Creating desktop applications with Flash (part 2)
Endless possibilities
So what can you do with a SWFtoEXE application ? Well nearly everything. Since these programs let you (more or less depending on the chosen application) create your custom commands (based upon existing or custom DLL files) and support ActiveX control as well, the possibilities are endless.
Here is a non exhaustive list of possible applications that can be created using Flash and one of the SWFtoEXE applications :
- Screen savers
- Trial versions with serial activation
- Text editor, XML editor or whatever type of editor
- FTP client
-
Mp3 player with saving and loading of play lists
- Applications for the pocket PC
- Video player
The pros and the cons
The pros :
- Flash users can enter the world of desktop application development without having to learn a new language like VB or C++.
- Total control of the look and feel of your application since Flash is the tool used to build the main component.
- Quick learning curve.
- Flash developers and designers can create executable demos (or trial versions) of their work to protect them from decompiling.
The cons :
- Created applications can quickly eat up the resources of your system if your code is not optimized.
- Bugs and crashes are pretty
common.
- Not very well suited to develop large applications.
The software
The most used SWftoEXE applications are Zinc from MDM, SWF studio from Northcode, Jugglor from Flashjester, Screenweaver (a now open source project) and SWFKit from TopCMM Technologies.
I have created my little previous file chooser application in each of the following software and didn't encounter any big problems in doing it.
Zinc was previously called Flash studio pro and is probably the most versatile SWFtoEXE application on the market. MDM script is now at version 2 and offers synchronous execution on both Windows and Mac OSX. Zinc 2.5 supports AS3 Flash player 9 and Flex 2.
SWF studio V3 is a very good SWFtoEXE application as well. It doesn't have as many features as MDM zinc and can just create executables for the PC but version 3 is a big improvement on the previous version. SWF Studio gives you the option of making ActionScript API calls synchronously or asynchronously. Like MDM ZInc, SWF studio uses its own OOP ActionScript API.
Jugglor : Jugglor from Flashjester is an easy to use SWFtoEXE application that can be extended with different modules (Jtools) that will add a lot of functionallities to the original application. The latest version 2.2 has seen a lot of improvements: Flash player 9 and 8 compatibility, security features to prevent hacking, possibility to create your own DLLs or Jtools for Delphi, C++ and VB developers.
SWFKit V3 is another interesting contender. It's gone a long way since version 1.0. It has its own Actionscript API too called FFish script. I haven't played with it enough to be able to give you a clear estimation of the overall quality but from what I have been doing with it I think we need to keep a close eye on its future development.
Screenweaver 3 is not playing in the same arena as the other SWFtoEXE programs. Screenweaver was developed by the company Rubberduck in the Netherlands but it then stopped to be a commercial product and disappeared for a while. The software is now available as Open Source and is free for all to use. It is worth noting that the stability of the Open Source version is not quite the same as the commercial version, but that will hopefully improve over time. Although the documentation has not been updated for a while it is still a worthy alternative to the other commercial products.
Hopefully this little article will have introduced you to the world of desktop application development with Flash.
