Flash Notes

This web page has notes on Macromedia's product called Flash.

Check your Version of Flash Player or Shockwave Player

• http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/welcome/ - Check the version of you Flash Player.  
  • Flash Player Version - Scroll to the "Macromedia Flash Player" table.  Mouse over the "About" button to see the version number.
  • Shockwave Player Version - Scroll to the "Macromedia Shockwave Player" table.  The version number should show up in the lower left hand corner. 

My Examples

• Flash 4 Samples - Flash 4 examples created by Macromedia which are loaded during installation.
• Flash 5 Samples - Flash 5 examples created by Macromedia which are loaded during installation.
• Flash Examples - Other Flash examples.
• Flash Games - Use Flash to create games.
• Flash5 XMLSocket Example - Example of using Flash5 XMLSocket object to connect to a Java socket and send data.  Download the source (Java & Flash5) to test on your machine.

Macromedia's Flash Resources

• www.macromedia.com/software/flash - Flash home page.
  • www.macromedia.com/software/flash/about - Info and example flash sites.  You can also load the Flash player.
  • www.macromedia.com/software/flash/productinfo - Product Info:  Feature Tour, FreeHand, Flash Generator (generate Flash on the Fly-Data Driven), etc...
• http://www.macromedia.com/downloads/ - Download the Flash player (or Shockwave Player).
• www.macromedia.com/software/generator - dynamically generated database-driven Web applications (Flash-on-the-Fly).  Uses JRUN.  You can generate static flash (.swf) from scripts and not need JRUN for the deployment.
• www.macromedia.com/university - Online learning university.  Year subscription to all courses was $399.
• www.macromedia.com/exchange - Extending the capability of Flash.
• http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash - good technotes.
• Flash & Mac (especially Mac IE) have serious issues around Flash and accessing JavaScript via FSCommand.  (dated 6/01)
  • For MAC IE 5.0 you maybe able to use Get URL("Javascript:alert("Welcome!");")
  • I don't think MAC IE will support passing any data to a Flash movie.
  • http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/ts/documents/browser_support_matrix.htm
  • http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/ts/documents/mac_ie_issues.htm
  • Info from a reader:
    While IE uses VBScript and ActiveX to communiate with its plugins like Flash, these are absent in the MAC version of the browser. Therefore, it is true that HTML can not speak directly to the Flash movie.  However, I got an MAC IE web page communicating to the flash movie on it by using LocalConnections and a second, dynamically created temporary flash movie to make the call.  I haven't seen anything on this "technique for talking to Flash on IE on a MAC" before, and being the recent purchaser of a powerBook G4, I quickly became interested in finding a work around.  The sample technique and all source files are available for viewing and download on my site: 
    http://www.darkbackward.com 
    Hope it can help somewhere or someone. Feel free to share the link if you find it helpful.  Rick
• Using JavaScript with Flash to send data to and from server side programs (databases, sockets, CGI, etc...)
  • http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/ts/documents/flash_database.htm - Works with Windows (IE & Netscape) and MAC (Netscape only).  Note FSCommand is not supported by MAC therefore setVariable() & getVariable() is not supported.
• Flash Smart Clips
  • Popup Menus - http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/ts/documents/popup_menu.htm
• Flash Learning Interactions (Flash & AICC Knowledge Tracking - use with Lotus LearningSpace).
  • http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/programs/learning_interactions/learning_interactions.html

Other Flash Resources

• http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/ts/documents/flash_websites.htm - List sites dedicated to Flash Development.
• http://www.actionscript.org - Site dedicated to Flash ActionScript.
• www.flashkit.com - Great Flash technical resource site.
• www.were-here.com
• www.moock.org - Great Flash technical resource site.
• www.ultimatearcade.com - Games created with Flash

Flash & XML Resources

• http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/interactivity/xml/xml.html
• XMLSocket for Flash5
  • http://www.macromedia.com/exchange/flash - download the AquaServer
    extension, it include a Java Socket server and a simple .fla example for you
    to try.
  • http://go44.mine.nu - Game (Connect 4) and Chat room.  You can play opponents over the web.  Flash5 Developer - phil@sichtwerk.com, http://www.sichtwerk.com 
  • http://www.moock.org/chat/moockComm.zip - Chat server by Moock. Uses Java
  • http://www.figleaf.com/development/flash5/aquaserver.zip - Auquaserver.  Was told you can download from Macromedia as an extension. Uses Java.
• http://www.xmlflash.com - Flash & XML.  Also a XML Flash forum.
• www.flashkit.com  - LoadSendXML library
  • http://www.flashkit.com/tutorials/3rd_Party/Flash_5_-Chris_Sm-213/index.shtml
• http://www.tupps.com/flash/faq/xml.html
• http://www.flashnexus.com
• http://www.moock.org/asdg/codedepot/ - check for the source code ("moockComm: chat client/server")

Cool Flash Sites

• www.firstinspired.com - Really neat intro to there web site in the UK.

Flash Training

• www.lynda.com 

Examples from Other sites

• http://www.ci-berpages.com/flash/fssave.htm - Using a Flash projector (.exe) create a file on the local users hard drive.  This link has an interest use of using the fscommand to create a DOS environment and use echo to create a text file.
  on (press)
         { fscommand ("exec","command.com" add chr(9) add "/c" add chr(9) add "echo" add chr(9) add "var1=" add textbox add ">textfile.txt");
  }
  

Books

• Server-Side Flash: Scripts, Databases and Dynamic Development
  by William B. Sanders, Mark Winstanley - Using Flash to connect to the server side world.
• Peach Pit Press
  • Flash for Windows & Macintosh (Visual Quickstart Guide)
  • Flash Advanced for Windows & Macintosh (Visual QuickPro Guide)
• Macromedia Flash 5 Creative Web Animation by Derek Franklin & Brooks Patton (Macromedia Press)
• Flash 5 Graphics, animation & interactivity by James L Mohler (Onword Press/Thomas Learning)
• There is 3 good PDF files that can be downloaded from Macromedia:  ActionScript Reference, Using Flash, Using Generator.  Also, the help files that are installed with Flash are excellent.

Flash Notes

• Flash 5, LMS and AICC - Flash 5 has "learning interactions" that call the Coursebuilder JavaScript files which interact with LMS systems via AICC standards.
• Flash 5 Scripting uses a scripting language called ActionScript (looks like JavaScript).
• Tab ordering in Flash
  • http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/ts/documents/tab_order.htm - Tab order for editable text fields and buttons is controlled entirely by the Flash player. There is currently no way to specify your own tab ordering.  The Flash player uses a formula to calculate the tab order of editable text fields and buttons that is essentially left to right and then top to bottom.  This TAB ordering is done dynamically.