Action Script Viewer

SWF Decompiler for Adobe (formerly Macromedia) Flash 4, 5, MX, MX 2004 and 8 SWF files

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News 2005
< News 2004 - News 2006 >
October 28, 2005: ASV 5 released
This version adds Flash 8 support.

Please see this post for more info.

August 8, 2005: About Flash 8 release and upgrades
Today Macromedia announced Flash 8. Actual release is expected around mid-September. We will release ASV 5 with Flash 8 support as soon as possible after Flash 8 release. ASV customers who have purchased ASV after or on September 1, 2003 will be eligible for free ASV 5 upgrade (For other users, upgrade costs just US$14). All purchases dating from August 1, 2005 will be considered as ASV 5 purchases for upgrade purposes.

September 16, 2005: ASV 5 Beta 4 is available to all ASV 4 customers
We have made the latest beta of ASV 5 executable (with full Flash 8 support) available to all our current ASV 4 customers. The download is available at ASV 4 download locations, and this beta works with ASV 4 license files. We intend to fix any issues before ASV 5 release, so please let us know about bugs and problems. (This will delay the actual 5.00 release a few days).

June 27, 2005: ASV 4.086 released
This version enhances the decompiler engine and fixes a few issues.

One of the issues fixed is with 'Eliminate redundant jumps' preference. Also this preference is not selected by default now, because it may slow down the decompile and it's needed only for some obfuscated SWF files.

'Import valid dead jumps' preference added, and is selected by default. When ASV does a Safe Import of actions, dead code is removed. Sometimes jumps are removed because they are never executed. While this is correct, it sometimes changes the script structure. With this preference selected, ASV keeps those dead jumps in place.

Actionscript import preferences now have their own tab in the preferences dialog.

June 6, 2005: ASV 4.085 released
This is a bug fix update; there are a few enhancements to the decompiler engine too.

As anyone who uses ASV will tell, ASV almost never crashes or freezes. Sometimes it seems like ASV is frozen, because proessing some very large scripts may take time, but it's almost never the case... With ASV 4.084 we added 'Eliminate redundant jumps' preference and selected it by default. It turned out some application that modifes SWF files and inserts invalid jumps in scripts managed to freeze ASV (when this preference is selected in ASV 4.084).

We were not going to release an update this soon, but because of this issue, we had to. And while fixing this bug, we tweaked the decompiler engine a bit and added a few extra decompiler preferences ('Eliminate redundant jumps Level 2', 'Resolve certain invalid jumps' and 'Do not show warnings for unexpected end actions').

If you are working with SWF files produces by Flash and not modified by another application, you can safely uncheck 'Eliminate redundant jumps' and 'Resolve certain invalid jumps' preferences and it will make decompiling faster too.

May 23, 2005: ASV 4.084 released
Major changes are:

ASV had the ability extract font symbols as TTF files since version 4.04 (February 11, 2004). Now you can choose to merge outlines from other font symbols in open SWF files before saving the symbol as a TTF file (Thanks to Mario Klingemann for the feature suggestion).

From ASV help: Fonts in SWF files do not always contain full character sets; for static text symbols, only the used characters are present. When there are multiple static text symbols using the same font but different characters, the characters are normally merged into a single font symbol when the SWF file is exported. However in some SWF files, there are multiple font symbols with the same font name, containing different characters. Also you may find that outlines of a font scattered in multiple SWF files.
Here's a sample TTF file: sample.ttf. Half of the characters are from Arial Bold and the other half is from Times New Roman. Numbers are yet from another font.
Decompiler enhancements and bug fixes. Especially the 'safe import' mode is, again, greatly enhanced. 'Eliminate redundant jumps' and 'Safe import alternate evaluation' preferences added.

These options are generally needed only for obfuscated SWF files...
New JSFL export preferences: 'Auto detect graphics that need fill swap when possible' and 'Use relative paths'. Both preferences are selected by default.

By using relative paths, you can now move the folder you have exported rebuild data. Not tested but this should also let you move the folder from Virtual PC to the main OS on a Mac.
New general import preference: 'Stop import for a symbol, when invalid fill style is encountered'.

This preference helps viewing/rebuilding some corrupted or ill-formed SWF files...
Now ASV has 'Fast Display Mode' option for Actionscript Pane. In this mode ASV displays the script as fast as possible but without any colorizing or word wrap.

This is intended for very long scripts, and especially p-code mode, where displaying the script takes a lot more time than decompiling/generating it.
ASV supported FSCommand2 action since version 4.07 (August 1, 2004). But for Flash 4 files, this was only available when viewing in Flash 5 mode. Now, ASV supports FSCommand2 in Flash4 (slash syntax) mode too (Thanks to Richard Leggett for reminding us the omission).

Currently ASV is the only decompiler that supports Flash 4 slash syntax. This is because ASV version 1.x was for Flash 4 and there was no 'dot syntax' then. Actually, Flash 4 decompiler (for slash syntax) is a separate engine in ASV...

Still, this day, Flash 4 slash syntax is needed for FlashLite (for mobile development) where FSCommand2 is used...

February 2, 2005: ASV 4.083 released
Major changes are:

Nev View/Edit Actionscript Constants Dialog. Certain constants in actionscripts (like variable names, etc. defined in ConstantPool actions or pushed as Strings) can now be viewed and if necessary modified.
Decompiler enhancements and bug fixes. Especially the 'safe import' mode is greatly enhanced.
Four new preferences:
- Do not show 'Dead Code Removed' warnings
- Do not show initial script warnings when opening a SWF
- Ignore length for Push actions
- Stop at End actions Also the layout of the Preferences Dialog is redesigned. SWF Tab is now available even if no SWF is open.

January 27, 2005: ASV Projector Creator 2.01 released!
This update adds support for version 7 projectors (earlier, though it was simple, you had to manually add support. This was in order to avoid licensing issues). Also now decompressing partially downloaded SWF files is supported.

Current customers can download the updated version at their download pages.