Flash Obscuring links in FF

[joe.best]

Hi Guys,

New to this forum but hopefully it will be a long and fruitful relationship ;)

I've got a problem with this (http://www.test.swcomms.co.uk/index.html)page.
It plays the *AWFUL* flash intro (out of my hands) and then once the movie has shrunk down to the corner there are 2 different stories for 2 different browsers: IE lets you click the links on the page, FF does not. I think FF is still seeing the flash movie as being the whole size of the page and on top of everything.
Do any of you guys know a way to sort this out? I've been given the job to do as the previous person who attempted it did not have the skills to do the rest of the site, but I don't really know anything about embedding flash, hence the messy code there.
Cheers,
Joe

[joe.best]

Guys,

Have i put something here which is blindingly obvious, stupid or incomprehensible? Or is it just a weird problem that no-one can help with?
Sorry to be impatient!!

cheers
j

[discorax]

Have you messed with z-index. That would be my first thought.
Since I appears that the div containing the Flash is position:absolute you could set a z-index to assure that the content would be clickable once the flash minimized...

-discorax

[joe.best]

thanks for your reply.

the code for the div containing the flash is #flash {
position: relative;
left: 1px;
top: 190px;
width: 775px;
height: 700px;
z-index:10;
}

which makes it appear over the top of everything.
how do i make it change once the movie has played?

[discorax]

Do you have access to the FLA for the intro?

If so, you could easily do it with some javascript.

In Flash you would set up a function that called out to javascript to change the z index when the animation was finished scaling down.

--- in your FLA ---

import flash.external.*;
function swapZindex():Void{
ExternalInterface.call("changeZIndex");
}

Then, in the HTML you would set up a javascript function like so:

--- in your HTML ---

<script type="text/javascript" >
funciton changeZIndex(){
obj = document.getElementById("flashDivID");
obj.style.zIndex = 0;
}
</script>

<div id="flashDivID">
<!--flash stuff here-->
</div>

Hope this helps.

[joe.best]

No, I don't have the .fla. If I did, a number of problems would be easily resolvable with this. However, it was developed by an external company and they would not release the source files, stating they were developed in a 4rd party app and hence were not .fla files but something else :(

Anyway I do appreciate your help. Is there anything else you reckon that might crack it?

[discorax]

Well, you could forget about relying on the flash and just use all javascript to hack it. Set up a timer.


<script type="text/javascript" >

funciton changeZIndex(){
obj = document.getElementById("flashDivID");
obj.style.zIndex = 0;
// remove the interval so it doesn't eat up memory
clearInterval(intv);
}
// set up your interval using the setInterval() function
// the number 2000 is the miliseconds of the animation.
// So if the animation lasts for 5 seconds, you'd use the number 5000
var intv = setInterval("changeZIndex", 2000);

</script>

<div id="flashDivID">
<!--flash stuff here-->
</div>




this is more of a hack, but it should work for ya.

[joe.best]

nice one bud i shall give that a go and let you know.
cheers
j

[joe.best]

apologies for not getting back sooner, i've been doing other things and will hopefully give this a crack in the next week or two. i'll defo let you know once i've attempted it. thanks! joe