Monthly Archives: July 2008

How to install Flash components

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During my days of customer support I’ve come across clients who asked for directions on installing the Flash components made by JumpeyeComponents. There are people who are just starting to work with Flash and are having trouble understanding key concepts or simply don’t know how some operations are made. This is why I thought it would be good to have detailed instructions on how to install .mxp files (Flash components setup files).

For starters, you need to have the installation file of the component, which comes in the form of a .mxp file. If you purchase a package of some sort, first you need to open that archive and retrieve the .mxp file(s). All Flash components are installed by a separate application called the Extension Manager. Usually, this application is installed together with other Adobe products (like Adobe Flash) but that is not necessary. So if you do not have the Extension Manager, you can download it from Adobe’s site: http://www.adobe.com/exchange/em_download/. If you are still using Macromedia Flash 8, you can use Macromedia Extension Manager 1.7 and you can download it from the same location. Please note that if you want to install Flash CS3 and ActionScript 3.0 components, you can only use Adobe Extension Manager 1.8 and Adobe Flash CS3. The previous version of Extension Manager will not be able to install components for Flash CS3.

Adobe Extension Manager

Before installing a component, it is recommended to close Flash CS3. Once you make sure that you have all the necessary applications installed and you have the component’s setup (.mxp) file, you can open that file simply by double clicking on it.

mxp file

Once the Extension Manager opens it will ask you if you really want to install the component. The window will display the manufacturer’s disclaimer or license agreement. If you agree to it, the installation process will go on, but if you decline the agreement, the component will not get installed.

Disclaimer and license agreement

Once the component is fully installed, a message will let you know about it.

Installation complete

Just press Ok and the newly installed component will appear in the components list.

Installed component

Now, you can open Flash CS3 and select Create new Flash File (ActionScript 3.0) from the welcome screen or selec File -> New from the menu (Ctrl+N on Windows or Command+N on Mac OS) and select Flash File (ActionScript 3.0) from the New Document window. You need to create a new ActionScript 3.0 file because FlashEff is a ActionScript 3.0 component and will not work in a ActionScript 2.0 project. Finally, if you open the Components panel (Ctrl+F7 on Windows and Command+F7 on Mac) you will see that the FlashEff component was installed, together with the patterns it has.

Flash CS3 Components panel

Also, in the case of the FlashEff component, there was a new Flash panel installed: the FlashEff panel. You can access it from the Window menu -> Other panels -> FlashEff Panel.

FlashEff at Flashbelt and FITC

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My colleagues who went to present our brand new component, FlashEff, to the world, came back two weeks ago from the Flashbelt and FITC conferences. Overall, it seems that many people got interested in it and everyone who heard about the project was very impressed with it. This is a good sign for us, especially since we’ve just launched the final version (so no more beta).

While we were working on the component, we had really useful input from people with high expertise in Fash and ActionScript, many of them highly regarded in the Flash community. So the difference between the FlashEff beta and the final version is very much based on their feedback. Thank you very much to all of you.

Of course, we cannot create a product that would please absolutely everybody in the Flash community, but we tried to do our best in creating a component that would be easy to use (especially for those new to Flash) and also, leave an open door to those experts who like to code more than use the visual workflow.

There is a free version that has 30 patterns, which you can use to create show/hide effects on text, apply filters on clips and create buttons from movie clips on the stage, fast and simple. You can download it from the component’s main page and test it out. If you’re happy with it and want more, you can even purchase a full version that includes all the current (100) and future patterns. Also, we’ve changed the initial pricing model and now you can purchase the component for 1, 6 and 12 months. Also, there’s an unlimited version of the component, which costs a little more than the rest. For more information, you can check out the component’s site: www.flasheff.com.

Big News: Adobe announces much better SWF searchability

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Today, Adobe posted some pretty important news to the Flash/Flex community: they are currently working with Google and Yahoo! Search to improve the way .swf files on the web are searched and indexed by the search engines.

It seems that by now Google already has made some important changes to its search methods and its crawlers can now better search and index the contents of a .swf file. Also, Yahoo! is not far behind. According to Adobe, the crawlers will actually run the contents of a .swf file and get any text and links they find. At least for beginning. Later on, they will help the search engines find and index more content from the .swf files.

The best part is that developers do not need to modify their Flash/Flex contents to be better indexed by the search engines, the crawlers are able to work with any version of the .swf files on the Internet. In this case it’s possible that after more and more Flash/Flex content being indexed by the search engines, the ranks of Flash/Flex web pages will increase enough in relatively short period of time.

This is indeed great news and hopefully we’ll see the results in a short time.