Archive | March, 2008

Embed Flash


How To Embed Flash Into HTML

So you have the flash file, you just need to know how to embed the Flash file into a HTML file to see it online. I have seen some of our customers simply upload the swf file without the html filling up the screen with the whole Flash file, this causes the major pixelation of the website since that method stretches the site beyond the default size. In this tutorial we are going to show you how to properly embed flash into your html document. Let’s take a quick tour.

Embed Flash Into Dreamweaver

This is the easiest method to embed flash, first open up Dreamweaver and follow the screenshot below:

The example above is the easiest way to embed flash, but it does require you have the Dreamweaver software. After you have embedded the swf file, save as index.html and upload both the swf file and the index.html to your root directory. This is what the code looks like:

<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=7,0,19,0" width="780" height="255"> <param name="movie" value="file:sidebanner.swf" /> <param name="quality" value="high" /> <embed src="file:sidebanner.swf" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="780" height="255"></embed> </object>

You could copy and paste this code and place it in your html page to directly embed your flash file without the use of Dreamweaver. Open up your notepad program and simply paste the above code right in, make sure that your change both the width and height and the name of the flash file:

Change To Your Desired Flash Pixel Size

width="780" height="255"

Change The Word “sidebanner” to your filename

<param name="movie" value="file:sidebanner.swf"

Full Flash Embed Example Code

Now let’s take a look at what the whole code looks like including title, head, and body tags. This will especially useful if you do not have Dreamweaver and you want to raw code.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> <title>Your Webpage</title> </head>

<body>
<object classid=”clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000″ codebase=”http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#
version=7,0,19,0″ width=”780″ height=”255″>
<param name=”movie” value=”file:sidebanner.swf” />
<param name=”quality” value=”high” />
<embed src=”file:sidebanner.swf” quality=”high” pluginspage=”http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”780″ height=”255″></embed>
</object>
</body>
</html>

Embed Flash Using Mimimal Script

Now that you know how to embed using the right and true method, here is a really simple version of embedding flash, sometimes this method does not work but it’s worth a shot.

<embed src="mediaplayer.swf" width="300" height="300" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" />

Pretty Easy To Embed Flash

See, that wasn’t too hard. Just remember when you upload, you will need to upload both the swf and html files. If you are going to make it your home page, it is a must you name your html page index.html otherwise you will not see your homepage. Take a look at what your upload should look like, there should be 2 files sitting right next to each other.

- embedded html file (index.html)
- swf file (flash)

There you have it! Your now a Embed Flash Pro…

Popularity: 31% [?]

Posted in FlashComments (9)

Website Templates On Ebay


Website Templates On Ebay, Bad Idea?

So you want to buy website templates on Ebay? The price almost looks too good to be true for sure but what are you really getting yourself into? Prices for template packs start at just over $3 to $30 so at that price one would jump at buying these packs, we did and here is what we found.

Quality of Templates Not Great, Not Even Good

Yeah, our CD arrived around 1 week later and we couldn’t wait to see how good these templates were. Now please note that the only reason for the purchase was to merely test out the quality of these templates, we had no intention to use these products or resell them (no way would we resell these) more on that later. What we found is a bunch of garbage truthfully, I mean we were not that surprised, over 30,000 templates for $8.00 we really didn’t expect anything special. Out of the whole CD, we found 3 or 4 templates that were acceptable but still needed work to make them semi-presentable. 

Say Hello To The Trash Bin

So after 20 minutes of searching each folder, it was apparent that this was a wasted $8, now of course I was not expecting some great Flash design or award winning website templates but maybe a couple good ones at of 30,000 templates would be nice. It was obvious that what I purchased was a template dump. Alot of the templates REQUIRE you to leave a link of the author on the template, removing the link may get you in legal trouble if your found out. More legal issues below.

Be Careful Of Stolen Work

A problem that I have seen is that some people decompile existing flash templates and then resell them on eBay, what this means is that you are buying templates that are already violating copyrights. Some template makers and Ebay have worked on the issue but I still see decompiled templates on there for sale, so be careful. The last thing you want is to be shut off by your hosting company due to stolen work that you had NO idea about or even worse…legal documents.

Our Advise

You know the saying, you get what you pay for…well this is totally the case with buying website templates on Ebay. In addition to the bad quality, you run the risk of buying stolen templates so our advise to is stay away, far away. I know the price is right if your looking to build a website with almost no cost, or perhaps looking to resell them, but to put yourself in the line of fire doesn’t make any sense. Ebay is not at fault, they can’t monitor which templates violate copyright and which ones don’t and I’m sure Ebay works to weed those people out. Still, if there is a buck to be made selling template dumps and stolen property, sadly this will be a continued trend.

Be smart. Become Informed.

Popularity: 27% [?]

Posted in FlashComments (11)

Flash and Facebook


Facebook Allows Flash…Finally!

I guess it was due to allow Flash especially for a development community such as Facebook. The Facebook crowd is generally not made up of teens, but developing professionals aspiring to create apps and network. Flash in my opinion should of been there in the start of the whole process, but I would imagine that since Flash is a vehicle of runtime threats, security must have been the #1 reason for the stall. 

Facebook Flash Overkill

Of course, this probably won’t stop selected people from completely overdoing Facebook by adding too much Flash, but perhaps overdoing Flash was the reason why Facebook is only allowing certain people to use Flash. I’m not sure if this is a smart move, but it sure will cut down on slow loading profiles.

Facebook Flash Developers

I personally know a few Facebook flash developers and they all have praise for Facebook allowing Flash because people do work hard creating apps, so why not show it? Some of these apps are a means for profit, so it is extremely important to share these apps not just on the company profile page, but everybody that supports them which includes people with basic Facebook profiles. But that’s just talking about Flash applications, there is more to Flash than just apps let’s talk about conveying powerful messages through Flash. Flash has the ability to show visuals is creative methods, video, animations, and more. This type of presentation could be make or break for any company trying to present an image on Facebook.

Keep It Up Facebook

So yeah, a great move by Facebook to allow Flash, and with the talk of its own autoloading it should be a snap. There is a grip of Flash apps now including Games and Flash charts. This opens the doors to new possibilities, good going Facebok.

View Facebook Flash Applications

Popularity: 25% [?]

Posted in FlashComments (5)

Macromedia Flash


Macromedia Flash

We know Adobe bought Macromedia awhile ago, but I personally miss the Macromedia brand. I miss the Macromedia logo when opening up Flash 5 back in the day and wish sometimes that Macromedia never sold it off. Adobe Flash never truly never rang for me and to me the new Flash software just seems to be a big resource hog, same with it’s own Photoshop. Anyway in the spirit of Macromedia, we are going to give you some Macromedia resources. Here’s to living in the past.

Macromedia Flash Screen

Ah, yes…remember the old startup screen for Macromedia Flash 5? Heck, I bet alot of you remember Flash Animator to Flash 3. Guess I have been feeling a bit nostalgic lately so maybe, just maybe I’ll find my old copy of Flash 5 and install it, lol. I also remember not being any good at Flash at the time so this was the first Flash program I have picked up. Flash 5 is my 2nd favorite version of Macromedia Flash, my all time favorite version is Flash MX.

We have a pretty good collection of Macromedia Flash templates in various categories, we also added new templates in our e-commerce section. Oh yeah, for anybody wanting to install Macromedia Flash 5, don’t do it. Even though it’s a rock solid stable, but the output SWF files would have issues with the current Flash 8 and 9 players.

We Miss You Macromedia

Check out templates here

Macromedia Flash History

- Macromedia Flash 2(1997) Features: Support of stereo sound (finally), enhanced bitmap integration, buttons, the Library,  and tween color changes, but could not yet handle shape tweening.

  
- Macromedia Flash 3(1998) Features: Brought improvements to animation, playback, and publishing, as well as the introduction of simple script commands for interactivity. As of - 2008, Macromedia has shipped 100,000 Flash products.
- Macromedia Flash 4(1999) Features: Achieved 100 million installations of the Flash Player, thanks in part to its inclusion with Microsoft Internet Explorer 5. Flash 4 saw the introduction of streaming MP3s and the Motion Tween. Initially, the Flash Player plug-in was not bundled with popular web browsers and users had to visit Macromedia website to download it; As of 2000, however, the Flash Player was already being distributed with all AOL, Netscape and Internet Explorer browsers. Two years later it shipped with all releases of Windows XP. The install-base of the Flash Player reached 92 percent of all Internet users.
- Macromedia Flash 5(2001) Features: Flash 5 was a major leap forward in capability, with the evolution of Flash’s scripting capabilities as released as ActionScript. Flash 5 also saw the ability to customize the authoring environment’s interface

(Source - Wikipedia)

After this came Flash MX which introduced suppport for Video and shared libraries.

Popularity: 23% [?]

Posted in FlashComments (7)

How To Create FLV Videos


How To Create FLV Videos

So you want to create FLV videos, well we have a short easy tutorial how to achieve this. FLV videos are a great choice of video format because a preloader is built-in to the final output. FLV videos are easily streamed on the web making them so popular. FLV videos also have great compression making them an obvious choice for popular companies, and the ability to change the color scheme of FLV is great for people that want to match the player with website design.

FLV Video Compatibility

People are always afraid when they think of Flash let alone a Flash based video player. The truth is that the Flash plugin is installed in 98% of computers, so this is the most hassle free way to view video online, did I mention the superior streaming capabilities? Anyway, let’s get back to the tutorial. There will be a series on screen captures which we feel is easier to follow vs text based tutorials.

Exporting Your FLV

There you have it, just wait for the progress to finish, and your good to go, congratulations on making a FLV video now you just need to upload it. Do you need prebuilt FLV players for your newly constructed FLV’s? Just upload your new flv files and let these player do the rest.

1. FLV Player  (Powerplayer)

2. FLV Player (FLV Video Standard)

Popularity: 25% [?]

Posted in FlashComments (15)

Flash Lite 3.0 and Sony


Flash Lite 3.0

It’s out and the verdict is mixed I guess. Flash Lite 3.0 runs better than the previous version resulting in better battery life for electronic gizmos such as the Sony Mylo 2. The ability to play Youtube video’s smoothly is a sure welcome to Mylo’s younger target market. Flash Lite 3.0 however works fine with versions 8.0 and below and will not function with Flash 9. We can only hope that Adobe builds an access point for mobile and electronic devices for an “auto load”. Instant updates for maximum compadibility.

 As of now you will need to register for Flash Lite 3.0 here.

Sony Mylo

The product itself looks like a winner since you have the ability to use Skype, Yahoo, AIM, and Google talk, that’s pretty impressive for people that just need to chat away. If space is a concern, you can drop a 16GB memory card in there. Some people think that this device is a cell phone too, it’s not.

Popularity: 26% [?]

Posted in FlashComments (9)

Flash and Photoshop


Flash works well with Photoshop

When you are creating your flash website you naturally want striking images within the site. Unless you are a Vector wizard, you will be hard pressed to create striking images within Flash. If you are going to keep your whole site a fixed pixel size, there is nothing more striking than a pixel-vector mixed website. Can you imagine if Adobe one day decided to combine Photoshop with Flash?

Of course you can create your Flash website without using any bitmap images, but you might find you need imagery to drive the message home. If you are concerned about the download size of your final swf file, make sure to export your image using “Save for Web and Devices”.

Notice how the size went from 173k to 23k. This is the #1 overlooked process when creating a Flash website.

Adding Images You Create In Flash

So you created your amazing image in Photoshop, how to do insert them in Flash? Easy, here’s how with Flash open:

Flash and Photoshop Best Friends

So If you have Flash and don’t have Photoshop go and get it. When I personally develop a website I usually have 2 - 3 programs opened at the same time. You guessed it, Flash and Photoshop.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Posted in FlashComments (18)

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