searching swf files on a CD that uses the flash projector

[richard chesher]

Well, here's a challenge. Flash is a beast when it comes to searching and I would love to be able to use Zoom Search to find files on a CD rom that uses the Flash Projector - not a browser - to display the files.

This would mean sending the search results to a text file and then reading the results into a flash movie that could then execute the links. Zoom Search would have to be able to identify the swf movie (movie1.swf) for example - not really the frame number in the movie (although that would be a big plus if possible).

Thus if someone wanted to search for a file they would click on a link that would open the zoom.exe file (probably the cgi front end version) and Zoom would then check through the index files to find the relevant words and present these to the user.

But when the user selects a link, the result would have to be sent back to the original flash movie so IT can load the file using the flash projector.

In theory this should be really easy to do, but if you are a novice at this sort of thing (like I am) it's very complicated.

Can anyone help me figure out the code needed?

Thanks, Richard

[David]

Well we had never heard of a Flash Projector. After doing some research it seems that a Flash Projector is a flash file that has been turned into an executable (.exe). It also seems that there are half a dozen different tools on the market that do this and that they all have a different collection of features. Some even have their own API set that vastly extends the functionality of Flash. Each different tool probably packs up the file in a different way.

In theory this should be really easy to do.

Well maybe. But from what I understand from your E-mail you are trying to
- Extract words from an executable file that is packed up in a unknown format.
- Open an executable file pointed to by search results so that a particular frame of the content is displayed.
- Call Zoom from a Flash Projector executable and have the results displayed inside an existing Projector.

I am not sure which part of this is meant to be really easy to do. Sounds like a whole bunch of hard work to me.

-------
David

[richard chesher]

Flash Zoom Search

Flash is a pretty popular tool for distribution of Windows/Mac content on CD - as well as used on many internet sites. Nobody has yet solved the indexing/search problem for Flash and I believe Zoomsearch is very close to being the key to thousands of happy Flash users.

This assumes that there is a CGI front end that will work on either Mac or Windows.

The Flash Projector is simply a browser that reads flash files. It's true there are other Projectors that expand the capabilities of the standard one BUT they don't work on Macs.

Flash, especially the newest version of Flash, can work with databases and outside programs. It can read xhtml files and text files.

There is already a Zoomsearch extension to read the flash swf files and index the links.

It is easy to create a link to open a Zoomsearch cgi front end and send variables to it (such as the words to search for).

zoomsearch would then scan the swf files list the swf files that contained the search terms in a txt file.

The flash movie that sent the search command could then read the result page (if it is xhtml or text) and display the results within flash. The user would then click on a link to the file and it would load.

[Ray]

The Flash Projector is simply a browser that reads flash files.

From my understanding, a Flash Projector is just a stand-alone SWF file - with the Flash Player built-in, so that it does not need to be opened via a browser. I don't think it can be considered as "a browser" in that regard. It doesn't actually have any of the capabilities in processing a HTML page.

Flash, especially the newest version of Flash, can work with databases and outside programs. It can read xhtml files and text files.

AFAIK, it can only launch an external application (eg. Excel, Notepad). We are not aware of any capabilities that would allow it to read in XLS files, or make it interact with databases and outside programs.

This is a quote from a newsgroup post by Macromedia Tech Support:

While Flash projectors can launch executable files, they are stand
alone and cannot communicate back and forth with executable.

From: http://groups.google.com.au/group/ma...6e809c9a0d9fe/

There are some tricks around which allow you to load in text files via the use of the LoadVars() function. However, this would appear to be fairly limited, and in addition to all this, you would still need ways to parse the links in the search results, etc. which would seem to be fairly difficult actually, and it sounds doubtful that it would be easy as you had first hoped.

It appears that what you are really after, is some way to implement the capabilities of a web browser in Flash. We can't offer much advice here, but perhaps other visitors on the forum with more Flash expertise can be of help. It would be interesting if someone can actually implement a CGI FrontEnd in Flash.