Dynamic FlashPaper
April 28, 2008 Tags: development, FlashPaper
Category: ColdFusion 4 Comments 
I was recently trying to create a document collaboration tool for one of my clients. In order to make it a bit easier for the user, I decided I would use FlashPaper to display the uploaded documents they are discussing. It took a couple of hours to figure it out but its pretty simple in the end.
First, you have to have the FlashPaperConnect .dll. Contribute 3, and some other products comes with the FlashPaperConnect .dll that makes it all possible. Contribute also registers the dll on your system, so all you do is CFOBJECT the FlashPaperConnect2.object.2 component.
Like so:
<cfobject type="com" name="FlashPaper" class="FlashPaperConnect2.object.2" action="create">
The method you need to call is BeginConversion(). Its arguments are the source file, destination file; include outline; paper size; and something else. I”m still looking for documentation on this and if it violates the EULA. But until then…
<cfset FlashPaper.BeginConversion(''c:\\temp\\doc1.doc'',''c:\\temp\\doc1.swf'',0,210,297)
This seems to work.
Good luck.
Hi Rob,
Where did you get a copy of Contribute 3 from? I’ve been trying to find one because I also need to use ColdFusion to convert documents to FlashPaper. Did you just have it laying around or did you find a copy online?
I presume this is what’s missing from my setup as I’m getting the following exception:
An exception occurred when instantiating a COM object
I do have FlashPaperConnect .dll on my machine, but ColdFusion doesn’t appear to be recognising it!
Mark
I’ve found Contribute 3 in the studio 8 bundle. After installing this I don’t receive exceptions anymore, however I’m now only getting a blank page! Did you experience this when you were working out the process? You mention that you installed some other products that come with the FlashPaperConnect .dll that make it all possible, was that just Flash Paper 2?
Thanks in advance,
Mark
Mark,
FlashPaper has been integrated into several of the Adobe products now. It has been in ColdFusion since MX7. CFDocument outputs FlashPaper.
<cffile variable=”myFile” action=”read” file=”c:\path-to-a-doc\filename.doc”>
<cfdocument format=”FlashPaper”>
<cfoutput>#myFile#</cfoutput>
</cfdocument>
Rush,
That does produce FlashPaper, however it doesn’t display the content of the word document. It displays the bytecode (at least on my set up it does).