how to change pages in gallery

[Dan_21]

in a picture gallery how do i make 2 pages of thumbnails contolled with a button to scroll between the pages ? i cant find a decent tutorial...

Cheers

[kglad]

the same way you made one "page" of thumbnails.

[Dan_21]

they way i have created the gallery was to draw  my master clip and have the thumbnails directly inside, then another movie clip which plays the images related to the thumbnail. So do i need to move my thumbnails inside thier own clip and then create another. Or is there i way i could draw them inside one clip have have some of them hidden and just  offset the x value to show them to create a slding effect ?

[kglad]

duplicate your master clip using the remaining thumbnails.

[Dan_21]

okay sorry to keep asking, do i just then use action script on the next page button to call the 2nd master clip to be played

thanks for your help!

Dan

[kglad]

that depends on your setup.  but you might do better to use the visible property of your master movieclips to reveal the pages.

[Dan_21]

okay what i have done is created another MC so my current structure is

MasterMC thats holds

PhotosMC

ThumbsMC

i will use a mask in the thumbsMC and _x to create my thumbnail pages.

in the thumbsMc i  have my AS which to refernce the photos in the photosMC i have

thmb1_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK,onClick);

function onClick(event:MouseEvent):void{

if(event.target == thmb1_btn)

{

MovieClip(this.parent).photosMC.gotoAndPlay("image2");

trace("link")

}

i get this error TypeError: Error #1009: Cannot access a property or method of a null object reference.

at MethodInfo-17()

when clicking on the thumbs, what am i missing here ?

[kglad]

click file/publish settings/flash and tick permit debugging.  retest your app to see the line number causing the error message.

[Dan_21]

hello,

the line causing the problem is every line in the function that points the thumbs to the photos

MovieClip(this.parent).photosMC

i should be able to access the objects inside the photosMC clip this way shouldnt i?

thanks for your help

[Ned Murphy]

MasterMC thats holds

PhotosMC

ThumbsMC

You switched between caps and no caps for the mc instance names, so be sure your code agrees with the instance names that you assigned in the properties panel.

[Dan_21]

Hello Ned, thanks for your reply.

yea sorry it was a typeo when i listed it here, all my instance names are lower case with upper caseMC

so

masterMC

photosMC

thumbsMC

but the only one i reference in my code is photosMC, the messge from the debug on each thumb brings up an error that points to MovieClip(this.parent).photosMC.gotoAndPlay("image")

in theory should this be working?

this is my function

function onClick(event:MouseEvent):void{
   
    if(event.target == thmb1_btn)

{

MovieClip (this.parent).photosMC.gotoAndPlay("image1");
trace("link")

}

}

and this code  is in masterMC-thumbsMC

and the photosMc is in the masterMc

cheers

[kglad]

if that code is in thumbsMC and you want to direct photosMC timeline, use:

MovieClip(this.parent).gotoAndPlay("image");

[Dan_21]

thanks, still the same error its does not like that line of code?

Dam this is difficult!

So how does that work? as pointing to the parent from thumbsMc takes us to masterMC which has the photosMc.

Can we access whats inside the photosMc from masterMc with out directly naming it in the code.

i hope that question makes sense lol

thank you for your time

[kglad]

case counts in flash.  and it's very confusing trying to help someone that's careless.

so, if it's thumbsMC and not thumbsMc or vice-versa, be consistant and accurate.  recheck all three instance names and recheck the typing in your actions panel.

[Dan_21]

Sorry late night last night. Every instance name is instanceMC.  I am just missing that I am typing it wrong here which  obviously does not make helping me easy sorry!

I have checked all the instance names and they are all the same, the current code following Neds advice does not use any of the instance names.

{

MovieClip(this.parent).gotoAndPlay("image");

}

That function  is written inside thumbsMC, the images to be played are inside photosMC.Both movie clips thumbsMC and photosMC are inside masterMC,masterMC sits on the main timeline.

Thanks

[Ned Murphy · Accepted solution]

The code from earlier that did include the photosMC instance name would appear to be the more correct based on what you have described.  My guess is that there is something amiss in the instance naming.  PArdon the repetition, but you'd be surprised how many people say they used the instance names after asking a couple of times and then it's found that they didn't use any.  So just to be sure that's covered... the instance names are assigned in the properties panel, correct?  They are not simply the names you've used in the library, correct?

IF that's all correct, then is there any kind of timeline transition of the photosMC before it comes into play?  If so, be sure each end of the transition holds the instance name.

[Dan_21]

Hi Ned, i have named the instances in the property panel the first white field available, it is not just the names I have given the movie clips.

timeline transition? what do you mean? The first frame in photosMC has a stop(); and each image has a label which i correspond to the function.The last frame in the movie clip i have a gotoAndPlay("image1").

This was all working fine as it should before i wanted to create two pages of thumbnails. I placed all the thumbnails and the AS in their own MC thumbsMC.

So i thought that changing the function that has been moved from inside masterMC to thumbsMC

From photosMC.gotoAndPlay to MovieClip(this.parent)photosMC.gotoAndPlay would make it work as we are now one level deeper and need to refer back to the clip in the parent ?

Thanks

[Ned Murphy]

By a timeline transition of the photosMC I mean if it is faded in or maybe moved onto the stage as part of setting up, not within itself, but as an object in its parent timeline.

What you explain as far as your changes sounds right, so I can't deduce anything from it as being wrong.  If you are still having a problem, try to find some way of making your fla file available online.  There are some free services that support doing this, I just don't know any by name offhand.

[Dan_21]

thanks Ned i could up load it to mydomain?

[Ned Murphy]

Yes, if you have your own domain, that's a good place to upload the fla.  Just provide a link to it and someone could take a look.

[Muzak]

If this is your setup:

masterMC

     - photosMC

     - thumbsMC

then thumbsMC should never (have to) access photosMC.

It should dispatch an event to which masterMC listens.

masterMC then does whatever needs to be done (like telling photosMC to do something).

[Dan_21]

so MovieClip(this.parent).gotoAndPlay

from within thumbsMC would access photosMC as wanted

cheers

[Dan_21]

http://www.simply-simple.co.uk/Surrey-florist-gallery3.fla

here is a link

cheers

[Ned Murphy]

I don't have CS4, so someone who does have it will hopefully come along and give it a look.  If no one shows up, if you save it as CS3 I can take a look.

[Dan_21]

Doh, lack of sleep is getting to me now i think i am going to git the pillow.

As you kindly advised earlier today you cant see a problem with the way in which i have explained my method of codeing, i think im  just going to except somthing is maybe currupt and start again.

thanks for your support , i have put a new file up for cs3 if you get a mo

thanks

dan

http://www.simply-simple.co.uk/Surrey-florist-gallerycs3.fla