free package
Fully functional, no restrictions
Easy to install on any website
XML customizable
GPL Licensed
Watermarked :
paid package
NO watermark:
plus a Flash component (AS2 + AS3) which can be used in Flash projects
Features
- both horizontal and vertical alignment
- customizable min and max images width and height
- three expanding directions
- images spacing
- optional auto scrolling
- resizable to the extent of 1680 x 1050 pixels
- multiple scrolling properties and speed
- various roll over behaviors
- HTML formatted tooltip
Installation instructions for:
How to install this Dock Menu on your website
Step 1. SWF embedding
Download the dockmenu.zip package and put all the files from this package into the same folder with the HTML file in which you want the component to be embedded.
You should know first of all that the SWF file is the one that actually represents the component, while the other files (settings.xml, images.xml and JPGs in the images folder) are the assets that the SWF file uses.
A short explanation on how SWFs and XMLs interacts you will find here.
Open your HTML file with a text editor and insert somewhere between the <head> </head> tags the following lines:
<script type="text/javascript" src="swfobject.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var flashvars = {};
var params = {};
params.scale = "noscale";
params.salign = "tl";
params.wmode = "transparent";
var attributes = {};
swfobject.embedSWF("dockmenu.swf", "DockMenuDiv", "600", "200", "9.0.0", false, flashvars, params, attributes);
</script>
For a fast and easy publishing, the best thing to do is to have the SWF file, the HTML file which embeds the SWF, the swfobject.js file, and the assets that the SWF uses (XMLs, JPGs folder) in the same folder.
If that is not possible, please read this detailed article on how to specify the paths correctly.
The above code itself isn’t enough to publish the SWF file on your webpage. You just need to add a div somewhere in the body section of your page (between the <body> </body> tags of your HTML file).
So, in a specific location of your HTML body section insert this div:
<div id="DockMenuDiv"></div>
Step 2. Customization
You’ll be able to define a maximum size of 1680 in width and 1050 in height in the 3rd and 4th arguments of the swfobject.embedSWF() function above. Usually the same values as for dockWidth and dockHeight (which you will set below).
Now you will have to define the properties of your Dock Menu.
You can do that in two ways:
1. By editing the settings.xml file, or much simpler, set your values on the Live Demo above and press Generate settings.xml button, then select all (Ctrl+A) and copy-paste over the existing content of settings.xml file.
2. By using FlashVars. Right after this line:
var flashvars = {};
insert the values you desire for each property, like this:
flashvars.imagesXML = "images.xml";
flashvars.direction = "horizontal";
flashvars.dockWidth = "600";
flashvars.dockHeight = "200";
flashvars.spacing = "5";
flashvars.expandingDirection = "center";
Note that the properties written through FlashVars will override those written in the settings.xml file.
For a transparent background set in settings.xml file:
<backgroundColor value="0" />
or through FlashVars:
flashvars.backgroundColor = "0";
Now all you have to do is to put your own images, add the tooltip text and add the behavior for when clicking each image. All these through the images XML file. Open the XML file with a text editor and define in each row the image path, the URL to go to when clicking the image, the target (_self for the same browser window, or _blank for a new browser window), and the tooltip text.
You can have as many images as you like. To add a new image add a new row in the XML file.
The Lightbox functionality (showing a bigger image and a description when clicking on an image) is provided too in the dockmenu.zip package, specifically in the index-with-lightbox-test-on-http-server.html file.
dockmenu.swf has about 50 KB and embeds only the Verdana font. To be able to embed any other font you’ll need the Dock Menu Flash component.
If you’ll want to use the Dock Menu in Flash projects (FLA files), the Dock Menu is available as a Flash component (MXP file) in the paid package
Instructions on how to use the Dock Menu component in Flash you will find here.
Make sure your Wordpress version is greater than 2.8 and your hosting provider is using PHP5.
1. There are two files to download:
a. WordPress Plugin that you have to install and activate
b. Free package
2. Create a new folder inside your wp-content folder called flashxml, inside this folder create a new one called dock-menu-fx and copy the content of the free package there
3. If you copied the free package to a location different than the one above, go to Dock Menu FX from the Settings tab from your WordPress Dashboard and update the path accordingly
4. Add [dock-menu-fx][/dock-menu-fx] where you want the Flash to show up in your post/page.
5. If you want to make the Dock Menu FX part of your theme, edit the template files and add <?php dockmenufx_echo_embed_code(); ?> where you want it to show up
6. Customize your Dock Menu FX using the Live Demo from the top of this page. Generate the settings.xml text and use it to overwrite wp-content/flashxml/dock-menu-fx/settings.xml
7. To use your own images, upload them to wp-content/flashxml/dock-menu-fx/images and update the wp-content/flashxml/dock-menu-fx/images.xml file accordingly
Additional settings file
To embed the Dock Menu FX more than once, you will need another settings file and (probably) another set of images. Let's assume your new file is called settings2.xml. Add [dock-menu-fx settings="settings2.xml"][/dock-menu-fx] where you want the Flash to show up in your post/page. If you made the Flash part of your theme, add the file name as the first argument of the dockmenufx_echo_embed_code() function call (for example <?php dockmenufx_echo_embed_code("settings2.xml"); ?>).
No Flash support text
To support visitors without Adobe Flash Player, you can provide alternative content by adding the text between [dock-menu-fx] and [/dock-menu-fx]. If you made the Flash part of your theme, add the text as the second argument of the dockmenufx_echo_embed_code() function call (for example <?php dockmenufx_echo_embed_code("","Alternative content"); ?>).
If you have PHP4
To make it work with PHP4, add [dock-menu-fx width="600" height="300"][/dock-menu-fx] where you want the Flash to show up in your post/page. If you made the Flash part of your theme, add the width and height as the third and fourth argument of the dockmenufx_echo_embed_code() function call. Don't forget to provide your own width and height values, since 600 and 300 are just examples.
Getting rid of the FlashXML.net label
To remove the FlashXML.net label from the top-left corner you'll need to buy the paid package. Once you'll do that, simply use the SWF file from the paid package to overwrite the SWF file from the wp-content/flashxml/dock-menu-fx/ folder.
Make sure your Joomla version is 1.5 and your hosting provider is using PHP5.
Joomla Module Instructions:
1. There are two files to download (both under GPL License):
a. Joomla Module that you have to install and enable
b. Free package
2. Create a new folder inside your Joomla folder called flashxml, inside this folder create a new one called dockmenufx and copy the content of the free package there
3. If you copied the free package to a location different than the one above, update the Path from module's parameters accordingly
4. Customize your Dock Menu FX using the Live Demo from the top of this page. Generate the settings.xml text and use it to overwrite flashxml/dockmenufx/settings.xml
Joomla Plugin Instructions:
1. There are two files to download (both under GPL License):
a. Joomla Plugin that you have to install and enable
b. Free package
2. Create a new folder inside your Joomla folder called flashxml, inside this folder create a new one called dockmenufx and copy the content of the free package there
3. If you copied the free package to a location different from the one above, update the Path from module's parameters accordingly
4. Add {dockmenufx}{/dockmenufx} where you want the Flash to show up in your article
5. Customize your Dock Menu FX using the Live Demo from the top of this page. Generate the settings.xml text and use it to overwrite flashxml/dockmenufx/settings.xml
6. The default name for the settings file is settings.xml, but if you want to use another file (for example settings2.xml), specify the name like this: {dockmenufx settings="settings2.xml"}{/dockmenufx} where you want the component to show up in your article
7. In some cases the width and height will not be read from the settings.xml file but you can specify them like this: {dockmenufx width="400" height="300"}{/dockmenufx}. Don't forget to provide your own width and height values, since 400 and 300 are just examples.
Getting rid of the FlashXML.net label
To remove the FlashXML.net label from the top-left corner you'll need to buy the paid package.
Once you will do that, simply use the SWF file from the paid package to overwrite the SWF file from the flashxml/dockmenufx/ folder.
How to install this Dock Menu in a new or existing Adobe Flash project
Below you will see instructions on how to install and use the Dock Menu Component (commercial package) in Flash (available for Flash 8, Flash CS3, CS4 and Flash Player 9 or later).
For basic instructions on how to integrate the Dock Menu’s SWF file into HTML/PHP, click here.
You can watch an installation video tutorial of the component in Flash by clicking here.
To create an instance of the DockMenu on the stage: from the Components panel (Ctrl+F7) drag & drop the DockMenu component on the stage
To give a name to that instance for further use in ActionScript: click on the component instance on the stage and from the Properties panel (Ctrl+F3) enter a name (let’s say DockMenu) in the text input
To access the properties of the DockMenu (read or modify) during different moments of your Flash application: simply access in ActionScript:
DockMenu.property_name = value;
Any property of the DockMenu could be accessed that way. The names of the properties are identical with the ones you see on the Live Demo.
The properties of the DockMenu can be of any of the three types: Number, String, Boolean. I assume it’s intuitive of which type each property is.
Warning! Setting the parameters of the DockMenu component in the Component Inspector window (Shift+F7) and in the same time having a settings.xml file populated with different values for each property, the properties from the settings.xml file will have priority (meaning that a parameter set in the Component Inspector will be ignored if that parameter is also defined in the XML file)
Now maybe the most useful information consists in the events the DockMenu is dispatching, and instructions on how to catch these events.
So when the user clicks on an image, the DockMenu dispatches:
- thumbReleased (when the mouse was released)
Along with these events, the id of the thumb pressed or released is being dispatched.
Usually you will use just one of these two, personally I like to use thumbReleased.
Other events:
- rollOverThumb
- rollOutThumb
- thumbLoaded
(all these three come too with the id of the thumb being rolled over / rolled out / loaded)
- allThumbsLoaded
- rollOverDock
- rollOutDock
Note: the order of the ids is given by the order of the images in the images.xml file.
Here is an example on how to catch these events:
in AS2
var event1:Object = new Object();
DockMenu.addEventListener("thumbReleased", event1);
event1.thumbReleased = function (obj:Object) {
trace (obj.id);
}
in AS3
addEventListener("thumbReleased", thumbReleased,true);
function thumbReleased(event:Event):void
{
trace("thumbReleased " + DockMenu.id);
}
If you’ll catch the events of the DockMenu and create different behaviors for clicking the thumbs, you may want to deactivate the option of going to a specific URL address in the images.xml file. To do that, simply delete the url or target attributes in the images.xml file.
You can watch the second part of this video to see more accurately how the instructions above on catching events can be applied in Flash (the video shows a very similar product, 3D Carousel Menu, but the method is identical for DockMenu).
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Do you have a question?
you will get an answer in 24 hours, tops.
Matthew McKay
Posted 2 Months AgoHello Quick Question, am i right in thiking that i can use this for a navigational bar? to make the pictures work like hyper links? for example this item along the bottom of the screen and then this beings up pages in the main body up top?
Hello,
Yes, you can use it like that.
fruity
Posted 2 Months Agothanks a lot ;]
fruity
Posted 2 Months AgoI haven’t got it on the website, but I uploaded the archive here. Please reply http://www33.zippyshare.com/v/94037665/file.html . Thanks
Hello,
You need to open the settings.xml file and change the width of the component, because it is set to 800 pixels but, in the html file where you embed the swf file, the width is set to 600. That’s why in the “index with lightbox…” file some clipping occurs.
fruity
Posted 2 Months Agogreat thing ;] but have one problem: few of the last images are not shown while scrooling to the right border. It looks like there would be no more place. What I have to do? Please help;]
Hello,
Please supply us with a link to your website and we will look into the problem.
Joshua
Posted 2 Months AgoTrying to get lightbox2 to work having troubles doing so.
I’ve placed the DockMenu in frame 51 of my flash cs3 with a button going to it it seems to work ok no reflection but I can’t get lightbox2 to work not understanding the scripted I think can I get help?
Hi,
Please follow the steps from this tutorial.
Daniel
Posted 2 Months AgoHi,
Polish language special characters ARE NOT SUPPORTED! I purchased this component and it turns useless to me. Will you update the files?
Hello,
You can use Polish characters..you just have to tweak your files. Here is a tutorial especially for that.
Pinky
Posted 2 Months AgoHi does any one know how to put in more images i work with dreamweaver
Thanks
Hello,
You need to open the “images.xml” document and put there more items with the same structure as those that are already in there (<photo> image bigimage url target lightboxInfo CDATA </photo>.
There are more instructions in the images.xml file.
NorCalLion
Posted 2 Months AgoHey Snowcat, Got the lightbox to work, thank you for the tutorial. I’ve done some searches, but, I want to load .swfs instead of .img’s and I was just wondering if you had a simple fix for this?
Again, thank you for the great up, the quick response, and great support ;D
Hi,
I’m sorry but Lightbox can only be used to display images. For swf you should use a similar Lightbox application like Fancybox.
NorCalLion
Posted 2 Months AgoHey Snowcat, Thanks for the great up! Have a question, and I kinda did a half assed search but didn’t find anything on how to implement lightbox. I haven’t dealt too much with it, not at all actually…
So, all I’d really like is to have the images open up the link in the same page or on stage.
If I could get something like what you have in the Demo up top, I’d be happy (with the images.xml, not 2 or 3). I’m creating a site, and instead of it being a gallery of sorts I’m wanting it to import contact forms and the various pages of the site all in the same window and on stage.
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Hi,
Here is the tutorial to add Lightbox to your flash.
pablo
Posted 3 Months AgoHey, thanks for the answer, but where do i have to specify this:
componentname.settingsXML = “mySettings.xml”
in the html? in the .fla file???
thank you
Hi,
You need to specify this in the FLA file.