Yet Another Flash MX Loader - Page 11

Adding text feedback

Time to add some text feedback. Given that we have all the info in our loadedIndicatorFrame function, I'm going to break a programming rule that says I should put the update text commands in its own function. My way will give us a slightly smaller loader and the script is small enough to not cause too many problems.

Here's our new function:

function loadedIndicatorFrame() {
    var newFrame = int((_parent.getBytesLoaded() / _parent.getBytesTotal()) * 65) + 2;
    loadedText = int(_parent.getBytesLoaded() / 1024) + "kb of " + int(_parent.getBytesTotal() / 1024) + "kb";
    return newFrame;
}

No other changes here. Time to test it. You should see the numbers ticking up until the parent movie starts to play.

Divide bytes by 1024 to get kb. The int function gets rid of all the screwy decimal places caused by the division.

Now how does that get into the text box in our loader? Remember that we set the Var field for the Dynamic Text object to be loadedText? That creates a variable called loadedText and links it to the Dynamic Text object so that any changes to the variable will appear in the object automagically.

By now, we have met requirements 1-6, 9, 12, and 14. We only have 10 and 13 to go. Seven and eight are still debatable, and I will leave 11 as an exercise (have a look at the getTimer function for some inspiration), but I still think it's a waste of time.