Macromedia Flash can use the fscommand action to control the
playback and appearance of standalone projectors, as well as launch
external applications. The fscommand action takes two
parameters: a command and an argument. In some cases, an argument is not
required. There are six commands available to projectors, which are listed
below:
Specifying false sets the player
so that the animation is always drawn at its original size and never
scaled. Specifying true forces the
animation to scale to 100% of the player.
Executes
an application from within the projector. In Macromedia Flash MX
this application must be in a folder named "fscommand" which is a
direct subfolder of the projector.
Passes
all keystrokes (including ESC and function keys) to the
projector.
allowscale A projector's window
can always be resized by the end user. The
allowscale command determines if
the animation's contents are scaled as the window is resized. By default,
this option is true. In some cases,
scaling animation content is undesirable. For example, bitmap images may
become pixelated when the animation is scaled, or frame rate may decrease
as screen redraw time increases for larger screen areas. The following
script, when attached to a frame or button, will prevent content in the
Flash animation from scaling when the application window is
resized:
fscommand("allowscale","false");
exec
The
exec command is used to launch an external application.
In
Macromedia Flash MX the external application must be in a subfolder
named 'fscommand'. This subfolder must be in the same directory as
the projector which uses the fscommand action. This
security restriction helps prevent malicious use of the
exec option.
The
following script launches the Windows application
someApplication.exe, which is in the
fscommand folder on the same level as the projector:
on (release) {
fscommand ("exec", "someApplication.exe");
}
Note: The fscommand
subfolder path is not used in the argument. Place
someApplication.exe inside the
fscommand folder, but just use the name of the application in the
argument.
In
Macromedia Flash 5 the argument to exec must be the
absolute or relative path to the application to launch. If no path
is specified, Macromedia Flash assumes the same folder in which the
projector resides. The following script launches the Windows
application someApplication.exe, which is in the
same folder as the projector:
on (release) {
fscommand ("exec", "someApplication.exe");
}
Although
it is possible to use absolute or relative paths to open
applications in folders other than the one in which the projector
resides, problems have been reported with deeply-nested directory
trees or folders higher in the tree than the projector itself.
Therefore, it is preferable to keep the executables in the same
folder, or a folder directly beneath it.
When
specifying paths, a single dot represents the folder (equivalent to
the example above ) in which the projector resides:
// points to a folder beneath the one the projector is
in: fscommand ("exec",
"./foldername/someApplication.exe");
Two dots
refer to the parent directory of the folder in which the projector
resides:
// points to a folder in the the parent of the
projector: fscommand ("exec",
"../foldername/someApplication.exe");
Preceding the path with a slash refers to the root folder of
the disk the projector is on (absolute path).
// assuming the disk is D, points to
D:/foldername fscommand ("exec",
"/foldername/someApplication.exe");
Use
forward or backward slashes to separate folder names in Windows
projectors; use colons in Macintosh projectors. For more information
see How
to specify folder paths in Macintosh projectors (TechNote
15942).
Note:exec is not capable of opening a specific file with an application,
just the application itself. One way to open files is to use
exec to launch a Windows batch (BAT) file or Macintosh AppleScript file
that then opens files in the desired application. A third-party tool that
can open specific files on Windows without using batch files is available
from Flashjester.
fullscreen Determines if the the
Macromedia Flash animation is displayed in a window, or full-screen
(covering the entire desktop). The contents will also scale to fit the new
window size, provided that allowscale is set to
true (see below). Attach the following ActionScript to the first frame
of the animation to make the projector fill the desktop.
fscommand("fullscreen", "true");
quit This command causes the
Flash projector to exit. The following script, when attached to a button,
causes the projector quit:
on (release) { fscommand("quit"); }
showmenu By default,
right-clicking (on Windows) or control-clicking (on Macintosh) within a
Macromedia Flash animation displays a context menu containing several
options for changing the quality of the Macromedia Flash animation, such
as zooming in or out, printing, and others.
If you would
prefer that these menu options not be available to the user, attach the
following ActionScript to the first frame of your animation:
fscommand("showmenu", "false");
Note: The 'About Macromedia Flash Player' menu option will still appear
even when showmenu is set to
false.
trapallkeys
This
allows special characters to be passed directly to the Flash animation,
instead of performing their normal functions. For example, by invoking
thetrapallkeys command in a Flash animation containing a form, you
may direct the focus as you wish, rather than relying on the operating
system's method of tabbing between text fields.
on (release) { fscommand("trapallkeys", "true");
}
Additional
information For Macromedia Flash
animations playing in a browser, fscommand can also be used to
send messages from the animation to the browser. See Scripting with Flash for more information.
