To get it to fire up the next click that will take you over to the website you still need what’s called a “counter”. Look through the code I’ve given you and apply only the lines that handle the counter.
//———— apply the sections below the best way you can and be sure to read through my comments as they will tell you where each section should be placed.
var nClickCount:int = 0; //initialize the counter first… don’t put it inside of a function.
// You will notice I took out the trace calls … I use a trace to indicate what is happening. I ran trace(nClickCount); immediately after the line nClickCount++; so I could find out the value of nClickCount each time the mouse button was clicked.
//The portion below is inside the the function that receives mouseUp event data
nClickCount++;
if(nClickCount==4){
var masURL:URLRequest = new URLRequest(”http://www.miamiadschool.com“);
navigateToURL(masURL);
}
//End of click over section
The scenario
You are on the go all the time but have access to many computers other than your own. All of your work exists on a combination of USB drives. You have 2 USB drives each one is 16Gigs. One USB drive for all of your applications and another loaded with all of your hard work. Your laptop battery is dead or you just want to use the computer that is available to you at your each of your destinations.
Why Am I Into This
I went on two vacations and didn’t take a laptop with me. I like the idea of having everything I need, in the computer realm, be incredibly easy to access. While traveling I had 4 devices with me. My Palm Pre, 2 USB sticks, and my camera. I have portable version of the software I most often use. “Portable” means it fits on a USB drive and has been rewritten to work from one file or directory on the drive.
Some Ideas
How great would it be to be able to boot into any operating system? Live versions of each of the primary 3 exist out there. Windows MAC osX Linux Linux will run the fastest in most cases. Don’t be afraid of Linux. The way it places applications on the system is very similar to OS X. OS X is actually built on top of Linux and that is why they are so much alike. If you run OS X from the USB drive it will likely be the slowest of the 3 for the same reasons mentioned, it’s a flashy user interface over a linux operating system. To avoid any legal issues always make sure you own the license to use the operating systems you put on this drive and that operating system should only be on that single stick.
How to Handle Email
Email is best handled if you leave it on the web somewhere. gMail, hotmail, or best of all you have a domain with your on email and a web based interface. Calendars(gmail) and tasklists, can usually be tied into a portable application, but there again, it is best to have them hosted somewhere. Remember the Milk (task Scheduling)
Give Me Some Apps
As a web designer/developer I like to use software that is robust The software has active communities so each program can only become bigger and better. Smashing has a great article that covers most of the FREE software out there. Smashing Magazine - “40+ Desert Island Web Development Tools” Here are some additional programs I highly recommend. Aptana - Is a web development environment built on top of Eclipse. You can download Aptana as a stand alone install or as an extension if you already have Eclipse. There are many plugins that you can use and I would highly recommend jQuery builder as one of those.
Navicat - This is an excellent program for working with your MySQL databases. It’s a little spendy but worth it. Think of it like MS SQL Administrator for the mySQL user and yes it has visual query building.
Is Flash squawking at you because it can’t understand the audio file you are importing? Try running the file through Audacity and exporting as a standard mp3 or a wav file. Flash is picky when it comes to some of those audio file types. iTunes is using m4a and some other types which Flash won’t accept. Audacity will give you the option to save the file back out as an mp3. Try it out: Audacity for Mac or Audacity for Windows
BTW you will also need the LAME MP3 encoder. - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq?s=install&item=lame-mp3
A couple tips before we begin
always use lowercase characters in your web file names
if you use spaces in your filenames replace them with hyphens
Don’t open Dreamweaver just yet….
To start create a folder where you want to develop your site. (example “mywebsite”)
Create 2 folders inside of this. One called “designs” the other called “docs” (docs will also be known as your “local root folder”)
Create an “images” folder inside of docs
Now open Dreamweaver…
|in the top drop menu|
click site > new site…
|advanced|
enter the information
site name: = (whatever your site name is)
local root folder = docs
default images folder = docs/images
Links Relative To = select Site Root
HTTP Address: = http://localhost/
cache site = not checked
In the left space you will see a category list.
Click on Testing Server
Server Model
[v] <- Means click the drop down menu
Select PHP MySQL
Now click |OK| at the bottom of this window
If you wish to actually host the website on your machine as a true testing server here are a few links that may interest you.
MAMP - Mac, Apache, MySQL, PHP (this is what each one acts as … computer type/program, web server, database type, dynamic language type)
WAMP - Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP
LAMP - Linux, Apache, MYSQL, PHP
How to Setup a MAMP or WAMP with Dreamweaver
We are going to cover as much of this as you can handle in one class.
It’s a lot of information and Dreamweaver handles about half of the portions for you.
-The web design process
-What is HTML?
-Should You Learn HTML
-HTML & WYSIWYG Editors
-Linking Basics
-Creating Links
-What is CSS
-Why use CSS
-Using DIV and SPAN
-setting a class or id attribute
-Turning Off Borders using CSS
-setting WIDTH & HEIGHT
-setting the ALT attribute
-using Thumbnails
-linking to Other Media,
-CSS Background Studies (Tiles & Tiling Backgrounds,
-Pattern Sizes, Full
-Screen Backgrounds,Background Code, Seamless Tiles)
-Web File Formats: Bitmap(raster) or Vector?
-File Size and Downloading Speed,
-Making Small JPEGs, GIFs, PNGs
-Hybrid Images (Using HTML to fill Image space)
-What size do we make our layouts?
-Screen Resolution
-Using Kuler to select colors.
-BODY Colors, link Colors, font Color
-Embedding Flash, Movies
Presentations: Students present their interface-free navigation.
Lesson: Navigation and video - Breaking the linear timeline. Interactive video experiences and how they influence the user and engage them for a longer time with a brand. A look at VEILS(Video Encoded Invisible Light Systems).
Batwave Batmobile by Mattel - video case study -
Related - Serafina by Mattel - InteracTV by Fisher-Price
Boony by Fosters - video case study
Lion Red - YouTube Skit based on the Boony concept.
Related - Lion Red Website
Dancing ELMO - Video demos on Gizmodo
BombayTV - Subtitle your own clips
Subtitler by Jaman - Subtitle foreign films
Choose Your Own Path/Adventure - SMP Films example on youtube
Assignment: You will create a YouTube video with a unique form of navigation and branching paths, while engaging user with the brand.
Presentations: Students present mock-up of interface design.
Lesson: Transparent Interfaces - Touch & motion is the medium. From the iPhone (touch) to the Wii (motion and balance) to camera tracking (PS Eye/webcams), see how interaction can be done beyond the mouse. Applying user’s knowledge with real world, tactical experiences (turning, pulling, pushing, etc.).
Clips of various Touch & Motion Interfaces –
More fun to get your minds rolling –
Assignment: You will develop an interface-free navigation for an application for the iPhone, Wii, or camera enabled computer.
