SWF Tools version 6 includes built in support for CCK and FileField. This is designed to make it easy to add Flash, audio, and video to a site.

Using the CCK display formatter with FileFields

  1. Create your content type if you haven't already (on your site at
    http://example.com/admin/content/types/add).
  2. Add a FileField to your content type (at
    http://example.com/admin/content/node-type/mytype/fields).
  3. Configure the FileField to accept the file extension(s) for your media (e.g. swf, mp3, mp4, or flv). This is the field labeled Permitted upload file extensions on the field configuration page (at
    http://example.com/admin/content/node-type/mytype/fields/myfield).
  4. Both single and multiple-value FileFields are supported (Number of values on the same page).
  5. Set the field display formatter to a SWF Tools formatter (at
    http://example.com/admin/content/node-type/mytype/display).
    See explanation of the options below.

Once the FileField is set up, users can easily add content to the node by uploading a file to the FileField. SWF Tools will display it ready for playback.

SWF Tools provides a choice of formatters:

  1. SWF Tools - with download link
    The uploaded file will be rendered according the SWF Tools settings, and a download link will also be shown. This is useful for podcasts where users might want to download the source file.
  2. SWF Tools - no download link
    The uploaded file will be rendered according to the SWF Tools settings, but no direct download link is displayed.
  3. SWF Tools - playlist
    The uploaded files will be turned in to a playlist and the selected SWF Tools handler for the mix of media will be used, perhaps SimpleViewer for a list of images, FlowPlayer3 for a series of audio files.

Alternate handlers for single files in a playlist

SWF Tools provides a settings page to allow for an alternate handler to be specified if a single file is passed to a field that has been configured to use a playlist formatter. This is primarily of use when uploading a images - a series of images makes sense as a slideshow, but a single image might be better presented as a simple image.

These settings are found at Administer > Site configuration > SWF Tools > CCK formatters. The page shows a simple list of all the FileFields that are using SWF Tools formatters. An alternate formatter can be selected from the dropdowns.