Developers, Today Macromedia posted a public-beta of the latest version of the Shockwave Player, which is versioned as 10.0.2. This update release contains a few changes that will be of distinct interest to both developers and Shockwave end users.
Bug Fixes The public-beta release of the Shockwave Player contains a number of key bug fixes to the currently shipping 10.0.1 version. Reduced Installation Dialogs The public-beta release also improves the installation experience by eliminating two dialogs during player installation on Windows. The two dialogs removed are the initial welcome and final completion dialogs. Changes to the Default Set of Xtras The default set of Xtras installed with the Shockwave Player has been reduced to a minimum, and has resulted in an installer that is approximately 2MB smaller than the currently shipping web installer. The auto-downloading functionality has also been updated to ensure proper playback of existing content. Please report any issues found with existing sites and content through the feedback email form found on the beta download page. Updated Version of the Yahoo! Toolbar The Yahoo! Toolbar installed with Shockwave has been updated, but the user experience during installation remains the same. We will be preparing more complete documentation about these changes in the coming days that includes documenting what bugs are fixed in the public-beta release as well as how the changes to the default set of Xtras will or will not impact Shockwave content developers. For now I have included below a summary of the Xtra changes and what you need to do as a result of these changes. This information will be written-up in more detail and posted as a Tech Note in the Director Support Center (http://www.macromedia.com/support/director) in the next few days. Finally, we would like to mention that when we release this updated version of the Shockwave Player in its final form, we will also be releasing an updater for Director authoring so that both the player and authoring environment will be equivalent build versions. We do not have a specific release date to share at this time. Please stay tuned for official announcements in the coming weeks that will indicate when you can expect the final update release to be made available. Please test the new player today: http://www.macromedia.com/software/shockwaveplayer/beta Thanks, Emmy Huang Product Manager, Shockwave Player Macromedia : Changes to the Default Set of Xtras in Shockwave Player Beta 10.0.2 : The public-beta release of the Shockwave Player version 10.0.2 includes significant changes to the default set of Xtras included in the installer as well as changes to the way in which the core player handles the auto-download and installation of needed Xtras at run-time. While these changes are a break from previous versions of the Shockwave installer, steps have been taken to ensure that previously authored content continues to play as expected. The default set of Xtras has now been reduced to a core set of Xtras needed in order for the player to minimally operate. The Xtras included in the new "slim" Shockwave Player installer by default are CBrowser, InetURL, NetFile and NetLingo. No other Xtras are included in the "slim" installer by default. As a result, the total installer size has dropped by approximately 2Mb. Simply removing Xtras from the default set would likely result in a lot of broken content, in addition we had some thoughts (ours plus those of developers) as to how Xtras downloading might be improved, therefore we made some changes to the way the core player handles Xtra downloading. In player releases prior to 10.0.2, an Xtra would only auto-download and install if it was in the movie's Xtra list _and_ it was specifically marked as "Download if Needed". Both were required as the movie was "branded" with the Xtra's download URL at the time the developer checked the "Download if Needed" option. If you didn't check that box then the URL wasn't branded into the movie and auto-downloading would not occur. In the new beta player, version 10.0.2, the package download URL's for Macromedia Xtras are now located within the player itself. Therefore, if a movie loads and requires an Xtra found in its Xtra list, the player will auto-download and install the Xtra even if the Xtra in question wasn't marked for auto-download by the developer. This change has in essence made auto-downloading and installing of Macromedia Xtras on by default for all Xtras found in a given movie's Xtra list. We feel that this change to the player's default Xtra set, combined with the change to the way in which Xtras auto-downloading occurs will result in an improved user experience during player installation and usage, without breaking existing content. All that comes with the previously mentioned special caveat: Xtras must be in the movie's Xtra list or they won't be auto-downloaded. For media Xtras this is typically not a problem as they are automatically added to the movie's Xtra list when you create the specific member type, but scripting Xtras do not have this same advantage, you must manually add all scripting Xtras to the movie's Xtra list. NOTE: As of today's initial release of the beta player, only Windows users will be offered the new "slim" installer, we will be posting "slim" installers for Macintosh users shortly. The player changes required to support the Xtras downloading changes are already present on all platforms. [To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi To post messages to the list, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for learning and helping with programming Lingo. Thanks!]
