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 Frequently Asked Questions
FAQ CowFly.com
Doing Business with Cowfly.com
- Request a quote for any Flash job, and we will provide a flat-rate price for the job.
- Custom flash work requires at least half payment to begin the job. Payment options can be viewed HERE.
- If you expect to receive an FLA from CowFly.com for custom Flash work, be sure to explain what version of Flash you have and what OS you are using. We use Flash MX 2004, but can save as Flash MX in some cases. The exception being some Flash MX 2004 components. We also have Flash 8 if needed.
- Project files will be delivered in a single ZIP file unless requested otherwise. SIT files are available on request.
XML Edits
The XML audio players sold on this site use an external text file to store the audio file names, artist names, song titles, etc. This external text file is formatted as XML, and it has the file extension of .xml. This file can be edited in any text editor that saves as pure text (like Notepad.exe on the PC or
Simpletext on the Mac). Do not change the file name or extension unless you update the Flash file as well.
The information that is extracted from the XML text file is placed between matching brackets, and is grouped by "nodes". The following is an example of two nodes in the XML file.
<node>
<title>I love CowFly.com</title>
<songURL>audio/cowfly.mp3</songURL>
</node>
<node>
<title>Return of the Rubber Bullet</title>
<songURL>audio/return_of_the_rubber_bullet.mp3</songURL>
</node>
In the above two nodes, the audio files are located in a folder named "audio". This "audio" folder is in the same folder as the XML and the SWF file.
There are some characters that require special attention in XML. For example, do not use an apostrophe in the file name of the audio file. If you use an apostrophe in the text of the title (or any other text that will display in the Flash file, the text box must be formatted as HTML or the apostrophe will display as Unicode. A common work around is to use the ` character, located on the tilda key in the upper left of your keyboard.
Another work around is to use unicode mapping characters that will be properly understood by Flash. This means doing a Search and Replace for certain characters in your text for the following:
Ampersand (the "&" character) is replaced with %26 or &
Apostrophes are replaced with %27 or '
Quotation Marks are replaced with %22 or "
Greater than > with >
Less than < with <
Audio Compression
A common mistake that I see is that a client will want to use audio that is unnecessarily uncompressed. I recommend the following compression. For music, I suggest 40 kbs at 22050 Hz stereo. For speech, I recommend 32 kbs 22050 Hz mono.
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