Lesson 2 -How to display Flash animation in Visual C++ MFC application

Tutorial: How to display Flash animation in Visual C++ MFC application

You can download the source code of this example here: vc_how_to_display_flash.zip

On this page you will find step-by-step tutorial on how to display flash (SWF) animation file in your Visual C++ application. We will make VC++ application that will display Shapes.swf flash animation previously generated using our SWF Scout library (click here for "Shapes" example).

Start Visual C++ 6.0 wizard, select type and name of new MFC application project:


Click OK to start MFC Application Wizard:



Select Dialog based project type and click Next. Next page will appear:



Click Finish to create new project. Visual C++ IDE will display summary information for new project:



Click OK to open new dialog based project in VC++ IDE:



Now we should import Shockwave ActiveX control to controls toolbar. Go to Project menu, select Add To Project sub-menu and then click Components and Controls... command:



Visual C++ will display "Components and Controls Gallery" dialog:



Click on "Registered ActiveX Controls" to display list of available ActiveX controls:



Find and select Shockwave Flash Object ActiveX control in the list of available controls and click "Insert" to add this control to controls toolbar.

VC will generate special C++ class that will help to interact with this control:



Click OK and VC will generate new "CShockwaveFlash" class in ShockwaveFlash.cpp and ShockwaveFlash.h files.

"Shockwave Flash Object" control will appear on controls toolbar:



Click on "Shockwave Flash Object" icon and then click on dialog form. Answer "OK" to add new component to dialog:



New control will be added as shown below :



Now we will add dialog class member that will handle Flash control. Right-click on dialog and select "Class Wizard" to invoke Class Wizard:



Class Wizard dialog will appear. Select Member Variables tab and click Add Variable... button to add new variable:



Enter name of new varaible: m_FlashPlayer and click OK:



New click OK to close MFC ClassWizard:



Now we will place code that will load "Shapes.swf" into flash player control.

Right-click on dialog form and select "Events.." to invoke Events dialog:



Select and double-click on WM_INITDIALOG caption as shown on screenshot below:



Code Editor window will appear. CDisplayFlashDlg::OnInitDialog() function is responsible for handling initialization code so we will add our code here.



Add this line :

m_FlashPlayer.SetMovie("c:\shapes.swf");

as shown on screenshot below:



And run application by pressing F5 or using Build menu:



You will see application that will display Shapes.SWF flash movie using Shockwave Flash Object ActiveX control:



You can download the source code of this example here: vc_how_to_display_flash.zip

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If you want to display Flash using Shockwave Flash Object ActiveX in non-dialog based application please check these topics:

ActiveX Control Containers: Using Controls in a Non-Dialog Container
Overview: Creating an ActiveX Control Container
See also: SWF Scout library

SWF Scout library is an ActiveX programming library for SWF flash movies generation library from Visual C++, Visual Basic, Visual Basic.NET, ASP and ASP.NET. Can use existing SWF flash movies as templates for new flash movie generation.