Control _root from movie

[Simon]

I have a movie symbol of 350 frames ("fish"), I'm trying to put this on the stage and want the timeline on the stage wait for the film "fish" to play all the way through, then continue with the timeline. I know I can make the timeline 350 frames long, but there must be a better solution!

I have put a stop action on the main stage, then the following at the end of the "fish" movie:

gotoAndPlay("_root, nextFrame();");

but it doesn't work, I've tried all sorts of combinations so assume I am asking the wrong questions...

help help help help help. It seems such a simple thing to try and do.

[NTD]

Hi,

This sounds like an ideal situation to use a variable to control the play.

frame 1....

//create a boolean variable to toggle
myPlay = false;
//constantly check the value of the variable
this.onEnterFrame = function() {
	trace(_root.myPlay);
//set if statement to check variable value and control play
	if (_root.myPlay == true) {
		_root.nextFrame();
	} else {
		_root.gotoAndStop(1);
	}
}
//test code to easily check the variable, change mouseDown to
//the method you prefer
_root.onMouseDown = function() {
//toggle the boolean variable to true
	_root.myPlay = true;
}

[Simon]

I think I need to go on a flash course, I tend to use it as a really simple frame by frame annimation tool, with menu's and links, but no real scripting, it just leaves me cold.

Seeing your response confirms how diffenrently I could be using Flash... but where will I find the time!!!

Thanks for your help.