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Adding a Preloader to your Wildform Flair project
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Introduction
This is a very basic tutorial to help you add a preloader to your Wildform Flair Flash SWF output. Wildform Flair contains many features that are not covered here. Instructions on how to use these features are located in the Help file of the Wildform Flair program itself. We also offer numerous tutorials on how to use Wildform Flair in the tutorials section of our web site.

Please note that this tutorial covers adding a preloader to your entire Wildform Flair Flash SWF output, not individual objects within your project. This method will not work to add a preloader to FLV files. Using Wildform Flair it is also possible to add preloaders to any SWF or FLV within a project using the “Add Player/Preloader” feature (Objects Menu>Add Player/Preloader) which will is covered in this tutorial.
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Getting Started
To add a preloader to a project you may click on the Player and Preloader Wizard in the Shortcuts tab of the Settings Window,
or you may go to the Export Tab in the Settings Window and click the SWF tab.
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Options
Preload
The Preload option allows you to program an automatic preloader into your Wildform Flair Flash SWF output. This is for web streaming purposes only. Preloaders will not work on Wildform Flair Flash SWFs played locally from a hard drive or CD. The purpose of using preloaders is to ensure smooth playback of larger Flash SWFs for users on slower connections. In this way, users on slower speed connections (e.g., dial up modems) can view larger Flash SWF files without buffering or the Flash SWF stopping and starting. For instance, if someone on a 56k connection tries to view a Flash SWF that was created to stream to a broadband, 256k connection, the Flash SWF is still going to play, but the amount of information contained in the Flash SWF will be much larger than it would be for a Flash SWF specifically created for a 56k connection. This will cause an inconsistent and choppy playback experience for the 56k user. The purpose of a preloader is to ensure that enough of the Flash SWF has loaded before it starts to play so that there will be no interruption once the Flash SWF begins to play. While there is a delay while the user waits for the Flash SWF to begin playback, if you preload enough of the file, once it starts to play, it will continue to play uninterrupted until it finishes.

The preloaders have a "__% loaded" indicator that shows how much of the Flash SWF has loaded until the specified percentage has loaded and then the Flash SWF begins to play.

There are two preload options:
  • Fixed: When selected this causes the Flash Player to preload a specified percentage of your Wildform Flair output prior to beginning playback. You specify the percent of the movie to load (from 1% - 100%) in the box directly to the right. The Fixed preloader works with any Flash player version 4 and higher.
  • Adaptive: An adaptive preloader is an "intelligent" preloader that will preload a variable amount of your Flash SWF based on the size of the Flash SWF and the viewer's internet connection speed so that the viewer can watch the Flash SWF without stops and starts - no matter what speed they are connected to the internet at. The adaptive preloader determines the user's connection speed and based on that figure and the size of the Flash SWF file you are preloading, it preloads precisely the amount of the Flash SWF required to enable the Flash SWF to begin playing as soon as it possibly can and still not stop at any point until it is done. In this way, the preload process is optimized so the amount of time taken for a Flash SWF to preload is minimized as much as possible. The Adaptive preloader works with any Flash player version 5 and higher.
Buffer factor
The buffer factor will cause the preloader to preload more (or less) of the Flash SWF than the initial calculations determine is the minimum amount of time required. This is useful because a viewer's connection speed often varies, even during the course of watching a single Flash SWF. The time needed to load the Flash SWF file to the end is multiplied with this factor. If you don't want to use a buffer you set the factor to 1.0 (a factor of 1.0 means no buffer - loadingTime * 1.0 = loadingTime). To be on the safe side, you may want to use a factor larger than 1.0. If you think the viewer's connection will get faster during the visit (e.g., perhaps a download ends) then you can change the buffer factor to a number smaller than 1.0. If you think the viewer's connection will get slower during the visit (e.g., because the viewer starts a new download) you should change the buffer factor to a number greater than 1.0. As a general rule, it is a good idea to make the buffer factor larger than 1.0 to be on the safe side. The default value is 1.1 which should provide good results. The buffer factor can be a number from 0 - 2 in increments of 0.1 Please note that if you have files set to the Preload play mode, those files will preload 100% before playing and adding a preloader will not affect them.

As a general rule we recommend that you use the “Adaptive Preloader” with a 1.1 buffer factor.

To show users the percentage (0-100%) that has been loaded check the Include Preloader Text box. To edit the font, color or size of the text click the Format Text button. Depending on the background color of your project you may want to change the color of the font.
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Conclusion
We have now covered everything necessary to add a preloader to your Wildform Flair project. You can do much more with Wildform Flair and other tutorials will cover these subjects. The Wildform Flair help file also addresses these topics.
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