InDesign and Flash: PageFlip controller

One of our last project was to create an easy but integrated workflow from InDesign to web.
In particular they request us to create a PageFlip that will be published automatically online every change they made in the offline version without spending a lot of time on this activity.
Like you can see for a Flash Platform developer nothing more obvious that a project like this, so you can take a PageFlip online, you export all pages in swf or jpg files and you popolate the XML behind the PageFlip… yes but we don’t bring this direction.
First of all we suggest to our client to add interaction elements directly in InDesign because from CS5 version (if I remember well) it adds the animator engine of Flash, so it is quite easy make animations directly in InDesign for a graphic designer that is more comfortable with this software instead of Flash Professional.
After that we study the InDesign exporting settings and we find that you can have your PageFlip exporting InDesign document directly in unique SWF file; the only problem is that you haven’t any control panel to add interaction in your PageFlip, for example if my catalogue is composed by 300 pages and I have to see the 250, from the beginning I have to click 249 times on the right page to see my page.
Another interesting thing that we see during this development is that there are many PageFlip on the web but it’s not easy for a graphic designer, more focused on the paper, to customize them because you have to know how Flash works and in detail how the PageFlip, that you chosen, works too.
Also the PageFlip made by InDesign has great performance instead of any other PageFlip tested with many pages in particular if pages are vector based.
Finally we decide to decompile the InDesign PageFlip to analyze if we will able to create a control panel for this SWF file and… WOW… we really bring an interesting direction!

In fact, in the document class of the SWF file called IDSWFFile, you can find many methods that could help you to create, for example, a navigation panel to jump from a page to another one or to create an index to navigate trough chapters.
The main thing that you have to remember is that InDesign PageFlip works putting each page in a frame so if you have 20 pages you’ll have 20 frames inside the SWF file generated.

Below you can find some useful methods that could help you to develop your personal control panel:

• getFrameCount() return the number of frames (so the number of pages inside the SWF file)
• getCurrentFrame() return the actual frame (so the page that user is reading)
• getThumbnailForFrame(frame:int, width=32, height=32) return a bitmapdata of a frame in the size that you prefer, the default values are 32×32 px
• goToFirstFrame() goes to the first page of the PageFlip
• goToLastFrame() goes to the last page of the PageFlip
• goToPreviousFrame() goes to the previous page of the PageFlip
• goToNextFrame() goes to the next page of the PageFlip
• goToFrame(frame:int) goes to a particular page
• stopAllAnimations()
• stopAllSounds()
• stopAllVideos() 

There are also other public methods but for me those are the most interesting to create a PageFlip controller.
To work with those methods you have to cast the content of Loader like a generic Object and then you can call all those methods like you can see here:

// here we create the generic object to call PageFlip methods
private var _pf:Object; 
// we load our file generated by InDesign
_loader = new Loader();
_loader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, setPosition);
_loader.load(new URLRequest("pageflip.swf"));
//when PageFlip is loaded I add on the DisplayList
private function setPosition(e:Event):void{
_contPF = new Sprite();
_contPF.addChild(_loader.content);
addChild(_contPF);
_pf = _loader.content; 
}

// below I make functions to navigate the PageFlip when user click a button
private function prevPage(e:MouseEvent):void{
 _pf.goToPreviousFrame();
 }
 private function nextPage(e:MouseEvent):void{
 _pf.goToNextFrame();
}
 private function lastPage(e:MouseEvent):void{
_pf.goToLastFrame();
}
private function firstPage(e:MouseEvent):void{
_pf.goToFirstFrame();
}

If you’d like to create a more automatic workflow that allow your user to focus only on the content of PageFlip without waste his time with exporting issues.
In our case we use InDesign Server to solve this problem and create some scripts that allow user to create thumbnails and zoom pages without spend a minute on Photoshop or InDesign but easily upload own InDesign file on a server and via scripts we make everything user needs.
But I know that not everybody could have InDesign server in house, so another solution that I’d like to suggest could be create an InDesign panel with Flex that make the dirty job for the user, preparing all images for thumbs and exporting the PageFlip with right settings.

I know very well that it’s not rocket science for a Flash developer but I think that the workflow behind could be interesting and could be helpful in many situations and also I guess that InDesign users could find good stuff in this post.
Finally we have to remember that technology has to help people in their daily work accelerating process and maybe substitute the human interaction with a computer interaction giving more time to what people should be better like think to new stuff.