Confused and disoriented by Flash

January 31, 2008 4:27 PM

I need help figuring out the vagaries of relative vs absolute path names for imported objects in Flash.

Just to be clear - I'm not talking about targeting symbols or movie clips. I'm also not talking about loading images dynamically. That stuff is easy.

I'm talking about bitmaps imported directly into the library. It seems like sometimes those files get a relative pathname, and sometimes an absolute one. The relative one is very handy, because it allows us to swap out graphics, hit update and get an updated animation. This is something I'm doing fairly often - reusing the same template with different images.

Is there a way to control this? I know I should just make sure I always have the 'correct' premade template, but I'd still like to know why Flash does this.

I am using Flash CS3 on Vista, if it matters. The files I work on are on a server, not my hard drive.

posted by O9scar to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

I'm not at a computer with Flash right now, but I'd guess that it can make a relative path if the deepest part of the image file's path matches the deepest part of the project file's path.

e.g. If your project file is in \\flashserver\stuff\projects, it can provide a relative path for the imported image if it's at \\flashserver\stuff\animations, but not if it's at \\animationserver\animations.

Again, just a guess.
posted by ignignokt at 4:39 PM on January 31, 2008

I usually just right-click on the library item in question and choose "import.." and point it to a new file. Flash doesn't seem to care about the path or filename in that instance.

However, I would think if you're doing this with any regularity - you might be better off just using AS and importing the graphics dynamically.
posted by revmitcz at 10:27 PM on January 31, 2008