Flash Templates

[slimwoman]

Hello Members,

I am just barely over a novice when it comes to building websites. I have run into several problems. I downloaded a free flash template from freenicetemplates.com

On their landing page it states: "Flash templates fully customizable through an xml file.

I am working in Dreamweaver Macromedia as that is how I learned in my college multi-media authoring class. I wonder if I have to create only xml files as per their instructions. I created html pages and it is working to some extent without images.

Should I go back into Dreamweaver and create an xml template and then copy and paste the code from the source freenicetemplates.com?

I somehow got images in my www folder under my public_html root folder. So I have images folder showing up twice.

Here is the site I am trying to get up for a client:

Chuck Garretson

Some images for his business are properly loading so I got the path right from my computer to his host. but the images from the flash template are not loading.

Thanks, Slimwoman

[GP200]

Hi Slimwoman,

I've had a quick look at your page code, and to be honest it's a bit of mess. There are a lot of errors on the page some critical some not, but there are so many I would run the page through The W3C Markup Validation Service and fix as many of the errors as possible.

I wouldn't change any XML file or Flash file until your static images are displaying correctly.

or example you have;
<a href="http://www.chuckgarretson.com/index.htm"><script src="icone_couriel.jpg"></a>

in many places using "script src" these should all read "img src" for your static images.

You have the same javascript code for embedding your Flash in the head tags twice;

<script src="http://www.chuckgarretson.com/images/flash/jscripts/AC_RunActiveContent.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="http://www.chuckgarretson.com/images/flash/jscripts/AC_ActiveX.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

You only need one of them.

You have stray javascript opening tags:
<script language="JavaScript" type="text/JavaScript">
with no script etc etc

The header seems centered whilst the page looks left aligned....

Run the validator check and try clear up these errors and things will begin work a little better,
anything you get stuck with return and you can get these sorted out one by one.

Good Luck!

[Web-Design-Guy]

Agree. Forget any fancy stuff like Flash until you've got everything else sorted out. Maybe start by grabbing an open-source xhtml/css template from any of the many sources out there. Massage it until you get what you want - add optimized graphics, text etc etc.

Then, if you absolutely must have Flash in the header, work on that aspect (using swfobject.js v2 to call it).

Best of luck.

[slimwoman]

Thanks for the help. I have the code cleaned up but still do not have the movie loading. I am getting an 81 % message in the header box where the movie is.

I asked the template designer if I had the path wrong for the xml file. He said put it in public_html/ and I did.

Here is the path to the xml file: public_html/doc.xml

I am still learning and would appreciate any help or tips.

Thanks, Danielle Parsons

[Web-Design-Guy]

I'm getting js alert "you have removed the copyright notice. Please do not..."

Maybe it stops the load because of that.

[slimwoman]

For some reason, the copyright pop up shows on Firefox but not on IE 8.0.
I went back to the original template and copied and pasted and then just edited the latin text to what the customer wants.

Got no reply from the template designer so will never use a free template again. You do really get what you pay for in life.

I am thinking it has something to do with xml file. I have it loaded in the public_html folder ad doc.xml

My client is being patient and I will find a way to get that flash movie loading and stop the 81 % message.

Danielle Parsons

[Web-Design-Guy]

Yes, your xml doc is malformed.

You can always send the flash template to me. I might be able to 'fix' it for you and email it back.

generator888 {AT} gmail {DOT} com

[alex298]

Hi,

Actually I have two websites related with Flash tutorials. However my other websites rarely use Flash. I think Flash is quite distracting and the download time is a bit slower than plain images.

But most customers request Flash design webpages.

[slimwoman]

Finally got the problems figured out. I had the flash in wrong path and once i put it directly in public_html/images the header loads correctly.

As for the little xml document, I tried using Text pad and then loading that to server but only succeeded when I saved the xml doc in notepad and then put it on server.

All kinds of little technical things to make up a site, eh??

Thanks for all your suggestions and help!
Danielle Parsons