Welcome To Flashblocks ML

Index

• Getting Started with Flashblocks ML
• The Flashblocks ML Component Set
  • Flashblocks
  • Editblock
  • Mediablock
• Text Fields
• Flash Components
• Modules
  • Gallery
  • Module List News,Store,Blog
  • Smoothscroller
  • Smoothscroller2
• Editors
  • XML Editor
  • HTML Editor
  • Menu Module
• Entering Links
• Dynamic Page Templates
• User Levels
• Embedding Fonts
• SEO - Search Engine Optimization
• Languages
• FAQ / Trouble Shooting
• History

Getting Started

License Information

Thank you for your Flashblocks License purchase. Your Flashblocks License is your Download-ID that was emailed to you.
Each website using Flashblocks requires a separate license. Please visit Flashblocks.com to obtain additional licenses.

Enter your License ID through the Component Inspector.

Flashblocks for as low as $30
Have you seen the bulk purchase options for Flashblocks Developer and Flashblocks ML? Get additional Flashblocks licenses for as little as $30 each.

  1 License : $120
 20 Licenses: $1000 = $50 / license
 50 Licenses: $2000 = $40 / license
100 Licenses: $3000 = $30 / license

First Steps

1. Install the Flashblocks2.mxp Flashblocks ML Component set.
2. Create a Flashblocks powered website. See this tutorial and this video tutorial.
   • Save your flash documents into the fla source directory as this directory contains all classes that many of the demoSite modules require.
   • Publish your Flashblocks powered SWF into the www/ directory.
3. Set your login information in the file, flashblocks/serverSide/flashblocks_login.php. Open this file with any text editor to find further instructions.
4. Upload your website and the entire contents of the www/ directory to your server running PHP.
5. You may need to give write permission to all of the files and folders inside of the www/flashblocks/data/ directory. Depending on your server, you may need to set file and directory permissions.
   NOTE: It is very important to ask your hosting provider, for the most secure option, when changing file and directory permissions.

Upgrading

Upgrade Flashblocks ML to the latest version. Download Latest Updates.

1. Backup
2. Install the new Flashblocks2 component set.
3. Drag and drop the new Flashblocks components, from the Flash Component Panel, into the library of all Flash movies, replacing older components.
4. Delete the flashblocks directory from your current installation and replace with the new flashblocks directory. If this will delete important customized files, such as modified config files, you may wish to view the history below, see what files have changes since your last upgrade, and replace the most essential files.

After upgrading you may need to clear your ASO files. From Flash, select Control > Delete ASO Files.

There is not an upgrade path from Flashblocks Developer or Basic.

Source Files

All source files are found in the fla source directory. In most cases there are both Flash MX2004 and Flash 8 source files, prefixed by "F7" or "F8". Make sure you are working with the "F8" files if you are using Flash 8 or Flash CS3.

Demo Website
You may wish to start by opening the file, flashblocks_demoSite.fla. This is a completed Flash website using Flashblocks ML and contains useful scripts and modules.

Note that the demo site, flashblocks_demoSite.fla, uses files found in the fla source directory, when published. These files are mc_tween2.as and classes from the directories com, org, and xm. Many of the modules, contained in the demo site, require these files to work properly. These classes must be accessible to your fla. So if you save your source files elsewhere you will need to place these required files and directories into the same directory as your flash document. Alternately, regarding these classes, you may place them in your class path. Also, if you wish, you may install the exceptional XMCA 0.3 component set from the authors website http://chq.emehmedovic.com and mc_tween2.as from here mc_tween_2_28_29.mxp.

Further Instructions

Open the Flash help panel to view component methods, properties and events for the flashblocks component.
There is more help found in this document, online tutorials, and the online forum.
If you have tutorial requests or would like me to expand or clarify the help files, please post in the Flashblocks forum.

Custom Flashblocks websites / modules

If you need a Flashblocks website or custom module, please contact Flashblocks for a price quote.

Flashblocks Community Pricing: $20/hour
In some cases, Flashblocks may charge only $20 an hour for projects that are shared with the Flashblocks community. Anything created through the Flashblocks Community pricing structure will still be owned by Flashblocks and is still bound by the Flashblocks Terms of Service. Once completed, the created work may become free or substantially less than the initial invoice. Also note that additional development requests beyond the initial project may or may not be accepted for Flashblocks community pricing.

The Flashblocks ML Components Set

The Flashblocks component set contains the Flashblocks, Editblock and Mediablock components. Open the Flash help panel to view component methods, properties and events.

Text Fields

Text Fields, components and modules can all be edited with Flashblocks ML. Just drop Editblock Components onto these objects, login and immediately begin editing and saving content.

It is good Flashblocks practice to give each target text field, component, or module a unique instance name before attaching the Editblock component. Note that each parent movie clip will require an instance name as well.

If you wish to use embedded fonts, make sure that you are embedding the necessary font outlines into your Flash movie. Please see the section below on Embedding Fonts.

All text fields must be set to "Dynamic Text". Set all of the necessary text field attributes from the properties panel.

If HTML is turned on in your text field's properties panel then the HTML Editor will be used, giving you full control over text formatting. If HTML is turned off, the simple Text Editor will be used, in which case you will need to set all text formatting attributes from the properties panel.

FAQ

Text is not showing up.
System Fonts will not show in Flash if they are under a mask.
If you are using embedded fonts, make sure that you are embedding the font outlines into your Flash movie. Please see the section on Embedding Fonts.

Can not Insert Images Into Text Area.
There are known issues with inserting images into Text Fields as there can be unpredictable results. Currently, the more stable choice is to use the Mediablock component for dynamic images.

Flash components

Drop an Editblock component onto one of the following user interface or video components and watch it become accessible from Flashblocks. This is a partial list and additional components can easily be added.

• Button - Edit the Buttons label.
• FLVPlayback FLV video player - Choose a video for the player.
• Label - Edit the label's text.
• Text Area Component - If HTML is turned on in your text area's properties panel then the HTML Editor will be used, giving you full control over text formatting. If HTML is turned off, the simple Text Editor will be used, in which case you will need to set all text formatting attributes from the properties panel. If you wish to use embedded fonts, make sure that you are embedding the necessary font outlines into your Flash movie. Please see the section below on Embedding Fonts.
• TextInput - Edit the input field's text.

Modules

A module is simply a script that is Flashblocks ready. Modules such as the Flash Smooth Scroller, Flash Gallery, Flash MP3player, Flash Contact Form, and more come with Flashblocks ML. Most of these require you to drop an Editblock component onto the module to activate. You can find these modules, and examples of their use in flashblocks_demoSite.fla. Just open this Flash document and you will see all modules in use.

To use these modules in a new Flash document please follow these directions:

1. Copy the associated folder from the demo site's library over to your new Flash movie.
2. Place the module's movie clip, found inside of the folder, onto the stage of your new Flash movie.
3. Depending on the module (please see it in action in the demo site), you may need to drop an Editblock onto the module's movie clip.

Note that the modules found in the demo site, flashblocks_demoSite.fla, uses files found in the fla source directory, when published. These files are mc_tween2.as and classes from the directories com, org, and xm. Many of the modules, contained in the demo site, require these files to work properly. These classes must be accessible to your fla. So if you save your source files elsewhere you will need to place these required files and directories into the same directory as your flash document. Alternately, regarding these classes, you may place them in your class path.

Gallery

It's easy to create a gallery in Flash with Flashblocks ML. All you need is a directory of images or a single XML file and everything will be resized and created for you.

Editing from a Directory.
Open the thumbnails module and set var imagesFromDir = true
When editing your website, right click over Gallery thumbnails and "Select a Directory" of images. Flashblocks ML will take care of the rest, creating both thumbnail and full size images to the specified dimensions.

Editing from a File.
This is the same module as the previous. A setting has been changed allowing the gallery to be created from an xml file instead of a directory. Open the thumbnails module and set var imagesFromDir = false
When editing your website, right click over Gallery thumbnails and "Select a File" and choose an xml file of images. Flashblocks ML will take care of the rest, creating both thumbnail and full size images to the specified dimensions. You will find the example gallery.xml file in the data/xml directory.

Designing
Just drop the "Gallery thumbnails" movie clip onto the stage and give it a unique instance name. Resize it to the dimensions you wish for the scrolling thumbnails.
Then drop the "Gallery full size image" movie clip onto the stage and give it a unique instance name. Resize it to the dimensions you desire for your full size image. Finally drop an Editblock onto the the "Gallery thumbnails" movie clip.

Customizing
Open the movie clips, "Gallery thumbnails" and "Gallery full size image". You will see many option for customizations. You will see the following variables.

Module List News,Store,Blog

Editing

Open the Edit menu while mousing over the List Module instance. You will have the option to select a list or edit a list. Selecting the list will allow you to select an existing list XML file. Editing a list will allow you to edit the selected file. Select the list_news.xml file or the list_store.xml file from the Media browser. Your List Module should instantly be populated with the items from the news file. You may now Edit the XML file by, once again, mousing over the List Module and opening the edit menu. This time you will see the selected XML file in the header and you now have the new option to "Edit List". Selecting "Edit List" will open the XML Editor and allow you to begin changing and rearranging content. When you are done press "Save" and any changes to the XML file will be saved.

Customizing

You may customize the news module to appear any way that you wish. You will need to edit the movie clip, "list module Item", as this is used as a template for each item in the list. Here you may change the style code and the dynamically created HTML.

Designing

The process of setting up the List Module, from the beginning, would look like this.

1. Create a new Flash document and drop a Flashblocks component onto the stage.
2. Also drop a Mediablock component into the library as it will be needed later.
3. The List Module, by default, uses the embedded Ariel and Ariel Bold fonts. So make sure that they are embedded in your Flash movie.
4. Copy the folder, "Module List News,Store,Blog" from the demoSite library over to your new Flash movie's library.
5. Drop the "List Module" movie clip, onto the stage of your new Flash document.
6. Drop an Editblock onto the List Module Instance. The Editblock will automatically give the List Module instance a unique name.
7. That's it! Publish your new swf into the www directory, the directory containing your Flashblocks folder and include.php file.

Now what if you wish to only display the news leading text in the List module and, only after selecting an item, display it's full description text in a separate area? This is easily done by dropping the "list module full link" movie clip onto the stage. The list module will recognize that it exists and populate it with the full text.

Smooth Scroller

The smooth scroller module allows you to easily place an easing scrolling text field on stage. The Editblock is already placed inside of the module so, in this case, you will not need to drop an Editblock onto the module. Note that this module uses embedded fonts so you will need to have font outlines embedded into your Flash movie. Please follow the Embedding Fonts directions for more information.

1. Copy the "Module Smooth Scroller" folder, from the demo site, into your new Flash movie.
2. Drop the "smoothScroller" movie clip onto the stage and resize to your desired dimensions.

Smooth Scroller2

Customizing the module
The Smooth Scroller 2 Module has several hidden features and you may edit the Smooth Scroller2 movie clips actionscript to find customizable variables.

• // show background image
  var show_background = false
• // auto hide scrollbar when nothing to scroll
  var autoHideScrollbar = true
• // scrollbar padding
  var scrollbarPadding = 2
• // change width of content to width of scroller
  var scaleContent = true
• // change width of scroller to width of content.
  var scaleScroller = false
• // scrollbar width
  var scrollBarWidth = 9

Attaching an Editblock
You may drop an Editblock onto the Smooth Scroller2 instance and you will then have editing options from Flashblocks.

• Text Editor - This allows you to insert HTML directly into the module.
• Select File - The allows you to insert an external file into the module.
• Linkage ID - This allows you to insert a movie clip, with a linkage ID, from the library, into the module.

Hard Coding Content Through Actionscript
You may insert the same content found above, through actionscript, into the Smooth Scroller2 instance. You will find several examples of this in the demo site such as the news2 module and store2 module.

To do this, first give the Smooth Scroller2 instance an instance name, such as, latestNews. And then, through actionscript, manually set the following variables in the Smooth Scroller2 instance.

• textContent - This allows you to insert HTML directly into the module.
  latestNews.textContent = "<b>This is your text</b>"
• fileContent - This allows you to insert an external file into the module.
  latestNews.fileContent = "path/to/your/file.swf"
  
• linkContent - This allows you to insert a movie clip, with a linkage ID, from the library, into the module.
  latestNews.linkContent = "linkID"

Editors

There are a number of Editors that come with Flashblocks ML such as the Flash File Manager, HTML Editor, XML Editor, and more. These Editors are used to edit specific kinds of Flash content. Each Editor is represented by the config files found in, www\flashblocks\editors\config\. You have the freedom to customize each editor through its configuration data such as the background color, window size, etc.. Also, most editors comes with source Fla files.

XML Editor

Editor ID: XMLeditor

The XML editor allows you to edit external XML files from your Flashblock enabled Flash website. Drop an Editblock onto the movie clip or component that represents the XML file you are going to edit. Give the Editblock instance the instance name, "eb". Now, you need to tell the Editblock information about the XML editor and the XML file that you are planning on editing. The following code will associate the XML editor with the Editblock instance, "eb", and set the file to, "yourFile.xml".

eb.editors = {XMLeditor:[{caption:"Edit File", editorObject:{file:"yourFile.xml"}}]}

That's it, now login and open the Editblocks editor menu. You will see the option to "Edit File". Once you have finished editing the XML file, it will instantly be saved.

HTML Editor

Editor ID: p

The FlashText HTML Editor is the default HTML editor for Flashblocks ML. You can find the FlashText configuration file here, flashblocks_FlashTextHtml.xml. Here you may find a video tutorial on embedding fonts into Flash and configuring Flashblocks to use the embedded fonts.
http://www.flashblocks.com/tutorials/videos.php?dir=FlashblocksML_Embedding_Fonts

If you are Embedding Fonts for use with Flashblocks ML into your Flash movie, you will need to embed the same fonts into the fla source/F8 flashText2.2.fla

In most cases you will need to edit the FlashText HTML Editor's configuration file, flashblocks_FlashTextHtml.xml. Editing this config files is very simple. It is XML, so open in any text editor and edit the attributes found inside. We will go over each relevant attribute below.

Embedding Fonts

If you wish to embed fonts into the FlashText HTML Editor, open the source file, flashText.fla. You will see the movie clip, "preload embed fonts" on stage. This has been copied directly from the demo site.  If you open flashblocks_demoSite.fla, you will find the same movie clip with the same embedded font outlines. Just select each text field inside of the "preload embed fonts" move clip and edit each text field, embedding the font outlines that you need.
For more information regarding embedding fonts, please see the section, Embedding Fonts.

If you choose not to embed fonts into the HTML Editor, the fonts will need to installed on the visitors computer to be seen and you will need to change the embedFonts attribute in flashblocks_FlashTextHtml.xml to false.

The config file, flashblocks_FlashTextHtml.xml

In most cases, the nodes and attributes in gray should not be changed.

• width and height - is the width and height of the text editor. If you leave this blank then the dimension of the text field that is being edited will be used. If the word "stage" is entered, the dimension of the stage will be used.
• buttons - the order of the buttons and drop down lists.  Entering "n" will create a new line. If you remove a button from the string then it will not appear in the editor.
• colors - you may set limited colors for the text color picker by setting this attribute.
• embedFonts - Whether font outlines are embedded directly into the FlashText Editor flashblocks_flashText.swf.
• backgroundColor - The background color of the editor.
• backgroundColors - The colors that the editor may choose for the background. This is simply an aid while editing.
• <![CDATA[ default HTML for empty text fields ]]> - You will want to change this default HTML for empty text fields to reflect your fonts and design.
• styles - These styles tags define the styles for your website. You will want to change the style information to reflect your specific font outlines and website design. Remember that Ariel, Ariel Bold, and Ariel Italic are all different fonts to Flash, so to safe guard the possibility of "kroeger 05_53 Bold" being entered, which does not exist, I have defined the boldOn style as <boldOn bold="true" font="Arial"/>. This way, if a user tries to apply bold to the kroeger 05_53 font it will become "Ariel Bold", avoiding the applied text disappearing.
  There are a number of tags below the styles tag.
  • newText - Optional style information for new text
  • link - Font style for linked text
  • font - Fonts displayed in the font drop down list
  • style - Styles found in the styles drop down list
  • image - Default image dimensions
  • etc.. Style information for the bold italics and underline, etc.. buttons

<editors>

<p>
  ...
  <data tagAttribute="theContent"
    width=""
    height="stage"

    buttons = "color,font,size,style,n,bold,italic,underline,alignL,alignR,alignC,alignJ,leading,..."
    embedFonts="true"
    fontSizes="8,10,12,14,16,18,20,24,28,32,40,50,60,70,80,90,100,110"

    colors="0xFFFFFF,0xEEEEEE,0xCCCCCC,0x999999,0x666666,0x333333,0x000000"
    backgroundColor="0xffffff"
    backgroundColors="0xFFFFFF,0xEEEEEE,0xCCCCCC,0x999999,0x666666,0x333333,0x000000">

    <![CDATA[<P ALIGN='LEFT'><FONT FACE='Arial' SIZE='24' COLOR='#000000'>Enter New Text</FONT></P>]]>
  </data>

  <styles>
    <newText font="Arial" leading="10" size="32" letterSpacing="-2.5" bold="true" italic="false" color="0x444444" />
    <link font="Arial" bold="true" color="0x0099FF"/>

    <font label="Arial" font="Arial"/>
    <font label="Pixel Font" font="kroeger 05_53" size="8" bold="false" italic="false"/>

    <style label="Header" font="Arial" size="32" letterSpacing="-2.5" bold="true" italic="false" color="0x444444"/>
    <style label="Leading" font="Arial" size="12" letterSpacing="0" bold="false" color="0x0099FF"/>
    <style label="Paragraph" font="Arial" size="12" letterSpacing="0" bold="false" color="0x000000"/>
    <style label="Small Text" font="kroeger 05_53" size="8" letterSpacing="0" bold="false" italic="false"/>
    <style label=" "/>
    <style label="Leading 2" leading="2"/>
    <style label="Leading 10" leading="10"/>

    <image label="Media" src="Media" width="100" height="100" vSpace="2" hSpace="8"/>
 
    <boldOn bold="true" font="Arial"/>
    <boldOff bold="false"/>
    <italicOn italic="true" font="Arial"/>
    <italicOff italic="false"/>
    <underlineOn underline="true"/>
    <underlineOff underline="false"/>
    <bulletOn bullet="true"/>
    <bulletOff bullet="false"/>
    <leadingOn leading="10"/>
    <leadingOff leading="2"/>
  </styles>

</p>
</editors>

Entering Links

Edit a text field in the demo site. Then select some text and press the link icon. From here you may enter a URL, either local or remote. If remote, make sure that you prefix the url with http://. You may also enter the path to a function and the variable to pass to the function. So for example, if you had a function on the _root of your timeline called myFunction, like this:

myFunction (myVar) {
    trace(myVar)
}

_root.myFunction(Hello World)

Dynamic Page Templates

The menu module, template 2 module, the Gallery and the List Modules all use this templating technique mentioned in this section. Please see the demoSite.fla for working examples.

Template Movie Clips

Content and Editblock Components
First you will need to create a movie clip that contains any graphics, text fields, Mediablocks, etc.. Place all of your assets in this movie clip and drop the needed Editblocks in place. Give this movie clip a linkage ID so that it can be attach dynamically from the library with attachMovie(). For example, linkage ID, 'template1'. Note that you will either have to select "export to first frame" when linking or you will need to embed the template movie clips as I have done in the "templateHolder" movie clip. Please see the template1a movie clip, in the demo site's template folder, for an example of this. Make sure that each Editblock in your template movie clip does not have a flashblockID. From the component inspector, erase each Editblock's flashblockID field. It should be empty and not "fb0" or anything else.

Flashblocks Components
Now drop a Flashblocks component into the template movie clip that we just created. From the component inspector, once again, remove the flashblockID so that it is empty. Now, in the dataFile field, enter the path to the directory that we created above. Make sure you have a trailing slash '/' at the end of the directory path. For example, 'flashblocks/data/dataFiles_template/'.

Attaching The Template Movie Clip
Finally we can attach our template movie clip. You can create an empty movie clip, place it on the stage, and give it the instance name, 'template'. Now attach the movie clip, from the library, with the attachMovie() command.

template.attachMovie('template1', 'page1', 1)
		

Assuming everything is working you can create as many of these templated movie clips as you wish. Each one will dynamically create it's own data file when you save any changes while editing. Edit the menu movie clip for customization options.

Using the menu module with templates

The menu module and template 2 module and menu_template.xml file work together to create dynamic pages from any number of template movie clips. Here is a brief overview of working with the menu module as a templating engine. Please see the demoSite for a working example.

1. Create a directory to hold the template data files. By default this directory is flashblocks/data/dataFiles_template/
2. Give this directory write permission if necessary so that template data files can be created.
3. Create the template xml file. By default this is flashblocks/data/xml/menu_template.xml and looks something like this:
   • <pages><channel>
   • <item title="Page 1" template="template2b" file_name="page1" />
   • <item title="Page 2" template="template2a" file_name="page2" />
   • </channel></pages>
4. Copy the "Module Menu" and "Template Examples" folders from the DemoSite library to your Flash movie.
5. Drop the "menu" movie clip onto the stage, give it an instance name, and drop an Editblock onto it.
6. Drop the "templateHolder" movie clip onto the stage and give it the instance name "template". This movie clip contains the current template movie clips. This is one solution for embedding the templates for use with attachMovie().
7. Drop a Flashblocks component onto the stage.
8. Publish the movie.

1. Login, hover over the menu module and open the contextual menu.
2. Select "Select Menu XML" from the contextual menu and choose the "menu_template.xml" file.
3. Select "Edit Menu XML". You will see the XML files attributes:
   • title - The title as it appears in the menu module.
   • template - the linkage ID of the template movie clip.
   • file_name - the data file that is created to store all data related to the template instance.

User Levels

There are a number of ways to limit and grant access to editors, Editblocks and Flashblocks. Each logged in user has a userLevel and a userID. Each Editblock component also has a userLevel and a userID. Each Flashblocks component has a dataFileUserLevel. Setting these allows you to control which users can edit what sections of a Flash website.

You can find additional information in the component sections under Flashblocks, and Editblock.

Users

First, you need to decide on the user level and user ID of each user that will be logging into Flashblocks. You can specify these attributes, for each user, in the flashblocks_login.php file.

Editblocks

Each Editblock that is attached to an Object (Module, Text Field, Component, etc..) can specify a userLevel or userID, from the component inspector. By default these are blank so there are no restrictions for each user. Setting the userID will restrict that Editblock to a single user with the same userID. Setting the userLevel to to a number below the user userLevel will allow access to that user. For example, if the user has a level of 10 and an Editblock has a userLevel of 13 then the user, when logged in, will not even see the Editblock glowing and editing will be impossible. On the other hand if the Editblock had a userLevel of 10 or less then the user will be able to edit the Editblock.

Flashblocks

You can set a dataFileUserLevel for an entire Flashblocks Component and therefore limit the access to an entire data file. A user will need to have the same or higher userLevel as the data file in order to edit any of it's contents.

Editors

Finally, each editor type (XML Editor, File manager, Mediablock, Save, etc..) can be restricted to a specific user level as well. If you open any config files in the flashblocks/editors/config/ directory you will have the option to give each editor type a userLevel. So once again, for example, if a user is logged in with a level of 4 and the 'emailAddress' editor has a user level of 5 then the user will not be able to access the emailAddress editor and as a result will not be able to change an email address in the website.

<emailAddress>
   <menu caption = "fb.menu.email" userLevel = "5" url = "flashblocks/editors/flashblocks_window.swf"/>
      <window url = "flashblocks/editors/flashblocks_textEditor.swf">
         <enter label = "fb.enter"/>
         <cancel label = "fb.cancel"/>
         <help>
             <![CDATA[<P ALIGN='LEFT'><FONT FACE='Arial' SIZE='14' COLOR='#000000'>optional Help Text</FONT></P>]]>
         </help>
      </window>
   <data tagAttribute = "email" wordWrap = "true" />
</emailAddress>

Embedding Fonts

You may find a video tutorial on embedding fonts into Flash and configuring Flashblocks to use the embedded fonts, here.

If you wish to use embedded fonts with Flashblocks then you will need to embed the needed font outlines into your Flash movie. The simplest way to do this is to create a dynamic text field, choose a font, press "Embed...", and then select the range of characters that you are planning on displaying in the text field. After doing this you can drop an Editblock onto the text field and it will immediately start working with Flashblocks. But what if you have many text fields and you wish to display more the one font in each text field?

A better, more practical way to embed fonts is to place hidden dynamic text fields containing the embedded fonts on stage somewhere near the beginning of your Flash movie. When the Flash player crosses these text fields on the timeline, the contained fonts will be embedded and become available to the other text fields in the movie.

For this to work, you will need to embed just one character of any font into each of the other dynamic text fields that you intend to display HTML and text. I generally embed a period.

In summary, the first text fields only exist to embed the font outlines that you are going to use in your Flash movie.  The text fields that you are going to use with Flashblocks to display text and HTML must contain just one embedded character, but will have access to all of the previously embedded fonts.

Remember that Arial, Arial Bold, and Arial Italic are all different fonts to Flash, so each font outline will need to be separately embedded.

If you have multiple swf's, each with embedded fonts, you may save a lot of download time by embedding these fonts once in a shared library swf. The multi swf example uses this technique. You may download it here, http://flashblocks.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=130&Itemid=50

SEO - Search Engine Optimization

Flashblocks sites store all data in XML files. The format of these files is very much just HTML. You can even edit a Flashblocks data file with an HTML editor such as Dreamweaver. So the good news is that it is very simple to display the contents of a Flashblocks data file in your HTML. I will discuss two ways to display Flashblocks content to search engines and give PHP code samples.

<noscript>

Use the <noscript> tag in your HTML to display Flashblocks data files to search engines. The visitor will see your Flash movie, but search engines will index the Flashblocks data file content within the <noscript> tag. This is the technique that the Flashblocks demo site uses.

Enter these search queries into Google to find the Flashblocks demoSite that comes with Flashblocks.

• "Expandable, and yet simple."
• Flashblocks ML is easy
• "Learn from example and get up to speed quickly."

SWFObject

The SWFObject method is similar to the above Noscript method.  The user, with Flash installed, will see the Flash movie, But search engines will see the Flashblocks data file as HTML. The difference between the noscript and div SWFObject technique is that instead of inserting your data file between the <noscript> tags, it will be inserted between <div> tags. Please see the SWFObject website for more details.

SEO pHP Code

Your tags, and containing SEO code, should go between the body tags of your index.php file. Once you have done this, when you view the html rendered from the server, you should actually see the data file's contents directly in the html of your php file.

This is the relevant HTML and PHP code to dynamically insert a flashblocks data file into your HTML. Note that this code either needs to go between the <noscript> tags or the <div id="flashcontent"> tags

<noscript> or <div id="flashcontent">

<?php

// Get contents of data file.
$d = file_get_contents("flashblocks/data/dataFile.xml");

// Remove <![CDATA[]] tags from HTML code.
$d = str_replace("<![CDATA[", " ", $d);
$d = str_replace("]]>", " ", $d);

// Display full size images to search engines as well. Note, this could be bandwidth intensive.
// $d = str_replace("<Mediablock ", "<img ", $d);

// Insert data file here.
print("<p>$d</p>");

// If you wish to display additional XML files you may use this code.
print("<p>".file_get_contents("flashblocks/data/xml/quotes.xml")."</p>");

?>

// Note that with an RSS formatted XML files, like many of the external XML files that Flashblocks uses with its modules, a link may be sufficient as Google will recognize the RSS feed.
<a href="flashblocks/data/xml/news.xml">Latest Flashblocks News RSS Feed</a>

</noscript> or </div>

Conclusion

These examples are just two solutions.  There are other possibilities as well, such as outputting a data file into a doorway page; one solution that I have been entertaining is to create a PHP templating system that would insert Flashblocks data by ID, just like it is inserted into a Flashblocks site... but that is another project for another time!

With a little CSS in your HTML and a well designed data file, the inserted Flashblocks data can actually be rendered very nicely for visitors who, in the unlikely case, do not have Flash or JavaScript.

It is my understanding that, as long as cloaked alternate data is the same data that is in your Flash movie, these techniques are very much white hat SEO and the preferred method by Google.

Languages

You may add any language to the Flashblocks ML administration. When you login to a Flashblocks ML powered website, you are presented with a list of available languages. Adding new languages here is very simple:

1. Navigate to the flashblocks/languages/ directory. Within this directory you will find sub directories titled "English", "French", etc..
2. Duplicate the language directory that you wish to translate from. For example, if you are translating from English to Hungarian, simply duplicate the "English" directory and rename it "Hungarian".
3. Edit your languages XML language files with any text editor.

If you open flashblocks.xml, you will see something that looks like this:

<menu> <!-- Root Menu -->
<save>Save Data</save>
<logout>Logout Flashblocks</logout>
... 

Change the tag contents (Save Data) but not the tags (<save>). The actual XML tags must remain the same as they are the identifiers that Flashblocks ML uses when referencing language data. Also, if you wish you may also change the XML comments (anything between <!-- text -->), although this is not necessary. Your new XML snippet may look something like this:

<menu>
<!-- Root Menu -->
<save>Sauver les données</save>
<logout>Quitter Flashblocks</logout>
... 

Only after you have logged in can you access the language data from Flash.  You can reference the selected language data with the following method:

trace( flashblocks.Flashblocks.getLng("fb.menu.save") );

FAQ / Trouble Shooting

1. Make sure that you have uploaded all files in the www directory, including the entire flashblocks directory and include.php file.
2. If necessary, make sure that you have set all file and directory write permissions. Your hosting provider can give you more details regarding setting file and directory write permissions.

Loosing Data

The data is randomly vanishing,
If Flashblocks is loosing content then an Editblock instance may be missing it's editblockID. Each Editblock needs an editblockID. This can be achieved on one of two ways.

1. Make sure that every movie clip that has an Editblock attached to it, has an instance name. And make sure that each movie clip, in the path to each Editblock, has an instance name.
2. Alternately, another option is to give each Editblock instance, through the component inspector, a unique editblockID. Please see the section on the Editblock component for more information.
6. http://flashblocks.com/FlashblocksML/ReadMe.php#componentEB

The data is being lost after loading a Flashblocks site into a container flash movie.
When the path to an Editblock changes, as in the case of loading an swf into a container movie clip, then the Editblocks contents may become displaced.

The best solution for this is to use the _lockroot attribute in your main flash movie. This will cause the container movie clip to function as if it were the _root.

container._lockroot = true;
container.loadMovie('movie.swf',1);

To understand why data is displaced, understand that, by default, each Editblock's editblockID is the linking path, the linking identifier, between Editblocks and data. By default Flashblocks creates each Editblock's editblockID from the path to the movie clip that the Editblock is attached. So when you load an swf into a movie clip or level you have caused all paths in that swf to change.

For example, if an Editblock, on the _root, is attached to a text field with the instance name "txt" then the Editblock's editblockID will be "txt". But if you load that same movie clip into a container movie clip, with the instance name "container", the editblockID will become container_txt".

And a more detailed example, lets say you have an swf called movie1.swf which contains a movie clip, with the instance name "about", and that movie clip contains a text field, with the instance name "myText". Now you drop an Editblock onto "myText". The editblockID, for that Editblock, is going to be "about_myText". And when you save any edits to this text field you will see this identifying path in your Flashblocks data file. Now lets say you choose to load movie1.swf into another Flash movie's movie clip with the instance name "holder". What will happen is that you will no longer see the data in "myText" because the identifying path has changed and the data is now displaced. The editblockID is no longer "about_myText" but rather "holder_about_myText".

You can avoid this problem from arising by manually, through the component inspector, giving each Editblock an editblockID. Just make sure each editblockID is unique as this is the linking path between Editblocks and data. Once you do this, when you move this Editblock or the movie clip that contains the Editblock, the editblockID will no longer change.

Besides the _lockroot solution above, another remedy is to reenter your website data from Flashblocks or open the XML data file and manually update all of the id attributes to point to each new editblockID.

For more information please see the section on the Editblock component.

Modules not Displaying Content

The demo site, flashblocks_demoSite.fla, uses files found in the fla source directory, when published. These files are mc_tween2.as and classes from the directories com, org, and xm. Many of the modules, contained in the demo site, require these files to work properly. These classes must be accessible to your fla. So if you save your source files elsewhere you will need to place these required files and directories into the same directory as your flash document. Alternately, regarding these classes, you may place them in your class path. Also, if you wish, you may install the exceptional XMCA 0.3 component set from the authors website http://chq.emehmedovic.com and mc_tween2.as from here http://hosted.zeh.com.br/mctween/downloads/mc_tween_2_28_29.mxp. Regarding the mc_tween2.as file you will need to include it with this Actionscript: #include "mc_tween2.as";

Gallery Module Displays only one image
If you are using multiple swf in your website then make sure that your main fla has a Mediablock instances in it's library.

logging In

Login Menu Text and Languages do not appear
Make sure that you have uploaded the included.php file and the flashblocks directory containing the languages directory to a PHP enabled server. You may also set up PHP on your personal computer to test locally. I use XAMPP to do this.

No Login Contextual Menu Option
Make sure that you are not disabling the Flash contextual menu from Actionscript or the HTML holding your Flash movie. Also note that you can access the contextual menu by pressing CTRL+Shift or Apple+Shift.

How do I have only one language option when logging in?
Delete the language directories that you do not wish to display.

How do I change the default Language?
Change the default language in:  flashblocks_config.xml.

Flashblocks Dialogue Windows

Flashblocks Dialogue Windows do not center or are off Screen
The AC_RunActiveContent.js file that Flash CS3 creates does not seem completely compatible with the SystemManager.screen property when exporting Flash movies at 100% and "no scale". Use something else, like like swfObject, to embed your Flash movie

You can have the dialogue windows appear at the top left or even better where the mouse is positioned. winPosition is the location of the dialogue windows. This can be "mouse", "TL", or the default "center". You may set the windowPosition variable like this.

flashblocks.Flashblocks.MenuDisplayObj.windowPosition="mouse";

Uploading with the File Manager

The Alternate Upload System
If the following uploading tricks do not work on a particular server or on OSX (and sometimes this is the case for all Flash upload scripts) you can always use the alternate upload system. More information regarding the technique can be found in this forum post.

To use the alternate upload script, open each file manager Editor file, found in the config directory, fileManager.xml, fileManager_flv.xml, etc.. and add the following attribute to the data node: uploadButton="popup,600x200,include.php?include=upload". The data node will look something like this:

   ...  
   uploadButton="popup,600x200,include.php?include=upload"
   dir="flashblocks/data/"
   showExtentions=""
   uploadExtensions="*"
   ...

Uploading with the file browser returns a 403 or 406 Error
There are common uploading issues with the Flash player. You can find an online discussion regarding uploading and Flash at Adobe Live Docs.
You may need to ask your hosting provider to turn off mod_security settings on the server. Or try adding the following lines to an ".htaccess" file in the root directory of your site.

    SecFilterEngine Off
    SecFilterScanPOST Off

You will find the file ".htaccess.txt" in the www directory. You may upload and rename it to ".htaccess".

If your page is under a secure connection, Flash cannot upload under a secure connection, so if you are trying for example to upload to https://mysite.com/upload.php, it won’t work. However, you can upload to http://mysite.com/upload.php

Uploading with the file browser returns a 500 Error

This is a 'catch-all' error generated by your Web server. Basically something has gone wrong, but the server can not be more specific about the error condition in its response to the client. In addition to the 500 error notified back to the client, the Web server should generate some kind of internal error log which gives more details of what went wrong. It is up to the operators of your Web server site to locate and analyze these logs.

Please make sure that you have write permission on the directory that you are uploading to. Try uploading a small file, less then 50k and see if that works. And finally ask your hosting provider for more details about the error.

Upload Large Files Fail but Small Files Upload Fine
You may need to ask your hosting provider to allow larger file uploads to the server.
You may also try doing this yourself by adding these lines to your php.ini file:
   upload_max_filesize = 15M
   post_max_size = 15M

Uploaded Files do not show up in the File Browser
Give the directory that you are uploading into write permission: Chmod to 755 or 777.
NOTE: It is very important to ask your hosting provider, for the most secure option, when changing file and directory permissions.

Errors while compiling

Make sure that all necessary classes are present in your class path or in the same folder as the fla that you are publishing.

If Flash appears to be accessing an older version of the Flashblocks components, even though you have a newer version installed, you may need to clear your ASO files. to do this Select Control > Delete ASO Files. Find more information on ASO files here:
http://livedocs.adobe.com/flash/9.0/main/wwhelp/wwhimpl/common/html/wwhelp.htm?context=LiveDocs_Parts&file=00000800.html

History

Flashblocks ML Version history is displayed in the following format: Major . Component . Editors . Minor - date uploaded.

Flashblocks ML 2.5.1 - in progress

1. demoSite
• Gallery thumbnails modules.
  • Added randomOrder = true option for galleries created from xml files.
  • Changed reference from Flashblocks to flashblocks.Flashblocks so export on second frame will function properly.
• Smooth Scroller 2
  • Updated with blank movie clip so that when placing the module in new fla, blank movie is copied over.

Flashblocks ML 2.5 - 7/11/08

1. components
   • Flashblocks
     • Setting an Editblock instance enabled property to false will now disable it's menu items.
     • If the Editblock is not visible, _visible, or _alpha then it is disabled as well.
   • Editblock
     • Formatting for pre text is now preserved. Note that you may need to enter a space in the text field and hard code pre as the editor type
   • Mediablock
   • Selecting flv extension is now allowed and loads flashblocks/editors/flvplayer.swf which in turn loads the selected flv movie.
2. demoSite
• Gallery thumbnails modules - several minor bugs fixed.
  • Added a new configuration variable called overScroll - Leave it false and your thumbnails will not over scroll the bounds of the module.
  • Smart caching system added - Gallery full size image - set preloadNum to the number of images to cache.
  • gs.tweenlite option added
  Module List News - now gets image data from xml.
3. editors
• flashblocks_weed.xml - added. Currently requires: Editblock.TagFunctions.weed, etc... from demoSite.
• flashblocks_link.swf - now has access to file manager for selecting paths to files and directories.
• flvplayer.swf which is loaded by the Mediablock component
• You can specify editors for specific tags in the xml editor's config file. __getPath, __getFile, __html are currently supported. You can also place these tags as attributes directly in the XML file being edited .
  <tags>
    <image __getPath="true"/>
    <bodyText __html="true"/>
  </tags>

• serverSide
  • flashblocks_fileCommands.php - now $allowedFiles = pdf
  • dirXML - now separates multiple dir's with |. This allows camas to be used in the file name of a directory.
  • flashblocks_resizer.php - special characters are allowed or replaced with '-' - stripslashes added.

Flashblocks ML 2.4 - 5/15/08

The is a recommended update as there are several core enhancements and small bugs fixed. The Mediablock component has been updated with a smart auto cache system. 'Save' appears only when necessary. The xml editor is now integrated with the html editor. The html editor background color changes when text is white, absent fonts are replaced with present fonts, and the newText styles attribute added. The file manager now allows selection from the directory tree. The core menu system has been updated with a help option. The Gallery module may be created from XML file or a directory of images. Flashblocks has been updated with the Greek language thanks to Orestis Mammis at http://www.imb.gr

• Mediablock
  • New AutoCache:Boolean = true
  • ClearCache:Boolean = false by default
  • onComplete and OnComplete will now both execute. resize & crop turned off complete event bug fixed.
  • Special characters are replaced with '-'
• Flashblocks - 'Save' only appears in edit menu if there is anything to save.
• flashblocks_loginLite.swf - no longer displays server error in user name field
• flashblocks_XMLeditor.swf
  • html editor integrated with __html="true" tag.
• flashblocks_flashText.swf
  • If white text then background becomes gray
  • If font does not exist then it will be replaced with the first font in the font list
  • added the newText styles attribute
    • <newText font="Arial" leading="10" size="32" letterSpacing="-2.5" bold="true" italic="false" color="0x444444" />
• flashblocks_fileTree.swf - user can now select a directory from the left and special characters are replaced with -
• flashblocks_window.swf - added help option. Help can be configured in the config files with the addition of the help tag:
  • <window label="HTML editor" url="flashblocks/editors/flashblocks_....swf">
    • <help>
      • <![CDATA[<P ALIGN='LEFT'><FONT FACE='Arial'>Help Data</FONT></P>]]>
    • </help>
  • </window>
• flashblocks_FlashTextHtml.xml
  • added <newText> option.
  • updated styles
• flashblocks_fileCommands.php - Special characters are replaced with '-'
• flashblocks_demoSite.fla
  • Module List News,Store,Blog
    • full size background in module pack now.
    • fixed line spacing issue - split('\r\n').join('\n')
    • // auto click item number or "last" to auto open last item.
• Smooth Scroller2
  • fixed issue with a known Flash bug regarding autoSize=true.
    • mc.txt.height = mc.txt._height
    • mc.txt.autoSize = false
  • Scrollbar Component (Version 2.0.0): Smoother and faster easing (now time-based); scrollbar handle is now more responsive; scrollbar handle can now be dragged outside of the browser window, or the Flash object area; ScrollArea and MaskArea now provide keyboard support (keys: up, down, page up, page down, home, and end), and refresh automatically on content change.
• Module Gallery
  • now can be created from XML file or a directory of images.
  • galleryThumbs in "galleryThumb1" now references _parent so that positioning is independent from other instances.
• languages - Greek added thanks to Orestis Mammis at http://www.imb.gr

Flashblocks ML 2.3.0.1 - 4/5/08

• include.php updated

Flashblocks ML 2.3.0 - 4/4/08

• ReadMe.htm - added Language section,etc... and new version scheme - Flashblocks ML Version . Major . Component & Files. just Files - date uploaded
• flashblocks_demoSite.fla
  • gallery module no longer requires #include "mc_tween2.as"
  • menu bg scales to size of text and more options
  • Email Module - email check fix
  • mp3player - RSS, playMp3(num), playObj([{}])
  • RSS now links to XML rather then PHP
  • Menu XML open if only one item
  • mp3 player clears cache on load
• Flashblocks component set
  • Flashblocks
    • version 2.3 - changed version naming system - Major . Component . Editor . Minor update
    • Flashblocks.depth can now be set for depth to load Flashblocks interface. default 7777
    • Leaving flashblockID blank will now auto generate from path
    • Giving dataFile a path to a directory, instead of a file, will now auto generate a file name, from the flashblockID, into the specified path.
    • dataFile is only loaded once. if (autoLoad && dataFile && !Flashblocks.Registered[flashblockID].loaded) loadData();
    • templating system now built in.
  • Editblock
    • alt menu now sends editorObject to Editor. Fixes issue with XML editor and alt menu.
    • visible and enabled now work.
    • hairlines fixed
    • internal linking system has been overhauled - href() deciphers function, email, or url. (getUrl should be overwritten to work with swfaddress.)
• Mediablock
  • if flashblockID is not fb0 then prefix flashblockID to image file name.
• include.php
  • now accesses login and email scripts
  • now points to the serverSide directory below website root
• flashblocks_config.xml - now points login and email to include.php
• data
• editors
  • flashblocks_textEditor.swf - if (w>1200) w=1200; if (h>900) h=900
  • flashblocks_link - simplified interface now that Editblock.href(:Object) deciphers functions, email and urls.
  • flashblocks_login.swf - flashblocks\editors\flashblocks_login.swf now tabs correctly.
  • flashblocks_loginLite.swf - added and config file updates to use lite by default
  • flashblocks_fileManager.swf - updated for new XML editor
    • fileManager.xml - stage dimensions
    • fileManager_flv.xml - stage dimensions
    • fileManager_selectDir.xml - stage dimensions & showExtentions="" all instead of none
    • fileManager_selectFile.xml - stage dimensions
    • fileManager_mediablock.xml - stage dimensions
    • can now only select files or directories for each config type
  • flashblocks_XMLeditor.swf
    • select - auto open nodes is on.
    • auto open single nodes
    • File Manager buttons
    • width=="stage"
  • flashblocks_flashText.swf
    • the target option added to the link window in the text editor. Also, target can be set in config file url attribute
    • Images and text bug fix
    • if (w>1200) w=1200; if (h>900) h=900
    • flashblocks_FlashTextHtml.xml - updated styles
• Languages - Spanish added thanks to Enrique Errando - http://elpuntografico.com
• serverSide
  • flashblocks_fileCommands.php - flv added to allowedFiles
  • serverSide directory moved to below website root for additional security

Flashblocks ML 2.0.2.6 - 1/12/08

• flashblocks_fileCommands.php - added swf to upload list.
• ReadMe.htm - Embedding Fonts and FlashText HTML Editor added
• ReadMe.htm - FlashTextHtml configuration.htm- removed and placed in ReadMe.htm
• flashblocks_flashTextHtml.swf - updated "Enter Text Here" bug
• flashblocks_demoSite.fla
  • loading bar script, Mediablock.OnComplete, Mediablock.OnProgress on frame 2 updated.
  • PRELOAD embed fonts is on _root

Flashblocks ML 2.0.2.5 - 12/30/07

• FlashText HTML Editor - inserting Mediablocks now work
• FlashText HTML Editor - fixed asfunction bug
• demoSite - if (!$addTween) trace("mc_tween2.as is not compiled into the Flash movie.")
• demoSite - smooth scroller module 1 now can be placed in template2 example.
• Readme.htm - updated
• FlashTextHtml configuration.htm- created

Flashblocks ML 2.0.2.4.1 - 12/21/07

• XML Editor fixed..

Flashblocks ML 2.0.2.4 - 12/18/07

• German/flashblocks.xml - language file updated thanks to Raffael
• flashblocks_fileTree.swf - Editor refresh button now refreshes local view.
• flashblocks_fileCommands.php - Limit allowed file/dir naming for greater security.
• Sessions added for greater security.
  • flashblocks_security.php - updated
  • flashblocks_fileCommands.php - updated
• flashblocks_login.php - updated
• flashblocks_save.php - updated
• Alternate upload option added for greater compatibility.
  • include.php - updated to support alternate uploading.
  • flashblocks_fileUpload.php - added as an alternative to Flash uploading from file manager Editor.
  • flashblocks_fileTree.swf - Editor updated
  • fileManager.xml - Editor config file now supports uploadButton="popup,600x200,upload.php" attribute.
• New FlashText Editor
  • flashblocks_flashTextHtml.swf - new HTML Editor
  • flashblocks_flashTextHtml.xml - new HTML Editor config file
• flashblocks_login.swf - sorts languages and selects default language. Editors object will now contain arrays if multiple attributes with same name exist.
• Editblock - Added new function to process HTML.
• demoSite - Mediablock.OnProgress, Mediablock.OnComplete - if ($addTween) use mcTween.
• demoSite - Gallery Module now support horizontal scrolling and image grid
• demoSite - template1a now references correct source and resized image.
• demoSite - Smooth Scroller2 Module - updated.

Flashblocks ML 2.0.2.3 - 11/20/07

• demoSite - mp3player now support real time XML file swapping and autoStart variable.
• demoSite - smoothScroller small bug fix
• demoSite - Gallery now expands text field to height of image.
• demoSite - Gallery small bug fix with placing thumbs inside movie clips.
• demoSite - Module Smooth Scroller2 added - news2, store2
• demoSite - Module List added - news2, store2
• demoSite - Module List Scores added
• configFlashArea.xml - Removed image insertion and styles.
• configFlashArea.xml - Added kroeger 05_53 to font tag for FlashArea Editor.
• flashblocks_fileCommands.php - updated upload function to work with more servers and most likely all Apples as well.
• flashblocks_XMLEditor.swf - _nodeValue will not become empty or theContent disappears when saved so theContent is now replaced with ".".
• flashblocks_link.swf - update link for advanced link functionality
• Editblock.as - update link for advanced link functionality
• Flashblocks - no longer displays wrong version on component instance.
• Flashblocks.as - now traces versionNumber.
• Mediablock.as - if media_crop is false and media_scale is false then display original full size image.
• Mediablock.as - send correct imgtype (extension) to resize class. Create resized Gif, Png, Jpg, Wbmp
• class.resizer.php - alpha transparencies in Png's and Gif's are now preserved. Gifs are actually converted to Pngs.
• fbInfo.php - added server side script for testing client servers.
• F8 flashblocks_link1.1 - updated for new link functionality

Flashblocks ML 2.0.2.2 - 9/25/07

• Editblock - fixed HTML bug in TextArea component
• Mediablock - fixed change resize dir bug
• Mediablock - editblockFunction - removed - "LOAD IMAGE if loadMedia has not already been called (dispatchEventCalled not true)"

Flashblocks ML 2.0.2.1 - 9/21/07

• flashblocks_demoSite.fla - updated menu with horizontal option. See first lines of "menu".
• php files now use <?php for compatibility.
• flashblocks_XMLeditor.swf updated. __label="" now affects node name in form view.
• flashblocksML.mxp - fixed XML error in output panel. This was related to the help files.

Flashblocks ML 2.0.2.0 - 9/15/07

• class.resizer.php - updated for greater compatibility
• Mediablock - onResize, onProgress, onComplete
• Flashblocks.mxi - Updated Flash Help Files
• XMLeditor.swf - updated for flashblocks_fileTree.swf integration - __getFile, __getPath options
• flashblocks_XMLeditor.xml - updated for flashblocks_fileTree.swf integration.
• flashblocks_email.php - Send special characters now works - charset=utf-8
• dataFile.xml - updated contact form
• flashblocks_fileTree.swf - Thumbnails
• flashblocks_fileTree.swf - no longer says undefined when loading.
• flashblocks_fileTree.swf -Refresh tree on create/delete.
• fileManager....xml - updates width and height
• languages/flashblocks.xml - updates new file and new dir
• Module Smooth Scroller - fixes player 7/8 bug

Flashblocks ML 2.0.1.20.1 - 9/6/07

• Editblock - Mediablock instances can now be inserted into text with FlashArea Editor.
  Basically all references to <IMG SRC="flashblocks/editors/Mediablock.swf" are replaced with <IMG SRC="createMediablock"
• configFlashArea.xml - updated to allow for inserting Mediablock.swf
• Mediablock - insert new image bug fixed. static var ClearCache:Boolean = true;  boundingBox_mc size bug fixed.
• Flashblocks - defaults to _level0 as _levels above 0 cause issues with text areas.
• DemoSite - layer:Mediablock, frame:2

Flashblocks ML 2.0.1.19 - 9/4/07

• Depreciated target movie clip Editor variables for the improved changes that follow.
• Flashblocks - editorObject can now be passed from an Editblock instance's editors, through a contextual menu item, to the Editor:
  obj.target.editors = {
       selectFile: [{caption:"Select XML File",
                     editorObject:{dir:"flashblocks/data/", showExtentions:"xml", dialogWinExtension:"*.xml;"} }],
         XMLeditor:[{caption:"Edit XML File",
                     editorObject:{file:newsFile} }]
  }
• flashblocks_XMLeditor.swf - Retrieves the XML file path from, editorObject: gate.editorObject.file
• flashblocks_fileTree.swf - Retrieves editorObject: gate.editorObject.dir, showExtentions, dialogWinExtension
  
• flashblocks_demoSite.fla - News Module updated to reflect the above changes.
• configFlashArea.xml - updated with new FlashArea image paths
• images/html_images/ - trinity.swf, adobe.jpg added for FlashArea
• languages - XMLeditor.xml save & cancel
• config/flashblocks_XMLeditor.xml - updates with new language references

Flashblocks ML 2.0.1.18 - 8/28/07

• ReadMe.htm - Expanded this file
• Mediablock - editblockFunction - LOAD IMAGE if loadMedia has not already been called (dispatchEventCalled not true)
• Flashblocks - changed default levelNumber to 7777 instead of 0.
• Flashblocks - "close editor" no longer appears after launching external popup window?
• Flashblocks - xmlToObj now must receive clearCache==true and http==true in order to do ?r=random()
• fileTree.swf - File Manager now returns directories with a trailing slash.
• put Flash embed back into demoSite.htm

Flashblocks ML 2.0.1.17 - 8/4/07

• Italian Flashblocks administrator translation added thanks to Liana - www.fmenardi.com
• flashblocks_window.swf
• Flashblocks - Flashblocks.Registered[flashblockID].loaded = true; after parse data
• Flashblocks - owner.dispatchEvent({type:"error", target:owner});
• flashblocks_flashArea_loader.swf - flashblocks_html_flashArea.xml <data> body is now processed as default text for flashArea HTML editor
• flashblocks_html_flashArea.xml:
    <data width="428" height="280" config="flashblocks_zungz/editors/flashArea/configFlashArea.xml">
      <![CDATA[<P ALIGN='LEFT'><FONT FACE='Arial' SIZE='12' COLOR='#000000'>Enter Text </FONT></P>]]>
    </data>
• Mediablock - if static ClearCache or clearCache is true then a random string will be amended to the image file name while loading.
• flashblocks_demoSite.fla - added slide show to gallery module
  
• flashblocks_demoSite.fla - admin can no longer select resize directory, found in config file, for gallery
• flashblocks_demoSite.fla - Mediablock content is now centered if crop or resize are false

Flashblocks ML 2.0.1.16 - 7/26/07

• Mediablock - Changed variable names: content_source to sourceFile , contentPath_dir to resizeDir, contentPath_file to resizeName
  auto_crop = false fixed
• flashblocks_login.swf - minor bug
• flashblocks_login.php - updated comments
• flashblocks_demoSite.fla - mp3player Module registers itself - flashblocks.Flashblocks.gate.mp3player = this
• flashblocks_demoSite.fla - Gallery Module added to template
• dirObj.as added to fla source directory to assist Gallery Module
• Flashblocks - configXmlLoaded event listener is broadcast to all registered listeners when the flashblocks configuration xml file has been loaded.
• flashblocks_windows.swf - You can have the dialog windows appear at the top left now or even better where the mouse is positioned. winPosition is the location of the dialog windows. This can be "mouse", "TL", or the default "center". flashblocks.Flashblocks.MenuDisplayObj.windowPosition="mouse";

Flashblocks ML 2.0.1.15 - 7/10/07

• Changed the XML startFile for Flash SEO - Flash Search Engine Optimization.
• flashblocks_demoSite.swf - Added Quotes module
• flashblocks_demoSite.htm
• Editblock.as -Added static function ReturnEditblockID(eb):String { return eb.editblockID }
• Flashblocks.as - Added static function MenuCreateItemTrue(ebMC):Boolean { return true }
• flashblocks.login.swf - fixed occasional pause on localhost
• flashblocks/data/dataFiles_template - Added missing directory and example template data files.

Flashblocks ML 2.0.1.14 - 6/28/07

• flashblocks_login.swf - loads smoother
• flashblocks_demoSite.htm
• flashblocks_demoSite.swf
• XMLeditor.swf
• flashblocks_fileTree.swf - view button added
• Flashblocks - file manager editor dir fixed
• fileManager_*.xml - all fileManager XML files have view button added
• XML files - Removed unicode signature from all XML files

Flashblocks ML 2.0.1.13 - 6/24/07

• Flashblocks_demoSite - updated with advanced template example
• Flashblocks - save - make changes bug fixed
• Editblock - If no flashblockID in instance then search all parent movie clips for a Flashblock instance and use it's flashblockID
• Flashblocks - config file must first load before loadData() is called
• Flashblocks - loadData() populates only Editblocks that belong to the Flashblock instance

Flashblocks ML 2.0.1.12 - 6/22/07

• flashblocks_flashArea_loader.swf - Added 50% transparency to FlashArea
• flashblocks_html_flashArea.xml - updated with bgcolor tag to set background color of editor window
• flashblocks_window.swf - updated to receive bgcolor from config files path editors.window.bgcolor="0x00ccff"
• updated data directory

Flashblocks ML 2.0.1.11 - 6/20/07

• flashblocks_config.xml - updated with fileCommandUpload path for fileTree.swf
• flashblocks_fileTree.swf updated - uploading should work now without having to customize the config files.
• fileManager.....xml - all fileManager editors updates
• configFlashArea.xml - removed image option for FlashArea text editor due to Flash / image text area inconsistencies.
• Flashblocks.as - now sends correct Editblock instance from _root to editors so flashblocks_fileTree.swf now points to flashblocks/data/
• flashblocks_fileTree.swf - receives var's editor_data_dialogWinExtension, editor_data_showExtentions, editor_data_dir from targetMC
• flashblocks_login.swf no longer hangs and disabled login button when active
• French updated
• Added optional .htaccess.txt to www dir

Flashblocks ML 2.0.1.10 - 6/20/07

• Dutch translation added to backend languages thanks to Arthur Schenk - ocgraphics.eu
• XML Caching issue fixed

Flashblocks ML 2.0.1.9 - 6/19/07

• French translation added to backend languages thanks to Gabriele Fusco - gfphoto.ch
• flashblocks_XMLeditor.swf - logout bug fixed
• flashblocks_login.swf
• include.php - Updated to a more secure model
• flashblocks_config.xml - Updated include references and corresponding file references:
• -- Editblock.as
• -- Flashblocks.as
• -- fileManager_mediablock.xml
• -- flashblocks_fileTree.swf

Flashblocks ML 2.0.1.8 - 6/19/07

• Double load Mediablock bug fixed
• flashblocks_demoSite.fla updated with new components and flashblocks_demoSite.swf, flashblocks_demoSite.htm and .js files

Flashblocks ML 2.0.1.7 - 6/18/07

• Removed some source editors from fla source
• Updated flashblocks_textEditor.fla. The Editor now receives width="auto" height="auto" wordWrap="auto" from config file
• Added editors: selectDir, selectFile, XMLeditor
• Updated Flashblocks Demo Site several new modules: mp3player, shopping car buy button, latest news and more.
• Added populateRegistered() after logging in
• Flashblocks.levelNumber can now be set if you need the Flashblocks editors to load into a level above 0. There are possible issues when loading into levels above 0. So leaving levelNumber at 0 is recommended for now.
• Editblock properties array added to component inspector. This array can be used however you wish for your custom Flashblocks modules.
• Added public static function Flashblocks.XmlToObj(file, obj) obj = { return new XMLtoOBJ(file, {nodeTag:"theContent", ignoreFirstChild:true, toOBJ:obj}) }
• Updated English language XML files

Flashblocks ML 2.0.1.6 - 5/10/07

• Modules added to demo: email, smooth scroller
• Flashblocks editors now load into _level7777
• Editblock's can now be placed on _levels above 0
• Updated editor config editor permissions. 3, 5, and 10. flashblocks_login.php users updated so UN:designer PW:designer shows trace editors 10
• Hide Login Buttons until Language file is loaded
• flashblocks_flashArea_display.swf now gets config file from flashblocks_html_flashArea.xml
• editors can now reference level 7777, _root.gate rather then _root.FlashblocksGate.gate

Flashblocks ML 2.0.1.5 - 5/2/07

• Added download option to file manager. affected files include flashblocks_fileTree.swf , and  fileManager.xml

Flashblocks ML 2.0.1.4 - 4/29/07

• Updated flashblocks_demoSite.fla with new components and actionscript listeners
• Removed flashblocks_login from source fla folder
• Updated Mediablock so that there is only one build for both player7 and player8. Player8 no longer uses the, ImageLoader() smooth scaling class. But this can be hard coded at any time be redefining the function:  newMovieClipLoader()
• replaced <fb> tag with <![CDATA[ tag for surrounding HTML tags
• Added new html editor - FlashArea text Editor is now the default html text editor.
• flashblocks_flashArea_display.fla has been added to the source directory
• Added images to "data/images" and "data/html_images" folder
• Updated Button component integration
• Removed session check from flashblocks_security.php for compatibility issues with some servers. This can be added again by uncommenting code
• winPadding variable can now be set from swf editors
• Updates winPadding, winWidth, winHeight algorithms in flashbocks_window1.2
• Updated fileTree.swf for better positioning in window

Flashblocks ML 2.0.1.3 - 4/5/07

• Updated language file
• Fixed Button component integration
• Flashblocks.LngTrace function added to Flashblocks and flashblocks_admin_developer.xml
• Editblock attribute, "editblock Header" is now translated through Flashblocks.getLng function

Flashblocks ML 2.0.1.2 - 3/27/07

• flashblocks_window.swf has been updated to allow for forcing the size of the window if the variables winWidth or winHeight variables have been set in the root of the external editor swf's.
• flashblocks_fileTree.swf has been updated to fix sizing bug in flashblocks window
• fileManager.xml and mediablock.xml can now be configured to set the width and height of the flashblocks_fileTree.swf in Flashblocks

Flashblocks ML 2.0.1.1 - 3/25/07

• Mediablock can no be rotated on stage
• There are now two Mediablock components found in the Flash Components Panel. One is for Player 8 and one if for player 7. Player 8 version will rotate and scale smoothly
• Fixed an upload Bug

Flashblocks ML 2.0.1.0 - 3/16/07

• Setting Flashblocks.Config.paths.resizeDir in the configuration XML file now has priority in the Mediablock component. useful for multi data files
• Login tabIndex fix
• Fixed multiple <fb> bug in data files
• Added ?q=random to loading Mediablock images
• Text centers in flashblocks_alert.fla
• CancelEditor moved to flashblocks_login.xml
  

Flashblocks ML 2.0.0.3 - 2/18/07

• Flashblocks_login.php updated - edit username,password,real name,level number,user ID
• Login menu option is deleted after logging in again
• Removed "Insert" Button from MediaBrowser.xml Must double click file to insert media for now
• "Link Editblock" is now working and Detach Editblock when removing URL information
• Ctrl+Shift menu works again
• Downgraded Mediablock to work with player7 Unfortunately player8 smooth scaling no longer exists
  

Flashblocks ML 2.0.0.2 - 2/17/07

• German Translation added by Wolfgang - Amridesign.com
• Fla source files are not saved for FlashMX2004
• Updated flashblocks_htmlEditor.fla with embedded fonts movie clip and embedded "Arial,Arial Black,Impact"
• Updated flashblocks_html.xml to reflect these changes, fontsArray="Arial,Arial Black,Impact"
• Added FLA source files to ZIP

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