Hi,
I just signed a contract today for an insurance company. They want some flash in their site so I though of maybe having a cool flash header with html text. Only problem is I dont want the header to load everytime they click on a different page. Is it possible to click on a link and not change the header but change the html? I think its possible but is it a good idea to do? Any ideas would be helpful. Thanks.

You could use Ajax to reload the content but not the header. Failing that you would need to use frames.

The first load should see the flash header placed in the browser cache and as such, subsequent loads would be much quicker.

Using Ajax or javascript to completely change the HTML would be overkill and it affects useability and SEO due to dynamically loaded content. Even if the flash header streams in content after it loads, this is normally cached as well.

Well I knew that just every time a new page loads you have to go through the animation and such for the header again and again and again. It gets old if you keep having to load the animation again and again...if that makes sense?

Maybe you can give a parameter to the flashmovie that indicates a starting point of the flash movie. Create different starting points for different pages. I'm not a flash expert, but i guess that should be possible.

Well that would mean there is more flash in the site...the header is already flash which I should have stated if I didn't. So in the end it would defeat this whole topic. Thanks though.

a friend told me to check this site out when i noticed that it had just what im looking for..anyone know how to do it? http://www.audioa.com/default2.aspx

They use iframes and javascript to set the content.

Can you not set a cookie with javascript or php. When a person has visited the page once a cookie is set. Javascript checks for the cookie when the page loads and gives flash a variable of either yes or no. If it is no then the animation doesn't play and the movie skips to the end frame. You could have the cookie expire after 10-15 minutes meaning that when the visitor returns they will be greeted with the animation again.

Don't know what you mean there. I'm not talking about more flash. I'm only talking about a flash header. But inside a flash movie you can have different scenes. So if you worry that everytime your movie starts, it starts at the same point, i'm saying you can call the movie f.e. like flashmovie.swf?start=10, and try to point to a different part of the flashmovie to start from.

Then it is only 1 movie, which can be cached, instead of a different flash movie for every page, but not the irritation of the movie always starting at the same point, going through the entire movie again.

Do you know what i mean? Or maybe i'm misunderstanding the problem.

Good luck.


Edit:
Oh, and if you use php, maybe you can simply start a session, and see if the session exists. If no, show flash, if yes, show jpg header. Just another idea.

This post has been edited by velo: Jun 21 2008, 04:30 AM

Good question Velo.

Like Jason said, the site you mentioned is using iframes. You don't have to use javascript to do what they are doing however, you can just link and target to the iframe and your content will load up in it without the header needing to reload.

I think this is a valid challenge to look into. For example, some of us might be interested in coding a flash header / movie which has parameters which keep it animating to infinity. For example, I have a friend who has created a flash script which creates a fractal... the longer you sit there watching the file, the more incredible it gets. 10 minutes later, its still adding to the artwork. Useless? Perhaps, but usefulness isn't always the desired result of a website.

Currently I'm looking into ways this can be done myself. It seems I'm going to take a hit in search engine friendliness because the AJAX option using jquery I think is where its at as far as achieving this approach. What I'd like to know is though, how is it possible to make this solution search engine friendly? Maybe it can't be done, but if it could be done, how could it be?

Keep in mind it was "impossible" to generate electricity... make a lightbulb... make a phone call. Of course its possible to do whatever we like. I'm sure an email from The Web Squeeze, the greatest web design and development forum in reality to Google HQ with new specs on how to make it all click would help it all along. But I get the feeling that might not be necesarry. What do you think?

I originally started this post because I didnt know much html. Now I do. Now I know that if you dont use a lot of images the header will load pretty fast anyway and you hardly can tell or even at all.

or simple answer put flash on the home page and a jpg on the other pages lol works if u only want animation but not if u like sound huh lol they would never know