- Introduction
- Working with Shockwave
- Creating a Shockwave Movie
- Playing a Shockwave Movie
Creating a Shockwave Movie
Director's Publish command cre-ates all files necessary to view your Shockwave movie. In one step, the Publish command creates the Shockwave file (which has a .DCR extension), the HTML file, and new Shockwave versions of any linked external casts (these files have a .CCT extension).
To create and view a Shockwave movie:
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Choose File > Save and Compact. This command saves your Director movie while removing fragmented and redundant data from the movie and cast files.
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If your movie uses any nonstandard Xtras, choose Modify > Movie > Xtras to specify which Xtras the movie should prompt users to download, if needed (Figure 4). The most commonly used Xtras are built into the Shockwave Player, so you normally don't need to provide for them. But if your movie uses any Xtras that are not built into the player, you need to set options by using the Modify > Movie > Xtras command.
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Choose File > Publish. Director creates a Shockwave-file version of your movie, an HTML file (assuming that you selected a template in the Publish Settings dialog box), and Shockwave versions of any external casts used by your movie. By default, all these files are placed in the same directory as your Director movie (Figure 5). Then Director launches your default browser and plays the Shockwave movie (Figure 6), assuming that the View in Browser option is enabled in the Formats tab of the Publish Settings dialog box (by default, it should be).
Director uses the settings in the Publish Settings dialog box when it creates your Shockwave movie and other files. If you have not changed these settings, the default settings are used. These settings should allow users to view your Shockwave movie right off the bat.
All Shockwave-related files- the Shockwave movie, HTML file, and any external casts are by default placed in the same folder as your Director movie.
Director launches your default browser and plays the Shockwave movie.
Use the Movie Xtras dialog box to specify which Xtras you want your Shockwave movie to attempt to download from the Internet if they are not installed on the user's system.
Note: If your movie uses any linked media or external casts, these elements will not appear in your Shockwave movie when you preview it in the browser unless the files are contained in the dswmedia folder inside the Shockwave Player folder, along with the .DCR and HTML files. This inconvenience is because of a security restriction that prevents the movie from accessing the local disk. (Your users will not have this problem when they view the movie from your Web site.) To overcome this problem when previewing the movie locally, place the Shockwave movie, HTML file, external casts, and all linked media in the dswmedia folder inside the Shockwave Player folder (Figure 7).
If your Shockwave movie uses any linked media, and you want to preview the movie locally, place all Shockwave-related files in the dswmedia folder inside the Shockwave Player folder so that you can view the movie with the linked media.
Tip
• Hold down the Alt key (Option key, on the Mac) while choosing File > Publish to specify an alternative location and/or names for the Shockwave movie and any external casts (.CCT files) (Figure 8).
• When you create a Shockwave movie or cast, you cannot decompress it and recover the original file, so be sure not to delete the original Director movie and cast files.
Hold down the Alt key (Option key, on the Mac) while choosing File > Publish to specify alternative names and locations for the Shockwave movie and external casts.
To prepare a Shockwave movie for Web distribution:
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Place your Shockwave movie file, HTML document, any Shocked external casts, and linked media in the same folder (Figure 9).
Alternatively, the linked media and external casts can be located at remote URLs, which you can set for each object in the Property Inspector.
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If the Shockwave movie branches to other movies, place them in the folder as well. A Shockwave movie can play other Shockwave movies, as well as Director movies and protected movies.
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Use an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) utility to transfer this folder to your Internet server.
Group a Shockwave movie and its related files and then upload the movie to your Web server with an FTP utility.
Extensions Decoder
You can tell apart all the different kinds of Director files by their file extensions. Director movie files end with the extension .DIR. A Shockwave movie ends with .DCR. Protected Director movies end with the extension .DXR, and protected casts end with .CXT.