FAQ

FAQ

Question List

Installation

Is it possible to host more than 1 FLABER within the same domain (web space)?

Absolutely. You can host as many FLABER as you want simply making a duplication of the whole “flaber” folder and renaming it. For example, you can host 3 different FLABER as follows:

http://www.your_domain.com/flaber_david/index.html
http://www.your_domain.com/flaber_peter/index.html
http://www.your_domain.com/flaber_tom/index.html

Features

Why isn't rotation allowed for text fields?

It is because for Flash if any text fields are rotated, the text content will be disappeared. The same case happens when animations are applied to text fields.

Of course it is still possible to fix it by turning all the text to graphics or using embedded characters. However these methods have a sacrifice in larger file size and of course longer loading time.

Why are only move, resize, rotate and delete supported? How about the detail properties of the page elements?

Starting from version 1.1 RC1 the original edit panel concept is replaced by the handler and context menu approach. You can do all the editing through the following methods

Move	Left click on the page element and drag
Resize	Left click on the Yellow Handler (Y) and drag
Scale Resize	Press Shift while resizing
Special Resize (for Sqaure and Circle)	Press Ctrl while resizing
Rotate	Left click on the Blue Handler (B) and drag
Delete	Left click on the Red Handler (R)
Properties	(PC) Right click on the page element (MAC) Control + Click on the page element

Can I insert Flash (.swf) animations or programs into FLABER?

Absolutely. You can insert Flash documents into FLABER just like other images! What you have to do is to select the uploaded .swf or typing an external URL to the .swf in the image properties window.

However if the Flash document have actionscripts pointing directly to _root, problems may arise. So if you can edit the Flash document, try to use _lockroot to overcome this issue. (For more information on _lockroot, please refer to Flash MX 2004 livedocs.

Can I edit FLABER offline?

No, not in the current version. You have to either use FLABER in localhost or web server with PHP support.

Modifications

How to modify the size of FLABER?

You can make the modifications inside the HTML file. By default it is “index.html”. Starting from line 50 till 62, you will come up with a JavaScript function call. Simply changing the values for 'width' and 'height' will resize FLABER to the dimension you assigned.

index.html

<script type="text/javascript" >
	AC_FL_RunContent('codebase','http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=7,0,19,0',
			'width','800',
			'height','600',
			'align','middle',
			'src','flaber.swf',
			'quality','high',
			'bgcolor','#ffffff',
			'name','flaber',
			'allowscriptaccess','sameDomain',
			'pluginspage','http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer',
			'movie','flaber' );
</script>

How to modify the size and properties of the external link popup windows?

In order to do this modification, you have to edit the ActionScript class file and re-do the movie compilation using Flash 8. The file involved is “flaber/as/SystemFunction.as”. Starting from line 19 till 38, it is a function which controls how the popup window is opened.
Inside this function you will see two statements as follows

temp_properties = "toolbar=no, location=no, status=no, menubar=no, scrollbars=no, resizable=yes, width=" + w + ", height=" + h;

This line of code will product a window WITHOUT any controls. Actually this one is not used inside FLABER yet.

temp_properties = "toolbar=yes, location=yes, status=yes, menubar=yes, scrollbars=yes, resizable=yes, width=" + w + ", height=" + h;

This line is the one that you should focus and make changes. Actually it is pretty straight forward, you can simply changing those yes and no to product popup windows with different properties. Also you can change the width and height simply by entering a number.

How to make the popup window maximize itself?

This modification is not done inside the code of FLABER, it is done inside the popup content.
Say for an example, you would like to make an external link which will open www.flysforum.net/flaber/wiki and automatically maximize.
You should write a simple HTML document as follows

<html>
<head>...</head>
<script type="text/javascript">
	function maximize_window ()
	{
		top.window.moveTo (0,0);
		if (document.all)
		{
			top.window.resizeTo (screen.availWidth,screen.availHeight);
		}
		else if (document.layers||document.getElementById)
		{
			if (top.window.outerHeight < screen.availHeight || top.window.outerWidth < screen.availWidth)
			{
				top.window.outerHeight = screen.availHeight;
				top.window.outerWidth = screen.availWidth;
			}
		}
	}
</script>
<body onLoad="maximize_window (); location='http://www.flysforum.net/flaber/wiki'">
</body>
</html>

The idea is that the JavaScript will maximize the browser window and automatically redirect to the URL stated in the location attribute.
So inside FLABER you can set the external link to this HTML document to acheive maximized popup window.

Error Messages and Problems

(PageContentMC.as) constructor load xml fail

This issue happens for two reasons. First, the target XML document cannot be found. Second, the target XML document presents but cannot be loaded.

For the first reason, please make sure that the name of the XML document is correct (including capitalization).

For the second reason, please make sure that you have set the correct permission “666” to the XML document.

FLABER is not loaded in the HTML document

First of all, please make sure that you have installed the latest version of Flash Player. Version 8 or above is a must of FLABER to run correctly. You can check the player version by right-click (PC) or control-click (MAC) inside FLABER. You can find the installer for the latest version right here.

Second, it is very usual that you would like to embed FLABER into another HTML documents. However you have to make sure that you also copy the JavaScripts necessary for FLABER to work. The first JavaScript is written in an external file called “function/AC_RunActiveContent.js” which is used to embed Flash movie inside HTML under W3C standard and fixing the Active Content upadtes. The script for embedding the external JavaScript is as follows:

<script src="function/AC_RunActiveContent.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

The second JavaScript required is written inside the HTML document mentioned here.

External link not working

Why does nothing happen when I click on the external links?

It is very usual that you would like to embed FLABER into another HTML documents. However you have to make sure that you also copy the JavaScripts necessary for FLABER to work. The first JavaScript is written inside the HTML document which is used to create new browser window. This function is used in creating new browser window for external links.

<script type="text/javascript">
	function popup (u, n, p)
	{
		window.open (u, n, p);
	}
</script>

The second one is an external JavaScript file for embedding Flash movie under W3C standard, illustrated here.

Cannot open the source file flaber.fla

Probably you are trying to open the file using Macromedia Flash MX 2004 or earlier. Since FLABER is developed using classes which are only available in Adobe Flash 8, so it is not possible to open and compile FLABER without the latest authoring tool.
Actually you can grab a trial version of Adobe Flash 8 from Adobe through here.
It is still possible to build FLABER by removing all the Adobe Flash 8 classes and functions, but this requires extra programming effort that will not be covered here.
If you need flaber.fla saved in MX 2004 format, please contact me in person.