swfObject GUI and More

[snorris]

Hi All,

I think I have created a free cool flash-based tool called Enhance. It is kind of like a GUI for swfobject but much more.

Say you have an .htm or .html page that you want to add flash to. Using this tool, you can browse to the page on your hard drive and display it in the application, then, after you have filled your libraries with animations, or videos (.swf or .flv), you can select them and place them on your page. Drag them to where you want them and set numerous parameters. Selecting a .flv adds a video player to your page and points it to your .flv.

When you click publish, the tool publishes an .xml inventory and copies the inventory and your .swf and .flv files to a folder in the same directory as your original web page. A .js file reads the inventory and calls swfobject and passes it the correct parameters to add the divs.

It then displays your page with all of your new .swf and .flv files added. You may need to ftp the page and folder up to a web server for all of the functionality of the page to work (external interface sometimes doesn't work on your hard drive).

If you have an .html form, you can add context-sensitive help so that as users tab through the fields, text and sound (or .swf video) help will appear.

I have tested published pages in IE and Firefox.

Here are some screen shots of the tool:

http://www.norrisoft.com/enhance/enhance.jpg

http://www.norrisoft.com/enhance/enhancefile.jpg

http://www.norrisoft.com/enhance/enhanceauthor.jpg

The colored boxes are the handles that you use while authoring to drag your animations to where you want them on your page.

The Properties dialog to the upper right displays/sets the properties for the selected .swf (the one whose handle you just clicked on). Here, I had just selected the a .flv video of JFK giving a speech. It is playing in the video player to lower right.

http://www.norrisoft.com/enhance/enhancehelpsteps.jpg

The above screen shot shows the HelpStepBuilder functionality. The Help Parameters dialog allows you to select the form field to which you would like to associate help and associate either an mp3 or .swf video.

It is free and I have included a help file to get you started. I have also included a developers kit to allow you to modify your existing animations to allow the tool to work with it.

Here's the link to the download page:

http://enhanceusergroup.ning.com/pag...cerelated-file

Make sure you check out the readme. There are a couple of known bugs listed there.

Enjoy!
P.S. Some of you may remember me asking for Beta testers a few years ago. I had to walk away from this for awhile. This version is much better than that version - cross-browser, flv capable, and each swf has its own div rather than a single movie loading all of the .swfs.