ActiveSWF - Dynamic flash creator

As a developer I have seen the need to create and show flash movies dynamically but employed alternative solutions. The alternative solutions was adequate to meet the minimum requirements but as my interest in Flash grew and when I decided to develop programs that would produce flash files (animation) dynamically (on the spot) it was an obvious decision to have a permanent, robust and reliable solution that would meet my needs. To this end, I searched on the internet for a solution but was initially disappointed to find out only handful solutions that were either only online creators with capability to create basic flash animations or offline creators with no dynamic flash creation capabilities. The disadvantage of online creators is that there are only a limited number of pre-defined templates that are available to the user and they require the user to access the website, edit the pre-defined templates configuration to customize the flash content and generate the flash file. One could very easily end up with the same type of animation as another person half the world away that is if both persons used this same service and the same template. Furthermore, one would need an internet connection to access the website to create the animations which severely limits the accessibility and makes the accessibility questionable. Otherwise, I was impressed to see online creators offer some pretty good animations. The offline creators even though had offline software to install and create potentially unlimited nice animations they lacked the capability to create animations from a configuration file or to create animations dynamically.

My search on the internet was eventually fruitful when I found ActiveSWF at http://www.activeswf.com/. ActiveSWF allows the creation of flash content dynamically and from easily configurable XML files. It allows desktop applications and web applications developers and web designers to achieve seamless professional results because of its compatibility with COM and .NET. ActiveSWF opens up the possibilities of flash content creation beyond imagination.

Fundamentally the process of flash content generation with ActiveSWF is very simple as shown in Figure 1. The first step is to create flash content definition in a XML file that conforms to ActiveSWF XML schema. This file is then processed by ActiveSWF platform (executable and libraries installed by ActiveSWF) to produce the flash movie.

Figure 1

If the flash content is to be generated dynamically from a program or a script then the process is as shown in Figure 2. The program or script can use the API provided by ActiveSWF to generate the flash content dynamically. ActiveSWF also provides an extensive list of error codes that a developer can use in his/her programs exception handling. The API library and other files needed for dynamic flash content generation can be redistributed allowing for dynamic generation of flash movies.

Figure 2

ActiveSWF supports many Macromedia Flash features to generate dynamic flash content. Some of the supported flash features include various shapes, images, sounds, plain text, HTML text, buttons, layers, actions, morphing, shape manipulations, shape transformations, vector graphics, font embedding, ActionScript 2.0, etc. The flash content definition XML file must first be created in order to generate the flash content. For the purpose of this review I decided to generate a sample flash movie. I did not have any trouble getting started with ActiveSWF. The first thing I did was go through the documentation which was very informative and helpful. It took me less than two hours to understand the fundamentals and workings of ActiveSWF. I hit the ground running in using ActiveSWF. The learning curve is next to nothing and this is true especially for people who are familiar with XML files.

ActiveSWF provides an XMLPad editor to create and edit the flash content XML files. I created the XML file for my sample using both XMLPad and Notepad++. However, XMLPad must be used to generate flash movie. Personally I find it convenient to edit XML files using Notepad++ because it has built-in XML style configurator and it displays line numbers. Allowing XMLPad to show line numbers would be a very useful feature when debugging the XML file. ActiveSWF supports several styles and objects that can be employed in flash movie creation. All the shape objects (elements) are very useful in creating any conceivable shape or animation. I found the polygon and button elements to be very useful. The button element has events associated with it and actions can be taken when the events are triggered. The other important element is the morph feature which can be used for tweened animations. Another important aspect of ActiveSWF is the ability to manipulate shapes in the frames using show, modify, hide, replace, transform, etc. In my opinion these components are essential in animating shapes. Many built-in actions are provided which can be used to perform various functions. Some of them are to open a URL location, control the flash animation, etc. One powerful action is the capability to include ActionScript code which can be used to create highly customized animations. I have done my reading on ActionScript and based on what I know now I recognize the potential of using it in creating flash movie and ActiveSWF makes it happen by supporting ActionScript. ActionScript can be used to unleash the full potential of ActiveSWF in creating rich flash movies. The documentation is also very good in terms of explaining the usage of ActiveSWF. It was very easy to understand ActiveSWF after reading the documentation.

I generated the flash content dynamically from my C#.Net program. It was a breeze to write a program in C# to generate the flash content dynamically. I was also successful in generating the flash content from XMLPad. ActiveSWF helped me overcome the challenges I faced in dealing with dynamic flash content generation. Not only was I able to accomplish my goal of having a software to produce dynamic flash content but also got a lot in return in the form of various other features. I am particularly pleased with ActiveSWF because it is very easy to use; provide vast number of features, supports ActionScript, allows dynamic creation of flash content which in my opinion is the foremost powerful feature of ActiveSWF. I couldn’t find a single product that could produce flash content dynamically. I could not have imagined doing what I want to do without ActiveSWF. The sample I created is a testament of my statements. It took me less than three hours to create the flash animation. I am very excited about the next release of ActiveSWF which will support ActionScript 3.0. I recommend ActiveSWF to anyone, developer and designer alike, without any reservations. The possibilities of creating stunning and rich dynamic flash animations are unimaginable with ActiveSWF.

For more information please visit ActiveSWF website at http://www.activeswf.com/.

Please see below for the sample dynamic flash animation I created for this write up.