I have one swf file, it is JW Player plugin. It have one actionscript file in which is whole plugin code, and rest of files are jwplayer api files. So i need to open that file (where whole plugin code is) and edit few lines. But there is a problem, because when i try to decompile file with sothink swf decompiler (and few others) - to convert it to .FLA, decompiles simply crashes. It is because of some file from jwplayer api library. So, next thing i tried is to edit via HEX (because there is not much to be edited), but i couldn't find what i needed. So what i need is - is there any way or not? If yes, which program can be used for this?
I've had to do something similar in the past. In my scenario, the client had the SWF but no FLA. I needed to change a hardcoded url and sothink wasn't decompiling but I could view the AS in the sothink previewer. Luckily for me the flash wasn't very complex so I was able to copy the AS and graphics out and start a new project. I would imagine that JW Player is much more complex so this may not be an option for you, but thought I'd mention it anyway.
Depending on your needs, you may be able to get what you want by using the plugin API to extend the functionality or maybe even by customizing a skin.
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My aim is to change compiled swf flash games so they would send score to server through http. Unfortunately I only have compiled swf files. I would like to know is it even possible to make such changes with only decompilation, reverse engineering, etc. I have found a program called JPEXS Free Flash Decompiler (ffdec), but it only works with AS2. In AS3 I can see all the code but I cannot change anything bigger than constants. Do you know of any solution that would work with both AS2 and AS3 (probably not the same one)?
PS: For better or worse I am loading these swf into another one as a child, so apparently for example 'laodVariables' is not working.
I assume you have permission from the people who made those games to modify them in this way, in that case I recommend asking them for the source code and recompiling the games with the features you want. If you don't have permission then you shouldn't be doing this, so don't.
Forgive me if this is not the correct place to ask such a question.
Basically, I am looking for a way to allow someone to easily (at least, easier then diving into Flash) create a basic Flash animation (movieclip) with some placed image assets and text, all via a web interface.
I was thinking along the lines of using jQuery to allow drag and drop assets, of which you'd "record" the co-ordinates and relay that to Flash somehow to create the SWF file.
Or would it be better to create a tool in Flash (surely making operations easier) and then have some kind of "save" button to render out the SWF?
I'm totally open to suggestions.
Thank you
If you really need to produce a stand-alone SWF file (and not just a config file for you own "player"), I would probably do it like this;
1) Create your editor in whatever system you feel like (flash, jquery etc).
2) Build a config file in the client. This is used, together with all the resources the user added, to play back the animation.
3) Upload said assets and config file to your web server.
4) Use the flex compiler (on the server) to produce the resulting SWF, combining your player with generated AS3 which embeds the uploaded resources as needed, to make it available to the player.
5) Give the user a download link for the newly generated SWF file.
I don't think there is any swf compiler available for Flash (actionescript). You may create a swf that allows users to create an animation, save it as a home-made vector format, and then replay it. But I don't believe you can create and independant swf file with only the created animation in it.
Just think about a player in Flash, and a format that the player will read (xml, json, name it...). You can either generate the input with jQuery or Flash, and then feed it into your player to display it. You will eventually need two files.
Apparently this library allows you to compile SWFs at runtime. I haven't used it myself (yet) and don't know how stable or flexible it is, but it appears to be what you're looking for. I'd recommend giving it a spin and seeing if it's sufficient.
I'm not exactly sure how it saves the file, so you might run into security problems since it's a web application. Hopefully it should be OK though.
Is it possible, using AS3, to programmatically generate a .swf file? What my little app does is load a bunch of images, using FileReference, now I want to compile them into a stand-alone swf that the user can download (the swf will be a slideshow).
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There seems to be some mis-understanding of what I am asking. I want to have one compiled swf from which the user may select some images and press a button whereby the swf will create and compile a second swf containing said images. As this is a stand-alone app, there will be no server-side interaction.
What I am thinking is that there will be a string representing a dynamic class. When the user selects their images the appropriate embed tags are added to this string, which is then compiled and saved to the user's desktop.
So my question is, can a compiled swf generate and compile a second swf?
Take a look at this library, this allows you to create a .swf at runtime.
https://github.com/claus/as3swf
It should be possible to do server side, by generating the relevant code and running the as3 compiler.
I haven't investigated the package thoroughly, but the As3Eval library seems to be doing what you're asking - realtime compilation of AS3 into executable bytecode (on the client with no server interaction). Check out the demo.
I'm not sure it would support image embedding - perhaps you could encode the image data as a base64 string in your dynamically built source code.
You could also use swfmill, a command-line tool to create SWF files from XML documents.
It's not well documented but for basic usages (such as creating asset libraries) you should find what you need.
I already made a game with flash, and I want to provide an easy download for people that would rather play offline. Thing is, i use a folder whole structure to dynamically load content per level. Folder structure looks like this, not that it matters that much:
Game folder
animations
anim1.swf
anim2.swf
sounds
music1.mp3
soundeffect1.mp3
levels
level1.lev
level2.lev
myGame.swf
How should I go to distribute this? Should I just resort to make a zip file for the flash game and assume people know how to extract and open the swf? Is there any other way to port easily as an executable? Perhaps Adobe Air (not sure if this works though)?
Thanks, and please help!
Distributing a zip file is the only option if you really want that structure to prevail. Else,
Embed all the resources in the main (myGame) swf & distribute it.
Provide a html page for people who do not have standalone flash player installed.
Embedding as a single file allows the browser to cache the single swf & allow the player to keep playing offline until cache is cleared. So user might not even need an explicit download.
If you are using Flash Builder it is fairly straightforward to compile the application into a self-installing AIR executable (or DMG on a Mac). It is possible to include the AIR runtime which would avoid potential problems of the user not having the correct flash player for example.
An alternative to AIR would be to create a projector executable from inside the standalone Flash Player or from the Flash authoring environment.
Another option to using a zip file would be to use a free installer creator such as InnoSetup or Nullsoft on Windows, or Packager on Mac. Linux users are generally more tech savvy and so a tar would probably be well understood.
Adobe AIR works wonderfully! I use it for my own project, and your project should transition over to it with little to no modification (any issues should show up in the Compiler Errors and Output). The only downside is that, past AIR 2, there isn't any Linux support.
The other option is obviously to create a standalone .SWF projector inside a zip or installer, but in my opinion, that isn't the sleekest way to deploy for desktop. The advantage of AIR over this is that it gives you access to additional desktop functions that Flash Player doesn't.
I am writing a game in ActionScript3 using Flixel as a base. I have been unable to find a good method for saving and loading files from the player's local hard drive. I know Flixel has a way to save game data to...I think...cookies that the player doesn't really have access to, and I want to avoid this.
I first learned programming in Java, and one thing I've seen a lot of is scanning (Scanner) and printing (PrintWriter) lines of strings to/from text files. Something like this for AS3 would be my ideal, but if there are other methods I'm open.
Does AS3 have anything in its basic library that can do this task well? Are there libraries I can download and include that do this well/better?
If your game is going to run on a webpage your options are limited. Due to security concerns Flash is limited to reading and writing files specifically selected by the user.
Should you be using Air to make a standalone game, you will have regular access to the filesystem and can write files much like with Java.
If not, you will be pretty much stuck with Flash cookie equivalent, SharedObject.