visible (this will be their initial position)
4) using the x,y variables position the tab at the edge of the page (visible) (this will be its initial position)
5) create an onClick (with generate reverse) function to move the tab, background and thumbnails to the positions which you noted in Step 2
6)create functions for each of the thumbnail hotspots that will bring up the full size images

I'd recommend that you create a "test" project with just 2 panos as the base and use it to experiment with the functions. Sometimes it helps to write down the desired results and reverse engineer the steps to arrive at the desired finish. Then implement those steps in FFC. Frankly I'm still amazed at what can be accomplished by someone like me with zero coding experience. The possibilities are amazing.

[jmods]

Thanks woody!, Ill play around with your instructions and see what I come up with!
Ive had a look at the picmenu plugin but there doesnt seem to be anyway to have preview thumbnails like in tommys example....for example when you hover over one of the thumbnails from the picmenu you get a small preview in the center of the screen.....I suppose this may have to be done coding using his plugin.

thanks anyways for the help and advice!

[thwohojr]

for example when you hover over one of the thumbnails from the picmenu you get a small preview in the center of the screen.....I suppose this may have to be done coding using his plugin.

oohhh... didn't think about that side of it ... I was assuming the scrolling etc...
You can create your own pic menu using steps very similar to the ones I laid out for the Photogallery slideout. Then create an onClick load_pano function(pretty simple... Trausti has instructions to do this on this forum). So you'd have a thumbnail image, an onRollOver hotspot image, and an onClick load_pano function....
if time allows - for projects using up to 8 panos I create my own menu... beyond that I'll use the pic menu for the scrolling feature.

or you could use Tommy's plugin as you said.

[jmods]

Im trying to implement the preview function in my project. Ive used flashificator and now I want to hand code this function into the tour.

Looking at tommys plugin code Ive made a hotspot for the preview:

<!-- pano previews -->
<spot id="p1" url="files/hotspotFiles/images/image10.jpg" visible="1" alpha="0" static="1" salign="TC" align="TC" staticX="0" staticY="20" shadow="1" buttonMode="0" />

Now Im trying to implement the onOver function, so when the mouse is over the thumbnail in the picmenu the preview is visible......not working.

This is tommys code: inside picmenu

<image id="p1" text="City Hall Tower" url="../picMenu/pics/cityhall.jpg" onClick="global.goTower()" onOver="p1.alpha=1,300" onOut="p1.alpha=0,200" />

this is my picmenu code generated from flashificator:

image=|files/plugins/picMenu/JoseODonovan-2307_equi_2_cube.jpg|global.loadJoseODonovan-2307_equi_2_cube1()


So does anyone know how I could implement the onOver function? for the preview?

thanks.

[thwohojr]

jmods,

I understand your desired effect but I may not be understanding you correctly - so I'll try to break it down as I understand it.

1) If you are using Tommy's plugin that comes with FFC , I could be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure that you will not be able to get Previews to work because you would need to access the coding in the SWF file to do so

2) If you are using Tommy's plugin from his web site then follow the example coding in his TestPage1 external XML file:

Code: Select all

onClick="global.goMaria()" onOver="pic6s.visible=1" onOut="pic6s.visible=0" />
      <image id="p3" text="City Hall Tower" url="pics/cityhall.jpg"

3) You can create your own PicMenu with previews using strictly FFC (no hand coding) by creating a thumbnail image and a preview image for each pano.
Once you have those created you can got to Tourificator and create a loadpano for each pano and attach it to it's respective thumbnail image. (For this example we will call that thumbnail "pmpic1" and the preview will be "previewpic1" (which is not visible at the start). Then you create an onOver/onOut function to reveal the previewpic1 image and attach it to the pmpic1 thumbnail.
By doing things in this manner it allows you to use your imagination in placing/revealing your picmenu images wherever you choose. (you lose the scrolling effect but gain a lot of flexibility.

Sample code for the vital hotspots and functions:

Code: Select all

          RevealPreviewPic1="
            previewpic1.visible=1,500;
         "
         RevealPreviewPic1_reverse="
            previewpic1.visible=0,500;
         "
      >
         <pano
         />
         <spot
            id="deletemeifyouwant"
            url="files/hotspotFiles/images/emptyImage.png"
            depth="1"
         />
         <spot
            id="pmpic1"
            url="files/hotspotFiles/images/palette_logo_whteBackground.jpg"
            static="1"
            depth="3"
            scaleX="0.2"
            scaleY="0.2"
            staticX="10"
            staticY="-10"
            alignX="0"
            alignY="-1"
            salignX="-0.5"
            salignY="0.5"
            onClick="
               load10teeboxEdit1();
            "
            onOver="
               RevealPreviewPic1();
            "
            onOut="
               RevealPreviewPic1_reverse();
            "
         />
         <spot
            id="previewpic1"
            url="files/hotspotFiles/images/ScreenShot.png"
            visible="0"
            depth="4"
            scaleX="0.3"
            scaleY="0.3"
         />