Flashpaper: Making Lemonade from PDFs
I’ve been a cautious fan of Macromedia Adobe Flash paper since it first came bundled with Contribute 2. There are a variety of applications where a PDF simply isn’t the best solution for content delivery, but it’s all you have to work with. Flashpaper does a nice job of bringing PDFs to the web in a Flash SWF container that can be embedded in a page, and offers some useful functions on the built-in toolbar.
I used the Flashpaper component from driverjase to create a wrapper for the flashpaper document. The component exposes over a dozen options in the API that can be used to customize the toolbar, scrollbars, and view settings.
You can see the result on the Inside UVA page.
So here’s a question about flash paper: I’ve looked into this in the past, when I wrote a php web app for writing classes. The app is an online essay workshop; one student emails a paper to a second, and the second student can go online, answer the questions, and the idea is when they submit it, it comes up as a completed document in pdf format (right now it just comes up as html). The second student can then email the workshop back to the first student, who can use the feedback to develop their essay.
I at first wanted to use some sort of php class that would convert the document into a pdf on the fly, and I know they exist. It’s been a bear getting it to work, and I eventually had to get back to my own work, but I want to get back to that app. Is working with flash paper any easier, and would that even be pragmatic, since I’d have no way of knowing if the student had flash? Most likely they do, but I’m just curious what would be more practical in this situation, converting to flash paper or converting to pdf…
Ach.
Hey J, I’m not aware of any server-side utilities that will create a Flashpaper document. I’m hoping Dave Moody from HSC-lib picked up some related info from his Adobe conference and happens to be browsing the comments.
Our Goooogle stats on Virginia.EDU suggest that 98-99% of users have Flash 6 or above installed, which is apparently all you need to view a Flashpaper SWF.
Checkout Flashpaper interfaces to enforce copyright of your documents on the internet.
Includes free color schemes. Awesome!
http://www.zanzibarfiction.com - FlashPaper Interface Plugins and Author Web services link
t.
Just wanted to let you know that I have posted an update to my FlashPaper component. This now includes everything Zanzibar Fiction’s plugin includes, except mine is free.
The difference between the two FlashPaper plugins on offer:
FlashPaper API Component from http://www.digitalflipbook.com
- Needs Flash Development Environment.
- Produces Two FlashFiles for Distribution.
- Not secure solution for Copyright Enforcement.
- Only for Technical People and Programmers.
- API solutions leads to Browser resize problems and behaviour of the resulting document is very different compared to that produced by the original FlashPaper software.
- Takes a long time to implement. Many months - first learn or hire Flash expertise - hence the FlashPaper component is NOT FREE but costs a LOT more in terms of man hours and time.
- Amateur Solution.
FlashPaper Interface Plugins from http://www.zanzibarfiction.com
- They provide you with a modified version of the DefaultViewer2.SWF file which easily integrates into your FlashPaper software installation.
- Strong Copyright Enforcement Solutions as ALL resulting FlashPaper documents produced are sealed with the modified interface design.
- unique pioneering Author Link subscription service.
- FREE ANY combination color schemes.
- Both Corporate and Individual affordable pricing structures.
- No need of any technical knowledge.
- No need to have a Flash development expertise.
- After plugin is installed, the behaviour of the resulting document is the same as that produced without the plugin.
- Easy and quick to implement. Purchase, then download after email confirmation and install within seconds.
- Professional Solution.
regards
Zanzibar Fiction TM - Precision Web Engineering
http://www.zanzibarfiction.com
One major difference between two FlashPaper plugins on offer:
FlashPaper API Component from http://www.digitalflipbook.com
- API component has to be applied to each FlashPaper document produced after the Flashpaper document is produced - time consuming. API solution is purely academic and not good for practical applications.
FlashPaper API Component from http://www.zanzibarfiction.com
- After the core DefaultViewer2.swf is installed you simply produced Flashpaper documents with modified interface functionality as you did in normal FlashPaper; no need to work again with each individual FlashPaper document - Awesome!
Good News!
Due to high demand we have cut the prices of our FlashPaper Interface Plugins. Now the most we charge is only $70 and Author Link service is now only $10 per month to your own URL.
We look forward to your visit at our web site.
Zanzibar Fiction Team
good news, thanx