Publishing to the Web!
Just a quick post on how to get everything uploaded to the web. Before you get started, you will need some form of web hosting, to serve your content to people requesting it. If you're looking for hosting, you can check out some of the large companies like BlueHost, HostGator, or WebFaction to at least get an idea of plans and pricing.
When you've finished a project in Flash Catalyst, you can publish it via the File > Publish option. This creates two versions of your project.
More after the jump.
We will be using the deploy-to-web version. If you're curious about what the differences are, check out this previous post. The contents of the deploy-to-web folder look like this.
Here are the key players
- Main.swf - this is your project, published in swf form.
- Main.html - an html page that loads Main.swf
- assets - folder containing all the linked assets (movies, images, sound clips, swfs) for your project.
- swfobject.js - some JavaScript that helps Main.html load Main.swf
- Flex libraries - all the files ending in .swz are Flex libraries. All Catalyst functionality is built on top of the Flex framework. If these libraries are missing, Flash can load these libraries from a central Adobe server, but it might be slower.
You will need to find out how to upload content to your web host. If you search their documentation for "Uploading Content with FTP" you can probably find something to start with. If you upload the deploy-to-web folder, then your web page will be available at yourwebaddress/deploy-to-web/Main.html. Many people just upload the contents of the deploy-to-web folder rather than the folder itself, so that the address is yourwebaddress/Main.html. Unless you know exactly what each file is doing, I'd recommend making sure you upload the entire contents of the deploy-to-web folder.
If you don't specify a file (eg Main.html), then most web servers will default to one called index.html or default.html. So, if you rename Main.html to index.html, you will now be able to view your published project at yourwebaddress.
August 22nd, 2010 - 22:04
Hey, I was just doing some catalyst work and noticed that now whenever I run my flash project in any way, my third “state” in my project becomes like my “home” page. Example: I run the project, instead of opening on my “Home” page it opens on my “Gallery” page, which is obviously not what I want.
Got any suggestions? If you do, please help.
Thanks.
August 23rd, 2010 - 19:08
Double check that you don’t have any action sequences or interactions setting the state, and also that the home page is your default page (go to the pages / states tab up top, right click the home state and mark it as the default).
August 26th, 2010 - 04:36
HI bear,
How can I change the loading style? I want to create loading in my mind!
Thanks
August 26th, 2010 - 09:52
Creating a custom preloader requires work in Builder. A good starting place is Lee Brimelow’s tutorial here. You can also just google “Flex Custom Preloader” and see what looks like it fits your needs.
October 27th, 2010 - 08:05
how do i get my flash cat files to work in google apps without giving away the file location via a link or how do i place the code from these files -which i would prefer- in blogspot to edit upon disposition?
October 28th, 2010 - 14:37
Hi there,
I’m not really familiar with google apps, but assuming you can use a .swf that accesses external files, it should work just fine with a published Catalyst swf.
November 3rd, 2011 - 04:45
Hi,
I’ve uploaded all the files in the deploy to web to my ftp server. I’ve changed the name of main.html to index.
And still it doesn’t work.