Macromedia Flash

Macromedia Flash, or simply Flash, refers to both a multimedia authoring program and the Macromedia Flash Player, written and distributed by Macromedia (recently targeted for acquisition by Adobe Systems), that utilizes vector and raster graphics, a native scripting language called ActionScript and bidirectional streaming of video and audio. Strictly speaking, Macromedia Flash is the authoring environment and Flash Player is the virtual machine application used to run the Flash files, but in colloquial language these have become mixed: "Flash" can mean either the authoring environment, the player or the application files.

Related file types

• .swf files are completed, compiled and published files that cannot be edited.
• .fla files contain source material for the flash application. Flash authoring software can edit FLA files and compile them into .swf files. Proprietary to Macromedia, the FLA format in no sense counts as "open".
• .as (or sometimes .actionscript) files contain ActionScript source code in simple source files. FLA files can also contain Actionscript code directly, but separate external .as files often emerge for structural reasons, or to expose the code to versioning applications.
• .swd files are temporary debugging files used during Flash development. Once finished developing a Flash project these files are not needed and can be removed.
• .asc files contain Server-Side ActionScript, which is used to develop efficient and flexible client-server Macromedia Flash Communication Server MX applications.
• .flv files are Flash video files, as created by Macromedia Flash, Sorenson Squeeze, or On2 Flix.
• .swc file format for distributing components; it contains a compiled clip, the component’s ActionScript class file, and other files that describe the component.
• .swt files templatized SWF files used by Macromedia Generator.
• .flp XML file with the file extension .flp–for example, myProject.flp. The XML file references all the document files contained in the Flash Project. Flash Projects allow you to group multiple, related files together to create complex applications.
• .avi AVI file is a video file, standing for Audio Video Interleave. Flash includes some compression codecs, including some from Radius.
• .gif Animated GIF picture.
• .png Portable Network Graphics that remain editable (with all its layers) after being saved
• .spa FutureSplash document.
• .ssk SmartSketch drawing.