Features
Experience Flash content and applications across desktops and devices
Strategic
Innovative
Universal
Strategic
ActionScript 3.0
ActionScript is the powerful object-oriented programming language of the Adobe® Flash® Player runtime environment. Based on ECMAScript, the international standardized programming language for scripting, ActionScript 3.0 further advances the language to offer developers a robust programming model for rich Internet applications (RIAs). Developers can achieve superb performance and ease of development to facilitate highly complex applications, large datasets, and object-oriented, reusable code bases. Executed within the new ActionScript Virtual Machine (AVM2) in Flash Player 9, ActionScript 3.0 delivers breakthrough performance for the next generation of RIAs. To accelerate the development of this standards-based approach for creating rich and engaging Web applications, Adobe has contributed source code behind AVM2 to the Mozilla Foundation who hosts the open source project, called Tamarin.
ActionScript 3.0 is compliant with the ECMAScript Edition 3 (ECMA-262) standard.
- ECMAScript for XML (E4X) enables easy manipulation of XML documents using a familiar syntax.
- Regular Expressions save coding time for string search and manipulation procedures.
- DOM Level 3 Events help developers maintain better object-oriented code using the standard W3C event model.
- Namespaces and Packages improve code organization and encourage logical application structure.
- Enhanced debugging and profiling data reduce testing time and facilitate integrating Flash applications into automated testing environments.
- Improved error handling and exceptions enable the development of more secure, robust applications.
New virtual machine
Flash Player 9 includes a new, highly optimized ActionScript Virtual Machine (AVM) known as AVM2. Built from the ground up to work with the next generation of ActionScript, the new virtual machine is designed to deliver the performance and features to support the needs of rich Internet application developers. AVM2 supports full runtime error reporting, built-in debugging, and binary socket support so developers can extend the player to work with any binary protocol. Flash Player 9 also contains AVM1, which executes legacy ActionScript for maintaining backward compatibility with existing content.
New H.264/HE-AAC options
Flash Player 9 includes H.264 video and High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC) audio codec support that opens up a broad ecosystem and selection of standards-based video — up to HD quality — that developers can leverage in their applications. Supporting a subset of MPEG-4 Part 12 (container) and Part 14 (H.264), including baseline, main and high profiles, Flash Player can play back existing MP4, M4A, MOV, MP4V, 3GP and 3G2 content.
Flash Player Cache
The Flash Player cache enables common components, such as the Flex Framework, to be cached locally and then used by any SWF from any domain. Use of the Flash Player cache can significantly reduce SWF file sizes and speed application download times.
Increased performance
Flash Player 9 builds on improvements in Flash Player 8 to execute content and applications faster than ever before with a number of performance improvements:
- Experience up to ten times faster ActionScript 3.0 execution with the new virtual machine and optimized compiler.
- Increase content and application speeds through faster application startup times and a 50% reduction in memory footprint.
- Accelerate rendering performance through more efficient, cached vector graphics.
- Improve text readability and get faster, smoother scrolling of large text blocks with optimized text rendering routines.
- Speed the rendering of vectors, bitmaps, filters and video, including true 1080p video, with new multi-core support that takes advantage of up to 4 CPUs.
- Improve the performance and quality of full-screen video through the use of hardware scaling.
- Enhance the quality and rendering performance of downscaled images using a new algorithm for scaling bitmap images.
Enhanced security
Flash Player enforces security sandboxes for applications, content, data, and URLs to safeguard sensitive data and help ensure safe browsing for end users.
Innovative
Display API
Flash Player 9 introduces powerful ActionScript 3.0 methods for manipulating raw graphics and creating custom effects. Create, manipulate, and remove objects from the display list on-the-fly.
File upload/download
Flash Player enables the creation of sophisticated client-server applications using file upload and download APIs.
Enhanced expressiveness
Flash Player 9 includes the expressiveness enhancements added in Flash Player 8 that enable developers and designers to create breakthrough experiences.
- Design immersive experiences for Flash video, content and applications with full-screen, hardware accelerated mode.
- Deliver low-bandwidth, high-quality video with advanced compression technology.
- Create high-fidelity text using the advanced text rendering engine.
- Add real-time dynamic effects with filters for Blur, DropShadow, Glow, Bevel, Gradient Glow, Gradient Bevel, Displacement Map, Convolution, and Color Matrix.
- Create innovative media compositions with 8-bit video alpha channels.
- Expand your creative options with blend modes, radial gradient, and stroke enhancements.
- Dynamically import additional image formats: GIF, Progressive JPEG, and PNG.
External API
Flash Player supports integration with HTML, DHTML, and Ajax applications through the External API.
Asynchronous communication model
Flash Player is based on an asynchronous client-server communication model, enabling rapid client interactivity without web page refresh.
Universal
Consistent experiences
Flash Player delivers consistent content and application experiences across a range of web browsers and platforms, including full-screen support with hardware scaling now on Linux.
Express Install
Flash Player enables a smooth, in-context upgrade experience using Express Install and improved Auto-Update functionality.
Input Method Editor (IME) support
Flash Player supports expanded integration with Input Method Editors (IMEs) for Asian-language Flash applications.
Lightweight footprint
Flash Player boasts a lightweight footprint of 1MB, enabling the adoption rate of new versions to consistently reach over 600 million Internet users within 12 months of release.
Accessibility support
Flash Player provides support for accessibility through support for Microsoft’s Active Accessibility (MSAA) API and by enabling developers to provide support for keyboard users, deaf and hard of hearing users, and users with other disabilities.
