Conflict Between Flash Animation, Txp Clean URLs

Logoleptic · 2008-10-24 05:12:33

I’m working on a site that uses a few Flash animations, and these animations are being provided by a member of the client’s staff. The files I’ve been given are configured to be used on a page within the same directory as the .swf file, and the Flash movie looks for its supporting files — XML, images, etc. — in that same location. This arrangement makes perfect sense on a static site made out of files and directories.

The problem comes when, for example, an animation is used on a page in the “foo” section. Despite what the URL indicates, there’s no /foo directory on the server. The Flash movie goes looking for its supporting documents in this non-existent directory, and when it doesn’t find them it fails to work. When I create the corresponding directory and put the files there, it causes HTTP 403 errors on the section’s front page and category pages (or index listings with Options +Indexes in .htaccess).

What I’d like to do is keep each Flash movie and its supporting files in sub-directories of a /flash dir at the site’s root. For example, bar.swf and its friends would live in /flash/bar while other_anim.swf would sit in /flash/other. Each animation would then go looking for its support files in its own sub-directory of /flash, regardless of where that animation is used on the site.

I know very little about Flash, but this seems like the kind of thing that should be possible. Can anyone tell me how it’s done, so I know how to phrase the request to my client’s employee? I’m also open to clever mod_rewrite work-arounds and other hacks, if that would do the job.

Thanks in advance for your help. :-)

Last edited by Logoleptic (2008-10-24 05:15:09)

MattD · 2008-10-24 06:01:43

Can the flash use absolute paths instead of relative paths for these files?

Logoleptic · 2008-10-24 15:56:37

MattD wrote:

Can the flash use absolute paths instead of relative paths for these files?

That’s exactly what I’m thinking. I guess part of what I’m asking is whether there’s a different way to say this to a Flash designer/developer. There seems to have been some misunderstanding when I first asked for this, and it may be down to me knowing little about Flash terminology and technique.

juanjonavarro · 2008-10-24 18:19:03

I think you can also delete these lines in your .htaccess:

	RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d

And use:

	RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f

This way, you can create a “foo” directory and still serve /foo as a TxP content.

MattD · 2008-10-24 21:45:54

The ‘foo’ directory might work if you create a section called ‘foo’. I’ve used this where that section contained only static content not managed by Textpattern and it worked. (i think)

Logoleptic · 2008-10-27 15:54:13

@Juanjo: Your .htaccess changes worked like a charm on the embedding problem. Thanks!

Are there any drawbacks to your approach, or changes in Txp behavior that I should be aware of? Thanks again. :-)

juanjonavarro · 2008-10-27 17:34:20

Maybe you cannot access directly to the /textpattern/ url and you need to specify /textpattern/index.php

Logoleptic · 2008-10-27 18:03:30

juanjonavarro wrote:

Maybe you cannot access directly to the /textpattern/ url and you need to specify /textpattern/index.php

I can confirm that. A small price to pay for fixing a big problem. Thanks for your help. :-)

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#1 2008-10-24 05:12:33

Conflict Between Flash Animation, Txp Clean URLs

#2 2008-10-24 06:01:43

Re: Conflict Between Flash Animation, Txp Clean URLs

#3 2008-10-24 15:56:37

Re: Conflict Between Flash Animation, Txp Clean URLs

#4 2008-10-24 18:19:03

Re: Conflict Between Flash Animation, Txp Clean URLs

#5 2008-10-24 21:45:54

Re: Conflict Between Flash Animation, Txp Clean URLs

#6 2008-10-27 15:54:13

Re: Conflict Between Flash Animation, Txp Clean URLs

#7 2008-10-27 17:34:20

Re: Conflict Between Flash Animation, Txp Clean URLs

#8 2008-10-27 18:03:30

Re: Conflict Between Flash Animation, Txp Clean URLs

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