Help on Flash files...

[Vincent Wong]

Well, I don't need help on modifying them, but I just need some info on what is needed to modify an existing Flash file (which I probably don't have access to).

Due to the economy, my company has downsized a lot. I'm the only Engineer in the company, and my responsibility is, well, Engineering. Since the downsizing, I have already taken up duties on Warranty, Parts, Technical Support, and some Sales & Marketing BS. The time spent on Engineering is almost zero now. My boss now is asking me to maintain a freaking website, which is completely out of my area, and I have zero knowledge on Flash whatsoever. I just want some info and hopefully go back to him saying it's not an easy task, and I have no time to learn that sh*t during work hours. And I obviously will not have time to learn it in my own time with twins coming in couple of weeks.

Thanks very much.

[Kristoffer Gjevre]

I have no clue about Flash development either, other than that Apple think it is buggy on the Mac and does not support it on the iPhone and iPad, but lots of interesting info here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Flash" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Q V]

If the files you have to modify are ".swf" files, then it is definitely not worth your time.

Last time I had to do that was about 8-10 years ago, so maybe they have better programs now. What you are looking for is an "swf decompiler". It's not going to look pretty. And if you don't know Flash in the first place, it's going to look like the first day I came out for a ride-a-long @ autox, i.e. sea of cones.

If you can access the actual source ".fla" files, then it just depends on what you are modifying (just text, image placement, or full blown actionscript, etc).

On a side note, perhaps you can convince your boss to hire interns (you don't even have to pay em, just give em college credit) from local community & tech colleges.

Downsizing or not, making an Engineer maintain a website seems a serious waste in resources. He's probably losing more money by taking your time away from more important stuff you could be doing.

[Will Kalman]

On a side note, perhaps you can convince your boss to hire interns (you don't even have to pay em, just give em college credit) from local community & tech colleges.

Downsizing or not, making an Engineer maintain a website seems a serious waste in resources. He's probably losing more money by taking your time away from more important stuff you could be doing.

Unless he agrees and makes Vincent a part-time employee and uses the savings to hire college kids to do the non-engineering work.

[Bob Beamesderfer]

Flash is liked and loathed, but like crabgrass it's pervasive. Tell him it's not worth it because the iPhone and iPad don't support it. ;)

[Q V]

My idea was that he could potentially hire those college kids for free (this is what my boss @ my first job did - interns came from various colleges, I think the most popular one was Bryman; they got class credit for the summer).

The interns still required quite a bit of our time training them & going over their work, but it was definitely better than doing everything ourselves. This freed up time for us to work on bigger projects that brought money into the company.

But I digress - it was just an idea.

For the iPhone, it doesn't officially support flash, but there is software/scripts out now that allow it to run flash, I believe.

[Dan Shaw]

My idea was that he could potentially hire those college kids for free (this is what my boss @ my first job did - interns came from various colleges, I think the most popular one was Bryman; they got class credit for the summer).

The interns still required quite a bit of our time training them & going over their work, but it was definitely better than doing everything ourselves. This freed up time for us to work on bigger projects that brought money into the company.

But I digress - it was just an idea.

For the iPhone, it doesn't officially support flash, but there is software/scripts out now that allow it to run flash, I believe.

Biggest issue is the iPhone can't do virtual memory. The system RAM as it were is around 128~256 megs depending on the device. So, on a typical flash based website, you'd fill that buffer rather fast just loading up a few pages...especially if there is video or multimedia involved. That translates to a lot of PO'ed people when you have to restart it every few hours rather than every few days to clear that buffer.

Adobe hasn't quite brought the memory issues into focus yet...as I recall that was it's biggest hurdle. If the iPhone OS could use the flash storage as memory it would be a different landscape.