Is it possible to protect flash files, yet allow copy changes? 1

[immordino]

We are an interactive shop who are producing banner ads for a client. The idea is to send a "toolkit" of several flash banners to many markets, where copy may be changed to customize them, reflecting local, more target-specific relationships with the client.

Unfortunately, there are issues. To wit:

1) We do not feel comfortable simply jettisoning our source files into the void, where unauthorized persons may violate the client style manual in any manner of ways (shiver . . .). In other words, we would like them to be able to change text without being able to move/remove/etc branding elements, including colors, logo etc.

2) We have no guarantee the modified banners will be properly Q/A'd

Evidently, one solution could be Macromedia's Generator, but I contacted MM and they say it is no longer being developed/supported. The most pressing concern is the protection of our source files.
Any ideas? We thought about separate text and flash files, but there is likely to be a problem with serving banners made of more than one type of file.
Thanks in advance!

 

[jstreich]

Flash banners for advertising are a bad idea. Flash, being a plugin, excludes visitors without flash. Since it's just a banner, if they don't have the plugin, they won't bother to download flash for just an ad. I'd suggest exporting it as a gif.

If your bent on using flash, I say load text from a plain text file, if your affiliates don't have a problem with it. The only other way is to give up the fla file.

[plug=shameless]

http://game-master.us/phpx-3.4.0/

[/plug]

 

[immordino]

Thanks jstreich--of course, we always supply gifs as backups for the flash versions. Is this type of functionality possible with gifs in some way? Sorry if that's a stupid question, I'm a producer, not a flash person. Thanks!

 

[oldnewbie]

Flash, being a plugin, excludes visitors without Flash...

I sincerely wonder what percentage of their targeted audience would be without some Flash plugin...

If you believe MM's statistics, you'll soon have to start wondering if the user's Flash plugin came with the computer to run it, rather than if the machine has the plugin or not...

Flash is now as basic as the OS!

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After 25,000 posts, banned on FK, but proud not to have bowed down to them!

 

[jstreich]

Don't get me wrong oldnewbie... I love flash, and think it is a great tool -- but you also have to keep in mind that some people don't like flash movies and purposfully avoid installing it, others use hand-held devces that don't yet have a plug-in and so on.

I still believe that any textual content you make avalible inside a flash movie should also be accessable without flash, and flash shouldn't be required for navigation (i.e. if you flash for navigation write code to make normal html links if flash isn't installed or two versions of the site).

That being said, there are some sites that make sense as just flash content -- but if your trying to lure more people in and have them stay, don't make choices that limit visitors.

What's basic about an OS? They are VERY complicated.

Immordino, As for the gif -- no there is no way to protect it and gifs are just images and can't load external data.

[plug=shameless]

http://game-master.us/phpx-3.4.0/

[/plug]

 

[pixl8r]

The point is that they don't even have to install the Flash plugin any more. It comes with the browser. Even most PDA's these days come with the Flash Lite plugin preinstalled.(most...)

In most cases an individual would have to go to some effort to uninstall Flash from a new machine if they didn't want to use it.

All that is not to say that you shouldn't have an alternative to flash content (always a good idea). It is only to aggree that most users don't even have to install the plugin anymore. In most cases it is installed with new OS's and new Browsers.

Wow JT that almost looked like you knew what you were doing!