flash video player publish problems

Report · Nov 23, 2008

I am very new to Flash, and have based my experiments on online tutorials (and help within Flash). I am trying to create a custom video player - and have gotten close on several fronts (skin, testing etc). So far no luck in uploading a working player to my server - and it playing on my site.

One thing I realized is that when I publish my project - it does not include a .js file (as shown on the latest tutorial I just watched).

Can someone please let me know what I am doing wrong - the only things that are published are a .swf file and a .html file. I do not see a checkbox for a .js file.

Are there any tricks to uploading certain files to my server?

Thanks in advance.

Report · Nov 23, 2008

Not sure what is actually going wrong (in terms of what you are saying isnt working).

I have a feeling that the tutorial you are using is CS3 and I presume you're using CS4? Sorry if im wrong.....

Anyway, I'm no flash expert, but I usually find that .js file is created in CS3 when you change your publish settings > HTML > "Flash only - allow fullscreen".

HOWEVER, in CS4 you need to do the same BUT it doesnt create a separate .js file. It dumps all the code in the top of the HTML page (preview HTML). I personally hate this, and delete all of it, putting it back in the .js file as it makes the code enormous.

You can create your own .js file by copying everything from the HTML file it creates
from
"//v1.7"
through to
" return ret; } // -->"
then save it as AC_RunActiveContent.js

Another thing that might be going wrong is that in CS4 it unhelpfully sometimes puts the local URL as the location of the FLV. So when you upload it to the net, it cant find your computer - obviously. To see if this is a problem - go back into the FLA and look at the component inspector for the FLV - does it simply say "name.flv" or does it have a local file path? You'll need to change it so its not your PC. You might find it helpful to upload the FLV to the net and then put the exact url in the component inspector e.g http://www.site.com/name.flv.

In terms of what you need to upload - it should be the swf, flv, .js (if you want to or use the code in the HTML file) and the skin the player is using. You might also find that the skin has the wrong address, so you might want to tell the FLA the exact address of the skin also.

Cant think of anything else right now without looking at what youve done.

Report · Nov 23, 2008

Thanks so much for your thorough help. I am in fact using CS3. Unfortunately, I am still completely lost.

The first thing I tried to fix was changing the publish setting to "Flash Only - Allow full-screen." After that, hitting publish did not create the js file. Is it possible it's putting it somewhere else? Also, when I export - it does not export any skin file??? It seems that I have 2 of the 4 components I need.

Componet inspector says that the video address is embedded. I tried this embedded system to see if I could even get this thing to work - ultimately, I would like to post my player, with skin, onto my server/web page and change the code to play different videos. I used the prefab FLVplayer after having so many problems with a custom one. Ironically, when I designed the skin in PS and imported it to Flash - it seemed to work just as the tutorial said it would, but then when testing it - it played, but it didn't have the skin on it! Ugh!!!

I figured I would change the address of the video to the URL one before publishing if I got everything else OK.

As a workaround - how would I get the HTML code to then change as you suggested?

A big question I have is how to put the code (and what code) into my site once it all seems straight. Nowhere on the web have I found a tutorial that describes all the other code that this needs. is that just the HTML that is created - if I knew where to look at it? :)

Thanks again.

Report · Nov 23, 2008

Ureka! I somehow got the program to spit out 3 of the files. I opened the old FLA that had the Actionscript in it (copied form the tutorial). So now I have the AC_RunActiveContent.js, html and swf.

Now what do I do with them? Also, I think the skin that I made in PS - which was certainly in the window when i published, was not a seperate file? Is that in the SWF file???

Thanks so much for all your help.

Report · Nov 24, 2008

If the FLA is saying the video is in same folder (e.g component inspector just had video name.flv and not complete path) then simply upload the SWF, FLV and .JS to the same folder on your website.

SKIN: If you've designed your skin in PS and imported it into Flash, then it'll be embedded within the SWF and you wont need to separately upload it. The built in skins are exported separately and need to be uploaded - but in your case this wont be necessary.

EXAMPLE CODE FOR HEADER IN WEBPAGE (THIS ALSO HAS ERROR REPORTING SO IF FLASH NOT INSTALLED OR WRONG VERSION - IT WILL PROMPT TO DOWNLOAD)

script language="javascript"> AC_FL_RunContent = 0; </script>
<script language="javascript"> DetectFlashVer = 0; </script>
<script src="AC_RunActiveContent.js" language="javascript"></script>
<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">

</script>

EXAMPLE OF CODE IN THE BODY OF YOUR HTML PAGE:

<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
AC_FL_RunContent(
'codebase', ' http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0',
'width', 'YOUR SETTINGS',
'height', 'YOUR SETTINGS',
'src', 'VIDEONAME',
'quality', 'best',
'pluginspage', ' http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer',
'align', 'middle',
'play', 'true',
'loop', 'true',
'scale', 'showall',
'wmode', 'window',
'devicefont', 'false',
'id', 'VIDEONAME',
'bgcolor', 'COLOUR',
'name', 'VIDEONAME',
'menu', 'true',
'allowFullScreen', 'true',
'allowScriptAccess','sameDomain',
'movie', 'VIDEONAME',
'salign', ''
); //end AC code
</script>
<noscript>
<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase=" http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0" width="YOURSETTINGS" height="YOURSETTINGS" id="active" align="middle">
<param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" />
<param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" />
<param name="movie" value="THENAME.swf" /><param name="quality" value="best" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff" /> <embed src="THENAME.swf" quality="best" bgcolor="#ffffff" width="YOURSETTINGS" height="YOURSETTINGS" name="NAMEOFSWF" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" allowFullScreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage=" http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer" />
</object>

Then upload the HTML to the web and it will fetch the swf and JS file. The SWF will fetch the skin and the FLV.