show loading icon while flash is loading - and hide it when flash starts

Question

Hello,

I am using a flash slideshow on a page that takes a little while to load - and while it is loading it looks like nothing is there as the div holding the flash element has a transparent background.

How can I show a loading icon while flash is loading - and then hide it once the flash starts?

I am using jquery in my page head for other pages on the site so something based in jquery would be awesome.

I am a css'er so please excuse my javascript ignorance!

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I am assuming that you have an HTML page that has a Flash element (your slideshow) being loading in.

You could just cheat and put a loading graphic "behind" the flash element. It will show up when the HTML page loads, but when the Flash loads over the top, the loading graphic will be obscured from view.

Or if you have access to the Flash Slideshow source, you could make an external interface call to a javascript function that hides the loading graphic. To hide the element, just set its CSS "display" attribute to "none".

Answer 2

Use a preloader

Answer 3

Thanks for your help.

I might have to do the css trick with a bg image behind.

I don't have the fla source (and don't know flash anyway) so preloader is a no go for me.

Thanks for your advice.