Some swfs playing but not others!

Hi, thanks for looking at my problem.

Please bear with me however, as I am very new to this so I don't really
understand all the advice you've given.

You've both agreed that it "Could be you did something different to your other
native Flash files." but I don't know what I could have done. You say how I
"may have entered the paths in Flash." do you mean I've told the swf in Flash
where to look for the flv? I don't know how I would have done that, or how to
do it differently so that I don't specify where it should look (if that's what
you mean).

You also say "The page is loading your .swf files, but I don't see any
parameters in the code telling the .swf file where to locate the .flv videos. I
don't know how to write the code to tell the swf file where the flv's are, but
they are in the same folder. Could you help me write a line that says that?

Finally, I've tried to copy and paste the incorrect links to stuff on my local
drive you posted into the Find and Replace box in Dreamweaver code view, but I
can't find whereabouts in the code it would be to change it.

Sorry to be so vague and I ignorant, but I am picking all this up as I go
along and don't fully understand the advice you've posted.

Thanks

olicorse posted in macromedia.dreamweaver

Please bear with me however, as I am very new to this so I don't
really understand all the advice you've given.

We were all new, once. Just hoping I can be clearer here.

You've both agreed that it "Could be you did something different
to your other
native Flash files." but I don't know what I could have done. You
say how I "may have entered the paths in Flash." do you mean I've
told the swf in Flash where to look for the flv? I don't know how
I would have done that, or how to do it differently so that I
don't specify where it should look (if that's what you mean).

What I am saying is use the same process for page 2 that you did for
page 1. Point to the .flv files in a videos folder in the same path.
Don't point to the .flv files in a videos folder somewhere else on
your hard drive. Did you create the .swf files?

You also say "The page is loading your .swf files, but I don't
see any parameters in the code telling the .swf file where to
locate the .flv videos.

To continue that quote, "This leads me to believe that you may have
entered the paths in Flash."

You can ignore that part - unless I came to the wrong conclusion. I was
thinking out loud and that was my path to discovery.

Finally, I've tried to copy and paste the incorrect links to
stuff on my local drive you posted into the Find and Replace box
in Dreamweaver code view, but I can't find whereabouts in the
code it would be to change it.

The smartest thing to do is set up your site definition correctly.
Then, in DW, work only with the files in the folders as defined by
that site definition.

Even your videos1.html has links to your hard drive.

You should never see links to file:///Machintosh HD/... anywhere in
your source code and using DW correctly with a properly defined site
will prevent that from happening.


--
Mark A. Boyd
Keep-On-Learnin'

Hi again,

Thanks for getting back to me (and being patient!)

So you say "What I am saying is use the same process for page 2 that you did
for page 1. Point to the .flv files in a videos folder in the same path. Don't
point to the .flv files in a videos folder somewhere else on your hard drive.
Did you create the .swf files?"

The answer is yes, I did create the .swf files. Is the advice you give above
intended for Flash? If so, does that mean I should I create the .swfs again,
using the .flv files in the folder I am going to upload to my website?

Is that what you meant in your earlier post where you say:


http://www.johnnynelmes.com/Users/olicorse/Websites/Johnny%20Nelmes/videos/Punch
3/Punch3.flv is wrong and
http://www.johnnynelmes.com/videos/Punches/Punch3.flv is correct?

So I should be telling the .swf in Flash to go and find the .flv on my site,
as opposed to on my hardrive? I think I get it now. Unfortunately I'm at work
at the moment so I don't have access to Flash to try that, but I will as soon
as I get home. Thank you!

The only other bit I'm not sure about is where you say "using DW correctly
with a properly defined site will prevent that from happening". I thought I had
set it up properly... can you give me any tips on how to do this, or links to
any tutorials that will explain how to do it the way you and Nancy O have said?

Thanks very much.

olicorse posted in macromedia.dreamweaver

The answer is yes, I did create the .swf files. Is the advice you
give above
intended for Flash? If so, does that mean I should I create the
.swfs again, using the .flv files in the folder I am going to
upload to my website?

Yes. For instance, it looks as if you had this structure for Page 1
(folder names made up):

FolderWithFlashFiles
punch1.fla
punch2.fla
punch1_2.fla
FolderWithFlashFiles/videos
punch1_1.flv
Guard_2.flv
Punch2_1.flv
Punch1_2_demo.flv

But whereever you had your page 2 .fla files, there was not no videos
folder beneath it, so you pointed to the .flv files somewhere else on
your hard drive. It might have been something like...

Page2FlashFiles
punch3.fla
punch4.fla
punch3_4.fla

And no videos folder here, so you may have selected the .flv files from
FolderWithFlashFiles/videos (using my example).

So I should be telling the .swf in Flash to go and find the .flv
on my site, as opposed to on my hardrive?

No. I recommend using a relative path. Link to video files in the
videos folder in the same directory as your Flash files.

The only other bit I'm not sure about is where you say "using DW
correctly
with a properly defined site will prevent that from happening". I
thought I had set it up properly...

If you set it up after creating these .htm files, then you might try
re-inserting the .swf files. The bogus links at this time are all
related to inserting .swf files in DW.

can you give me any tips on
how to do this, or links to any tutorials that will explain how to
do it the way you and Nancy O have said?

I'm not a tutorial kind of learner, but I believe the F1 help on this
topic is quite good.



--
Mark A. Boyd
Keep-On-Learnin'

Mate, that's it! I've done it! Thank you so much! You have no idea how crazy
that was driving me, it was literally the last thing I had left to do on the
site and it had been bugging me for about a week!

It turns out all the Sources in the Parameter tab of the Content Inspector in
Flash for the first page's videos just said "Guard_2.flv" or whatever their
respective .flv was called. When I looked at all the other ones they all said
"/Users/olicorse/Websites/Johnny Nelmes/videos/Punches/Guard_2.flv". So I'm not
quite sure how I managed to avoid that the first 4 times, as I used the same
process of File>Import Video>Browse>Select>Continue>Finish for all of them, but
who cares - it works now!

You're a lifesaver, I seriously appreciate your time and effort. Thank you!!!

olicorse posted in macromedia.dreamweaver

Mate, that's it! I've done it! Thank you so much! You have no idea
how crazy that was driving me, it was literally the last thing I
had left to do on the site and it had been bugging me for about a
week!

I HIGHLY recommend getting LiveHTTP Headers for FireFox. It is how I
identified the 404 errors within seconds.

It turns out all the Sources in the Parameter tab of the Content
Inspector in
Flash for the first page's videos just said "Guard_2.flv" or
whatever their respective .flv was called. When I looked at all
the other ones they all said "/Users/olicorse/Websites/Johnny
Nelmes/videos/Punches/Guard_2.flv"

Bada bing, bada boom!

You're a lifesaver, I seriously appreciate your time and effort.
Thank you!!!

Quite welcome.


--
Mark A. Boyd
Keep-On-Learnin'

In reality, if you want to add a custom player skin to FLV and publish
them to your website, a quick and easy solution is Moyea Web Player
Pro, which I'm using on my website.
Here is its official site:
http://www.flash-video-mx.com/web-player-pro/