Slide completed loaded trigger

You could create a trigger that hides the layer when the timeline ends. But you'll have to test it to see if the timeline actually pauses while the heavy content is loading. (I'm not sure if the timeline waits for content to load before running the clock.)

Hi Mark,

There isn't a way to know when all the content has loaded, as Storyline loads content as described here. 

Ashley, that is what I thought. There must be a buffer limit to what Storyline can load, because I've run into that limit in a scene with in excess of 2 dozen slides with half of them containing Flash SWF. I guess another question might be: how does Storyline do its garbage collection? If it is an interpreted language, and the Flash-based published projects use a version of the Flash Player (like an ActiveX control on a windows machine), I guess a person on a client machine could reset their Player to a higher buffer level. Which would not be a desirable state of affairs - leaving it up to the user/client to make sure things run smoothly.

I guess at this point, if I want to have something of a loading isobar that shows loading on a page with Flash content, I'd have to build it directly into the Flash.

The only other thought I had was if I could use LocalConnection in Flash to connect two Flash objects on the same page, one a loading indicator and the other the Flash SWF. If they can communicate with each other, I could have the loading indicator receive info from the Flash SWF, "turn on" and run, then go to a blank frame when the loading is finished. Conceivably, I could "hide" the loading indicator Flash SWF on a Master slide, and as each slide Flash SWF comes up, they establish communication and "turn on" the loading indicator. Hm, interesting, This all hinges though on whether or not LocalConnection works outside of HTML pages. Storyline does leave the Flash SWFs as external files at publishing time - it just renames them to an internally consistent name for linkage use. This might be possible!

Late afternoon musings...

Hi Mark! Your late afternoon musings seem to be above my level of interpretation for early morning reading :) I'm not sure what you mean by garbage collection? It does sound like you know what you are looking for and are just trying to find a way to get it. If someone in the community has any insight for you, hopefully they will chime in as well.

Leslie,

Leslie, "garbage collection" means that a chunk of data (loaded into the memory queue) that is not being used anymore, is earmarked for collection and elimination.  OS-level commands can be given to either immediately get rid of the memory chunk (OS will get to it faster), or the memory chunk will drop off the end of the queue (OS will get to it later.) 

Storyline tries to pre-load the project's data when the published product initially starts up, until the buffer for Storyline is full. If the project has been published for Flash, the Flash manager/player will have primary responsibility for dealing with memory issues. If the project is published for HTML5, primary memory will be administered by the browser.

Here, let me get another refill of coffee so that I can ramble on some more... :)

Judy, I wanted to follow up. I have noticed that when heavy content loads, the timeline DOES either slow down or slow momentarily. 

I tested this by putting a graphic in the last quarter second of a timeline, on a slide that was loading Flash content. (I actually put the graphic on the Master Slide, so I could see several slides & their reactions.) I did notice that the graphic would appear right when the Flash object appeared; their joint appearance always was longer than the timelines.

I think a better test might be if I have a Storyline animation or tween going while the Flash SWF is loading. Then we'd see if the timeline stops in it's tracks, or just slows down.

So your idea is valid!