Compile Everything in one .exe

[FrEaK40]

Hey guys,

I have a bunch of external files, IE: images, sounds, XML's.

is it possible to compile all of this in to one EXE or do I have to continue to move the entire file set around?

Cheers,
Me

[northcode]

You can convert your images and sounds to library items so they are all inside the FLA. The XML can be converted to a string and stored in code and converted back to XML when you need it but that solution doesn't lend itself to making updates easily because you have to re-import any files you change (the ones you're keeping external right now).

A simple (and FREE) solution is something like InnoSetup (www.jrsoftware.org) that will let you convert your projector and external files into a single EXE that will install your projector on the users machine.

If that doesn't work for you then there are third party swf2exe tools that will let you bundle all your files into a single EXE. I make one of those tools (SWF Studio (http://www.northcode.com/swfstudio.php)) and there are a few others you might try as well.

The best...

SWF Studio http://www.northcode.com

And the rest...

mProjector http://www.screentime.com
SWFKit http://www.swfkit.com
SWiSH Studio http://www.swishzone.com
Jugglor http://www.jugglor.com
Zinc http://www.multidmedia.com

I will leave you with my best advice for choosing one of these tools...

All of the third party tools have trial versions. If you want to get a feel for each of the products the best thing to do is to download them and try them for yourself. When you download the trial, don't just fire up the UI, do something real with it. Build the examples and look at the example code. Pound on the product a bit, see what breaks (or doesn't).

Pick a simple but realistic project for yourself (like building a CD front end or something) and see how it goes with each product. Pick something that in a perfect world you could bang out in a day and plan to spend a week on it to get yourself over the initial learning curve. Most of these tools cover too much ground to just be absorbed by intuition. RTFM.

Most, if not all, of these tools also have online forums where you can interact with other users, ask for help, look at past problems and solutions and get a feel for the community. Definitely check out the forums, you'll probably be spending a lot of time in them. The forums are a big open window into the product and the company. See what kinds of problems people have or have had. Are the problems caused by the product (quality, doc, stability), by learning curves or other factors?

Finally, ask each company questions by forum, email or phone before you buy and see what kind of response you get. If you actually decide to try a little test project you'll probably have to ask for support at some point anyway, so you might as well give that a test drive too.