Tutorial Clarification

[Melanie]

I have looked through the StairStep tutorial and would still greatly appreciate some help on creating my own interactions.

The tutorial, while helpful in some ways, has left many holes that I cannot figure out. I have a basic to intermediate understanding of action-scripting, but the tutorial seems to do nothing but say, "insert this actionscript and voila it works." I am not understanding what actionscript is actually making the interaction.

I have looked through the actionscript files for the classes and understand some of it, but not all. Basically I am asking if there is anyone that can lend a helping hand to understanding what is happening in the tutorial on a deeper level, especially for someone like me that is a flash designer with a limited coding background. Do I simply need to gain a more advanced knowledge of actionscript in order to make use of the SDK? How would one go about creating an interaction using the SDK and not build everything from scratch in actionscript?

Also, I have been having an issue within the tutorial located:

"C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local Settings\Application Data\Adobe\Flash CS4\en\Configuration\Tutorials\Articulate\Engage SDK"

The Stair Step Controls folder is listed as well as a folder for steps 3 through 17, however, the fla files given within each folder do not seem to be working for me. When I test the movie all I see is the spinning preloader, never the content from that step. Is this normal? If not, is it possible for someone to link or PM me (whichever seems more appropriate) the finished fla file for step 17 at least. Or is that file the same as the StairStepControls.fla?

Please help?

[UnkieXeon]

Melanie,

As you have noted the SDK, does leave some information out and would expect the end user to have some programming knowledge. I wont be able to walk you though all of the steps for creating a new Engage Interaction, however, I might be able to fill in some of the blanks.

When testing the content from the Engage SDK Tutorial, you might notice you only get the spinning preloader. This is because the the interaction does not have an associated content folder to load anything. If you are running the tutorials from the link you provided above, each Step needs to contain a content folder. Please do the following:

1. Locate the following folder:

XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local Settings\Application Data\Adobe\Flash CS4\en\Configuration\Templates\Articulate\Engage SDK\iTemplate_content

Vista:
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Adobe\Flash CS4\en\Configuration\Templates\Articulate\Engage SDK\iTemplate_content

... and copy to each one of the Step folders provided in the tutorial.

2. Rename the iTemplate_content folder to iStairStep_content. This name should always match the Flash (.swf) publish name with '_content' appended to it. This is explained in Step 3 of the SDK documentation located here:

XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local Settings\Application Data\Adobe\Flash CS4\en\Configuration\HelpPanel\Help\engagesdk.chm

Vista:
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Adobe\Flash CS4\en\Configuration\HelpPanel\Help\engagesdk.chm