User Guide

Converting movies created in previous versions of Director 459
Using dswmedia folders and the support folder to publish
Shockwave content
Use a dswmedia folder to obtain data from a local source while a movie is playing in safe player
mode. Director treats folders named dswmedia as exceptions to the safe player mode feature that
normally stops movies from reading data from any local source. Any linked media or cast files in a
dswmedia folder, or a subfolder of any depth, may be read by a movie running in safe player
mode. You can use relative links or full file paths to files in dswmedia folders.
To test movies in a browser locally before uploading them to your web server, place the movie,
linked casts, and linked media in a directory tree within a dswmedia folder and use relative links.
When you move the movie and its media to a web server for testing, keep the directory structure
intact. You must use file and folder names which do not have spaces or capital letters, and
which have recognized file extensions like .dcr and .gif, in order for them to be accessible from
your server.
To access local media while a movie is playing in safe player mode, install the media in a
dswmedia folder in a known location on the user's computer. This location can be a CD that you
provide.
Using linked media when testing Shockwave content
Linked media do not show up when testing Shockwave content from a local machine. However,
when the movie is uploaded to a server, the media show up fine.
Shockwave content is played in what is called 'safe player mode,' which is a feature specific to
Director movies. When a movie is played in safe player mode, it is restricted. The movie cannot
read or write files on the user's local disk, except to get or set a movie's preferences. Therefore,
linked files do not show up when played on a local machine.
There is one exception to the aforementioned restriction. A movie can read files that are stored in
a folder named 'dswmedia' (or a sub folder).
To enable linked files to show on a local machine, follow the steps below:
1 Create a folder named 'dswmedia'.
2 Place all linked media in the 'dswmedia' folder or Place all files including the Director file in a
dswmedia folder in order to maintain file and folder structure.
Note: Be sure to maintain the original file and folder structure of your project, so as not to break
any links.
Converting movies created in previous versions of Director
Director MX 2004 can convert movies from Director 5 and later. It’s not necessary to update
movies created in Director 8 or Director 8.5 for use in Director MX 2004.
You can also update movies to Director MX by simply opening and saving them, but the Update
Movies command is faster for converting large projects. It’s also more effective for preserving links
to external media. For more information, see “Processing movies with Update Movies”
on page 464.
Note: Macromedia Shockwave Player 8.5 can play Shockwave content created with Director 5, 6,
7, 8, and Director MX.