AutoPlay Media Studio

AutoPlay Media Studio 8 Product Features

AutoPlay Media Studio 8 makes it easy to create your own interactive multimedia software. Even if you’re not a “programmer”, you’ll be creating professional projects in no time. It’s all done in a completely visual, drag-and-drop design environment. From images, text and music to video, drop-down lists and web content, you simply move things into place using your mouse. Then, you can add powerful interactivity with a built-in library of more than 865 easy to use actions.

Easy to Use Visual Development Environment
Professional Application Development Features
Drag and Drop Visual Interface Objects
Powerful, Yet Easy-to-Use Programming Language
Impressive Multimedia Handling
Easy Software Deployment Options

Visual Development Environment

Creating professional multimedia software can be both easy and fun, thanks to AutoPlay Media Studio. In fact, with our award winning WYSIWYG (“what you see is what you get”) visual design environment, anyone can do it! Simply drag and drop your media content (text, photos, videos, Adobe Flash, QuickTime, PDF and much more) onto “pages” and then add interactivity with over 865 built-in actions. It couldn’t be easier!

Easy to Learn Visual Software Development
It couldn’t be easier to create powerful multimedia software applications. AutoPlay Media Studio is filled with wizards, tutorials, a user’s guide, context sensitive help and much more. It’s also backed up with world-class technical support options, online discussion groups, and video training lessons.

No Programming – Simple Scripting – Hardcore Coding. It’s Your Choice!
You don’t need to be a programmer to use AutoPlay Media Studio. It’s easy enough for anyone to use. While a full wizard-assisted scripting engine is available for power users, the new Quick Action tab lets new users get up to speed right away. Just fill in the blanks to handle the most popular actions like opening documents, running programs, switching pages and more. It’s really that easy!

NEW! Modernized Visual Workspace
AutoPlay Media Studio has always looked pretty slick, but that wasn’t good enough. The entire project workspace has been overhauled. Selection boxes, toolbars, context menus – everything has been redone using a consistent color palette, light source and 3D perspective. You spend a lot of time working on your projects. Your tools should serve to increase your productivity, rather than distract you. With AutoPlay Media Studio 8, you’ll find everything is more logically arranged and attractively presented – so you can get more done.

Professional Templates to Jump Start Your Development
Choose from a variety of ready-to-use projects and then modify them to fit your needs. We include examples of software installer menus, electronic business cards, marketing brochures and many others. It’s also easy to make your own project templates or to add in templates made by others.

Improved! Project Explorer
Get an overview of your project in one place. You can see all of the pages, events, dialogs and objects in your project organized into a tree hierarchy. Double-click any item to edit its properties or right-click for common commands. It’s a great way to see how everything is connected. The Project Explorer in AutoPlay Media Studio 8 has been revamped to give you a better overall view of your project. Things like better icons, collapsible Dialog and Page categories and better visual indications for hidden and locked objects will be much appreciated. Additional context-sensitive right-click menus have been added and reworked to present you with only the most appropriate commands for working with objects, pages, dialogs and events.

Properties Pane
The properties pane is a fast way to view and edit all of the attributes of a page or object. You can interactively edit the object text, font, size, color, tooltip and much more without missing a beat.

Improved! Application Startup Dialog
AutoPlay Media Studio 8 is all about helping you get things done faster and easier. Even small things like the startup welcome screen have been improved! The startup screen now gives you fast access to multiple recently used projects, one-click restore of the last used project, or simply creating a new project using a template or blank project. Additionally, an integrated RSS feed keeps you updated on product improvements, updates, bug fixes and news!

Page and Dialog Management
Pages (and dialogs) are the backbone of AutoPlay Media Studio. Consider that you can have up to 1000 of them in each project and you’ll realize the importance of effective page management. Accessing pages is easy in AutoPlay, thanks to the page tabs on the main window. You can also easily change page order, rename or remove pages and more with the click of your mouse.

Drag and Drop File Layout System (Asset Management)
When you want to add or remove whole folders of files, or fine-tune the structure of a CD/DVD/BLURAY project, the File Layout dialog comes in very handy. It’s split into two panes, with your computer’s file system on the top and your project on the bottom. Select the files you want, click “add” and you’re done!

Thumbnail File Browsers
The file browsers in the product support thumbnail view, making it much faster and easier to locate files.

Quick Preview
Click the preview button and try out your project whenever you want. There’s no lengthy compiling process to wait for, so you can test changes as you make them.

NEW! Eyedropper Color Picker
Easily match colors thanks to the new eyedropper style color picker. Integrated into all color choosers, simply move your mouse pointer off the dialog and watch it turn into an eyedropper cursor. Click on the color of any pixel on your screen and voila – you’ve automatically set the color to match.

Undo/Redo
Full support for undo and redo operations make it quick and easy to try out new ideas.

Align and Arrange
A full suite of alignment tools helps make quick work of your layout tasks. Simply select a group of objects and click the desired alignment button to line up their edges on the top, left, right or bottom. You can also easily distribute objects over a given space, make them all the same size, adjust their “z” order, and more.

Group, Pin, Lock & Hide
Professional design tools like object grouping allow you to move and work with multiple objects at once. The lock and pin tools keep you from accidentally moving an object out of place, while the hide and show feature is great for trying out different designs.

Grid and Ruler
Toggle on the grid for easy object placement – the automatic snapping feature makes it quick to use. The ruler is a helpful precision tool assisting you in pixel level placement of your design elements.

Guidelines
Just like in your favorite image editing software, but now in your favorite multimedia development software! Using guidelines, you can set up margins and placement rules to make sure your design looks perfect.

Customizable Toolbars
All of the toolbars and keyboard shortcuts can be reconfigured and customized to your preference. You’re not restricted by the default set up – you can lay out your favorite features the way you like to work with them.

Built-in Spelling Checker
Make sure that typos don’t creep into your projects. Just about anywhere you can type, you can perform a spell check to ensure error-free text. Dictionaries are available for over a dozen languages including English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Croatian, Czech, Polish and Slovenian.

Content Gallery
We’ve included a ton of great content to get you started including background images, photos, abstracts, panels, bars, bullets, buttons, sound effects and even music files. Simply mix and match to put together a great looking project in no time.

Professional Application Development

AutoPlay Media Studio 8 is a complete rapid application development tool. Even though it is very easy to learn and use, it has everything you need to write professional software applications!

Easy to Understand Object-Oriented Model
AutoPlay Media Studio applications follow a simple model. Each application is made up of individual screens, called pages. Pages are the “surfaces” that the interface is built on. It also contains a feature similar to pages called dialogs. On these pages and dialogs, you can place objects. The objects let you display text, images, and other media (videos, Flash, HTML) on the page or dialog.

The application, the pages, the dialogs, and the objects can all respond to various events. Events are things that can happen at run time, such as the user clicking on a button object, or a video object reaching the end of the video it’s playing.

You can add actions to these events to make your application respond to them. Actions tell your application to do something specific whenever the event they’re assigned to occurs. For example, you could start playing an audio file when the user clicks on a “Play Music” button, or load and display a text file when the user clicks on a “More Info” button. With hundreds of actions at your disposal, your instructions can be as simple or as complex as you wish.

Event Driven Architecture
Events include things like clicking on an object or moving the mouse across a page. Simply add actions to the appropriate object’s event handler and they’ll be performed automatically. This simple system, while easy to work with, is also incredibly powerful!

NEW! Faster & More Powerful Scripting Engine
AutoPlay Media Studio uses a very powerful, yet very easy to use scripting language called ‘Lua’. It features everything from “for, repeat and while” loops, to “if/else” conditions, functions, variables and associative arrays. Paired with the built-in action library, full mathematical evaluation and Boolean expressions, there is simply nothing you can’t achieve. We’ve also built in an Action Wizard so even complete novices can create powerful projects that handle the most demanding tasks.

Easy to Use Action Wizard
You don’t have to be a wizard to create incredible multimedia applications. We’ve built the wizard into the software! Simply choose the action you want from a categorized list (complete with on-screen interactive help), fill in the requested information fields and the wizard does the rest. You don’t have to know anything about scripting or programming – just fill in the blanks, and you’re done! Making changes is just as easy. Click on the line you want to change and press the “edit” button to go back to the original form. It’s that easy!

Comprehensive Action Library
We’ve included a library of more than 865 powerful yet easy to use actions. There are high-level actions to handle everything from text file editing to system registry changes. You can execute programs, open documents, query drive information, manipulate strings, copy files, enumerate processes, interact with web scripts, display dialog boxes and much more.

NEW! Powerful Lua 5.1 Script Processing
AutoPlay Media Studio 8′s scripting engine is now faster, more powerful and much more extensible. The Lua 5.1 system features a new module system, incremental garbage collection, new mechanism for varargs, new syntax for long strings and comments, mod and length operators, metatables for all types and a fully reentrant parser.

NEW! Application Styles / Skinning
AutoPlay Media Studio 8 gives you the freedom to create applications that look exactly the way you want. Perhaps you prefer that your programs to take on the same appearance as the operating system (e.g. Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 Aero)? Or do you want them to be entirely customized with completely custom drawn background images, buttons and window shapes? Or perhaps you’d like to simply make use of the hundreds of ready-to-use MSSTYLES themes (like OS/X Tiger and Panther) that you can download on the Internet? In any case, AutoPlay Media Studio makes it possible – and easy!

NEW! Customizable Popup Dialogs
Application development has been raised to a new level in AutoPlay Media Studio with the addition of customizable dialogs. Dialogs support the same background settings, objects and events as pages do…but the options don’t stop there. Dialogs have features above and beyond pages including custom sizes, multiple windows styles, and even a custom icon. Complemented by both its own “DialogEx” action category containing 21 new actions, as well as 6 additional “Application” actions, you’ll surely find this powerful new feature a welcome addition to your design arsenal.

Custom Window Shapes
Forget about being restricted to rectangular windows. With the window mask feature, you can create projects of any size and shape you desire. Select from the included masks like “star”, “bubble” and “oval”, or make your own.

NEW! Integrated Database Access
It’s never been easier to write database applications using AutoPlay Media Studio! Easily connect to a variety of popular local and remote/Internet database systems including MySQL, SQLite3, ODBC, Oracle and PostgreSQL. Execute any SQL statements you desire like CREATE, INSERT and more – even easily retrieve data results using a row-by-row cursor system. Features full integration with our fill-in-the-blanks style Action Wizard, plus intelligent code completion.

Improved! Menu Bars
It’s now possible to add a standard Windows style menu bar to your project. It’s easy to configure and edit, even letting you configure nested items. When a menu item is selected, it fires a project event telling you what was chosen, allowing you to take whatever action you desire. Now the menu bars also take on the look of the operating system or the application skin, for an integrated professional look!

NEW! Windows Object Styles
In order to enable you to create applications that can look and feel exactly like those created using traditional Windows platform SDK development tools, we went through all of our existing objects and updated them. For example, objects like the Checkbox, Radio Button and Progress Bar will now take on the look that users expect to see on their operating system. On Windows 7, they’ll look consistent with the standard operating system theme. On Windows XP, they’ll look like XP – and so on. The best part though is that they’ll also now respond correctly to changes in the application theme or MSSTYLES skin files that are supported in AutoPlay Media Studio 8. It all adds up to a 100% professional look!

Window Styles
Run your project as a standard window, or go for something more extraordinary like bordered, flat or even kiosk mode. Paired with the window mask option, you don’t even have to make it rectangular. Talk about eye-catching!

NEW! Rolling Code Data Security
AutoPlay Media Studio 8 adds another layer of protection to your applications and scripts. A unique random encryption code is now generated every time you build your project, making “hacking” of your applications much more difficult. As we all know, anyone determined enough can break any protection system given enough time and resources, but the use of rolling codes renders generic attacks ineffective. You can now sleep a little easier!

Automatic Sizing and Positioning of Objects
The Auto-Resize options for each object allow you to control how each side of the object responds to the page being resized at runtime. This makes it very easy to have resizable applications look right at different sizes.

Custom Icons
Now you can pick your own project icon and have it show up in the window title bar, task bar and as the executable’s icon.

NEW! Balloon Tooltips and Extended Tooltips
In addition to the standard popup tooltips you’re used to from previous versions, AutoPlay Media Studio 8 now lets you display Balloon tooltips! It’s an extremely attractive option for presenting context sensitive help within your application. It’s also much more useful than the old style tooltips, as you can use multiple lines of text to present your instructions. In fact, multi-line tooltips were so useful, we also added the feature to the standard looking popup as “extended” tooltips.

Resource Stamping
Set your own version resource information and have it stored in the executable.

NEW! Stack Traceback for Syntax Errors
We’ve made it easier for you to debug syntax errors in your scripts by providing you with better error reports. Error messages now include additional details about exactly where the problem occurred – right down to the event name and line number!

NEW! Debug Message Logging
Testing and debugging your projects is much easier in AutoPlay Media Studio 8. You can now send all debug message to a human-readable text format log file, to a debug window or simultaneously to both locations. Between the automatic “Trace Mode” logging, “Event Context” information and “Last Error” actions, you’ve got a formidable collection of tools to help squash those pesky bugs and logic errors!

Automatic Code Signing
Automatically have your applications code signed during publishing. This provides a more secure experience for users and helps make applications Windows Vista and Windows 7 compliant.

NEW! Multiple Timer Events
If you want to make things happen on a repeatable schedule, then timers are for you. For example, you can configure a timer to fire every 5 seconds. When it does, you can run an action of your choice like querying a web server, moving an object or playing a sound effect. It’s very powerful and very easy to do. In AutoPlay Media Studio 8, you’re no longer limited to just one timer event per page! You can now set as many “named” timers as you want. Having multiple timers running really opens up the creative possibilities for animations, games, status updates and dozens of other applications.

Page Keyword Searching
Specify a list of keywords associated with each page. Then at runtime use the new actions to search for keywords on pages, create an indexed table of keywords, or even show a common dialog to allow the user to perform keyword searches.

Open Any File, Program or Document
Using the built-in actions your project will be able to open any file with an associated viewer application. Whether it is Microsoft PowerPoint (PPT), Adobe Acrobat (PDF), Microsoft Word (DOC) or any other document or program (EXE), it’s a snap.

NEW! Updated Dependency Modules
All of the dependency modules have been updated in AutoPlay Media Studio 8. Dependency Modules make it fast and easy to detect whether or not common 3rd party software applications and technologies are installed on the user’s computer. AutoPlay Media Studio 8 can detect the current versions of such products as Microsoft PowerPoint, Adobe Flash, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Adobe Acrobat, Apple QuickTime, Windows Media Player and more. If the required product is not detected, the user will be alerted to the problem and conveniently directed to the appropriate website for download and installation.

Print Pages at Runtime
The addition of the Page.Print action allows you to print pages at runtime including options for whether or not to show a print dialog and whether to scale the pages to fit the paper.

Drag and Drop Visual Interface Objects

AutoPlay Media Studio 8 includes 21 built-in object types. Objects are the basic building blocks that make your application unique. They are what your user interacts with in order to make your application do something. The great thing about objects in AutoPlay Media Studio, is that they are already ‘smart’. You simply drop them onto a page (or dialog) and then edit their ‘properties’ and ‘events’ to customize them however you want. You’ll be able to layout your graphic user interface as fast as you can drag and drop!

Fancy Interface Objects

This category of objects is the backbone of AutoPlay Media Studio. They let you make graphically-rich software applications. You won’t find this level of customization for interactive interface objects in other development tools without putting in a lot of effort and elbow-grease!

AutoPlay Media Studio 8 is a complete visual software-programming environment. Use it to rapidly create full-featured software applications for use on Microsoft’s Windows operating system.

Custom Drawn Button Object
A button responds automatically by changing its appearance when you move the mouse over it or click on it. With multiple image states (fully customizable transparent PNG graphics!), text options and a toggle state, buttons are used for many interactive tasks. We include a variety of pre-made button files for you to use, as well as a full featured button editor for making your own. They can be any shape or size you want! Get creative.

Image Object
Display pictures and other graphics in both 256 colors and 16.7 million colors. Supports all the major image file formats, including PNG, JPG, GIF and TIF. Supports interactive resizing, transparency, alpha channel, variable opacity, mouse over and click sounds, tooltip, cursor changes and more. Dynamically reduces and increases image color depth to work on all monitors and display cards.

Text Label Object
Perfect for headlines and single line sentences, text label objects support interactive design-time resizing, custom fonts, sizes, colors, sound effects and more. An advanced anti-alias algorithm eliminates jagged edges and makes all of your text look great – even at large sizes.

Improved! Paragraph Text Object
Use any font, size, color or style of text you want. The software handles the required logic to automatically embed the TrueType fonts you use so your projects look great on any system. Add text effects like bold, italic and underline, set alignment options and pick from a variety of scroll bar skins. The Paragraph object in AutoPlay Media Studio 8 has been updated to default to Windows 7 style scrollbars. This will give any of your scrolling textboxes a much more up-to-date visual appearance. Of course, you can still make your own scrollbar styles from scratch or choose from old favorites such as Chrome, Euro, Corporate, Charcoal, Industrial and more.

Embedded Multimedia Objects

This is a very popular category of objects – and for good reason. You’ll use these objects to show movies, play music, display websites, show documents and more, all from within your application!

Improved! Video Object
Embed digital video into your pages, like AVI, MPEG and WMV. You can make use of the skinable control panel for controlling the video and an extensive action set if you require the video’s playback to be controlled internally. In AutoPlay Media Studio 8, the Video object has been modernized with a variety of new graphic styles. Choose from attractive new blue, green and gray skins. If you don’t find a style you like, it’s super easy to create your own video transport skins using Photoshop or any other graphics editor. We’ve also made the skin format more flexible, removing the constraining height restrictions that may have hampered your creativity in the past.

NEW! QuickTime Object
Thanks to the new Apple QuickTime object, Your AutoPlay Media Studio applications are now compatible with over 80 video, audio and image formats. Video formats include .MOV, .DV, .M4V, .MP4 and dozens more – including the amazing h.264 format. Audio formats include .AAC, .AIF, .M4A, .MP3, etc. Visual formatting options let you lock an aspect ratio, resize the media to fit the object dimensions or center it within the object area. Border styles include 3D, plain or none.

Improved! Flash Object with External Interface Support
Play Adobe Flash movies right on your page! It’s even possible for your project to interact directly with the flash SWF file, through the use of FSCommands and variables. An extremely popular format for animations, videos, demos and many other tasks. In AutoPlay Media Studio 8, the Adobe Flash object now supports calling and responding to Flash actionscript functions with the addition of the new “Flash.CallFunction” and “Flash.SetReturnValue” actions and new “OnFlashCall” event. Access to Flash’s external API opens up many new uses for the Flash object and advanced interaction with your AutoPlay Media Studio application such as playing FVL video files using a Flash loader.

Slideshow Object
The slideshow object allows you to show a series of images in a set area. It supports automatic resizing and scaling as well as transitions between images.

NEW! PDF Object
AutoPlay Media Studio now features integrated support for displaying Adobe Acrobat PDF documents right in your application. This highly requested feature also gives you full control over the display and formatting. You can show/hide toolbars, scrollbars and borders. Layout options include “Single Page”, “One Column”, “Two Columns” and “User Preference”. View options include “Fit Page”, “Fit Page Width”, “Fit Page Height” and “Actual Size”.

Improved! Web Browser Object
The web browser object lets you display a web site right on your page, just like it would appear in Internet Explorer. Easily create custom web browsers by responding to a comprehensive set of events.The web object now uses the latest Microsoft Internet Explorer SDK. New scrollbar and border options have been added to give you increased visual control over the object – allowing you to better integrate web pages into your AutoPlay Media Studio applications. It’s an extremely powerful feature!

Standard User Interface Controls

The bread and butter of the graphical user interface. You’ll come back to these over and over again. They’re extremely useful for both getting data and displaying data.

NEW! xButton Object
If you’re trying to create an application that blends in beautifully with the operating system, the new xButton object is just what the doctor ordered. However, that’s just the beginning! The new xButton object supports far more customization than was previously possible. Now you can modernize your applications by adding “icon” images to your buttons, plus you can “markup” the text however you desire! This object lets you control the relative placement of button text and button images; choose between normal and toggle styles; adjust fonts and colors; and even markup you text using dozens of XAML tags – including hyperlinks right on your buttons! By default, the xButton styles itself according to whatever operating system it is being run on. If your application is running on Vista, the button looks like a standard Vista button. If you’re running it on Windows 7, it looks like Windows 7. However, you can easily override this and choose from many included styles like Flat, Office 2000, Office XP or many different Office 2007 styles. Or hundreds of MSSTYLES themes… The options are endless.

Checkbox Object
The checkbox object wraps the standard Windows checkbox control but takes it to a new level by allowing transparent background and mouse state text color changes.

Radio Button Object
The radio button object is great for quiz and test applications. Radio buttons support transparent backgrounds and changing text color as the mouse passes over them. Radio button selection and grouping is also handled automatically.

Input Object
Create forms and other information collection systems. Supports single and multi-line input boxes, as well as password masking, custom input masks and a variety of customization options.

Combo Box Object
When you want to present a list of options, but need to do it in a compact and efficient manner, this object shows a dropdown list box. You can control the look and feel of the object with properties such as font face, text color, size and background color.

List Box Object
Show a scrollable list of information, allowing single or multi-selections. For example, you could display a list of song titles (so the user could choose a song to play), or a list of topics (so the user could decide what topic to view next). Includes options for text style, colors, auto-sorting and more.

NEW! Checkbox List Object
Checkbox lists are a long awaited addition to AutoPlay Media Studio! We’ve integrated this feature into the existing Listbox object – you just need to turn it on. Once you do, you can easily present lists of items with corresponding checkboxes. Actions are included to get and set the checkbox state for any listbox item with ease. You’ll find dozens of great uses for this one!

Extended User Interface Controls

The ‘not-so-common’ user interface controls that really add enhanced functionality to your application. In other software development tools, you’d have to work pretty hard to get this level of usability into your software. With AutoPlay Media Studio, you just drop them onto your page or dialog!

Tree Object
The tree object allows you to display a hierarchal list of items on the page in the well known tree format. Items can have checkboxes associated with them, or simply be selectable. The tree object has an extensive action set so you can load and manipulate tree items at run time for full flexibility.

Improved! Grid Object
Working with data grids in AutoPlay Media Studio is more useful than ever, especially with the new integrated database features in v8. As always, the grid object allows you to add spreadsheets, grids and list controls to your applications. With over 110 scriptable actions, it is extremely powerful. To help you easily preload data, you can now even specify a CSV (comma separated value) data file at design time.

Improved! Progress Bar Object
Whether you need to show a percentage of a completed task, or a simple indicator gauge to keep your users informed, the progress bar is ideal. You can control the background and bar colors, text, fonts, vertical or horizontal orientation, step size, min and max values, and a variety of styles such as standard or XP look. Now also takes on the look of the operating system or the application skin in v8!

Rich Text Object
The rich text object allows you to display rich text (.rtf) in an object. It supports background transparency as well as design-time and runtime character and paragraph formatting.

Hotspot Object
Make any part of your background image “live”. The hotspot objects add flexibility to your projects by making background design elements interactive.

More Objects! Add Object Plugins and Go!

Easily expand and extend AutoPlay Media Studio…

NEW! Plugin SDK v2
Object Plugins are one of the best features of AutoPlay Media Studio. They allow 3rd party software developers to extend and expand the product in an extremely integrated and seamless fashion. By simply dropping a plugin into your project, you can easily save yourself hours of work and add significant functionality to your application. The great news is that with AutoPlay Media Studio 8, plugin developers can now fully leverage the advantages of the Lua 5.1 language. The Plugin SDK v2 is available for free download on the indigorose.com website in the forums.

Powerful Programming Language

AutoPlay Media Studio isn’t just a pretty face! Sure, you can make some drop-dead gorgeous interfaces for your application – and the drag-and-drop objects are super easy to use. However, when you want to really get down to business, AutoPlay Media Studio’s scripting engine is going to knock your socks off!

AutoPlay Media Studio 8 includes more than 865 high level actions with everything from XML parsing and database queries to web server script interaction, file transfers and much more. Plus, it’s easy to expand the language with drop-in Action plugins and Lua modules. Additionaly, the professional script editor features color syntax highlighting, code completion, function highlighting, as-you-type action prototypes, Ctrl+Space function listings, and even context-sensitive help.

Fast & Powerful Scripting Language
AutoPlay Media Studio uses a very powerful, yet very easy to use scripting language called ‘Lua’. It features everything from “for, repeat and while” loops, to “if/else” conditions, functions, variables and associative arrays. Paired with the built-in action library, full mathematical evaluation and Boolean expressions, there is simply nothing you can’t achieve. We’ve also built in an Action Wizard so even complete novices can create powerful projects that handle the most demanding tasks.

Comprehensive Function Library (We Call Them ‘Actions’)
We’ve included a library of more than 865 powerful yet easy to use actions. There are high-level actions to handle everything from text file editing to system registry changes. You can execute programs, open documents, query drive information, manipulate strings, copy files, enumerate processes, interact with web scripts, display dialog boxes and much more.

NEW! Action Plugins (SDK v2 Format!)
Action Plugins are one of the best features of AutoPlay Media Studio. They allow 3rd party software developers to extend and expand the product in an extremely integrated and seamless fashion. By simply dropping a plugin into your project, you can easily save yourself hours of work and add significant functionality to your application. The great news is that with AutoPlay Media Studio 8, plugin developers can now fully leverage the advantages of the Lua 5.1 language. The Plugin SDK v2 is available for free download on the indigorose.com website.

Expandable with Action Plugins
Add on modules can extend your projects in infinitely powerful ways, such as adding support for databases, FTP file transfers and CD audio playback. Tight integration with the design environment makes plugins just as easy to use as built-in actions. Plugins are available through Indigo Rose as well as third-party developers thanks to Indigo Rose’s freely available plug-in development kit.

NEW! Expandable with Lua 5.1 Code Modules
With the new scripting engine upgrade comes compatibility with Lua 5.1 modules. You now have access to a wealth of free Lua code you can download and use in your AutoPlay Media Studio 8 projects. In most cases you simply copy the module files into your project and “require” them in your script. Just some of the useful modules out there include Bit Operation, Date, Canvas Draw, Imaging Tool, GD, Crypto, Colors, Speech, Alien, Social (Twitter), CURL, Regular Expression Parsing and so much more. It’s a whole treasure chest of addons and tools just waiting for you!

NEW! Visually Identify Plugin Actions
The Action Wizard now marks any actions that are contained in Action Plugins with a “plugin” identifier. This makes it much easier to quickly identify what is built-in to AutoPlay Media Studio and what you’ve added later through 3rd party additions. It’s especially handy when you’re looking for documentation, help files, samples and technical support.

Improved! Quick Script Snippets
A variety of changes were made to the script editor to help more quickly write your code. Of course the popular Action Wizard, Code Completion and Intellisense are still there to guide you. We’ve also expanded and reorganized the one-click “Quick Script” feature. Many common programming “snippets” are included, making it super easy to add loops, control structures and other often-used bits of script. Additionally, “object tables” have been moved into their own category in order to help you find what you’re looking for at a glance.

A Sampling of Actions

There are over 865 actions included with AutoPlay Media Studio. We welcome you to view them in the AutoPlay Media Studio User’s Guide and Command Reference. Here is a small selection of interesting actions…

NEW! PDF Actions
Take control of the PDF object with 18 easy-to-use actions. Fully integrated into the fill-in-the-blanks Action Wizard, you’ll be able to easily create dynamic applications to work with PDF files. Actions are provided to Print, Load, Navigate, Zoom, Resize, Hide and much more.

NEW! QuickTime Actions
The Quicktime object by itself is great – but a Quicktime object plus 22 built-in high-level actions is just plain awesome! Brought together, your AutoPlay Media Studio actions have exceptional control over the QuickTime object. Using simple script commands you can Play, Seek, Set Volume, Load, Mute, View Full Screen, Hide, Show and much more. Your only limit is your imagination.

NEW! Service Actions
Easily control Windows Services using the seven new actions included in AutoPlay Media Studio 8. Everything you need is included, such as Create, Start, Stop, Pause, Delete, Query and Continue.

NEW! FTPWI Actions
AutoPlay Media Studio 8 includes a set of built-in FTP actions, enabling your application to easily download files over the Internet from FTP servers. These new FTP actions make use of the WinINet API to ensure compliance with the RFC 959 File Transfer Protocol specifications. Actions include FTPWI.Download, FTPWI.GetErrorInfo and FTPWI.GetFileSize.

NEW! System Restore Actions
This trio of system restore actions are extremely powerful and essential for any application that might want to make system changes or install software in a failsafe manner. By creating a system restore point using System.SetRestorePoint before making changes to the computer, the user can easily rollback those changes using the operating system’s “restore” feature (found on Windows Vista and Windows 7). Actions include System.IsSystemRestoreAvailable, System.SetRestorePoint and System.RemoveRestorePoint.

NEW! Dialog.ComboBox Action
Here’s an action that’ll find a lot of use! The Dialog.ComboBox action is used to pop up a dialog box presenting the user with a drop-down list of items they can choose from. You simply pass in a list of items to select from, choose if you’d like them sorted or not and whether or not to restrict the user to just the items in the list, or allow them to type in their own text response. It’s a fast and compact way to get user input, while offering suggestions to them at the same time!

Impressive Multimedia Handling

AutoPlay Media Studio excels at combining diverse media types into a single application. There are objects like QuickTime, Flash, Slideshow and Video among them. Even the audio handling features alone can save you weeks of work. For example, creating voiceovers on top of background music tracks are a snap. In fact, you can play up to eight channels of audio simultaneously with automatic selection of either hardware or software mixing.

Multi-Channel Audio Mixing
Your projects can take advantage of the fastest, most advanced sound effect and music handling engine available anywhere! You can play up to 8 channels of audio simultaneously with automatic selection of either hardware or software mixing. Most incredibly, it does not require any version of DirectSound or DirectX to be installed, using them only if available.

Background Music
Add a bunch of music files to the play list, and they’ll play in the background while your project runs. All of the music is automatically mixed in real-time with mouse-over sound effects and up to 6 other channels, such as audio narration.

Advanced Graphics Handling with Image Transparency, Shadows and Blending
No competitive tool can match AutoPlay Media Studio when it comes to fast and efficient handling of complex graphics files. With our support for 32-bit PNG images, you gain access to incredible shadow effects, blending options, opacity levels and full alpha channel information. In simple terms, it means that your projects will look better than ever!

Startup Video or Flash Movie
Start your project up with an introductory video or flash animation. It can run full screen and makes an eye catching start to your project. Of course, there are a variety of options for customization including size and background color.

Slideshow Object
The slideshow object allows you to show a series of images in a set area. It supports automatic resizing and scaling as well as transitions between images.

Easy Software Deployment Options

Once you’ve got your project ready to go, AutoPlay Media Studio’s Publishing Wizard will package it up and make it ready to distribute. There are a variety of powerful options to choose from, including direct CD/DVD/BLU-RAY burning, single-file executable, ISO image or hard drive folder.

Integrated CD/DVD/BLU-RAY Burning
In addition to CD-R/CD-RW or DVD±R/DVD±RW media, with AutoPlay Media Studio 8 you can now also publish directly to Blu-ray media, including BD-R (SL), BD-R (DL), BD-RE (SL) and BD-RE (DL). Simply insert a blank disc and the wizard will burn your finished project right to it.

Web/Email Executable
Turn you finished project into a compressed, single-file executable. It’s perfect for distribution by web and email. The best thing about AutoPlay Media Studio’s single-file executable is that it is totally self-contained. No complicated installation process required. Just run it!

Hard Drive Folder
Rather do the CD/DVD burning yourself? No problem. You can easily output your project to a folder on your hard drive that’s ready to package up however you want. It’s a great choice if you are creating a traditional application and want to distribute your application with a professional software installer tool, like Setup Factory.

ISO Image
An advanced option, for people wanting to produce an ISO image for use by a CD/DVD replication company or service bureau.

NEW! Blu-ray Disc Support
Do your projects contain huge database and video files? AutoPlay Media Studio 8 now includes full support for burning directly to Blu-Ray media (BD-R, BD-RE). The integrated Bluray disc burning allows you to publish your project directly to single layer and dual-layer BD-R and BD-RE media, supporting 25 GB, 50 GB and even 100 GB formats.

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