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1. Re: clickTAG testing problem within Flash
Newsgroup_User Jul 12, 2007 12:42 PM (in response to MooseDesign)rcbmoose,
> Should I be able to test this within Flash?
Well, yes and no. How do you like that for an answer? ;)
> If I swap out the code for regular ol' Flash links it works and
> tests fine. Anyone with similar issues, or a solution to shis? TIA!
>
> on (release) {
> if (clickTAG.substr(0,5) == " http://www.rebit.com") {
> getURL(clickTAG, "_blank");
> }
> }
Here's the scoop on clickTAG (and its various spellings, including
ClickTAG, ClickTag, clickTag, clicktag, etc.). As shown, the value of
clickTAG is undefined in Flash because the variable, clickTAG, hasn't been
declared anywhere. If it hasn't been declared, then where does the data
come from, right? Good question.
What you're seeing here is an example of passing data into a SWF from
the outside. Any string variable can be passed in, and any legal variable
name will do. String variables can be passed in via something called
FlashVars, which is a parameter of either the EMBED tag or of a PARAM tag
inside an OBJECT tag in the HTML. They can also be passed in via a query
string appended to the SWF's file reference in the HTML (e.g.
nameOfMovie.swf?variable1=value1).
It just happens that many ad agencies use clickTAG as an agreed-upon
variable for storing URLs for tracking user clicks. Because you're testing
your SWF in Flash, you're not making use of the HTML document in which this
SWF will be embedded. The HTML document will supply a value for clickTAG,
so this needs to be tested in an HTML document. Ah, there's the rub. Is
there a way to debug SWFs inside a browser? There is. :)
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/debugging_actionscript.html
The trouble is, you may or may not ultimately have control over the HTML
into which this SWF is embedded. If that HTML embeds the variable as
ClickTAG (or some other variant), Flash Player won't see it, because your
code specifies clickTAG, and variables are case sensitive in Flash since
Flash Player 7. So bear that in mind, and try one of the techniques in the
article (either a temporary dynamic text field or the Debugger panel).
Good luck with that!
David Stiller
Co-author, Foundation Flash CS3 for Designers
http://tinyurl.com/2k29mj
"Luck is the residue of good design."
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2. Re: clickTAG testing problem within Flash
MooseDesign Jul 12, 2007 6:22 PM (in response to Newsgroup_User)Wow, thanks for the detailed response! Much appreciated. And yes, you were right. The agency's directions were not quite as clear as you were... I needed the code from them to know exactly what was being checked.
For anyone working with FDA that might find this post in a search on the clickTAG issue, relative to the code posted in my first post, the correct iteration of that would have been (posted in the code block below).
Thanks again for the help David!

