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Hello,
I want to produce a flash movie - a swf with accompanying files - that will run on DVD/CD. I can save the exe file with the accompanying files to the disk but is there a way to make it start and run the movie when the CD/DVD loads? How would one do that? Is it possible to have it run either the Mac version or the PC version depending on the system in which it is loaded?
I thought I was going to do this as an AIR project in Flash. Unfortunately, the project included software that was created in AS 2.0 for an earlier version of the Flash player. That part of the project already existed, as I don't normally create content for such old versions of the Flash player or using AS 3.0. I wonder if AIR will ever accomodate older versions of the Flash Player and AS 2.0?
My other question might be about something impossible. The code as it is compiled now, loads an xml configuration file and a list of image files. Is there any way to embed that into a single file that would run? I zipped up the images folder, the xml configuration file and the swf into one file but I was just wondering if there was any other way to get everything right into one file, so that if someone downloaded the software application, it would be as easy as possible to use it?
Thanks,
Bruce
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hi bruce,
its been awhile since I've done a flash projector to load from a CD (possibly not since 2002)
anyway, it used to be with windows that you could include an autorun.info file at the root of your disc that would tell it what file to load when the disc spins up
In fact I think I always could do a similar thing in OS9, but I believe this sort of thing stopped working in OSX
So, look up autorun files, and maybe you'll get somewhere. of course my knowledge on the subject is way out of date but hopefully it helps a bit
There are also tools to make hybrid Mac/PC discs-you'd put the separate files on each portion/volume of the disc. Back when I was doing this "toast" on the Mac was just about the only option for creating hybrid discs. You'll probably find some great info by googling "Director" and "hybrid" -in fact I think the article I always referred to for this was on www.director-online.com
and to answer your AIR question-AIR does support any SWF you throw at it - I think you'd just have to make an HTML file the actual root of the application and simply embed flash in that
And to touch on your last question, why not embed all the images into your flash library? you could even copy and paste your XML config file into some AS code and parse through that
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I was using some software that creates a flipping book inside flash. It comes as an mxp extension and then you drag the component onto the stage. Unfortunately, this software only works with AS 2.0 and wants to run for Flash player 6. I'm not sure if it will run for any other higher version of the Flash player.
The xml file is the configuration file for the flipping book. It includes the links to the image files. It looks for a path to the files. I wonder how one would reference the files if they were in the library?
So, you think this would work if I load the swf from an html file and then create the AIR file as an html application?
Bruce
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I think it should work, its pretty easy to make as AIR app. So just give it a shot!
You do realize however that AIR produces an installer - and your application won't actually run off of disc right?
If your goal is to run an installer from a disc, then AIR should be fine. However, if your goal is to run a program from disc without making the user install something, AIR isn't going to work for ya
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I do understand that about AIR. AIR will give me one file in the end, right? I will tell it which files need to be used in creating the AIR application and it will creating one .air file with everything. I wouldn't put that on disk, I'd most likely have that available for download.
Bruce
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Hi Ben,
You were saying import the images into the library. Ok, I thought that was going to be an easy thing but i am not sure how exactly to do this. If I do import>import to library, I get a bunch of jpg files in the library. I need these to be symbols for this to work. I'm not sure how to do that. The application is one of those flipping book applications in Flash.
The application uses a config.xml file that calls pages. The pages can be external files (images or swf files) or library symbols. So, just importing the jpg files into the library doesn't help me. The images are put on the stage, if I'm saying it right, at run-time, when you flip through the pages.
I hope this won't be too complicated or time consuming. I mean I could create a new symbol and then drag an image onto the symbol and do that for each and every page and make sure it is placed correctly.
I just want to make this as easy as possible for the end user. If it is possible to create an AIR application using html and a swf compiled for an earlier version of the Flash player, that might be the way to go. I can just list, or include, using Dreamweaver, each and every image file required.
This is for two different poetry collections. If anyone likes poetry and wants to help with this, I can offer a copy of these that we'd otherwise be selling. :-)
Thanks,
Bruce
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Yah, I have no idea what kind of mxp plugin you're using. Maybe it's too difficult to alter, or the loading code isn't available to change. You might be better off going with the AIR approach - it just depends on what you already have to work with I guess
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On Windows, you can create an autorun.ini file. See the following link for more info:
http://www.informatics-consulting.de/software/autoplay/ap_inf1.htm
When you're working with .EXEs and Flash there's a very handy tool called mProjector that really gives you a lot of additional power and flexibility. This tool was one of the predecessors of AIR, and in some ways is still more powerful.
mProjector
There's also a few other tools that are similar.
Zinc
SWFStudio
I believe most people go with mProjector if they need cross platform...otherwise, they go with SWFStudio.
There's also this article on Adobe's site: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/133/tn_13374.html
Hope that helps
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Well, for my projects, these are a bit cost prohibitive. I'll have to look into two things, one doing it manually and two creating an AIR application with this. AIR would be ideal because then I could just put that one file on DVD.
Now, it says that I need the AutoPlay, not just Autorun.
Bruce
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