Flash and swf file problems

Freeway
1

Does anyone know of a good Flash action for properly embedding an SWF file into Freeway? I have been having a terrible time with trying to bring in SWF files, since Freeway doesn’t offer any way to change a lot of aspects, such as transparency, etc. and I always have to modify the HTML file after Freeway publishes it to get the proper effect.

I’ve been monkeying around with Source Code Snooper to get the desired code into my pages, but it’s very, very quirky, and I eventually just end up ditching the action all together because it doesn’t work.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

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2

Hi,
The Source Code Snooper action is quite, shall we say unique. :slight_smile: Even
with it’s odd workflow it shouldn’t fail on you though. What problems
were you having with it exactly?
As for embedding your SWFs simply import each into a standard HTML box
and select Extended from the Item menu. With the embed tab selected
simply enter your extended attributes for the Flash file. For example
to add transparency simply;
Click on the New button,
and add the following name and values,
Name: wmode
Value: transparent
Press OK, and OK again to dismiss the last dialog.

Here’s a full list of attributes you can add to your SWF;
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_12701

If you need an action interface to do this rather than using the
Extended dialog box just let me know and I’ll whip one up for you.
Regards,
Tim.

On 24 Mar 2009, at 20:25, twb716 wrote:

Does anyone know of a good Flash action for properly embedding an
SWF file into Freeway? I have been having a terrible time with
trying to bring in SWF files, since Freeway doesn’t offer any way to
change a lot of aspects, such as transparency, etc. and I always
have to modify the HTML file after Freeway publishes it to get the
proper effect.

I’ve been monkeying around with Source Code Snooper to get the
desired code into my pages, but it’s very, very quirky, and I
eventually just end up ditching the action all together because it
doesn’t work.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

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3

Tim,

Thank you so much! You=the man.

Best,

TB

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4

PS- Any ideas on how to get Freeway to add the “standard” Flash dialog that appears if a user doesn’t have Flash installed, or if they have an outdated version?

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5

I think most browser handles this automatically for you. I just
uninstalled the Flash plug-in for Safari and the browser told me that
the page I wanted to view contained ‘application/x-shockwave-flash’
content and asked if I wanted to install the plug-in. On clicking the
go button the browser gets redirected to the URL defined in the HTML
(plugin space attribute).
I guess you could deliver a custom dialog is you sniffed for the Flash
plug-in and didn’t locate it.
regards,
Tim.

On 25 Mar 2009, at 07:14, twb716 wrote:

PS- Any ideas on how to get Freeway to add the “standard” Flash
dialog that appears if a user doesn’t have Flash installed, or if
they have an outdated version?

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6

I’m new to Freeway Pro. And this isn’t meant to be a reply, it’s meant to be a new post within the Flash Trouble list. So, if someone can tell me how to start a new post in this list, that would be great.

My actual post is simply to say, I am previewing a flash video wrapped in a .swf shell with a player just fine. I use Fetch to put them on my site, and all I get is a blank page where the video should be playing. I have placed .flv and .swf and the player .js. Again, it previews the page fine, AND it previews in local browser (Safari) fine, but here’s what I see when I check the online version:
http://www.brightideascreative.com/HCvideo_flash.html

Could it have something to do with spaces in the names of the .flv and .swf that are in the Resources folder? A sample name is: “Harrison County final 576c_player.swf”

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7

There isn’t a Flash Trouble list, but there are FreewayTalk (main
discussion), ActionsDev (for and by Action authors), Dynamo (for and
by hand-coders or CMS wranglers or other “dynamic” Web types), Off
Topic (for water-cooler stuff), and Tutorials (for those sorts of
things). If you want to start a new Flash Trouble thread, just create
a new thread in one of those lists.

If you’re using the Web interface, then to start a new thread, go back
up to the main list page (click on the list name in the main
navigation or the footer) and the form to start a thread will be at
the bottom of that page.

If you’re a mailing list member, just create a new message to the
desired list with your thread title as the subject.

And if you’re naming files with spaces in them – please stop. This
will almost never work the way you expect it to.

If your SWF player “skin” looks for the FLV movie file to be in the
same folder as itself, just apply Upload Stuff (action) or Extra
Resources (action) to the same page where you placed the SWF, and use
the Action to get Freeway to upload the FLV to the Resources folder.

Walter

On Mar 26, 2009, at 11:30 AM, William Thomas wrote:

I’m new to Freeway Pro. And this isn’t meant to be a reply, it’s
meant to be a new post within the Flash Trouble list. So, if
someone can tell me how to start a new post in this list, that would
be great.

My actual post is simply to say, I am previewing a flash video
wrapped in a .swf shell with a player just fine. I use Fetch to put
them on my site, and all I get is a blank page where the video
should be playing. I have placed .flv and .swf and the player .js.
Again, it previews the page fine, AND it previews in local browser
(Safari) fine, but here’s what I see when I check the online version:
http://www.brightideascreative.com/HCvideo_flash.html

Could it have something to do with spaces in the names of the .flv
and .swf that are in the Resources folder? A sample name is:
“Harrison County final 576c_player.swf”

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8

Also, to add to Walter’s comments- be very careful having spaces in your filenames. When I need to have separation between words in filenames, I usually go with a “-” or an “_”. It’s much safer in my experiences. Also, just be sure that your Flash files are in the “Resources” folder, as that is where your source code says that the page is looking for assets. Hope this helps.

TB

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9

Sometime around 27/3/09 (at 10:02 -0400) twb716 said:

When I need to have separation between words in filenames, I usually
go with a “-” or an “_”. It’s much safer in my experiences.

Yes, absolutely!

BTW, hyphens are better than underscores in search engine optimising
terms. As far as Google is concerned underscores string words words
together into long character collections whereas hyphens keep words
apart and comprehensible. And findable.

k

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10

True, k. Would it matter for SEO to use a hyphens instead of underscores for an SWF file? I can see using them for XML files, etc. but do the SE’s actually search other files types to add them to the ranking?

TB

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11

If you mean inside the Flash file, as attribute names or similar, then
maybe, but I doubt it. Google (alone) have done some research into
extracting text from within Flash files. I believe that’s just trying
to search for the actual text, not the names you’ve assigned to
variables or layer elements. Naturally, if your content is interesting
and cogent for the topic, then that’s where you would stand or fall in
their eyes. The rest is whistling for a wind.

Walter

On Mar 28, 2009, at 6:41 PM, twb716 wrote:

True, k. Would it matter for SEO to use a hyphens instead of
underscores for an SWF file?

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12

" If you need an action interface to do this rather than using the Extended dialog box just let me know and I’ll whip one up for you. Regards, Tim."

Don’t mind if " i" do??
Eugenie :slight_smile:

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13

Sometime around 28/3/09 (at 18:41 -0400) twb716 said:

True, k. Would it matter for SEO to use a hyphens instead of
underscores for an SWF file? I can see using them for XML files,
etc. but do the SE’s actually search other files types to add them
to the ranking?

It all helps, in the sense that even an eyedropper can be used to
fill a bucket. Search engines focus on web page text content and
don’t currently delve into SWF files, but the names of things can
help confirm a page’s relevance for certain textual searches.

If you can make a file’s name contain recognisable words that will
make a tiny bit of positive difference.

k

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14

Agreed. Plus, who knows what new search algorythms Google, etc. will come out with tomorrow!

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