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FlashArmor Features

FlashArmor Standard Features

User Interface

FlashArmor has quite powerful yet easy-to-use Windows Explorer-style interface. All you need to create your first compilation is to choose files required and drag&drop them into a virtual directories of your project. You can create as many virtual directories as you like.

Also you can leave some files (like DOC, PDF, etc.) which can't be viewed by Flash player directly, outside of projector. Thus, your users will can open them (using Flash extensions, supported by FlashArmor Projector) in a specific viewers/editors like MS Word or Adobe Acrobat Reader. These external files can't be protected (except for PDF, which can be protected internally by Adobe's tools), because they're not supported by Flash player. The ability to open external files of registered types is the only Flash extension, available in FlashArmor Standard Edition.

Supported File Types

Using FlashArmor Standard Edition you're free to use any file types (but FLV), supported by Macromedia Flash player. Shortly speaking you're free to use any file type you can open from inside your movie using ActionScript language. Particularly these are: SWF files, JPEG files, XML files, text files, MP3 and WAV files. FlashArmor Professional Edition can also load video (FLV) and PNG files into your flash movies. See below for details.
As it was mentioned above, FlashArmor Projector can open files of any registered types. These files must be stored as external files (they may not be included into Projector's EXE). These files will be loaded into the viewer/editor, assigned for the file type in user's Windows settings. All such applications are opened as new windows.

Projector Features

Projector, genearated by FlashArmor Standard Edition, can work just as usual Flash projector, in the window or full-screen mode. In the window mode Projector window's initial dimensions are equal to the Flash movie scene size. You can adjust the next window attributes:

• choose resizable or non-resizable border
• enable or disable title bar
• enable or disable taskbar button
• choose program icon

Assigning program icon for your player, you can use not just .ICO files, but also BMP files of 32 x 32 size or extract icons from EXE files.

Content Protection Features

You have already protected your Flash content from backward engineering, as soon as you're using this software. Now you can protect it from illegal usage.

• you can create time-limited trial version, which will display a warning message, showing trial period data
• you can create trial version, limited in number of executions, which will display a warning message, showing trial period data
• you can protect your Flash software by password. This feature is oriented to legal users of your software, who has got it by legal way. You can allow or disallow to user to save password in the Windows registry, as soon as correct password is entered for the first time. After that user will not need to enter the same password each time he/she launches your Flash software. Together with trial versions feature this lets you create shareware Flash project quick and easy and without special knowledges in other programming languages.

Authorize your Flash software

FlashArmor lets you submit your Flash application in the same way as most of software developers do it. You can change the following standard fields in every Flash player, produced by FlashArmor:

• Program version, including major, minor, release and build versions, like v. 1.2.3.4
• Program main language
• Company Name
• File Description
• File Version (as string in addition to Program Version above)
• Internal Name string
• Copyright string
• TradeMark string
• Original FileName string
• Product Name
• Product Version (as string, usually it is short version like "v. 3.04")
• Comment string

All these data are standard program data, displayed in «About» dialog of Windows Explorer. Everyone can see these data using Windows Explorer.

Licensing and deployment

It is very important for you to understand, whose software you're using and what kinds of license restrictions you must support in your Flash development.

FlashArmor software is the property of Openworld Learning, LLC and you are granted only to use it, as soon as you have purchased it. You're not the owner of this software.

Further, FlashArmor produces a custom Flash player for you, and you're granted to be the owner of every such player's copy, as soon as you're the owner of the Flash content, included into this player's copy. FlashArmor software can create standalone player which includes Macromedia Flash player software. You can choose whether or not to produce standalone Flash player by selecting a special option in Projector Properties dialog of FlashArmor. Look at screenshot to see it. You must comply Macromedia, Inc. special licensing requirements concerning custom Flash players distribution in the case if you're choosing to produce standalone player. You can find more at Macromedia website, click here for details.

Shortly speaking, these statements are reduced to the only requirement for you, as for a custom Flash player distributor: you must have a place in your Flash software («About» dialog box or the like), where you must place Macromedia logo. It would be a good idea also to place a string somewhere in small-sized font with short words like "Powered by Macromedia Flash". We're sure it will not be too uncomfortable for you to comply these Macromedia requirements. You can find Macromedia Flash logos in several graphic formats here. Also you can find one small Macromedia logo in Flash format in the screensaver source code, included into FlashArmor installer.

Of course all the restrictions above are applied to standalone players only. You're free in your player design if you do not produce standalone Flash player. In this case your Flash software will work only if user has installed Flash player on his/her computer. A message will be shown on your player startup in the case if user has not installed Flash player.

FlashArmor Professional Features

Support for Additional File Types

• FLV video support. FlashArmor Professional Edition Projector can work with FLV video files, stored inside Projector's executable. Please note that FlashArmor Projector's EXE file may be of many megabytes in size in this case. But it doesn't mean that your users must install a lot of memory to their PC to launch your Flash software. Projector's EXE is a file only - it will not be loaded into computer memory as whole. Video will be accessed directly from the file just as if it would be saved in an usual FLV file. FlashArmor Projector has no special requirements to your Flash programming style, when you load video from FLV file, saved inside FlashArmor Projector. Of course you must have a working SWF file of version 7 or higher in order to load video in FlashArmor Projector. Please note that FlashArmor Projector can't work with FLV video, loaded through Flash Communication Server. You must have your FLV files saved locally in order to work with them. Please look at FLV player sample for details.
• PNG Images support. FlashArmor Professional Edition Projector also can load PNG files into any SWF movieclip using usual ActionScript function MovieClip.loadMovie(). Just assign the PNG filename with .PNG extension. Nothing more. For example you can write as the next: my_mc.loadMovie("mydir/myfile.png");

ScreenSaver Advanced Features

Using FlashArmor Professional Editional you can create complex screensaver with adjustable parameters. You can develop a special dialogs in Flash where user can adjust some screensaver parameters. This dialog will be called by Windows when user will click "Parameters" button in ScreenSaver Options standard Windows dialog. All parameters will be saved in the Windows registry. You can supply your screensaver with a set of predefined parameters, using text file (must be included into FlashArmor Projector). Look at the screensaver example for details.

Flash Extensions

FlashArmor Projector, produced by FlashArmor Professional Edition, supports a set of very useful extensions, most of which are based on a special fscommand() parameters. See Flash Extensions for more particular description.

• As it was said above, FlashArmor Projector Can open files of any of registered types, using usual fscommand("exec","myfile.ext") command. This feature is included into both Standard and Professional versions.
• load external files into your movie using File Open Dialog. A dialog will appear, showing your CD-ROM directory structure, when user will click a button in your movie with a special fscommand() function, associated with this button. In this way user will can choose file to load into the movie. These may be SWF, JPEG or PNG files.
• Popup Player windows. You can open any SWF file in a new popup window with the same style (except for fullscreen) as your main player window.
• Create draggable Player windows. You can create a button in the movie, loaded into popup window and assign it, as draggable window "caption". In this way you can create customized window captions of any shape you like.
• Load and save data in the Windows registry. In this way you can let user save any configuration and other data, as string parameters in the Windows registry. You are free to choose the registry section to do it.
• Check network connection inside of your Flash software. You can use special "pseudo-script" to detect whether user has the ability to connect to the Internet or not, yet before your main Flash movie startup. In this way you can display a special warning message in the case if your Flash software needs to get some data from your website to start to work.