Link Back to Company Website?

General Discussions
1

Hello,

One of the best features of this software, as I described to my client, was that it offered ‘connectivity’ which I understood to mean that the screensaver would allow for a clickable link that users could click before leaving the screensaver. I am really hoping I haven’t spoiled this client’s expectations, but I am beginning to wonder if I completely misunderstood what the feature really is.

Can someone explain what was meant by the ‘link back to the company’s website’? Is it even possible to offer users the chance to click on a link since the mouse movement would stop the screensaver?

Thanks in advance!

2

First, please remember that our software is available as a 100% free trial download with no time limit. We always recommend that authors build a demonstration screensaver and evaluate the features before making any promises to potential clients, but it sounds like you’re aware of that?

There are a number of places you can put clickable hyperlinks:

  • On the Screensaver Installer window (which is also triggered by the Help menu)

  • On the Control Panel Settings window
    see http://iscreensaver.com/help/help09.shtml

  • On the Unlocking window (which will show up once during installation, then every time the screensaver is exited, until the user either unlocks the screensaver or asks to not see the message again for an hour, day, week or month).

See http://iscreensaver.com/help/help08.shtml

  • In addition one can use Interactive QuickTime and/or interactive Flash (SWF) files that trigger URLs when the user clicks a link. When Interactivity is enabled (Info Window/ Behavior/Interaction, “Allow User Interaction”) then mouse movement and mouse clicks are ignored.

See http://iscreensaver.com/help/help14.shtml for a detailed discussion.

In summary, there are about a half-dozen ways in which iScreensaver 4 can trigger a URL, we hope that one of these methods would work for you?

3

Thanks, that last file really helped me out!

4

The screensaver installed fine on both machines, but it looks like there are two problems:

  1. For some reason the URL link works on my PC, but not on my Mac. Are you aware of any bug that keeps interactive links from working on Mac’s? Here’s the code I used:

var getEssLink:URLRequest =
new URLRequest (“http://www.examplewebsite.com”);

essLink_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, gotoEssSite);

function gotoEssSite(event:MouseEvent):void{
navigateToURL(getEssLink, “_self”);
}

  1. I want the screensaver to be 800px by 555px, so I used ‘Actual Size.’ Unfortunately the screensaver still takes up the entire screen. My screensaver is made up of 1 .swf file. Is it possible to restrain it so it stays within those dimensions?

Again, many thanks for your help!

5

  1. URLs have been tested and should work on both mac & PC. Your code looks correct to me, but I did just wake up.

  2. Actual size also should work fine. Note that this is the “actual size” of the SWF file’s stage, which is set using Stage/Properties/Size (and defaults to 550x400 in CS3, for example).

Ideas:

A - Given that both #1 and #2 should work, I’m wondering if perhaps something else went wrong? Is it possible that you didn’t re-build the mac screensaver, or you accidentally copied or installed an old version onto the mac, so it’s not behaving as you expect since it’s and older build?

B - Actual size should be working, but if for some reason it doesn’t, you can force the size by using “Custom: 800 x 555” as the stretch mode. (I wouldn’t recommend doing this, however, until you’ve understood why #2 is not working).

C - if you are 100% sure you are testing the newest build, then feel free to send us a copy of your screensaver (support at iscreensaver.com) – we can accept zip files up to about 20MB in size. If larger, please put it on a website for us to download.

D - our sample screensaver “Space” has a SWF asset inside it. To quickly navigate to it, do this:

  • Download and install it from http://iscreensaver.com/downloads.shtml
  • in the control panel, select Options and enable the HUD (heads up display)
  • activate the screensaver, then hit the Enter key (or use the mouse to click the right-most icon on the overlay window). You can then jump directly to the SWF asset (the one with obvious buttons). See if this works on OS X for you. If it does work, then it suggest the issue is in your screensaver build.
6

[Update as per email conversation]

We identified two separate issues:

  1. URLs were being blocked due to SWF Flash Player security violation issues. These can typically be fixed using different SWF Publish settings. Detailed information can be found here: http://iscreensaver.com/help/notes/swf_security/swf_security.shtml

  2. There is a bug in iScreensaver’s reading of SWF file sizes the first time you use a SWF. Fortunately there is a very easy workaround, see here:
    http://iscreensaver.com/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=34