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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-19T01:21:19+00:00

I’ve never dealt with Flash/ActionScript, so please bear with me. Mostly, I’m a bit

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I’ve never dealt with Flash/ActionScript, so please bear with me.
Mostly, I’m a bit confused.
I’ve done many work with Java/C as well as HTML/Javascript.

I am working with a designer who provides me with flash files (.swf).
From my point of view, it’s a simple “mock” to which I need to embed a single object.
This object is a TextBox, with which the user interacts.
I need to be able to

  1. Insert such a TextBox to a Flash file
  2. Retrieve text upon key event
  3. process it, and return it to the TextBox

As I understood from other posts, I’ll be working with AS, right?
How do I embed such an object to an existing Flash file?
Being that the graphical part is over once I have the TextBox, would I need any fancy IDE for that?
What IDE is that (I usually work with Eclipse)?

One last note:
I am working with that designer, so I have access to all her creation process.
She does not know code, nor do I think she’ll get it.
I would much prefer to give her as little headache as possible (e.g. just instruct her how to export the files to me from her Adobe Flash CS5 studio).

Many thanks,
Trev

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    You can’t edit the .swf file, it is a compiled/exported/built/runnable file. If you can get a .fla file, a source file, from the designer, you can use that in compiling a new swf. Code for the functionality goes in one or more .as ActionScript files.

    I’m no Java expert, so someone correct me if I’m wrong here, but I believe you can think of the .as source files like .java files, where you declare one class per file, and the .swf file is more like a .jar file, that can be run by the Flash Player. The .fla file, that the designer can supply, is another kind of source file, used for graphics and frame-by-frame animations.

    For using Eclipse for Flash and Flex development, here is a tutorial on how to set up Eclipse to use the Flex SDK, and thereby also ActionScript:

    http://www.seanhsmith.com/2010/03/29/flex-for-free-setting-up-the-flex-4-sdk-with-eclipse-ide/

    An other alternative, if you don’t want to buy Flash Builder (that is based on Eclipse) or Flash CS5 from Adobe, is the free and open source FlashDevelop (if you use Windows).

    If what you need to do is only a one time thing, a short foray into Flash/ActionScript development, you may get by using the 45 day trial version of Flash Builder or Flash CS5.

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