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CSS3 media queries

CSS is improving with the introduction of CSS3.

Contrary to the previous version, CSS3 supports selections that are very advanced, offering capabilities close to what you could write in JavaScript.

Today I wanted to talk about the Media Queries because that can be used to very much optimize the list of links used to load your CSS data.

In HTML, you can use a <link ...> to add a CSS file to your page.

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css" />

In this case, the file style.css will always be loaded, whatever the media being used.

Protected Node Global Settings

The protected node module has global settings found under:

Administer » Site configuration » Protected node

Protected node Statistics

The page starts with statistics to let you know how pages are protected on your website. All the counts include published and unpublished content.

  • Total nodes — the total number of nodes on your website
  • Unprotected nodes — number of nodes that do not have a password
  • Protected nodes — number of nodes that are current protected by a password
    • Showing title — number of nodes showing their ...

Sprite Properties

The following is the list of currently accepted properties or fields for the Get Property and the Set Property actions. Note that the properties can be specified with either an integer (type 7, requires V5.0+) or a single precision floating point (type 1, V4.0 compatible). And since strings are automatically transformed in a value when required, one can use a string to represent the property number (type 0).

CSMTextSettings

Tag Info
Tag Number: 
74
Tag Type: 
Define
Tag Flash Version: 
8
Brief Description: 

Define whether CSM text should be used in a previous DefineText, DefineText2 or DefineEditText.

Tag Structure: 
struct swf_csmtextsettings {
	swf_tag			f_tag;		/* 74 */
	unsigned short		f_text_id_ref;
	unsigned		f_use_flag_type : 2;
	unsigned		f_grid_fit : 3;
	unsigned		f_reserved : 3;
	long float		f_thickness;
	long float		f_sharpness;
	unsigned char		f_reserved;
};

The CSMTextSettings are used to change the rendering mode of glyphs in a DefineText, DefineText2 and DefineEditText.

The f_text_id_ref is a reference to a tag holding some texts which glyphs need to be tweaked with these settings.

The f_use_flag_type defines which of the system (0) or Flash (1) font renderer should be used.

...
Value Renderer Version
0 System 8
1 Internal Flash Type

DefineVideoStream

Tag Info
Tag Number: 
60
Tag Type: 
Define
Tag Flash Version: 
6
Brief Description: 

Defines the necessary information for the player to display a video stream (i.e. size, codec, how to decode the data, etc.). Play the frames with VideoFrame tags.

Tag Structure: 
struct swf_definevideostream {
	swf_tag			f_tag;		/* 60 */
	unsigned short		f_video_id;
	unsigned short		f_frame_count;
	unsigned short		f_width;	/* WARNING: this is in pixels */
	unsigned short		f_height;
	unsigned char		f_reserved : 5;
	unsigned char		f_deblocking : 2;
	unsigned char		f_smoothing : 1;
	unsigned char		f_codec;
};

This tag defines a video stream. To playback the video stream, one needs to add a list of VideoFrame tags.

The f_width and f_height are defined in pixels. This is rather uncommon in SWF so it is to be noted multiple times.

Appendix A — The geometry in SWF — Images

When appropriate, images can also be included in SWF files. All the images can be full color and also have an alpha channel.

Appendix A — The geometry in SWF — Coordinates

The most common and simple geometric information are the object coordinates on the output screen. These are defined in TWIPs. There are 20 twips per pixels. Note that an embedded SWF file can be enlarged and/or reduced thus changing this basic scaling factor. To have exactly 20 twips per pixel you must ensure that the EMBED and/or OBJECT tags use a WIDTH and HEIGHT with exactly the same value as in the rectangle defined in the SWF header file divided by 20.

SWF Zone Data (swf_zone_data)

SWF Structure Info
Tag Flash Version: 
8
SWF Structure: 
struct swf_zone_data {
	short float		f_zone_position;
	short float		f_zone_size;
};

The swf_zone_array includes an array of zone data as described below:

The f_zone_position specifies the X or Y coordinate. The array can either include only horizontal, only vertical or both sets of coordinates.

The f_zone_size specifies the Width or Height of the zone.

SetBackgroundColor

Tag Info
Tag Number: 
9
Tag Type: 
Display
Tag Flash Version: 
1
Brief Description: 

Change the background color. Defaults to white if unspecified.

Tag Structure: 
struct swf_setbackgroundcolor {
	swf_tag			f_tag;		/* 9 */
	swf_rgb			f_rgb;
};

This tag is used to specify the background color. It should always be included at the start of every .swf file (after the FileAttributes and Protect tags). Only an RGB color can be used (i.e. there is no alpha channel for that color, whatever the SWF version.)

To create a Flash animation that's transparent (so we can see the website gradient, for example) you use the wmode parameter in the HTML tag with the value "transparent", in which case the background color will be ignored and replaced by a fully transparent background. For example:

<embed width="440"  ...