How do I ThinApp Adobe Flash?

[theblackknight]

Im using ThinApp 4.6 and trying to thinapp Adobe Flash 10.0 and it's not working, any ideas?

[shrivastavaa]

I never tried to capture Flash alone but I remember capturing it as a addon for Flash and it worked. What do you mean exactly when it is not working? Crash, Nothing pappens or any thing else?

[theblackknight]

nothing happens.

[shrivastavaa]

Can you post your logs here?

[gojensen]

Are you trying to thinapp flash as a standalone application, or as a plugin for a browser.

What I did to thinapp a flash plugin for firefox:

Run prescan

Install Firefox

Run postscan

Makes a Firefox Capture

Then without rolling back to snapshot I do a new capture

Run prescan

Install Flash plugin for Firefox

Verify it's working

Run postscan

Makes Flashplugin Capture

Then you need to enable optional (or required) plugins for the firefox capture. We just add the optional "plugins" folder and then drop the built flashplugin.exe into the thinapped firefox's plugin folder.

I don't think you can virtualize/thinapp Flash for locally/native installed browsers.

Makes sense?

[Tibmeister]

This sounds similar to an issue I have had as well. It's around ThinApp Flash as a plugin to IE, but without virtualizing but using the native installed version.

[CraigMWhelan]

theblackknight

I appreciate the original post was a little while back now, thread still showing as not being answered

Does the following help (see blog for link to YouTube video)?

http://xtravirtcraigwhelan.wordpress.com/

If this demo helps, please keep an eye on the blog and YouTube channel - more content and ThinApp-ing ideas coming soon - oh and don't forget a 'correct' or 'helpful' marker on the community thread

Thanks

Craig

[JayCox]

Go to the Adobe site - register as a user.

You can register to get re-distributable versions of Flash. One exe for IE, one for other browsers.

Start the thin app package capture - run the exe - finish the capture. Job done.

I captured flash like this and added it to IE as a required application after renaming the entry point to a .dat file.

Let me know if you want more detail.

J.

[Tibmeister]

Thanks for the suggestion; I will have to give it a try.

[totim]

Hi gojensen,

I am trying to use the AppLink utility...not having much luck!

Question regarding your earlier posted steps:

After  installing Firefox and running the Post Scan do you then build it or save Project somewhere and start a new capture for Flash and after that, build them together or are they two seperate builds within the one snapshot?

[gojensen]

If you build firefox or just save it for later is irrelevant I think... but you must start a new prescan before installing flash.

Making a Firefox thinapp

• start with clean snapshot
• run prescan
• install Firefox
• configure as wanted (plugins/settings etc)
• run postscan
• edit package.ini
  • take note of where it is installed (alt. change it)
  • we use MSI deployment so we set MSIInstallDirectory=C:\ThinApps\Firefox
• activate applinking
  • make sure OptinalApplinks points to directory of flash and is not commented out
  • we use "common" plugins so OptionalApplinks=C:\ThinApps\plugins
• build project
• you now have a working Firefox thinapp and MSI that looks for applink packages

Making a Flash thinapp

• continue from above OR install Firefox on a "clean" snapshot
• run prescan
• install Flash for Firefox/Mozilla (not ActiveX version!)
• start Firefox and make sure it works
  • go to i.e. http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/
• exit Firefox
• run postscan
• edit package.ini
  • make sure it's installed in the path you specified for applinks in Firefox (above)
  • we use MSIInstallDirectory=C:\ThinApps\plugins
• build project
• you now have Flash plugin thinapp and MSI

Testing

• start with a clean snapshot
• run the Firefox MSI or copy firefox.exe to c:\Thinapps\Firefox
• run the Flash MSI or copy flash.exe to c:\Thinapps\Plugins
• run c:\Thinapps\Firefox\firefox.exe

• and make sure it works
  • go to i.e. http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/

That should be a bit clearer I think? Not sure what you missed, maybe the install path? Note that default behaviour of MSI install directory is to install in "user" space unless user has admin rights so we can't be certain where it installs, that's why we "force" our apps to C:\ThinApps.

We also use one folder per app (except the plugins) because when we uninstall an app it removes the shortcuts and settings for all exe files it finds in the same folder...

[CraigMWhelan]

Does this help?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLTyLuE8o_0