BrowserHistory About

What

Normally, pressing a browser's forward or backward navigation buttons on a Flash page will take you out of the movie. The BrowserHistory class allows developers to create a history list that can trigger actions based on the use of these buttons.

Why

I have noticed a number of solutions out there that attempt to resolve the back button problem, most noteably Robert Penner's work (www.robertpenner.com) and more recently Mike Chamber's Pet Store back button. Robert introduced using MX's LocalConnection object to get around all the browser issues, and I really like the new solutions that implemented this approach, however all of them seem to be missing something. Robert's required the creation of a new swf and html page for every History object. Mike's limited you to passing strings through the browser's url and doing your own data conversions. The javascript approach also didn't work in the newer Netscape and Mozilla browsers, because appending variables to a url is not treated as a new history object in the browser. What I really wanted from a History object in Flash was something that: 1) would work on all platforms and browsers with the 6 player 2) would be as simple to use as adding History elements through script and defining a function to handle a history event 3) would only require including extra files and not manipulating them 4) would allow me to work with any predefined datatype In my attempt, I tried to accomplish these goals by moving the persistant storage of the History elements into a SharedObject instance and using 4 predefined swfs and their accompanying html files (total of 8 files) to create a way of checking status. Since there are only those 8 files used in tracking status, no matter how many history elements you add, a user will only request a total of 8 additional files (this is nice if you think about server loads, the other methods request a file for every history element). Using this method of storage and status does not require the manipulation of extra files, instead all of the work is done "behind the scenes" by the BrowserHistory Class, the only requirements are that you include the proper files and know how to script a BrowserHistory instance. I hope that this can be of use to someone. ENJOY :) Kenny Bunch

Known Issues

The BrowserHistory will only work for one instance. If a new window is opened with the same instance (same flash site) the LocalConnection object will only communicate with one instance. This issue holds true for other implementations. Also, any new instances in the same window (going to the flash site, leaving the flash site to go to another site, and coming back to the site) will disrupt the history instance and only the new instance will work properly.

Who

Kenny Bunch EMAIL: krb0723@hotmail.com

Thanks

Branden Hall for legal rhetoric to copy. Robert Penner, Mike Chambers, and everyone else who has worked on a solution for this issue. Scott Bower (aka SLIM) for putting me in the position I am in today. Inspiration is everything.