How do I capture an image from a SWF file? - php

I have searched the depths of the internet for a solution but unfortunately all the posts discussing the issue are outdated and provide no solutions.
I need to be able to dynamically generate a screenshot from a SWF file and save it locally to the server. Some posts suggest the use of FFMPEG, but I don't think it supports the SWF format. Another suggested to use the Internet Explorer grabscreen function, but that's Windows only.
Any answers on how to do this are greatly appreciated.

If you own a server, you can install extension for PHP (http://php.net/manual/en/swf.setup.php) however, this is a little overkill for getting one frame.
Other solution is using this class:
http://www.sephiroth.it/swfreader.php
Also, you can write your own parser, in this case refer to Adobes flasg format specification:
http://www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/devnet/swf/pdf/swf_file_format_spec_v10.pdf

If I understand you correctly you need to generate an image on server side. Please look at the solution described here: http://techblog.floorplanner.com/post/20528549445/server-side-png-rendering-of-swf-images-using-gnash
I didn't try it myself but hopefully it will help. Also if it is possible to generate an image after the first user opens the swf and there is a possibility to change the code of the SWF, I'd recommend you to look at this article: http://www.flepstudio.org/forum/tutorials/507-swf-png-actionscript-3-0-bytearray-class.html

Related

generate images from swf

Is there any library/module available with which i can generate images from a swf file?
The problem i am trying to solve is: I want to create a pdf from a web page and i am having problems in doing that when the web page has swf (question in stackoverflow)
I am thinking if i am able to read a swf and write out an image, i will be able to solve the above the problem
Will appreciate your help, Thanks
In fact, that is quite a hard task. I've spent hours looking for a program that could fulfill such a task. However, I eventually only found one. It isn't open-source but would really help you I guess.
Flash Animation Source can output all frames of a SWF file. It uses a DirectShow filter to do so. Therefore, a Windows operating system is required should you not want to use WINE.
In short, you'll just need to install Flash Animation Source on your computer and then find a way to get DirectShow frames using your desired programming language. Everything else is actually quite easy. You tell Windows the directory and the name of your SWF file and it'll do the rest, thus delivering you with an image. And did you know DirectShow filters can deliver all frames of a video? Therefore, you can choose which one you'd like to have.
By the way, please don't try to find another way to get an image of your SWF file. Believe me, you won't find one. I have looked for an open-source program that fits my needs but all of them fail. You need to use the propriertary Adobe Flash player for your outputs. There is no other option as the open-source alternatives still need a lot of development to genuinely output the vector-based frame as it is.

PHP rotate video

I have my own video sharing app,
My question is... is there any library,script or something else, to help me in rotating videos whatever their file extension is?
Many peoples are uploading videos but sometimes i found video (guessing shared with iphones or mobile phones) and i see them horizontally instead of vertically...
Does anyone have any ideas how to rotate them dynamically?
Im not familiar with any "libraries" that will do that. I think your better bet would be to find a command-prompt-enabled video software package (like Any Video Converter [See Q7]) that PHP can execute via command prompt on the fly.
PHP doesn't do that, and there are no extensions that I know off, made for that purpose.
You can use ffmpeg to manipulate videos, by calling it from your scripts (see shell_execute() and such functions). Reading the ffmpeg documentation will help you figure what can (and can't) be done with that powerful tool.

Most reliable method for uploading files in PHP w/ progress bar

I am interested in finding the most reliable method for uploading files in PHP. I need a progress bar with the upload.
I have tried SWFUpload but it randomly issues an I/O Error. Even if the same file is uploaded sometimes there is an error and sometimes there is not. I have configured all the necessary INI/Mysql/Apache directives to accept large file uploads.
So, I am looking for alternatives as a Flash based solution has not worked. Would Java be more reliable? I have also looked into PHP with APC.
I definitely cannot afford these random errors, so any help on reliable software / suggestions on how to minimize them would be appreciated.
Thank you.
There are other flash based solutions other than SWFupload. Have a look at uploadify.com
I haven't come around to try this myself yet but http://www.plupload.com/ might be what you're looking for on. But otherwise PHP + APC works good as well.
I am assuming 2 things here:
1) Some kind of client will be doing the file upload
2) You get some kind of say on what the client installs on their computer to help make this happen.
If this is the case, my first suggestion would be:
Give them FTP or SFTP client software to upload files. The php page you make can have a link to Filezilla, along with instructions on how to use it. ftp and sftp are THE protocols to use for transferring files. HTTP is just not designed(well) for it, nor are browsers.

Get the dimensions of a H.264 MP4

Does anybody know a ready-made, reliable way to tell the dimensions (width x height) of a MP4 encoded using the H.264 codec without ffmpeg or similar extensions, in pure PHP?
Thanks for all the answers folks. The bounty is running out and I will not have time to check the offered solutions before it does. I will accept the solution that I feel has the greatest likelihood to work.
getID3 is pure php and extracts an amazing amount of information from media files of all sorts. It will depend on what encoded your file in the first place as to what metadata is available and how reliable it is. getID3 has a nice demo page with lots of different file types. I tried to post more links but as a newbie I only get one.
It sounds like http://code.google.com/p/php-mp4info/ might be your answer. It reads MP4's but it doesn't mention anything about H.264.
also, what OS are you using?
What comes to mind:
mediainfo a huge project with GUI, but also has a CLI
mp4info (part of the seemingly defunct mp4mpeg project) is almost perfect for this
ffmpeg although this is overkill for the task. then again, you very well may need it for other tasks
ffmpeg and php: http://www.lampdeveloper.co.uk/linux/detecting-a-videos-dimensions-using-php-and-ffmpeg.html
php-reader is a full implementation of the ISO 14496 done in pure PHP. You can use this library to read all of the boxes which the mp4 consist of, like the moov atom containing metadata about the file.
Native PHP does not support anything like this, ffmpeg is only one library that come on my mind.

How might I obtain a Snapshot or Thumbnail of a web page using PHP?

I need to create Snapshots / Thumbshots / Site preview a-site.com.
There are some site as thumbshot.org that meets with I need. But I do not want to use an external service, not to depend on others for my project (What would happen if they close the site?)
For this reason, I am looking for some project to let me do this.
Any idea?
On windows you can use GD's imagegrabwindow() function.
Edit: The help page actually shows you how to grab a screenshot from IE.
There isn't anything in the PHP library to do this - you're looking at setting up an external application (with a queue) to take images, although you can of course use PHP to add items to the queue.
There are a couple of Windows functions in GD that takes screen shots of the computer (webserver - not the client) so perhaps you could write a script in PHP to do this.
Edit: Was thinking of these: imagegrabscreen and imagegrabwindow. I'm not sure they will do what you want however (even in full screen mode Firefox has ablue bar at the top of the screen - not sure about other browsers). However, Pierre has something on these functions if you're interested.
I'd suggest writing an application in another language (I assume .NET has something) to do this for you.
Edit: This page tells you how to do it in C#
There's not much PHP would do for you in this situation. You'd need a complete (X)HTML rendering engine with CSS-support, possibly also with JavaScript support.
That, or use some kind of kinky script that would launch a real browser, and take a screenshot out of that. Either way, PHP is probably not the right tool for the operational part.
There's a Firefox extension that converts the webpage you're viewing to an image:
http://www.screengrab.org/
http://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1146
If you're willing to get creative, it might be possible to access this problematically.
Thanks to all.
I found a pseudo-solution, (using dcom + imagegrabscreen + wamp).
I need to resize the final.png with gd, because the png is equal to resolution of client (in my home, is a picture of 1650*1280).
Whe I end this, I will post a .zip file to dowload
Thanks again
(But if anyone have a better idea, I am happy to see that)
PS: Sorry for my english

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