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Vince - Easily set internet protocol helper applications
Authored by: bluehz on Jul 20, '03 08:36:56AM

A major problem I have has to do with Flash Standalone projectors. I develop a lot of Flash Standalone Application projectors for clients. These application all have the same type/creator as the stock standalone Flash Player which I use frequently to view swf files (not projectors. The projectors are basically the Flash Player with an SWF file embedded. What annoys me is that whenever I double-click on an SWF (Flash document) to open it in the Flash Player - it always launched the last projector I launched. No matter how many times I tell the Finder to ALWAYS use the Flash Player, it forgets. Its actually not forgetting - its really more a problem with Macromedia allowing the Projectors to have the same type/creator as the Flash Player itself. It is extremely annoying!!!

I don't suppose anyone has a solution for this do they?



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Solution for OS 9
Authored by: VRic on Jul 20, '03 12:22:35PM

I don't know for OS X, but the incredible Default App does exactly what you want: drag files to the left pane, drag apps to the right pane, choose a pair in those lists and Boom®, any file with that creator/type will open in the app you specified. No changing the file's creator code, no extension, no control panel, no reboot, nothing, it's magic.

http://www.merzwaren.com/da/index.html



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hmm, maybe not
Authored by: VRic on Jul 21, '03 10:10:46AM

Now that I think of it, Default App might not solve your kind of problem since it probably relies on the apps creator codes.

So I guess the solution is the same as for OSX: change the projectors' creator codes.

Under OS 9 another (tedious) approach would be to "hide" each projector from the desktop DB. This can be done using AppHider or DesktopDBDiver.
http://www.acts.org/roland/thanks/
http://www.tempel.org/macdev/



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Semi-solution for OS X
Authored by: VRic on Jul 20, '03 12:53:17PM

I doubt there is something as good as Default App for OS X, but you could at least save yourself trouble by changing every projectors' creator codes (of course patching Flash once and for all would be better, maybe it's possible somehow).

Just try not to steal the creator code from an existing application (checking your disks might prove insufficient since you distribute the projectors to others), or maybe steal one from a very old, very dead application that doesn't even create files to open, like some unknown game from the 68k era.

The best tool for that is FileTyper (OS 9, might work within Classic): will effortlessly build small droplets that can perform such modifications automatically, even on whole folders or disks by filtering affected files based on any possible attribute, from type code to mod date or name.

http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~dazuma/filetyper/

The cheaper way would be to write an AppleScript droplet for existing projectors and attach a similar folder action script to the location where you save projector files.



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Vince - Easily set internet protocol helper applications
Authored by: osxpounder on Jul 22, '03 03:33:35PM

Aha, finally someone else has seen this. I never got as far as you did towards figuring out what was causing it--I just put up with the fact that, every time I launched an SWF I was working on, a certain SWF I had made in the past would open, too, behind the one I actually wanted to see.

It eventually went away--I guess I created a Projector from that old SWF, and later, when I had backed-up and then removed the files for that project, the Flash Player must have skipped it. I don't remember how I fixed it, but that same thing was happening to me for quite a while.

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osxpounder



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