Creating a named instance of a runtime shared movieclip inside of a MC that is itself RTS (1046)

[AlexH13]

Hello,

We are creating UI for video games in Animate. That's right! We would like to have nested runtime shared library items. What I mean by that is:

A.fla defines some movieclip "share1", which is marked for export for runtime sharing.

B.fla imports "share1" as runtime shared from A.swf, and creates an instance of it in a movieclip called "share2", which is also marked for export for runtime sharing.

C.fla imports "share2" from B.swf.

We are doing this so that the "share1" moveclip can be used in many files. Let's say it is a set of icons. (it is a set of icons.)

Now, this is fine up until you give the instance of "share1" that is inside "share2" a name, let's say we call it "icon". Obviously we do this so that in the game we can reference it by name and move the timeline to the desired icon frame.

At this point, B.fla fails to publish, with error 1046: "Symbol 'share2' 1046: Type was not found or was not a compile-time constant: share1."

This scenario can easily be reproduced in a single Flash file.

1. Create a new Flash file.
2. Create a new movieclip library object.
   1. Call it "imported_icons". We are imagining importing some icons.
   2. Check "Import for runtime sharing" and enter anything in the filename field. I used "fantasy_icon_file.swf". We are imagining the icons are exported to that swf for runtime sharing, but it doesn't matter because we will never get to runtime.
   3. You will be asked if you want to continue editing the object, since it is imported. Click no. You do not want to.
3. Create another new movieclip library object.
   1. Call it "exported_icon_usage". We are imagining an object that uses the icons for something.
   2. Check "Export for runtime sharing". It doesn't matter what file you export it to; I used "fantasy_icon_usage_file.swf".
   3. Hit ok.
4. You should now be editing the new icon usage movieclip. Drag "imported_icons" into the field.
5. If you save the flash file and publish it now, it should go fine.
6. Select the imported_icons movieclip instance and give it an instance name, let's say "icon", since it shows one icon, not many.
7. Now if you try to export again, you will receive error 1046.

Here is my question: how can we make this idea work?

Is it fundamentally not possible in Flash, or is it that we have not set up our Scene/Library/Flash/AS environment correctly?

Many thanks for reading. I hope somebody can help. I have gone ahead and created a flash file matching the example steps above, but this form will not allow me to upload it. I am sorry. It does not take long to reproduce locally.

Thank you.

Alex

[AlexH13]

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[AlexH13]

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[ClayUUID]

To paraphrase...

Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use runtime shared libraries." Now they have two problems.

[iancarnation]

I have no answer (sorry), just wanted to commiserate with you and wish you luck.

From my research attempt, shared library info is pretty hard to find out here in the interwebz. Is it some kind of secret magic only found on the dark web? Or does nobody use it?

Anyhow, best of luck and please report back if you figure anything else out. Cool to hear of your use case!

[AlexH13]

Yep, I think it came in to the technology late in the day. It still seems like it would be useful for youtube/tv animators though. Maybe they don't need it to be more than one layer deep!

The documentation for RTS is here: https://helpx.adobe.com/animate/using/sharing-library-assets-across-files.html

[iancarnation]

I did read the Adobe doc, and besides that it seems like nobody else talks about it.

I did find one clip on YT of a guy demonstrating a similar instance name disappearing issue - it seemed like a recording for a bug report - no talking or further description. I tried finding it again but couldn't.

For my context, I was looking more into the author-time sharing, which ended up being a bit finicky with the 'update' linking, so I put that in the 'maybe someday if we really need it' box 🙂

Cheers and good luck!

[AlexH13]

Thanks Ian. Yes, I too haven't found much information after weeks of searching.

Yeah, the author time sharing is our less-than-ideal fallback workflow... you do get the benefit of only defining your shared assets in one place, but you also duplicate them in each shared location, so that kinda sucks for games.