As many of you know, I'm a member of Team Macromedia. In that capacity, I answer a lot of questions. It seems that more and more people are delivering to the web, because a question that comes up often is "My piece works great off of CD-ROM or hard drive, but when I package it for the web, my external content does not show up. Why not?"

I thought it might be helpful to explain a bit more fully why this happens. As beginning developers, we learn to use a relative path to external content. Usually this takes the form of FileLocation^"directory\"^fileVariable. The definition of FileLocation is this: FileLocation contains the path to the folder that contains the current file.

This is true of a hard drive or CD-ROM based piece, but is not, strictly speaking, true of a web packaged piece. FileLocation in a web packaged piece is the location of the plugin or ActiveX control, RUNA6W32.EXE (RUNA5W32.EXE if you are using Authorware 5). The file is installed on the user's computer, rather than the folder where the map file (.aam) is stored on the server. This will be in different locations depending on the specific operating system and browser used.

So, how do you fix this? If you want to keep storing your media on the server, then use the variable NetLocation to refer to the URL of the directory containing the map file. You'll need to use forward slashes rather than back slashes to indicate directories. Be aware that files you add to OBP that are in the root with your Authorware source file will default to being downloaded to the DOWNLOAD directory, and you will either need to change that within OBP or you will need to change your code to allow for it.

More likely, though, you'll get better performance if you download the media to the hard drive. You can do this in one of two ways. You can use the add file(s) button to add the files to OBP and let the map file download them, or you can use NetDownload or NetDownloadBackground.

 

You can make batch changes to groups of icons by selecting the ones you want to change, then using Edit>Change Properties in the Main Menu. You can use this to add an attached calculation, change the width of a group of responses, change the layer for a group of Displays, etc. Check it out!

 

There are no scheduled chats for the remainder of this year. I am trying to create an Authorware driven chat room, so this will give me time to do it. 

I was malingering tonight in a tub of very hot water, when I noticed my second-favorite cat, Tux, perched on the sink.

He was dipping his paw into his water bowl, then bringing his paw to his mouth. At first, I thought he had developed a hitherto unsuspected method of drinking, but further observation revealed his true motive. He was throwing a purloined pink Q-tip into the water dish, then fishing it out, throwing it in, etc. I guess that's the kitty equivalent of solitaire.

A great Authorware website has been retired. Don Knaack has shut down the Authorware Resource center.

Chris Swenson saved the day after the last chat, quickly posting a Flash/PHP chat room at www.mojomole.com that enabled us to overcome the technical difficulties we had in my chat room. Thanks again, Chris!