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Differencing Flash files with oyFlashDoc

Here’s a story we’ve all been through…

You’ve been working on a Flash site for *ages* but somewhere along the line you’ve introduced an error and can’t figure it out. Your site looks ok, but one button just refuses to work anymore. It worked in the fla you saved three hours ago. Damn.

To fix this sorta problem quickly, you would need to be able to see only the differences between two flas… and here’s how. The oyFlashDoc.jsfl Flash extension file converts your Flash file into an XML text file. By comparing the XML files generated from two .fla files using a differencing tool (such as the free application WinMerge), you can do just that

To get oyFlashDoc, go to the Software Secret Weapons site (www.softwaresecretweapons.com) and look for the oyFlashDoc.jsfl file in the Projects section (as of this writing, direct link is here).

Flash version checker and launcher

When you double click on an FLA file it opens the last version of Flash that you used instead of the version of Flash that was used to create the FLA. If you have multiple versions of Flash installed, you risk getting the dreaded ‘Unexpected file format’ error every time you double-click a fla file.This isn’t really an error of course; it really just means "open me in the right version of Flash please".

If you just hate that as much as I do, install FLAver.

All your flas will now magically open in the version of Flash you created them with. Not the most timesaving application, but boy does it calm the nerves!

Pixel level tools in Flash

Pixel tools gives you a new set of drawing tools that draws lines and shapes as if they were made of pixels. Cool for retro video games or the oh-so-cool isometric pixel style. Although Pixel tools actually approximates pixels using vector squares, you can force Flash to treat the graphics as true bitmaps at runtime using caches (Flash 8). The other advantage of graphics created via pixelTools is that they look the same when you set the quality to low (no anti-aliasing), making for faster playback.

Bandwidth profiling and traffic analysis

The Flash bandwidth profiler is cool for testing swfs across a low bandwidth connection, but not so good when you are testing a complete site. A complete site includes lots of other files, such as html, css and xml. Sloppy (www.dallaway.com/sloppy) is a Java application that simulates low bandwidth connections at the browser, thus slowing down everything.

For the web application developer who also needs to view (and/or fiddle with) the underlying web service data, try Fiddler. You can also find more information about fiddler here and here.

Replace Windows Notepad with something that’s actually useful: Notepad++

Notepad++ (notepad-plus.sourceforge.net) has support for code coloring, and folding and it recognizes all the common web design languages/mark-ups (CSS, HTML, JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Ruby, XML). The fact that it also supports ActionScript makes it a must have for Flash coders.

Also useful for those looking for an ActionScript only editor; Se|py

Test with different versions of the Flash Player

Most clients specify a minimum version of the Flash player that the site has to work with, but that might not be the version you have installed. There are a couple of easy ways around this;

• Kewbee plugin switcher.
• Sepiroth's Flash switcher (firefox only)

To use the switchers, you will also need old versions of the Flash player. To get these, go to www.adobe.com and enter ‘14266’ in the search field (top right), or use the direct link to tech note 14266 here.

Quick and easy sound editing

Every web designer has bitmap editing software, but motion graphics designers need to make use of sound almost as often as they need bitmaps, so a sound editor would be cool. Adobe has a sound application for the multimedia designer; Adobe Audition. Rather than use Audition, try Audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net). It can do all the things Audition can do, its easier to use, and its free!.

Backup your application customisations and add-ons: MM-Exporter

MM-Exporter (mm-exporter.joexx.de)is backup utility that allows back-up of all your Flash/Dreamweaver/Fireworks settings. This allows you to quickly recover your application configuration (and therefore your preferred workflows) if you ever have to reinstall your operating system, or if you need to move between computers.

Better searching; Agent Ransack

Tired of that crappy Windows XP search window with the risible dog animation? You need Agent Ransack. Especially cool for the web designer, because it also shows previews of all common text files it finds (.as, .html, .xml, .css etc).

Temporary emails

Guerrilla mail; A randomly generated anonymous email address that lasts 15 minutes, and then expires, forever.

Genius.

Now you can try out that 30 day trial without having to set up a hot mail or (horror of horrors) disclosing your permanent email address…

Comment by Josh Sager

Comment by aaron david cook