Summary	Java Flash Player
Categories	None
License	Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
Owner(s)	jelmi, zyoav

JFlash - The Pure Java Flash Player

JFlash has the aim to create a pure Java player for Macromedia .SWF flash media files wit support for J2SE and J2ME (CLDC 1.0 / MIDP 2.0).

The current J2SE version is an early ALPHA that works fine with some older .SWF files (up to version 3) and supports most of the features available for it. The J2ME variant is in a very early state, it compiles but most of the functionality isn't converted yet. After both are development versions, they are currently available in CVS only.

The next steps in further development are as simple as important: creation of support of the newer and missing Flash-tags. The current implementation itself informs about which unknown tags have been found by printing error messages. Additionally the code needs to be a litte bit more documented (in JavaDoc format) to get a nice documentation for developers out of it.

License

The JFlash source codes are ContributionWare. That means people are allowed only to publish that code together with own projects if they have contributed something to the project that was useful and added to it. Using the sources under the terms of the LGPL is allowed and valid only after such a contribution! Please see below for a list of contributors.

But whats this strange ContributionWare thingy and doesn't it collides with the GPL?
The answer is: no. The code in general is (c) by the JFlash team and therefore closed source for everybody, the usage of it would be illegal. Only if somebody contributes something this closed source code is taken and put under the GPL for that contributor. Afterwards he is allowed to use it in his own projects.
The reason for that license is simple: most people misunderstand the idea behind open source, they take what they can get but do not help the project in any way. And especially for the project JFlash that would be possible. It is a Java-library provided as source only. So everybody who is able to use these sources in own programs would be able to help the project. That means everybody who is able but too lazy to offer a little bit of help will have to look for an other solution - or write it completely new.

Usage

The Java Flash Player and the Java Flash Player ME comes as a library that can be used in own programs. The entry point for such applications is the class org.jflash.FlashPane (or org.jflashme.FlashPane) that extends JPane/GameCanvas and can be put somewhere into an own GUI. That FlashPane handles replaying and displaying of the Flash animation. An example implementation is included in the sources (Example.java and ExampleME.java).

To use the Java Flash Player in own projects, simply copy the org-directory out of the CVS into your projects source folder and do an

import org.jflash.*

or

import org.jflashme.*

to get access to the FlashPane and its functionalities.

External Documentation

Following pages provide documentations about the .SWF flash fileformat that can be used for the development:

• https://sswf.sourceforge.net/SWFalexref.html - Alexis' SWF Reference
• https://www.half-serious.com/swf/format/ - information and descriptions about the file format
• https://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats/fdd/fdd000130.shtml - basic informations and links to detailled specifications
• https://www.the-labs.com/MacromediaFlash/SWF-Spec/toc1_3.html - A Concise Guide to the SWF File Format

Please note: there is an official specification of the Flash file format available at https://www.macromedia.com/licensing/developer/ but conform to Macromedias license conditions it is not allowed to use that specification to create player software. So if you want to take part at the development of JFlash, please do not use that specification.

Test Data

This section contains some data submitted by users and / or developers that can be used for testing.

• https://jflash.dev.java.net/testdata/testpp.swf

Become a Developer

With the developer role you would be able to write-access the CVS and therefore take part at the development directly. To avoid problems with people that request that role only for fun, to disturb the project, to submit trash willful and to do other evil things that are imaginable we are not able to grant that role to people we do not know.
So following procedures are possible to get the developer role at the project JFlash:

• Request the Observer role to get full read access to the sources
• Take part at the discussion at the developers mailing list dev@jflash.dev.java.net and submit code there

or

• Request the Observer role to get full read access to the sources
• Send us some information about yourself, your skills, at what projects you took part and other things like that so that we are able to imagine who you are; please send these information to the developers mailinglist dev@jflash.dev.java.net or directly to the project owner jelmi@dev.java.net

...and afterwards request the developers role.

How you can help

The most important things that are required at the moment are

• some small flash animations preferredly using version 4 or 5 tags only
• the code that implements the functionality for all the missing tags

Whenever you replay a flash animation using the current sources, a message is printed to stderr that informs what ID a currently unknown tag has and where it appeared (mainly in org.jflash.ScriptPayer.doTag()). Additionally it may be that there are some exceptions thrown because of that missing tags or because the current decoding of the fileformat is buggy.

So whenever you have some piece of code that fixes problems / implements new functionality conform to the fileformat documentations listed above, please let me know.

Please note: the coordination and information exchange between developers is done via the developers mailing list dev@jflash.dev.java.net so please do not forget to subscribe it!

News

• 2006-02-08: page updated, link to documentation added
• 2005-12-05: We have some new developers with nice skills that want to help with the project - so we're looking forward to the first results that come into being out of that cooperation
• 2005-11-14: The new JFlashME subproject is the J2ME conversion of the Java Flash Player JFlash and currently in a very early state
• 2005-11-01: The next step was done successfully, we're out of the incubator of java.net, the project has been approved succesfully
• 2005-10-31: With www.jflash.org we now have our own domain - thanks go to Michael who contributed that domain to the project
• 2005-10-25: So we're here - the JFlash project is created at java.net, a working code base is available and we're waiting to get out of the incubator now

Contributors

Special thanks for their help with this project go to

• Thomas Molines
• Bitmaster
• Michael (Oxy)