Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Downloading swf files

B

benneh

macrumors member
Original poster
Hi all,

There's a SWF file I wish to download so I can view it on a Flash standalone player (offline).

Is there a way to get it onto my Hard drive?

In Windows, it saves a .swf onto your Temporary Internet Files folder, but mac doesn't have that feature.

thanks
 
Well, I think there are Safari plugins that let you directly download a .swf that is playing. (I think SafariStand is the plugin, but not sure...) I myself just tend to go for the direct approach, but then again, I like writing web code.

If you view source, you can usually scroll down through the code to find where the flash file is embedded, (or just search for .swf, but that takes the fun out of it) and copy the url. Sometimes they'll make it easy on you, and have it embedded as an entire url, including the hxxp://. (the t's are x's to avoid bad links >_> ) Other times though, they only refer to the flash file itself (like src='theflash.swf'). In which case you can usually append theflash.swf on the end of the url of the page you are at (hxxp://www.bob.com/mypage.html => make it hxxp://www.bob.com/theflash.swf etc.)

If you get it to load the flash file directly then you're in business 🙂
Just whip up a simple web page in textedit:
<html>
<a href="hxxp://www.bob.com/theflash.swf">Flash Link!!!</a>
</html>
Save it as a .html file and open that up in safari. Right click the link and tell it to save it!
I know, easy right? 😀

Yeah it's probably far to much hassle for most people to bother with, but when there's something you really want, it comes in handy.
 
Ninden said:
If you get it to load the flash file directly then you're in business 🙂
Just whip up a simple web page in textedit:
<html>
<a href="hxxp://www.bob.com/theflash.swf">Flash Link!!!</a>
</html>
Save it as a .html file and open that up in safari. Right click the link and tell it to save it!
I know, easy right? 😀
Click to expand...


Or if you know the URL of the flash file, just paste it into the download window of Safari, then open the saved file in the stand alone player.
 
Holy!!! That's cool! Well, I'll miss writing the code (;_😉, but that Activity window is too cool to pass up! I learn something new every day 😱
 
ezkimo said:
That links says "The brilliant thing [about the activity monitor] is that by double clicking any one of these files, it will download straight to your desktop.

This is false. Some files download, others open in a new window (flash files being one of them.)
Click to expand...
Option-double click in that window ALWAYS downloads, no matter the file type. 😀
 
wompum said:
So I tried all of those options, but every time I download it or get the file on its own in a Safari window, it downloads as a 2.4 MB file with absolutely nothing to it. It won't open with any program.
Click to expand...
Downloaded fine for me using the Safari activity monitor trick. If your issue is that you have no application to open it with then drag it into/onto a web browser.
 
jackerin said:
Downloaded fine for me using the Safari activity monitor trick. If your issue is that you have no application to open it with then drag it into/onto a web browser.
Click to expand...

Yea.. I tried that too. It did work, but I can't figure out how to save it properly. I would really like to just get it onto my iPod. All the converters I've seen don't support swf.
 
Yeah, I just tried the dragging it into Safari after downloading it, and it worked. But is there any way I can make is an mp4 or something?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back