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The bRotator is a custom flash component that can be fully updated through the supplied XML file. The banner rotator can be added to your site as a simple but effective way to advertise your products or services. A number of transition effects are available enabling you to specify how banners appear on stage, fading and scaling are a couple if ways to achieve your desired effect. As well as specifying the transitions, complete styling of the banner rotator is possible in the xml without the need to republish your flash file. No actionscript knowledge is required and no flash authoring software is needed!

Basic Banner Rotator Setup

The download includes everything needed to add the bRotator to your html pages. Flash authoring software is not needed unless you intend to add the gallery to your flash movies and customize your component through the inspector.

Open bRotator.xml in any html or text editor. This is a simple text file that provides the information that is displayed on the bRotator. It can also be used to customize the way the bRotator looks and the content that appears. The xml structure looks like :

< bRotator
h='100'
w='350'
bgColour='FFFFFF'
borderSize='1'
borderColour='009999'
loadFontSize='10'
loadFontColour='000000'
textValue=': click for more'
textFontSize='13'
textFontColour='000000'
textBackgroundColour='FFFFFF'
textBackgroundAlpha='70'
showText='true'
transitionTime='1'
pauseTime='3' >

The top, opening < bRotator tag contains a list of attributes that are used to define how the bRotator looks. These attributes are optional if the flash component is used through the component inspector, the attributes need to be deleted from the xml file as these take precedence over the component inspector.

Banner information is represented by the < banner node. The attribute - transition - contains the information for how the banner appears on stage. Available transitions to use all listed further down the page.

Once you have finished updating your xml file, save it and test the bRotator by opening the bRotator.html.

Customizing bRotator Using XML

Open bRotator.xml using a text editor or html editor. You will notice variables defined at the top. The following is a table of descriptions and sample values for the bRotator attributes.

Using bRotator Component

The bRotator component enables you to add the banner rotator to your flash movies. You will need Flash 8 or higher to use the component, and swf files should be published to flash player 8 or higher.

To install the bRotator.mxp you will need the latest version of Adobe Extension Manager. Once installed, double click the bRotator.mxp to add the rotator to your component library.

The bRotator component will be available in the jbuda_components sub-directory. Drag a copy onto the stage, then open the component inspector to adjust the banner rotator attributes.

NOTE - to use the component inspector parameters, the attributes in the xml file must be removed. Using the xml to set the bRotator parameters is a good way to update it without republishing each time.

The component inspector for the bRotator will be similar to the one pictured below. For a full list of the parameters and their descriptions, please see the xml table above.

Customizing bRotator With Actionscript

As well as using the attributes in the xml and setting parameters in the component inspector. Further control can be added to the bRotator with Actionscript by calling methods, setting properties and creating responders for events.

The following is a list of methods, events and properties :

Adding Information With XML

Under the closing tag of the top bRotator > the next set of nodes < banner provide the information for the images.

Transition Effects For Banners To Appear

These are a list of current transition effects that can be used.