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Archive for May, 2009

Part 5: Adding Google Analytics tracking to the SWFAddress include

by Scott King on May.31, 2009, under ActionScript, Flash, SEO

Dynamic SEO tags for your Flash site using PHP

To include Google Analytics tracking into your deeplinked flash site configure your SWF address like this:

       <script type="text/javascript">
            var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
            document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
        </script>
        <script type="text/javascript">
            var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-XXXXX-1");
        </script>

        <script type="text/javascript" src="swfobject/swfobject.js"></script>
        <script type="text/javascript" src="swfaddress/swfaddress.js"></script>

Substitute UA-XXXXX-1 with your actual UA number (available in your Google Analytics control panel), make sure you’ve got the var pagTracker set before including the swfobject.js & swfaddress.js files.

Remove any original Google Analytics code you have in the page and you should be set.

In your Google Analytics control panel you will now see your deeplinks being tracked such as /#/page.

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Site Launch: Ocean Sound Studios

by Scott King on May.28, 2009, under ActionScript, Flash

I created this site for Ocean Sound Studio company who wanted something with advanced animations that they could update themselves, on a relatively small budget and restricted timeline (build time was around 4 days). I created this full Flash site for them with a custom CMS, featuring the ability to add new Sounds and Audio Tracks, Images and to update all of the content.

http://www.oceansoundstudios.com/

Design by the talented Aliza Nordin.

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A new banner game for GlaxoSmithKline

by Scott King on May.27, 2009, under ActionScript, Flash

This a new banner I created for Glaxo Smith Klines range of anti-smoking products, Nicabate. It is another Flash banner game, this time the classic arcade shooter “Helicopter”.

  • ActionScript2
  • TweenLite
  • ~30kb
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Part 2. Enabling back, forward and history buttons for your Flash site

by Scott King on May.22, 2009, under ActionScript, Flash, SEO

Dynamic SEO tags for your Flash site using PHP

Step 1, lets get those back buttons, forward buttons and history working in our browsers navigational bars.

This functionality relies heavily on utilizing the excellent swfaddress script which you need to download from here (http://www.asual.com/download/?swfaddress).

1. Extract the swfaddress script to the same directory that your Flash .FLA’s live in, then setup your Flash file to use swfaddress. I’ll provide a quick guide here. if you require more information no the setup of swfaddress you can view the documentation online here: http://www.asual.com/swfaddress/docs/.

2. We need to include the swfaddress javascirpt support files into our HTML, so add the following two lines:

<script type="text/javascript" src="swfobject/swfobject.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="swfaddress/swfaddress.js"></script>

So your HTML looks like:

<?php
	function getDeepLink(){
		$requestedDeepLink=curPageURL();

		$requestedDeepLink = substr($requestedDeepLink,strrpos($requestedDeepLink,":80")+3);
		if(strrpos($requestedDeepLink,"/")==strlen($requestedDeepLink)-1){
			$requestedDeepLink = substr($requestedDeepLink,0,strlen($requestedDeepLink)-1);
		}
		$requestedDeepLink = substr($requestedDeepLink,strrpos($requestedDeepLink,"/"));
		$exclusions = array(".html", "/","index.php"); // URL extension exclusion list
		$requestedDeepLink = str_replace($exclusions, "", $requestedDeepLink); // remove extensions eg: "about.html" becomes "about"
	}

	function curPageURL() {
		$pageURL = 'http';
		if ($_SERVER["HTTPS"] == "on") {$pageURL .= "s";}
			$pageURL .= "://";
		if ($_SERVER["SERVER_PORT"] != "80") {
			$pageURL .= $_SERVER["SERVER_NAME"].":".$_SERVER["SERVER_PORT"].$_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"];
		} else {
			$pageURL .= $_SERVER["SERVER_NAME"].$_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"];
		}
		return $pageURL;
	}

$requestedDeepLink=getDeepLink();

$title="Home";
$description="Meta Tag Description for Home";
$keywords="Meta Tag Keywords for Home";
$inPageContent="Some altenate content for non-flash users on Home";
$noscript="Some altenate content for non-javscript users on Home";
if($requestedDeepLink=="about"){
	// SEO Tags for About Me
	$title="About Me";
	$description="Meta Tag Description for About";
	$keywords="Meta Tag Keywords for About";
	$inPageContent="Some altenate content for non-flash users on About";
	$noscript="Some altenate content for non-javscript users on About";
	$inContent=true;
}
if($requestedDeepLink=="contact"){
	// SEO Tags for Contact Us
	$title="Contact Us";
	$description="Meta Tag Description for Contact ";
	$keywords="Meta Tag Keywords for Contact ";
	$inPageContent="Some altenate content for non-flash users on Contact ";
	$noscript="Some altenate content for non-javscript users on Contact ";
	$inContent=true;
}
?>

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>
	<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
	<title><?=$preTitle." ".$title?></title>
	<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
	<meta name="Description" content="<?=$description?>">
	<meta name="Keywords" content="<?=$keywords?>">
	<script type="text/javascript" src="swfobject/swfobject.js"></script> 
	<script type="text/javascript" src="swfaddress/swfaddress.js"></script> 
</head>
<body>
	<div id="flashcontent">
		<?=$inPageContent?>
		<a href="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer">Click here</a> to download the latest flash player to view this site.
	</div>
	<script type="text/javascript">
		// <![CDATA[
		//INSERT YOUR SWF OBJECT EMBED CODE HERE
		// ]]>
	</script>
	<noscript>
		<?=$noscript?>
	</noscript>
</body>
</html>

3. Now we need to move on to setting up the actual Flash .FLA. We will need to import the swfaddress class, this is done by simply adding this ActionScript line to the first frame of your Flash .FLA's:

import com.asual.swfaddress.*;  // SWFAddress code

4a. And we need to tell swfaddress when a user clicks on a navigational item in your Flash file. We do this by adding the following code to your Flash Navigational Buttons/MovieClips:

this.onRelease = function() { 

 SWFAddress.setValue('DEEPLINK_URL'); 

//Here you can add the rest of your navigational logic, eg if you need to load a new SWF called example.swf into a MovieClip called "loaderClip", you might add the following line:

// loaderClip.loadMovie("example.swf");

}

4b. Substitute your required deeplink URL into the "DEEPLINK_URL" section. For example if this code was going on the button for your "About Me" section of your Flash site, the code would look something like:

this.onRelease = function() { 

 SWFAddress.setValue('/about-me/'); 

//Here you can add the rest of your navigational logic, eg if you need to load a new SWF called example.swf into a MovieClip called "loaderClip", you might add the following line:

// loaderClip.loadMovie("example.swf");

}

4c. You can then add your ActionScript that you would call normally to load the About Me section of your Flash movie, this might look eg if you need to load a new SWF called example.swf into a MovieClip called "loaderClip", you might add the following line:

loaderClip.loadMovie("about-me.swf");

So the code for your About Me button now looks like this:

this.onRelease = function() { 

 SWFAddress.setValue('/about-me/'); 

loaderClip.loadMovie("about-me.swf");

}

Repeat steps 4a to 4c for each of your navigational buttons. eg, your "Portfolio" section might look like this:

this.onRelease = function() { 

 SWFAddress.setValue('/my-work/portfolio/'); 

 _root.gotoAndPlay("portfolio");

 _root.breadCrumbs.text="My Work > Portfolio";

}

So now every time a user clicks on a navigational button in your Flash .SWF, the SWFAddress.setValue(); function will be called and swfaddress will create an entry in your browsers History and add the previous content section to the browsers Back button.

You can now test your Flash movie by previewing it in your browser. Now when you click on a button to load a new section of your Flash file you'll notice the browser's URL has the DEEPLINK_URL appended to the URL.

eg: from the example above, clicking the "Portfolio" section will change the URL from:

http://www.example.com

to:

http://www.example.com/#/my-work/portfolio/

or clicking our "About Me" section will produce:

http://www.example.com/#/about-me/

If you open up your browsers History bar, you may also notice some new entries going in each time you hit a your nav buttons. You may also notice that your browsers Back and Forward buttons become active but clicking on them doesnt load the previous section - but don't worry we're just about to address that.

Summary

Now we have our Flash file telling the browser each time a user clicks on a section in your Flash file. Next we need to a way for the browser to tell the Flash file that the user has clicked the Back or Forward button in the browser window.

5. Making your Back and Forward buttons work.

Tell the Flash file that the user has clicked the Back or Forward button in the browser window. We do this by adding an SWFAddress.onChange listener to our ActionScript, so copy and paste the following below the import statement we added in step 2:

import com.asual.swfaddress.*;  // SWFAddress code

SWFAddress.onChange = function() {

var sectionToLoad = SWFAddress.getValue();

}

Now, everytime a user click the Back or Forward button in the browser, this function will be called inside your Flash .SWF and the variable sectionToLoad will contain the section that the browser expects to load. For example if the user was on the "About Me" section, then clicked the Flash navigation button to load the "Portfolio" section and then hit the Browsers Back button, the sectionToLoad variable would contain the "about-me" as this is the section the Browser is trying to load.

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Part 3. Add scrollbars for small browser windows

by Scott King on May.22, 2009, under ActionScript, Flash, PHP, SEO

Dynamic SEO tags for your Flash site using PHP

For this step, we’re going to use swfforcesize, a small script which will do most of the ground work for us.

Firstly download and extract the script.

<html>
<head>
<title>Full Screen Flash How To</title>
<meta name="description" content="Google Optimized Description">
<meta name="keywords" content="Google Optimized Keywords">

<script type="text/javascript" src="swfobject.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="container">
<script type="text/javascript">
// <![CDATA[

var container = new SWFObject("[FLASH MOVIE].swf", "source", "100%", "100%", "8");

// ]]>
</script>
<noscript>
Google Optimised Description and alternate content
</noscript>
<div id="flashcontent">
More Google Optimised Descriptions and alternate content

<strong>You need to upgrade your Flash Player</strong><br>
<a href="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer">Click here</a> to download the latest flash player to view this site. <br><br>

This is replaced by the Flash content.
Place your alternate content here and users without the Flash plugin or with
Javascript turned off will see this.
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
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Part 4. Flash alertnate content, White hat usage and source code

by Scott King on May.22, 2009, under ActionScript, Flash, PHP, SEO

Dynamic SEO tags for your Flash site using PHP

Best Uses of Flash – http://mezzoblue.com/archives/2008/05/05/image_replac/
See point #2 in regards to sIFR, an ideologically similar concept to CSS image replacement, which suffers from the same potential abuse vectors. As this is a Google blog, it appears sIFR has an official blessing. Also mentioned in this article is a similar guideline to the previous one: show users and the Googlebot the same content. Sensing a theme here?

<html xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml” xml:lang=”en” lang=”en”>
<head>
<meta http-equiv=”Content-Type” content=”text/html; charset=iso-8859-1″ />
<title><?=$globalPageTitle.” “.$title?></title>
<meta http-equiv=”content-type” content=”text/html; charset=utf-8″ />
<meta name=”Description” content=”<?=$description?>”>
<meta name=”Keywords” content=”<?=$keywords?>”>

<script type=”text/javascript”>
var gaJsHost = ((“https:” == document.location.protocol) ? “https://ssl.” : “http://www.”);
document.write(unescape(“%3Cscript src=’” + gaJsHost + “google-analytics.com/ga.js’ type=’text/javascript’%3E%3C/script%3E”));
</script>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker(“UA-1694586-18″);
pageTracker._initData();
//pageTracker._trackPageview();
</script>

<script type=”text/javascript” src=”/js/swfobject.js”></script>
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”/js/swfaddress.js?tracker=pageTracker._trackPageview”></script>
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”/js/swfmacmousewheel.js”></script>
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”/js/swfforcesize.js”></script>

<style type=”text/css”>

/* hide from ie on mac \*/
html {
height: 100%;
overflow: auto;
}

#flashcontent {
position: absolute;
top: 0px;
left: 0px;
height: 100%;
width:  100%;
}
/* end hide */

body {
height: 100%;
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
background: #f2f1ed url(‘/images/bg.jpg’) center center repeat-x; margin:0px; padding:0px;
}

*{
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}

</style>
</head>
<body>
<div id=”flashcontent”>
<?=$inPageContent?>
<a href=”http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer”><img src=”/get_flash_page.gif” border=”0″></a><br>
<a href=”http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer”>Click here</a> to download the latest flash player to view this site.
</div>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
// <![CDATA[

var so = new SWFObject("/site_final7.swf", "source", "100%", "100%", "8");

so.useExpressInstall("/js/expressinstall.swf");
so.addParam("menu", "false");
so.addParam("scale", "noscale");

if( so.write("flashcontent") ){
var forcesize = new SWFForceSize(so, 975, 620);
}

SWFAddress.setValue('<?=$requestedDeepLink."/"?>'); // Trigger SWFAddress event to load correct flash section, add "/"
// ]]>
</script>
<noscript>
<?=$noscript?>
</noscript>
</body>
</html>

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GSK Nicabate “Pac Man” Game Banner

by Scott King on May.22, 2009, under Flash

This a new banner I created for Glaxo Smith Klines range of anti-smoking products, Nicabate. It is a full fledged version of the classic arcade game Pac Man built in Flash in the form of a banner. This meant that file size has to be very small, under 30kb and built in ActionScript 2 for publishing to Flash Player 7 and 8.

  • ActionScript2
  • TweenLite
  • ~30kb
  • Autoplay feature after 10seconds of inactivity
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Sanity.com.au Build Preview

by Scott King on May.07, 2009, under CSS, Design, Flash, JavaScript, SEO

This is the new Sanity.com.au revamp I am presently working on. Being a large consumer site I built the site with all best practice and progressive enhancement techniques available.

Site Preview:

http://www.scottking.com.au/portfolio/sanity.com.au/

Themed version:

http://www.scottking.com.au/portfolio/sanity.com.au/index_batman.html

Technology:

  • xHTML 1.0 Strict
  • Custom Styled Form Elements
  • sIfr Flash Font Replacement
  • jQuery Animation
  • swfObject Flash Embed
  • CSS class based Themes

Features:

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Fairfax Domain Presenter

by Scott King on May.03, 2009, under ActionScript, Design, Flash, Widgets

This was a major project developed for Fairfax Digital as a part of their Domain Real Estate brand. Fairfax required a system that allowed their Sales people to create a fully customised, interactive Slide Presentation, similar in function to a high quality Powerpoint Presentation that they could install on their Laptops and take on the road with them to client pitches. The presentations had to facilitate the download of live content and XML feeds form the web but also have an offline mode.

The solution was to build a system featuring a web-based CMS for configuring the custom Presentations that were then compiled into a Windows Desktop application. The presentation and individual slides can also be customised with personalised content allowing a user to add and remove Slides, Slide Categories, upload images, logos and branding and add custom formatted text and content. The customised Presentation could be viewed online or can be packaged up as a Windows Application and delivered to the user for download. The Windows version can then be run from the users Desktop and viewed offline at anytime.

To achieve a smooth transition from online application to offline application I built the interface level in Flash, driven by ActionScript 3 and fed all of the content, images and customisations in via XML. I then built the offline version of the interface and packaged it into a Windows app with MDM Zinc. I used network monitoring to detect if a user is online or offline, if the user is online the XML is fed directly from online Web Services. If it is offline it looks in it’s package config.xml.

Technologies:

  • Flash
  • ActionScript
  • XML
  • MDM Zinc

View the online demo:

http://www.scottking.com.au/portfolio/fairfax/domain/

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