SWF

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This article is about the file format specification used by Macromedia Flash. For other uses, see SWF (disambiguation).

SWF (pronounced “swiff” by some, standing for Shockwave Flash) is the file format used by Macromedia Flash. These files can contain animations or applets possessing varying degrees of interactivity.

Contents 1 Description 2 Licensing 3 External links 3.1 Documentation 3.2 Third-party software 3.2.1 Players 3.2.2 Libraries 3.2.3 Tools

Description

Originally, limited to presenting vector based objects and images in a simple sequential manner, the newer versions of the format allow audio, video and many different possible forms of interaction with the end user. Once created, SWF files can be played by the Macromedia Flash Player, working either as a browser plugin or as an standalone player. SWF files can also be encapsulated with the player, creating a self-running SWF movie called a "projector".

The file format was first created by Macromedia and had one main goal: create small files of highly entertaining animations. The idea was to have a format which could be reused by a player running on any system and which would work with slower network (such as a browser used with a modem). Plugins to play SWF files in web browsers are available from Macromedia for most desktop operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux on Intel. Macromedia claims that 98% of web users now have an SWF plugin installed. [1]

The format is fairly simple, albeit binary, and therefore not as immediately readable as its XML-based rival SVG. SWF has used zlib compression since 2002, and in general the format aims to store all data using as few bits as possible, therefore reducing redundancy.

Licensing

Although a full specification of SWF is available, it is not an open format, as implementing software that plays the format is disallowed by the specification's license. Reverse engineering is therefore the only legal way to compete with the official SWF player, and no adequate competition yet exists.

Implementing software which creates SWF files is permitted, on the condition that the resulting files "[render] error free in the latest publicly available version of Macromedia Flash Player." [2]

External links

Documentation

• Official SWF reference
• Alexis' SWF Reference

Third-party software

Players

• Swfdec, an open source player [3],
• Sencesa Flash Player, third-party stand-alone player.
• Flash Movie Player - freeware SWF player for Windows
• GPLFlash Free software Flash decoder and plugin

Libraries

• SWFSource SDK Cross-Platform Flash SDK for addition of Flash Import / Export to applications.
• SWF Scout Commercial ActiveX/.NET library for rich flash movies generation. Can create new flash movies using existing SWF as templates.
• Delphi SWF SDK Commercial. Contains pure Object Pascal library for creating SWF files, without any external dynamic libraries.
• Flirt An open source Flash parsing and rendering library
• LIBSWF A library for generating Macromedia Flash .swf files from scratch
• OpenLaszlo Open source platform for developing AJAX-style applications that compile to SWF.
• MING A SWF output library and PHP module. (See also Ming library)
• SSWF A library and a script compiler to create SWF content
• JGenerator Java-based swf generation library. This software was developed by JVox but is now under the control of big brother Macromedia.

Tools

• Flasm A free command line assembler/disassembler of Flash ActionScript bytecode
• MTASC Open source ActionScript compiler
• KineticFusion A standalone RVML <-> SWF compiler/decompilerar:swf