Flash Notes

Flex SDK Download
- http://www.adobe.com/go/flex4_sdk - Adobe Flex 4 SDK download - 171MB - v4.1 as of 2/3/2011
  - The Adobe Flex SDK contains everything you will need to build and deploy Flex RIAs.
- http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Developer+Documentation - Documentation
- http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Build+and+Test - How to Build and Test.
- Adding Accessibility to Flex Flash SWF files
  - http://help.adobe.com/en_US/flex/using/WS2db454920e96a9e51e63e3d11c0bf69084-7da1.html#WS2db454920e96a9e51e63e3d11c0bf69084-7da4 - Configuring Flex applications for accessibility
  - Example compile:
    C:\AdobeFlex4SDK\bin\mxmlc -accessible wvsa_bp.mxml
Allow flash to access a local files (ie: xml etc...)
- Go to:
  http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager04.html
- Click "Edit Locations"
- Click "Add locaion"
- Click "Browse for Folder".
- Find the folder that the .swf file is in. Click "Ok".
  I suggest placing the .xml file in that same directory.

OLD Macromedia 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.