SWF/Fla to XAML Converter in Expression Studio

For last few months I have been watching development of Silverlight with great interest. I believe it has great potential to grow.

However, I feel that many companies have already done huge investment in Flash content. Even Microsoft on their MSDN/marketing site has large number of flash based tutorials, demo's.

Hence, to provide incentive for customers to move to silverlight, Microsoft should bundle SWF/Fla to XAML converter like http://theconverted.ca/index.html or http://blogs.msdn.com/mswanson/archive/2007/03/14/swf2xaml-0-2-a-slightly-better-flash-to-xaml-conversion.aspx in Expression Studio.

What do you think ?

yes xgamer i agree.
Also check
Convert SWF to XAML

I think Silverlight for Mobile devices will also be available in future.

That only supports non-scripted files, though - right? So it precludes a very large number of interesting files.

Hi Blowdart

I am not sure whether I clearly understood your reply. However, I would like to point out that I am not expecting a migration tool which would give 100% cross platform XAML code but any tool which can reduce the migration effort to 70-80% is a definite help for a customer moving towards a new platform.

This is not the first time MS is expected to do this. They provided VB6 migration tool in VS.Net. Similarly there is Jump 2 Net initiative by MS for Cross Platform Java to .Net migration ( See :http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vjsharp/bb188599.aspx )

I'm a case in point. I need to take over development of a site: www.NoonmarkAntiques.com that has lots of flash content. I don't have CS3 or 4 and am reluctant to make the $1600 investment in the tools and learning curve. I have all of Expression (part of my MSDN subscription). Not a whole lot to learn, really. So, I'd like to convert my swf files to XAML and start fresh from there.

at this time it sucks.

Harmony seems to have been put on hold last year and they do not even answer questions about it.

the converted's author seems to not want to mess with silverlight at this time.

swf2xaml and the converted do not seem to make valid silverlgiht markup at this time.

I have got bits of them to work but nothing I think is really usable at this time.

and a lot of flash starts with photoshop files that expression can't read with full fidelity.

huge hole that I wish someone would fill.

This year we launched SilverX project, another Flash to Silverlight converter. Recently published 1.2 version introduces addin for Microsoft Expression Blend 3. You can check it out if automatic Flash to Silverlight conversion is still interesting for you:)

LostByte said:

This year we launched SilverX project, another Flash to Silverlight converter. Recently published 1.2 version introduces addin for Microsoft Expression Blend 3. You can check it out if automatic Flash to Silverlight conversion is still interesting for you:)

LostByte:  your tool is geting better i guess... I tried a version of it a while back not sure if it was 1.2 or not.

it does get a lot right.

as i recall i had issues with finding parts of the results to manage them in c#

i could run the file and see that it was there but could not find the right bits in the markup due to the naming and the way many things start in the collapsed state.

I guess some way to select an element and tag it with a user defined name before writing the final xaml file might help?

also some warnings about elements that can not properly convert - like some of the effects may be helpfull.

also a dump of the actionscript to a text file with tags to show what script maps to what part of the xaml so that we can then decide what c# to use in place of the source script would also help.

I think that is the main issues at this time.

are you thinking of offering a paid version ?  if you could do the things i just mentiond and perhaps a few more i might be interested in handing over at least $100 bucks for it, possibly more if it had more features.

-------------------

EDIT: sorry i just wen to the site, you have a paid version now.

will check it out and see....

figuerres said:

LostByte said:

*snip*

LostByte:  your tool is geting better i guess... I tried a version of it a while back not sure if it was 1.2 or not.

it does get a lot right.

 

as i recall i had issues with finding parts of the results to manage them in c#

i could run the file and see that it was there but could not find the right bits in the markup due to the naming and the way many things start in the collapsed state.

 

I guess some way to select an element and tag it with a user defined name before writing the final xaml file might help?

also some warnings about elements that can not properly convert - like some of the effects may be helpfull.

 

also a dump of the actionscript to a text file with tags to show what script maps to what part of the xaml so that we can then decide what c# to use in place of the source script would also help.

 

I think that is the main issues at this time.

 

are you thinking of offering a paid version ?  if you could do the things i just mentiond and perhaps a few more i might be interested in handing over at least $100 bucks for it, possibly more if it had more features.

 

-------------------

EDIT: sorry i just wen to the site, you have a paid version now.

 

will check it out and see....

 

 

figurerres: Thank you for good feedback. Your comments are very important to us and you always welcome to tell us what SilverX features would you like to have.

We constantly working on product improvements and new features. I agree with you that currently it is hard to edit conversion results due to large XAML file being generated and naming. We already have planned to improve user experience in editing final solution and plan start working on this in Q1 of 2010. Currently SilverX works good on non-interactive Flash animations like banners, cartoons, presentations and often conversion result is good enougth to not edit it.

About ActionScript dump - it is interesting proposal. We will discuss this feature and possibly add it into our development plan.

Paid SilverX version currently offers the same functionality as free but licensing schema might be changed in 2010. The only difference: if one purchases paid version he can use SilverX for commertial purposes and get technical support from us.

Thank you again. I hope SilverX can be helpful for you.

LostByte said:

figuerres said:

*snip*

figurerres: Thank you for good feedback. Your comments are very important to us and you always welcome to tell us what SilverX features would you like to have.

 

We constantly working on product improvements and new features. I agree with you that currently it is hard to edit conversion results due to large XAML file being generated and naming. We already have planned to improve user experience in editing final solution and plan start working on this in Q1 of 2010. Currently SilverX works good on non-interactive Flash animations like banners, cartoons, presentations and often conversion result is good enougth to not edit it.

 

About ActionScript dump - it is interesting proposal. We will discuss this feature and possibly add it into our development plan.

 

Paid SilverX version currently offers the same functionality as free but licensing schema might be changed in 2010. The only difference: if one purchases paid version he can use SilverX for commertial purposes and get technical support from us.

 

Thank you again. I hope SilverX can be helpful for you.

 

for sure...

i have about 3 flash things i want to make into silverlight.

all of them use lots of action script.

they are on-line games.

so if i can't find and attach the right events to the right markup then it's not workable.

but if i could break it down into chunks that i can control then it starts to be usefull.

i will have to go to your site and buy a license soon so then we can take up the features i need with you getting some payment to motivate things.  it's hard to keep developing if you have no funds - i know how that can be.

figuerres said:

LostByte said:

*snip*

for sure...

 

i have about 3 flash things i want to make into silverlight.

all of them use lots of action script.

they are on-line games.

so if i can't find and attach the right events to the right markup then it's not workable.

 

but if i could break it down into chunks that i can control then it starts to be usefull.

 

i will have to go to your site and buy a license soon so then we can take up the features i need with you getting some payment to motivate things.  it's hard to keep developing if you have no funds - i know how that can be.

Thank your for good feedback - it is very important for us to know what features we should implement in SilverX to make its users happy:)

As I understood, you are going to convert Flash assets (and maybe some animation?) into XAML and do it semi-automatically. So you use SilverX to convert assets into XAML and manually rewrite ActionScript code. Please correct me if I am wrong here.

So, if I understood you correctly, I completely agree with you that SilverX is currenly not optimized for these tasks. To provide better user experience we should:

   1. implement some preview user interface to see Flash assets separated and ability to store each asset in separate XAML file
   2. provide better naming
   3. implement ActionScript decompilation

We plan to implement #1 and #2 in Q1 2010 and I will be glad to inform you when these features will be available. ActionScript decompilation is not very simple task (but not too complex too). I will discuss this feature with the team and we will add include it in our development plan.

Thank you for the intention to purchase the license. As we say on our web site, you do not need any license to use SilverX for non commertial purposes but if you are using it for work - we will highly appreciate if you buy a license.

Please let me know if you have any other questions, I will be glad to answer.

LostByte said:

figuerres said:

*snip*

Thank your for good feedback - it is very important for us to know what features we should implement in SilverX to make its users happy:)

As I understood, you are going to convert Flash assets (and maybe some animation?) into XAML and do it semi-automatically. So you use SilverX to convert assets into XAML and manually rewrite ActionScript code. Please correct me if I am wrong here.

So, if I understood you correctly, I completely agree with you that SilverX is currenly not optimized for these tasks. To provide better user experience we should:

   1. implement some preview user interface to see Flash assets separated and ability to store each asset in separate XAML file
   2. provide better naming
   3. implement ActionScript decompilation

We plan to implement #1 and #2 in Q1 2010 and I will be glad to inform you when these features will be available. ActionScript decompilation is not very simple task (but not too complex too). I will discuss this feature with the team and we will add include it in our development plan.

Thank you for the intention to purchase the license. As we say on our web site, you do not need any license to use SilverX for non commertial purposes but if you are using it for work - we will highly appreciate if you buy a license.

Please let me know if you have any other questions, I will be glad to answer.

look for an email between now and new year... not sure when exactly..... and the license purchase.  i will get with your folks directly that way.

also by the way a good example of what you might want to do is in a program i found , i will send you info it reads a flash and picks out stuff and re-builds the flash file or makes new ones, it can decompile really well also. it was i think a $50 fee for the paid version.

PS:  what real name should i refer to in place of "lost byte" or do you see all the email??

figuerres said:

LostByte said:

*snip*

look for an email between now and new year... not sure when exactly..... and the license purchase.  i will get with your folks directly that way.

also by the way a good example of what you might want to do is in a program i found , i will send you info it reads a flash and picks out stuff and re-builds the flash file or makes new ones, it can decompile really well also. it was i think a $50 fee for the paid version.

 

PS:  what real name should i refer to in place of "lost byte" or do you see all the email??

 

My real name is Roman, could you please tell me your real name too?

The program you described looks interesting. Please write us directly and tell more information on it, maybe SilverX should have some of its features. I will be awaiting for your email, please feel free to ask any questions you have.

LostByte said:

figuerres said:

*snip*

My real name is Roman, could you please tell me your real name too?

 

The program you described looks interesting. Please write us directly and tell more information on it, maybe SilverX should have some of its features. I will be awaiting for your email, please feel free to ask any questions you have.

Denny Figuerres

i will be in touch.