Review: iceProjector 1.5

iceProjector is by far the simplest tool in this review, both in terms of technology and features. It can still create great looking projectors.

FlashAnts has been on the market for quite some time and the tool has the coolest feature of all the tools in this test: built-in news from Flashmagazine! (Maybe not so important, but we still think it's cool!). FlashAnts also makes the popular SWF2Video application that will export your SWF files to video, taking nested MovieClips and user interaction into account. SWF2Video were recently used to produce the DVD version of the animated Flash series Broken Saints.

The tool has been constantly upgraded to support new versions and features, but set next to the competitors, the tool has fewer features and commands. This is a conscious choice according to Leo Liu of FlashAnts. "The main reason is we hope not only actionscript developers but also most flash designers can use iceProjector. We meant to keep this windowless projector as simple as possible. So every designers can create cool programs such as screenmates or desktop AD with only an open-then-export step."

Support
FlashAnts offers both email support and a forum. They're fairly responsive to email, but you'll often get answers quicker in the forums. The help files are built into the iceProjector application using a textfield, treeview and a scrollbar. The same help files are available on the iceProjector website. There's descriptions and examples for all commands, but it can be a little cryptic at times. We much prefer the in-product version with support for code hints and such, but it works - sort of. Once your SWF is loaded, the help files are gone, so you'll have to close and reopen.

Ease of use
The projectors made with iceProjector have really good rendering performance and the tool couldn't be easier to use. You just open the SWF and export. There's no settings other than the ones you can do using FSCommands. iceProjector is primarily a tool for making simpler things such as deskmates and simple apps relying primarily on Flash and ActionScript to do the job.

The use of FSCommands is really outdated and all the other projector makers have found more ActionScript-like ways to program their tools. iceProjector still uses them and they come with a host of challenges. Once a download-command is issued:

// The following command declares the download event handler frame is labeled with "downLabel", and pass the "downloadProgress" as the status of the download: Please note that whenever a portion of remote file is downloaded, , iceProjector immediately executes the actionscripts in the labeled frame and pass the download status to the "downloadProgress" variable.


fscommand("fas.event.download", _target + ".downloadLabel," + _target + ".downloadProgress");

// The following command starts the download process.

fscommand("fas.shell.download", server + "," + remotePath +"," + localFile);

You have to use a script like this in a looping frame to keep track of the download.

//If no error happened, downloadProgress is a number between 0 and 100. 

// Else, it is a string with an error message

if ( !isNan(downloadProgress)) { 

  if (downloadProgress == 100){


  downloadButton._visible = true;

  msg = "Download complete.";

      statusBar._visible = false;

  fileListBox.addItem(localFileName , localFile);

  

 } else {


  msg = "Downloading ..." +  downloadProgress + "%";

 }

 if (downloadProgress == 0 )

     downloadProgress = 1;

 statusBar.gotoAndStop(downloadProgress);

} else {


 downloadButton._visible = true;

 statusBar._visible = false;

 msg = "Error : " +  downloadProgress;

 fscommand("fas.shell.DeleteFile",localFile); 

}

This is a very asynchonus way of doing things and it really reminds us of how things were back with Flash 4...

Platform Support (PC)
iceProjector supports only PC projectors.

Extensibility
iceProjector cannot be extended, so you will have to do with the commands provided in the tool.

File Opening Example
iceProjector can't directly read files from disk, so we can't recreate our File Opening Example for this product. We could of course use LoadVars, but that would be using Flash and not a command in the projector tool. iceProjector does however support downloading files from remote locations. It can also move, open and delete any downloaded file, but the open-command will open Notepad if we used it on a file.

Full Application Example - Chipotle Alarm Clock
The install instruction for this application says it all: "Once you install this application on your computer, a burrito will fall to the lower right of your screen". How's that for an intro? The app is a small clock that will remind you to eat Chipotle burritos at certain intervals by playing funny sounds and animations. We can't imagine what we'd do without it... A really entertaining little program made for advertising.
Click to download chipotleAlarm.exe from FlashAnts
Visit FlashAnts to read more about iceProjector