Sterigenics is the global leader in sterilization services. DirectLogic in Peoria was building them a new web presence in assocation with Ward Nipper & Associates. They had already implemented the majority of a content management system, but they needed a Flash expert to take their fledgling map and turn it into something that was attractive and easy to update, since it is featured on the homepage of the site.

Initial Implementation 

The Sterigenics Interactive Map was produced in Flash 8 using ActionScript 2 and the mc_tween animation library. My initial work on the project consisted of getting the map to work and animate to the client's specifications. We went through several rounds of changes to get the opening animation and the zooming animations in line with the client's desires.

With the main visual elements out of the way, my next task was to make the map interactive and allow the client to easily update it. The map is built from a giant XML file which defines nearly every piece of text in the movie, allowing the client to change region names, category names, and all the information about each location at will. The final challenge was to allow content creators to add new locations to the XML file, including the exact coordinates where the location should appear.

Easy Client Updates 

Just as all the data is read in from an external XML file, I used FlashVars to allow easy customization of other importants parameters: where the XML data gets loaded from, the titles and links for up to seven tabs to allow their menu to grow without having to redo the SWF, and a parameter called ShowCoords. When ShowCoords is turned on, the user is treated to a continually-updating set of coordinates that corresponds to their cursor. Users just hover over the spot where the new location is, copy the coordinates, and add the location to the CMS that DirectLogic developed.