Information Gift

Flash 6.0r40 released today (fixes and features)

Macromedia today released a version of Flash 6 (6.0r40) that fixes bugs and also includes a few new features.

You may download the new version here.

You can test which version you currently are using by hitting this url.

NOTE that Win IE users may have to hang back a bit; Macromedia's ActiveX servers are apparently still serving up the older version fo the control, but this should be fixed shortly. Also, Macromedia's Mike Chambers promises they will shortly release the standalone and debugger versions of the Flash Player along with new release notes.

You can check the fix list and feature enhancements taken from the beta release notes link I sent around recently; chances are that page will soon die and so I'm including the relevant portions here.

Windows and Macintosh:

*Netscape (all) and IE (Mac): getURL with POST, loadVariables with POST, and XML.send are now working properly. We have resolved issues with the layout of our HTTP headers, and particularly with our content length. The most notable symptom of the bugs fixed was servers that would hang after one POST operation. Please note that Netscape 7.0 Preview Release 1 was released with at lest one known POST bug (insertion of an extra content length field) which has already been fixed for the next release by Netscape.
*All Netscape plugins now fully support Flash scriptability for Netscape versions 6.2 and up.
*Creating a new XML object indefinitely will no longer deplete system memory.
*We have fixed a problem with Flash reading double-byte characters in the parameters of HTML object/embed tags.
*In some cases, text in text fields was exhibiting incorrect word wrapping behavior that appeared to make the text "dance". This has been corrected.
*Text fields are now more efficient and consume less memory.
*Calling Sound.start() for streaming loadSounds now works. However, the second parameter to Sound.start() (number of loops) is currently ignored. For most sounds, calling Sound.start() more than once will cause multiple instances of the sound to play simultaneously. But for streaming sounds obtained using Sound.loadSound(), a second call to Sound.start() before the first instance of the sound is complete will stop the sound and restart it at the position specified. In any case, calling Sound.stop() will always stop all playing instances of the sound. This behavior will be noted in the ActionScript dictionary as part of the MX doc update that is planned for later this summer.
*In some cases, MP3 files were mistakenly treated as corrupt, resulting in a browser crash or a sound that wouldn't play. This has been fixed.
*Masking Device Fonts

You can use a movie clip to mask text that is set in a device font. In order for a movie clip mask on a device font to function, the user must have Flash Player 6.0r39 or later.

When you use a movie clip to mask text set in a device font, the rectangular bounding box of the mask is used as the masking shape. That is, if you create a nonrectangular movie clip mask for device font text in the Macromedia Flash MX authoring environment, the mask that appears in the SWF movie will be the shape of the rectangular bounding box of the mask, not the shape of the mask itself.

You can mask device fonts only by using a movie clip as a mask. You cannot mask device fonts by using a mask layer on the Stage.

*Accessing ID3 properties in MP3 files with the Airwolf Player

The Airwolf Player 6.0r39 and later supports MP3 files with ID3 v1.0 and v1.1 tags.

ID3 tag properties can be retrieved from a sound object when an MP3 sound containing an ID3v1 tag has been loaded using the attachSound() or loadSound() method. If a sound does not contain an ID3v1 tag, the ID3 properties will be undefined. Users must have the Macromedia Flash Player 6.0r29 or later in order for the ID3 properties to function.

Once the MP3 has completely loaded into the Sound object, you can access the following properties:
*mySound.id3.songname

*mySound.id3.artist

*mySound.id3.album

*mySound.id3.year

*mySound.id3.comment

*mySound.id3.track (available only for ID3v1.1 tags)

*mySound.id3.genre

Note: The value of genre is an integer, not a name. For a table listing genre names and their corresponding integer values, see the ID3 website. To use a genre name instead of an integer for the genre property value, you must embed the genre table into the ActionScript in your movie.

For example, the following code attaches Some_Linked_Sound to the mySound object and traces the artist's name for Some_Linked_Sound:

mySound = new Sound();
mySound.attachSound("Some_Linked_Sound");
mySound.start();
trace("mySound.id3.artist");

If the attached MP3 file Some_Linked_Sound has an ID3 v1.0 or v1.1 tag for artist, the value is traced to the Output window.

Note: The entire song must be loaded for the ID3 properties to be available.

Windows Only:

*Some optimizations have been made that enhance performance on Intel P4 systems.
*It's now possible to type @ and other special characters on a German keyboard.
*Flash Player movies embedded in Microsoft PowerPoint files now display with the correct orientation.
*Flash movies now print with the correct orientation when printed from Internet Explorer 5.0 and earlier.
*When the Flash ActiveX control is embedded in a desktop application, and the application sets the ActiveX 'Quality' property by calling the put_Quality() method with a numeric argument, the correct quality setting is now applied.
*Netscape only: getURL with POST is now working properly.
*Netscape only: XML.send is now working properly.
*Netscape only: We have fixed the URL encoding routine to handle asterisks and pound signs. This problem was preventing some hyperlinks from functioning.
*Flash Movies now correctly display within Microsoft Help system files and Microsoft Outlook Express email messages.
*In Internet Explorer 5.5, bookmarks/named anchors now work correctly when embedded in a CFM or ASP file.
*Using lots of DHTML on a page in Windowless mode no longer causes intermitted browser crashes.

Macintosh Only:

*In Flash Player 6, Latin High ASCII was being incorrectly converted to UTF8 from Mac Roman. Latin High ASCII is now being converted to WindowsLatin1, as it was in Flash Player 5.
*Rolling off of a Flash button onto HTML now correctly detects the rollout and changes the state of the button to the "up" state.
*We have fixed a problem with incorrect high-ASCII character mapping.
*In Netscape 6.2 on OS X, the onReleaseOutside event was not being triggered correctly.
*Crtl+V, Crtl+C, Crtl+X, Ctrl+A shortcut keys now function properly.