asked on

Disabling the mouse pointer

I am guessing this is an easy one for flash gurus, but I can't seem to find the answer.

Here is my overview:

I have developed a Map of a county in the UK.
A user can move their mouse over all the areas on the map to get info on it.
On some areas, (urban places) the map will zoom in and show a more detailed map of that particular area.

All this is working fine.

The problem i have is that when a user clicks on a zoomable area and the map zooms in i would like to disable the mouse; so that none of the selectable areas are available until the map has zoomed in.

I have already hidden the mouse and looked at moveing coords of it, but obviously they can still move the hidden pointer all over the map which slows the animation slightly.

Is it possible to turn the mouse on / off??
Maybe i have to disable a layer when the anim begins (which houses all the selectable areas???), don't know how to do that either?

Thanks for any help...

Billystyx

I don't think it is possible to disable the mouse, but you should be able to hide the selectable areas without too much difficulty. Can you provide more info on your code/mcs/buttons, or post an example of your fla?

Billystyx

t0ny

ASKER

Well there is a map,
on it there are about 90 movieclips, which are made of buttons and masks.

Each of these will highlight when the mouse is over them, and when clicked open another clip that lists all the relevant information.

There are a couple that when clicked, the map zooms towards the screen and then fades into another map (the urban area); so it looks like the map has zoomed right into a details view.

When this zoom occurs all the areas on the map can still highlight which can slow the anim. Maybe I can disable a Layer when the anim begins?? and then re-enable it?

Hope this is slightly clearer!?

t0ny

ASKER

Sorry :: The layer i am talking about to disable, holds the 90 clips that can highlight when a mouse is over them.

negatyve

You cannot disable a layer, but you can attach a trasparent movieclip over the map with an onPress event handler and useHandCursor = false, giving you the same effect of a modal window.

// after click
_root.attachMovie("transparent_button", "tb", 10000);
_root.tb.onPress = function(){};
_root.tb.useHandCursor = false;

t0ny

ASKER

So after they click on a zoomable option,

i attach the new trans_movie? (All i need it to do is to prevent the mouseover events)
do i then remove this movie clip once the zoom is complete, so the zoomed in map works fine?

Sorry for being a little dim!

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Billystyx

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t0ny

ASKER

hmm.. nah they are all named using the division that they are, which points to a database..

t0ny

ASKER

I think maybe hiding the clips may work though...
i have them in an array...

I will hopefully get onto it this afternoon as final data arrived this morning; so on DTS!!

Will let you know if that works..

(Will setting a large number of clips be slow?, guess i will find out...)

Billystyx

well if they are in an array:
for(i=1;i<myArr.length;i++){
_root[myArr[i]]._visible=false;
}

Billystyx

t0ny

ASKER

Yea i am cool with programming, just a little hazy on flash..

but:

Your idea of hiding all the clips on zoom worked a treat,

thanks for your help Billystyx ;o)

(i am now almost done, including my DTS import!)

Billystyx

good luck:)