Setting _width after loadMovie

just toadd, I find _xscale and _yscale easier to work with - but this is just an opinion:)

The movie that is being loaded is only 1.5kb, and for now is also running locally.  I'm currently working from a tutorial which reads and loads data based on an XML file, so it's a little tricky following the logic.  Earlier on in the code is where the check is performed to check that it's loaded.

Billystyx,
Using _xscale and _yscale does actually work perfectly, however, I will be importing SWF's of slightly different sizes and so would prefer pixel-perfect scaling to guarantee they fill the space provided.


Here are the full functions (all are in _root timeline frame 1):

this.onEnterFrame = function() { // check loading progress of movie URL read from XML file
filesize = placeHolder.getBytesTotal();
loaded = placeHolder.getBytesLoaded();
preloader._visible = true;
if (loaded != filesize) {
preloader.preload_bar._xscale = 100*loaded/filesize;
} else {
preloader._visible = false;  // hide preloader
if (placeHolder._alpha<100) {  // increase alpha of new movie to fade in
placeHolder._alpha += 10;
}
}
};


function showFirstPage() {   // this is called when the XML has successfully loaded
if (loaded == filesize) {
placeHolder._alpha = 0;
placeHolder.loadMovie(image[0], 1);
trace(placeHolder._width); // *** PROBLEM OCCURS HERE - This is returning zero ***
placeHolder._xscale = 50; // *** This works but might be too fiddly as all movies are slightly different sizes
desc_txt.text = description[0];
placeHolder_num();
}
}


I've put some more points on - hope you can help!

you need to put a moviecliploader in there, before you try and set the parametersa of the loaded movie.
take a look at
http://www.billystyx.co.uk/setups/fla8.zip

and see if that helps - it loads to levels, so you would set the width of the level(and x and y positions), but its not until loadInit that you try to set stuff in the new level.
Take a look anyway and ask me some qs if needed.

billystyx

Taking your last comment into consideration, from this code:

function showFirstPage() {
      if (loaded == filesize) {
            placeHolder._alpha = 0;
            placeHolder.loadMovie(image[0], 1);
            placeHolder._width = 50; // DOES NOT WORK
            desc_txt.text = description[0];
            placeHolder_num();
      }
}

I removed the line that didn't work and placed it in the _root.onEnterFrame section, similar to that suggested by negatyve.  This now works, but I don't really undertand why!

This code is written as follows:

this.onEnterFrame = function() {
      filesize = placeHolder.getBytesTotal();
      loaded = placeHolder.getBytesLoaded();
      preloader._visible = true;
      if (loaded != filesize) {
            preloader.preload_bar._xscale = 100*loaded/filesize;
      } else {
            preloader._visible = false;
                  if (placeHolder._alpha<100) {
                        placeHolder._alpha += 10;
                  }
                  if (placeHolder._width != 0) {
                        placeHolder._width = 250;
                        placeHolder._height = 50;
                  }
      }
}

so I see it checks that the movie requested is completely loaded before setting _alpha and _width.  How come then that previous to this, I could use _xscale directly after the loadMovie command was used (which worked), but could not use _width?  Surely in theory you can set the width of something that can also be scaled??

By the way, if the above code is not reliable, please tell me, I need to try and learn the best way to do things with this language.

To expand on my question with more clarity, if I'm loading things INTO placeHolder, why can't I set the _width of placeHolder at any time like I seem to be able to do with _xscale and _alpha??